Mooney's hustle nets hardware

If North Suburban Conference teams didn't already know it, it's official now.

Lake Zurich guard Connor Mooney is a hustler. And he's got the hardware to prove it.

Mooney won the "Mr. Hustle" award at the always tough Pekin holiday tournament last month. Besides all-tournament team accolades, which Mooney received for the second year in a row, he won the only other individual award to be handed out at the tournament besides most valuable player.

"Connor just always comes to play," said Lake Zurich coach John Zarr, who watched Mooney net his 1,000th career point in Pekin against Rockford Boylan. "When people play us, they know they have to know where he is at all times because he's always hustling, always trying to make plays."

There was one play in particular that Mooney made a lot at Pekin, and that may have put him over the top in the "Mr. Hustle" balloting.

"Connor always does a good job of hustling to get the ball out on the break, and he was hustling to get out and guard the ball, but the biggest thing was charges," Zarr said. "He took a number of charges over the course of the tournament. Like at least five or six. That's just hustle and that really does a lot to change (momentum) during a game."

Mooney is averaging 20 points a game and scored in double figures through the tournament. The veteran guard gave the Bears big numbers last year, but Zarr says that Mooney is just better all the way around this season.

And he has the weight room to thank for it. Zarr estimates that Mooney added at least 20 pounds to his frame - all muscle.

"I think Connor really did a lot in the weight room because he is just so much stronger and that has made such a difference," Zarr said. "It's helped his range, his defense. He's going much stronger to the basket. He just doesn't give up any ground."

Coleman is the man: Between guard Connor Mooney and center Brandon Kunz, Lake Zurich has a pretty effective 1-2 punch.

But what could be the Bears' X-factor this season is the play of forward Danny Coleman. He got off to an up and down start, but settled in over the holidays to provide Lake Zurich with consistently solid play.

A continuation of that would make the Bears the kind of three-headed monster that could do some serious damage through the North Suburban Lake Division.

Coleman is averaging about 10 points per game but has been consistently in double figures lately and had a breakout game against Peoria Limestone in Pekin in which he hit 5 of 6 field goals en route to 17 points. He also pulled down 7 rebounds.

"At the end of last season, Danny also was a bit up and down," Zarr said. "He had some health issues. I think he's reached a point where he's put all that behind him. When he's playing well, the way we know he can play, he makes our team that much tougher.

"If he can continue to do that, we're going to have a real impact on the division."

Who's Hoveydai? A standout tennis player, Vernon Hills senior guard Riaz Hoveydai doesn't have time to play AAU basketball in the off-season.

No wonder he entered the season having not heard from many college coaches.

They're starting to get the word on Hoveydai now, though, especially after a rock-solid performance at the Wheeling Hardwood Classic over the holidays.

"A lot of (opposing) coaches kept commenting to me about how much he's improved since last year," Vernon Hills coach Matt McCarty said. "He really did have a great tournament and some college coaches noticed. I've had several inquiries about him.

"I've kind of told those college guys that he's just been a late bloomer for us. He didn't even start for us last year until mid-January. But he's really proved to be a scorer and he can handle the ball well. He's a gym rat and he loves the game, he just hasn't done the AAU thing. It's nice that he's finally getting on people's radar and getting some attention."

Hoveydai was the Cougars' leading scorer at Wheeling and had his best games against Streamwood (17 points) and Stevenson (13 points).

Central's combos: Normally, 5-for-5 sounds pretty good in basketball.

But for Grayslake Central, having five different starting lineups in a five-game stretch over the holidays wasn't exactly ideal.

Injuries and other issues have forced head coach Brian Moe to switch up his starting lineup constantly at the State Farm Classic in Bloomington last month.

In recent weeks, starters Mike Brumm, Karl Jansson, Josh Rappaport and Mike Brocious all missed some time for various reasons. Brumm hurt his shoulder and missed a game, Jansson was out with a sore back, Rappaport took some personal time because of a death in the family and Brocious has been nursing an injured ankle.

With all the comings and goings, the Rams were a bit off at the State Farm Classic, going 1-3 to drop to 8-5 overall.

"It was a combination of us not playing very well and have a lot of kids playing different roles that they may not be used to," Moe said. "That was pretty frustrating."

But there was a silver lining to the having the starting lineup turn into a revolving door of players.

A lot of players got experience they wouldn't normally get.

Moe said that reserves Cameron Nelson and David Bell in particular really stepped up their games over the holidays.

Nelson started two games and played tough defense and crashed the boards hard while Bell showed some offensive firepower by scoring 15 points in one of the games down in Bloomington.

"We played like nine or 10 kids in every game, and a lot of times, our 12th and 13th and 14th kids were playing a lot of minutes," Moe said. "That's going to help down the road. Those guys shouldn't be nervous or anxious if we need them to go in games."

Rough stretch: Despite a yeoman's effort from senior forward Jeremy Letchford, an all-tournament selection for the second year in a row, Libertyville managed to go just 2-2 at the Wheeling Hardwood Classic over the holidays.

It only gets tougher from here for the 4-8 Wildcats.

After having played 11-1 Warren and Illinois-bound Brandon Paul on Tuesday, Libertyville will face three of the other top teams in Lake County in consecutive games over the next two weeks. And all of them have Division I prospects or signees as well.

The Wildcats take on Zion-Benton and Ohio State-bound Lenzelle Smith tonight and will then face North Chicago and top prospect Keith Ford and Lake Forest and Michigan-bound Matt Vogrich next weekend.

"Someone came into my office the other day and was like, 'Who did your schedule?' " Libertyville coach Scott Bogumil laughed. "Our conference is so tough, it's like the ACC. We're like Virginia. We're a good team, but no one knows it because we're playing really, really tough teams every single night. This is an incredibly tough stretch for us.

"But if we could knock one of those teams off-it would be really big for us."

Balanced scoring: Sure, Warren's Brandon Paul was phenomenal in Pontiac, capping off a very productive tournament with a 31-point effort against Schaumburg in the title game.

But the Blue Devils weren't all Brandon.

A big part of what has been making 11-1 Warren so dangerous this season is that other players have stepped up to the point where opposing teams can't afford to focus their defensive efforts solely on Paul.

David Duncan rolled up 20 three-pointers in Pontiac and hit the game-winning basket against Lockport.

Jake Anderson fired in 19 points and grabbed 7 rebounds in the title game against Schaumburg, point guards Aaron Montgomery and Marquise Thomas have been defending and distributing the ball well and center James Poliquin has been darn near perfection in the post.

In fact, one game, he was perfect.

Against Niles West, he went 10-for-10 from the floor, a mark that Warren coach Chuck Ramsey believes is a school record.

"That's the best (field goal mark) since I've been at Warren," said Ramsey, a 16-year veteran. "That just came in the flow of the game for James. Niles West had trouble matching up inside with him and our kids did a great job of getting him the ball.

"It's been really important that we've been getting a lot of guys to do what has been necessary for us to win."

Top-notch tourney: A sectional, a supersectional, and anything beyond would rank higher.

But not much more than that would top a Pontiac holiday tournament championship. Not in Chuck Ramsey's eyes.

The Warren boys basketball coach believes that the holiday tournament in Pontiac is one of the most prestigious in the state and that winning it is a giant feather in a team's cap.

Time will tell if that means anything for the Blue Devils. They won the rugged Pontiac Tournament last month by winning four games in three days and beating the likes of Lockport, Curie and then previously unbeaten Schaumburg in the title game.

It was Warren's first title in 19 tries. And there have been some pretty good Warren teams trying for titles over the last two decades. Even the 1999 team that took second in IHSA state tournament didn't manage to place at Pontiac.

That year, the Blue Devils won the consolation championship.

"This is a tremendous tournament with outstanding teams," Ramsey said. "To win it is such an accomplishment, just because of the teams that are involved.

"I don't get to see many of the other tournaments, but I would have to say Pontiac ranks in the top two or three holiday tournaments in the state by reputation."

Ramsey says that Proviso West and the Big Dipper tournament in the south suburbs are also cream of the crop tournaments. The tournaments at Jacobs and Wheeling are also steeped in tradition.

But not much beats the feeling of holiday basketball in Pontiac.

"I think in terms of atmosphere, Pontiac may be the best holiday tournament in Illinois," Ramsey said. "Turnout is really a big deal to the school. They love their basketball down there, and the fans are so knowledgeable and into it. The gym seats about 3,000 and I bet there were at least 2,000 there for every game. For three days, everything there revolves around the tournament. The village of Pontiac becomes the tournament."

Close, but...: Although a Pontiac holiday tournament title had eluded Warren until this season, there have been plenty of close calls in recent years to keep things interesting.

Last year, the Blue Devils placed third. The two years before that, they finished as the tournament runner-up to Simeon, which featured Derrick Rose, now a guard with the Chicago Bulls.

Both of those games came down to the final possession.

Warren, which has never earned the No. 1 seed at Pontiac, has also placed fourth and won the consolation bracket in the last five years.

"We had done just about everything you could do down there but win it," Warren coach Chuck Ramsey said. "To have finally won it was pretty exciting. I felt like I was really able to appreciate it and take it all in."

Numbers game: Grayslake Central was known as a low-scoring, defensive minded team last season.

New coach Brian Moe would love for his team to have that same reputation, but the Rams are going to have to do some work.

So far, the offense has produced much better numbers than last year-but seemingly at the defense's expense. The Rams are averaging 63.6 points per game, compared to 53.8 points per game last year. But they're giving up 57.1 points per game, as opposed to just 46.8 points per game last year.

"That's about a 10-point swing on both ends," Moe said. "We've been playing faster this year, so we've been scoring more, and I think that's why we've been giving up more points.

"But I'd still like to see us give up fewer points. We really need to work on our defense. We're giving up too many easy shots, and we're not always doing a good job on the defensive boards."