Neuqua's best ever? Just wait and see
Before the season even began one area basketball coach said Neuqua Valley coach Todd Sutton had his best team ever.
After Thanksgiving another local coach said he thought the Wildcats could win a state title, a belief he's since reiterated.
As far as Sutton is concerned this 24-1 season still contains a question or two.
"We do stress defense and I thought we would be pretty good at 'D,' but offense was a mystery," he said. "I thought we would really struggle early. I still don't know how we score so well."
The Wildcats outscore their opponents 71 points to 55 because they have all bases covered. Neuqua can run effective offense against zone or man defenses, going up-tempo or slowdown as it showed Bartlett (90-63) and Geneva (64-45) three weeks apart.
They've got the man in the middle in Kareem Amedu, whom Sutton said may be playing the best ball on his club right now.
Division I prospect Dwayne Evans, at power forward, leads the team in scoring, while senior Derek Raridon runs a close second. Sutton called Raridon "the smartest basketball player we have had."
Raridon makes a blistering 46 percent of his 3-point shots, just ahead of senior guard Rahjan Muhammad at 40 percent.
Aside from Muhammad, Neuqua's guards don't score much. Instead, Nolan Brown, Ryan Wagner, Drew Sutton (Todd's son) and Steve Waeghe have helped amass well over 100 more assists than turnovers.
"We really play as a team," Evans said. "We definitely pass the ball well. Our defense is a key for us lately. That's what we really thrive on."
Todd Sutton is getting bugged answering questions about his team's depth. He goes at least 10 deep comfortably - 6-foot-2 Christian Shonkwiler has excelled as a backup post player - which is a product of the practice regimen.
"It's this simple, we job share," Sutton said. "Our depth is by design. The most important aspect is that we the coaches trust our players. Our depth is most important at practice. I never have our starters on the same team. This builds confidence."
Among top Neuqua squads Sutton still likes the 26-3 unit of 2001-02 led by the classic Wildcats trio of Keelan Amelianovich, Josh Wesley and John Pugliese plus Bobby Catchings, Pat Brusveen, Alan Murnen, John Maples and Matt Newquist.
He said last season's 25-8 team was "pretty special," as Danny Pawelski led Evans, Raridon and other returnees to a game away from the Class 4A semifinals.
Ranked behind only Thornton in this week's Associated Press Class 4A Poll, the comparative status of this year's group remains to be seen, Sutton hinted.
"I measure a team by how far they go in the tournament," he said. "This team will have to win supers in order to be better than the team we had last year."
The top cat: In Glenbard North's 73-67 overtime win over West Chicago on Feb. 3, Panthers junior guard James Fleming did something no other player in program history previously had done.
He scored 39 points, breaking by a single point the mark set in the 1970-71 season by former Panthers player and coach Bill Wright.
The way Fleming did it was astonishing. He scored 30 of his points and hit all six of his 3-pointers after halftime to carry his team to the win and break the record.
For the season Fleming's averaging 17.6 points per game despite facing the opposition's best defensive player every time he takes the court.
Regardless of the defense, Panthers coach Joe Larson believes it's the diversity of Fleming's offensive skill set that makes him so tough to stop.
"He can drive and finish, he can hit a midrange jump shot and he can hit a 3," Larson said. "That's a hard player to guard, and that's a hard player to scout. He's been just a great player for us this year."
Get there early: Another huge crowd is expected at the annual Benet-St. Francis rivalry game Saturday night in Lisle.
Unlike past games, however, the venue has changed. Benet is the host school, but the contest will take place across the street at Benedictine University. Two years ago an overflow crowd jammed into the Redwings' old gymnasium, so to make room for additional fans the decision was made to move the rivalry to the Dan and Ada Rice Center.
Benet coach Gene Heidkamp said 3,000 tickets were printed in anticipation of the heavy crowd flow.
"Our kids are excited about it," he said. "It's a big game every year."
Both teams first will focus on tough Friday conference games. Benet travels to Nazareth, another rival, in the East Suburban Catholic Conference. St. Francis plays host to Immaculate Conception in the Suburban Catholic Conference.
Still, it's hard not to look forward to Saturday's showdown.
"We're bringing our band, they're bringing their band," said Spartans coach Mike Healy. "It's going to be a whole extravaganza - or circus, however you want to look at it."
Limping: As a long season grinds toward the playoffs, teams are starting to feel it in the training room.
Naperville North recently lost two starters to injury - senior guard Danny Grimley and junior forward Arnas Gintautas. While Grimley could return from a foot stress fracture in the next couple of weeks, Gintautas underwent season-ending shoulder surgery this week.
"It's hard to replace what they bring to the team, and it was an emotional challenge for our guys," said Huskies coach Mark Lindo. "The bottom line is that people need to step up."
The Huskies brought up some help from their DuPage Valley Conference-leading sophomore team, starting two weeks ago with guard Jovonn Griffin, who was inserted into the starting lineup.
Then in Saturday's nonconference game against Crystal Lake South, 6-foot-5 sophomore Matt LaCosse made his varsity debut in a 58-52 Huskies victory. LaCosse, who in the fall started two varsity football games at quarterback for the Huskies, scored 10 points, grabbed 6 rebounds and blocked 2 shots.
LaCosse's promotion to varsity deepens a potent front line of juniors that includes 6-5 James O'Shaughnessy, 6-6 Joe McNicholas and 6-9 Matt Hasse.
As the game wound down, the Huskies closed out the win with two sophomores and three juniors on the court.