Montini has stacked deck, but is a state title in the cards?
I am no card shark.
It doesn't take one to notice that Montini girls basketball coach Jason Nichols is playing with a loaded deck.
As the season tips off this week, one of the story lines to follow will be if the Broncos can take care of unfinished business in the Class 3A tournament. Third place was reason to celebrate last year, Montini's best-ever finish in girls basketball.
It won't cut it this time.
Easy to see why. You start with Michala Johnson, 6-foot-3 junior center ranked No. 16 in the Class of 2010 by ESPN. Her list of suitors reads like a who's who of college basketball. UConn, Maryland and Purdue are among those knocking on the door of the highest-rated girls basketball prospect in DuPage County since Candace Parker.
Johnson suffered a stretched left ACL playing AAU last July, but she should be cleared to play as early as next week.
"Let's be realistic," Nichols said, "she's one of the top players in the country. There's so much she brings to the table."
As Montini's 76-50 demolition of Marist on Tuesday shows, though, Johnson is but one ace in a full house.
I'd wager that sophomore Whitney Holloway is quicker than many boys point guards out there. Chrissy Fletcher, Alison Seberger and Mallory Sosnovich bring back experience from last year. Then there are the Montini kids, sophomores Kiki Wilson and Whitney Adams and freshman Tianna Brown.
(Is there anything better in sports than to be good and young?)
Then add the wild card. Courtney Thomas, a 6-1 junior commited to Marquette who transferred from Loyola over the summer. She brings added length to an already big team, a slashing wing. I bet few girls basketball teams in Illinois can say that six of their top nine players stand 6 feet or taller - and can play.
A dash of spice to an already delicious recipe. Still mixing in, but it looks promising.
"She brings a lot of energy to this team," Johnson said.
Thomas played with Johnson, Holloway, Seberger and Wilson on a Full Package Lady Lightning AAU team that went 49-4 over the summer. These kids aren't strangers.
Seberger estimated that between AAU and summer league with Montini she played more than 100 games.
"What we do during the summer prepares us for this," Seberger said. "We're a year older now."
Rest assured, Montini will be prepared for the pressure of the postseason. A nonconference schedule that takes the girls to the Whitney Young Tournament next week, defending 3A runner-up Freeport on Dec. 6 and the Ameritech Shootout at Willowbrook High School in January will test their mettle. It's hardly a yellow brick road to Redbird Arena.
But the biggest challenge may lie within. If the girls aren't careful, their greatest strength could turn into a fatal flaw.
Illinois high school basketball is littered with groups that did not reach their potential. Collections of talent that fell short of becoming a championship team.
A flush hand taking a bad beat.
"Something we stress is that there's a lot of players here that at a different school would be all-conference or all-area," Nichols said. "You have to give up something to gain something. Our ultimate goal is to win a state title."
Seberger, for one, would do anything to get back to Redbird.
"I don't care if I play one minute or play the whole game," she said. "As long as we get down there and play as a team, that's what I want."
jwelge@dailyherald.com