Fenton, Glenbard S. ready to pick on someone their own size
Ahhhh…
When the IHSA Class 3A boys basketball state tournament begins Monday, it'll be like a breath of fresh air to the five competing teams from DuPage County.
Gone are the two-class days of the past few decades, an era that created a matchup like last season's Class AA regional game between St. Francis and West Aurora. Even though the Spartans nearly pulled off an upset, it's still a daunting task trying to beat a school with an enrollment four times your size.
Fenton, Glenbard South, Montini and Wheaton Academy are the other area Class 3A teams hoping to finally thrive against schools of smaller size. Of the five local 3A teams, Glenbard South was the last to win a regional title in 2000.
"I think it's good for us," said Fenton coach Dennis Cromer. "I just see us having a little better chance in this sectional that we had in the two-class system."
Don't get the wrong idea, though. State powers like Simeon, winner of the last two Class AA state titles, Marshall and St. Joseph all roam the 3A brackets.
In the two local 3A sectionals -- Antioch and Riverside-Brookfield -- favorites Marshall, St. Joseph, North Chicago and Grayslake Central all would compete rather well in a two-class system. Now they represent the front-runners in 3A.
Drawing the area's short straw at Riverside-Brookfield is No. 8 Wheaton Academy, which faces a stiff challenge heading to the Marshall regional anchored by the top-seeded Commandos.
Should the Warriors and third-year starting guard Ben Euler beat Manley in the regional semifinals, they'd likely face Marshall in the final.
"The one place we didn't want to be," Wheaton Academy coach Paul Ferguson said of Marshall. "The hard thing for us is our sectional stretches all the way to the city, and there's some really good teams that are headed down that way."
Elsewhere in the R-B sectional, No. 5 Glenbard South and 6-foot-6 Andy Manson have the unenviable assignment of possibly facing No. 4 Aurora Central Catholic, co-champion in the Suburban Catholic Conference, on its home court in the regional final.
The Raiders are battle-tested, having won six of their last eight games, including a string of wins against strong Class 4A opponents Wheaton Warrenville South, Willowbrook and Batavia -- the top seed in the Class 4A East Aurora sectional.
"I think we're in a good spot as a five seed," said Raiders coach Wade Hardtke. "Nothing's going to be easy trying to get out of that regional, but you don't expect it to be easy."
St. Francis, seventh seeded at Riverside-Brookfield, has the good news of playing host to a regional. The bad news is that the Spartans and leading scorer and rebounder Brian McMahon may face No. 2 St. Joseph in the regional final.
Montini, the sectional's 15th seed, needs to beat IMSA in the feed-in game for the right to play St. Joseph in the St. Francis regional semifinals.
"I think we can probably be a little more competitive in 3A than if we were in the East Aurora sectional," said St. Francis coach Shawn Healy. "It'd be pretty tough in 4A for us, and even some of our better teams would struggle. It puts it on more of a level playing field for us."
Fenton, the seventh seed in the Antioch sectional, also has the advantage of hosting a regional. The dynamic duo of Gozie Umeadi and Damian Sieradzki open with Wauconda in the semifinals before facing a possible regional final against No. 2 Grayslake Central.
For many of the 3A challengers, the bracket looms as a mixed blessing. While the overall competition level should be easier than in 4A, the far-flung geographic nature of the 3A field makes the fear of the unknown a bigger factor.
Like the four-class system itself, everyone's delving into uncharted water starting Monday.
"That's part of the excitement," Cromer said. "We don't know them, and they don't know us. We'll both have to find out about each other pretty quickly, though."