Conant guard does more than talk a good game

Good luck stopping Tommy Sotos once he starts rolling.

Earlier this season, Conant boys basketball coach Tom McCormack laughed and said Sotos ''kissed the Blarney stone'' in reference to the senior's gift of gab.

''Since I can remember, talking has come easy to me,'' Sotos said with a laugh. ''Everyone says I'm going to be an attorney.''

Which would be following in the footsteps of his dad Jim, who defends government officials and is involved in the case of the firing of Marshall boys basketball coach Lamont Bryant.

But Tommy Sotos' game is hardly a bunch of blarney. He's playing one of the better ones in the Mid-Suburban League this season in a late-blooming way similar to his dad.

After watching a senior-dominated team reach a Class AA supersectional last year, the 6-foot-3 Sotos has stepped in to lead the defending MSL champions and West division leaders in scoring at 12.5 points a game.

''He's met and exceeded what we hoped he'd do,'' McCormack said of a kid who needed an entire junior season to score 14 points.

Sotos has also developed into one of the area's top long-range threats with 47 3-pointers. For Sotos, who will continue playing at the University of Chicago, it was a matter of work and patience.

During the summer he played with Wheeling's Chris McClellan and Al Chery and Palatine's Josh Rustman and Monroe Brooks on the Chicago Bulls Elite AAU team.

''I was the only kid who hadn't really played varsity ball,'' Sotos said. ''I was able to hold my own with those guys pretty well. I always figured once I got my shot on varsity I'd be able to handle myself.

''But I didn't know how the scoring would turn out with so much of the team lost.''

But Sotos found out some areas to enhance his game even if there wasn't much game time on a 27-3 team last year. He hardly got a break in practice playing with the second team and scout team.

And the latter was no break since he was guarding Daily Herald All-Area captain Geoff McCammon, who is now a freshman at Loyola.

''My job was to dog him and it helped defensively,'' Sotos said. ''But it also helped me offensively. The moves and cuts he made and the ways he used his body to get open.''

It's paid off so opponents can't just focus on Sotos behind the arc.

But Sotos' attention to detail with his shot, including painting lines on his driveway and watching the rapid-fire release of AAU teammate and Northern Illinois-bound Mike DiNunno, has opened up his game as well.

''He was,'' McCormack said with a laugh of coming to Conant as primarily a shooter, "a bad shooter as a freshman. He worked on his shot mechanics tirelessly.''

Before Sotos came to high school his biggest assets were his intelligence and passing ability as he usually came off the bench on higher-level teams. But in sixth grade he decided to focus solely on basketball.

As time has gone on his shot has gone in with more frequency from longer distances with less time to get it away needed.

''I kept working at it and working at it and working at it,'' said Sotos, who scored a career-high 24 points against Schaumburg on Jan. 12. ''Eventually it started to go down more for me.''

Sotos has also watched tapes of how former NBA great Reggie Miller and Pistons star Rip Hamilton come off screens to get shots.

And those who think the slightly-built Sotos can be pushed around should consider he earned a karate black belt at age 9.

But he won't be kicking and screaming when things don't go right, such as Saturday night when he missed a block out on an offensive rebound and was taken out of the game.

''Some guys would pout,'' McCormack said. ''On the bench he was coaching and cheering guys on. He makes the life of the coaching staff a lot easier.''

It's a lesson he learned from his dad, who grew up on Chicago's West Side and sprouted from 5-4 to 6-1 between his sophomore and junior years. But trouble with coordination and attitude kept him from playing at now-shuttered Holy Cross in River Grove.

Jim Sotos went on to play at Aurora College and improved enough to play a year professionally in Greece.

''I looked at my dad and he used to go way up over the rim when he was 19 or 20,'' Tommy Sotos said. ''I thought if I ever got a little bit athletic I'd be fine in high school.''

And he should be just fine on and off the court at the University of Chicago with a 4.4 weighted grade-point average and a 3.8 non-weighted on a 4.0 scale. Both times he took the ACT he scored 32 and is considering studying law, English or economics.

Sotos had Division I opportunities to walk on at Drake and Lafayette. The high-octane Grinnell offense and Emory University outside of Atlanta were his other top Division III choices.

But staying close to home was important as the oldest of three brothers. Christian is a sophomore basketball player at Conant, Danny is a fifth-grader whose best sport may be football and Tommy said third-grader Jimmy may put all of them to shame.

''My three little brothers are such an integral part of my life,'' Tommy said. ''I didn't think I could be away from them for that long of a time.''

Sotos is also finding time right now to participate in Conant's ''Dancing with the Stars'' competition that will be held next Thursday. Sotos and senior teammate Tom Mahr are among 20 students who will dance with a teacher.

Sotos' mom Katy was a pom-pom coach for 13 years and he'll be dancing to ''It's Tricky'' by Run DMC with Orchesis instructor Danielle Johnson.

''Despite what many people might think,'' he said with a laugh, ''I'm known for being not a bad dancer.''

And now everyone in the MSL knows Sotos is a pretty good basketball player.