Six teams enter 2010 with momentum

As promised last week, here's a look back at what was an exciting stretch for the area boys basketball teams in their various holiday tournament travels.

We had a champion (Kaneland), a runner-up (St. Charles North), third- and fourth-place finishers (Marmion and Geneva, respectively) and two more consolation bracket winners (West Aurora and Batavia). Those six teams combined for a 20-6 record.

Kaneland: What better place to start than with the one team to win a championship, Brian Johnson's Knights. A critic might point to the smaller schools they played at Plano, though the final two teams Kaneland beat - Genoa-Kingston and Rockford Christian - were a combined 20-2 before losing to the Knights.

"I like it. We're one of the bigger schools but they run a really nice tournament," Johnson said of the 47th annual tourney. "It's not one of the known tournaments because you have smaller schools there. I think (Genoa) would compete fairly well in our conference because they play so hard. They might not have the best talent but they are very well coached. They'd give some teams in our conference a run for their money."

Johnson wouldn't commit to bringing Kaneland back to defend its title in 2010, which was the school's third at Plano. But he's certainly considering it, and you can thank Batavia's longtime coach Jim Roberts for that.

"I want to evaluate at the end of the year just to see what's available," Johnson said. "I like that we've been in it in the past so there's some history behind it. Jim Roberts has got me thinking about history ever since we got talking because he's such a history buff. I kind of like that aspect but we'll see. I don't know for sure."

It's too bad wherever the Knights wind up they won't have Dave Dudzinski around to feed the ball. The 6-foot-9 senior took home MVP honors after a career-high 32-point, 13-rebound game in the finale and was typically modest after receiving the award.

"It was really cool, I didn't expect it all," Dudzinski said. "I thought it could have gone to a couple guys. It was just a testament to how hard we worked."

Dudzinski's big night against Rockford Christian came after one of his most quiet games against Genoa. That was a product of the differing defenses Kaneland saw: an effective box-and-one to a man.

"The good thing about Dave is he's not selfish and he's not a guy who thinks I need to get mine," Johnson said. "He works as a teammate. He's just one of the guys. Sometimes he shies away because of his personality but everyone knows he's our best player."

While Dudzinski's offense gets plenty of attention, Johnson is just - or more - appreciative of his defense.

"He's a great defender and he fixes a lot of our blemishes," Johnson said.

Johnson also made one change to his lineup for this tournament, inserting Steve Colombe. The move allowed him to bring Tyler Callaghan off the bench and not have his two tallest players on the court at the start.

Kaneland (9-2) will try to keep its winning ways going when it hosts Batavia Friday night in a key Western Sun matchup for both teams.

And Johnson knows once again the challenges will be in front of him trying to get Dudzinski involved as teams continue to come up with different defensive looks.

"Being a new coach, not that I haven't been around the game a lot, but you see different things with the big guy," Johnson said. "I haven't had the privilege to coach a big guy like Dave. I'm getting used to how teams guard him and trying to find ways to keep him active and involved is really important."

St. Charles North: The North Stars (9-6) once again finished second at Jacobs, now three years running. A win over Bartlett in the semifinal showed a lot after the Hawks beat the North Stars earlier this year in the Upstate Eight.

Josh Mikes was named to the all-tournament team a second straight year. Along with David Johnson, Mikes is the veteran on the team adapting to a leadership role.

"I'm very confident in these guys," Mikes said. "It's a lot different that last year obviously but I have so much confidence. I've got to take a lot bigger leadership role. Teams are going to be watching for me. I wasn't really as known last year. I have to help out the other guys, me and Dave basically are the ones helping out the guys who didn't get experience."

Johnson agrees, though being a vocal leader isn't a role that comes naturally.

"I'm trying to," Johnson said. "I tried to learn from them (last year's seniors) and pass it on. I'm kind of laid back but I'm trying to work on it."

St. Charles North gets right back into the thick of conference play tonight at South Elgin.

"I'm proud of them," North Stars coach Tom Poulin said. "We fought."

Marmion: Marmion (8-5) and Geneva (10-4) concur after their overall pretty solid play at Waubonsie Valley and DeKalb, respectively.

"Now we are rounding into where I thought we should be," said Marmion coach Rashon Burno, whose team starts the second half against St. Francis Friday. "We're playing pretty good ball right now."

Geneva: Phil Ralston inherited the Chuck Dayton tournament on the schedule when he became coach two years ago and said he likes the setup.

"You see teams that you don't normally see," Ralston said. "In that sense it is a good thing. If we get into a championship bracket we are going up against very good competition."

That Geneva did, losing to Rockford Jefferson and Chicago Vocational to end up fourth a year after taking home the tournament title.

The Vikings return to chasing their Western Sun championship goals when they host Sycamore Friday. They are 3-1 and tied with DeKalb and Kaneland for first.

If the Vikings to make a run to a conference title the next two months, you can bet center Brandon Beitzel will be in the middle of it. His play through the first 14 games has been a major surprise to Ralston considering how little basketball Beitzel played after his junior season ended early with a foot injury.

"I haven't seen a kid take 10 months off from a sport and step in and do what he is doing," Ralston said. "And he's improved from when he's last played. Defensively he's really improved, as a rebounder he's improved, as a shooter he's improved. So I'm looking at this and I'm dumbfounded just because I haven't seen it. It's not that we didn't see it capable in him last year, he wasn't doing these things last year. For him to take off from January and step right off the football field and start doing this not having picked up a basketball, as I said you just don't see that stuff."

Beitzel said he didn't even play pickup games with friends this summer, let alone the type of a heavy off-season schedule that is usually required to improve your game.

"I played none. Zero. I couldn't. I was on bed rest and strictly weightlifting and football because of my foot," Beitzel said. "I wasn't able to jump, I wasn't able to do anything. I barely started running until midway through the summer."

Like Ralston, Beitzel didn't have an explanation for how his senior year has turned out like it has.

"I don't know, I just come out and play," Beitzel said. "It was difficult not playing over the summer and getting my feet back under me. I did some running here and there and slowly worked back into some stuff. But otherwise practice is the only basketball I've been doing."

Batavia: Credit both West Aurora (4-7) and Batavia (8-4) for not hanging their heads after losing their first tournament games. The Blackhawks completed their second straight consolation title at Pontiac while Batavia earned the same distinction at Elgin.

"It says a lot because we had a tough loss at the beginning (to Rolling Meadows) and we came back and battled," Batavia sophomore Cole Gardner said. "It was a good way to finish it and I just hope next time we get that first win."

Gardner's play off the bench pleased coach Roberts, giving him another option inside to go with Levi Maxey and Elliot Vaughn.

It's a role Gardner enjoys.

"I like it, it's easier to come off and not be so stressed at the beginning and do what I can do for the team," Gardner said. "I like to play aggressive and see if I can force turnovers and just play strong."

Junior guard Jesse Coffey showed the instant-offense form that he displayed earlier this season when he hit 8 first-half 3-pointers against Rochelle. Coffey's 18 points against Highland Park included four 3-pointers in the first quarter.

Like Gardner, Coffey liked how the Bulldogs fought back from the opening loss. That was a contrast to the previous year when they struggled to a 1-3 record at Elgin and finished 14th.

"That was our goal after the first game was to come back and do as well as we could and we did a good job of that," Coffey said.

Batavia senior Ricky Clopton scored at least 20 points in three of the four games and averaged 22 points a game.

Like the attention Dudzinski receives at Kaneland, Clopton relishes it because it means there's open teammates to find.

"He did a good job finding open guys out of the double," Coffey said. "We work on communicating, we work on finding the open spot. Once he starts scoring it opens up things for everyone else. That's good for us."

To their credit, Batavia didn't hang its head after losing at Geneva in December - a loss that might have provided a little extra motivation for the rest of the season.

"We are a better team than that," Clopton said. "We had certain goals for ourselves and we let it down in Geneva. It's not something we like or not something that should be acceptable here. We're just waiting for the next time."