Grayslake Central enjoying quite a roll
Having won five games in a row, Grayslake Central is the hottest boys basketball team in the Daily Herald's Lake County coverage area.
And the Rams did it without turning into a bunch of hotheads.
Grayslake Central won its fifth game in a row Wednesday night by defeating previously undefeated Johnsburg.
The two teams, who have been the most consistent contenders in the Fox Valley Fox Division in recent years, have become quite the rivals. And it was just last year that a bench-clearing brawl broke out when Johnsburg visited Grayslake Central.
This year's version was much more subdued. The result was also different.
Johnsburg escaped the craziness of last year's game with a 64-62 win. This time, Grayslake Central came out on top, 65-59.
"The funny thing is, if you get our kids and their kids off the court, they get along really well," said Grayslake Central coach Brian Moe, whose team is now 11-6 overall but a sparkling and commanding 5-0 in Fox Division play. "Our kids are friends with the kids from Johnsburg, they know them from AAU and other summer stuff. I happen to think that all those kids (at Johnsburg) are super nice and super respectful. But when you get our teams on the court, it can be kind of contentious."
Well, sometimes, it can be rough getting to the top. And Grayslake Central and Johnsburg have gotten used to climbing over each other to get there.
The Rams won the division two years ago and finished just behind Johnsburg last year for first.
"Sometimes Huntley and Prairie Ridge are in there, but usually, it's the two of us (Grayslake Central and Johnsburg) that are the two teams to beat," Moe said. "That's why there's a rivalry and our games seem to get very physical, very contested. You don't want to lose to a rival. We know we have to beat them if we want to have a chance to win the Fox."
Getting defensive: Part of the key to Grayslake Central's successful five-game run over the last two weeks has been defense.
The Rams are holding opponents to just 52 points a game over that stretch.
Head coach Brian Moe credits senior guard Cameron Nelson with setting the tone. Nelson typically guards the opposing team's best player.
"We played Woodstock (last week) and it was one of the first games I can remember in all my years of coaching that I didn't see a let-down in our play," Moe said. "Defensively, we always seemed to have guys in the right spots. We kept our intensity. I think a lot of that had to do with Cameron.
"Cameron has been doing a great job defensively. He sets a great example for the other guys with the way he plays."
Rad ratio: Coaches love to talk about the assist-to-turnover ratio. It's one of the their favorite stats.
Now, it might also be a favorite for Grayslake Central sophomore guard Jordan Taylor.
He started out the season rolling up more turnovers than assists, but now, his ratio is in the proper alignment. A 6 assist, 1 turnover effort against Crystal Lake Central earlier this month helped.
"Jordan has really stepped up his play for us," Grayslake Central coach Brian Moe said. "It's ironic but the more he plays, the fewer turnovers he makes and that just comes from experience."
Chemistry has a lot to do with it, too.
Even though Taylor played all summer with the varsity, he didn't get a significant amount of time with the team's biggest stars, Josh Rappaport and Andrew Sipes.
Rappaport missed some summer basketball with a broken finger and Sipes was still rehabbing from off-season knee surgery.
"Those kids were in and out so Jordan didn't get a lot of minutes with them over the summer. He didn't develop that chemistry with them," Moe said. "As the season has gone on, he's gotten more and more comfortable and he's really understanding his role and how to play with them."
Tale of two halves: North Chicago stands between Vernon Hills and a North Suburban Conference Prairie Division title.
If the Cougars are going to have a chance at winning it, they're going to have to avenge last weekend's loss to North Chicago (63-56) when the two teams play again in mid-February.
The good news for Vernon Hills (13-4, 5-2 Prairie) is that the game plan couldn't be more clear-cut.
All the Cougars need to do is forget about the first half of their most recent game with North Chicago and totally emulate the second.
"We had 18 turnovers in the first half and North Chicago got like 12 to 14 points off of them," Vernon Hills coach Matt McCarty said of his team's 63-56 loss to North Chicago on Jan. 9. "But we finished with 21 turnovers. We had only 3 turnovers in the second half. We played much better in the second half, the way we need to against North Chicago."
Wrath of the Warhawks: North Chicago is one of the best teams in Lake County in part because of its high-pressure full-court press and half-court traps.
That's how the Warhawks forced Vernon Hills into 18 first-half turnovers last weekend.
The big question is: How did Vernon Hills adjust fast enough to commit only 3 second-half turnovers?
"We talked at halftime about really taking care of the ball, starting with our passes," Vernon Hills coach Matt McCarty said. "In the first half, we were trying to make a lot of crosscourt passes and North Chicago had guys just sitting in the passing lanes like free safeties on the football field and they were intercepting pass after pass and going down for easy, uncontested layups.
"We told the guys, no diagonal passes across the court. Make sure your guy is on the same plane as you, or even behind you before you pass it. Also, we're a team that likes to spin dribble, but against North Chicago, you've really got to be careful because they trap from behind so much that they can come up on you when you have your back turned and slap the ball way. We told our guys that you can't turn your back on North Chicago. Instead of playing East-West, you've got to play North-South."
Last but not least, the Cougars tried giving North Chicago a dose of its own medicine. After all, the old adage in basketball is that a team that likes to press doesn't like to be pressed itself.
"We started doing some trapping and pressing in the second half and that seemed to bother them a little bit, it slowed them down," McCarty said. "We got (the deficit) down to three points, but we can't do that all the time. North Chicago can press the whole game because they play so many guys. We were pretty much playing seven guys."
Help on the way: A seven-man rotation leaves little room for error.
Players need to be in great shape and they need to stay out of foul trouble.
Vernon Hills has played much of the first part of the season with seven players getting the bulk of the playing time. The Cougars' lack of depth made handling North Chicago's taxing fullcourt press and halfcourt traps difficult at times in last week's 63-56 loss.
"North Chicago can press and trap the whole game because they can run 10 guys in there," Vernon Hills coach Matt McCarty said. "We're not that deep."
The Cougars should be deeper the next time they play North Chicago, in about three weeks.
That's because reserve Tyler Zuniga should be back in the rotation. The senior forward was due to return to active duty this weekend after being out since the holidays due to a school-related discipline issue.
"The North Chicago game was definitely a game that Tyler could have helped us," McCarty said. "He's pretty much our sixth man. He's known for providing good three-point shooting, but he also gives us some quality depth.
"It's going to be nice having him back."
Since Zuniga was able to practice during his suspension, he stayed in shape and McCarty says he should be ready to start contributing immediately.
Slight gains: With only 3 wins so far, Warren (3-10) is struggling unlike any Warren team in recent memory.
But the very young and inexperienced Blue Devils are making slow yet steady gains that could make them dangerous come tournament time in March.
"We've improve defensively and we've been pretty competitive since Christmas," Warren coach Chuck Ramsey said. "In the three games since then, we've beaten Lake Zurich and lost to Stevenson by 2 points and Lake Forest by 3 points, which are two very good teams.
"We held Lake Forest to 45 points and Stevenson to 55 points. We needed to improve our defense, and we have. It's one of the things you can control with effort and hard work and concentration and our effort has been much better there."
Now, if the offense can just follow suit.
Lots of pains: While Warren is making gains on defense, the offense has been slower to come around.
Last year, the Blue Devils, who advanced to the sectional championship game, averaged 65 points per game. This year, they're at 54 points per game.
And it's no mystery why.
Warren has significantly fewer assists this year than at this point last year, is shooting the ball at a lower clip and is getting to the free throw line far less.
The Blue Devils had 224 assists by mid-January last year and have only 147 now. They are shooting 42 percent from the field this year and last year were at 46 percent. And perhaps most telling, they had gotten to the line 295 times by this time last year and have attempted only 198 free throws so far this season.
"We're not shooting as well, we're not passing as well, and we aren't being as aggressive getting to the basket and drawing fouls," Ramsey said. "We're just hoping that as our defense continues to improve it will help our offense because we'll get more easy baskets in transition and that will open things up."
Mixed reviews: The news wasn't all bad last week for Wauconda, which recently lost its leading scorer in senior forward Eric Hartnett to a season-ending knee injury.
Hartnett was scheduled to undergo surgery this week to repair a completely torn anterior cruciate ligament and a slightly damaged meniscus.
On the bright side, the Bulldogs got a victory over Round Lake on Saturday. It was Wauconda's first North Suburban Conference Prairie Division win in two years. The Bulldogs are now 1-7 in the league.
"We beat Marengo, we beat Round Lake and we came close to Grant and Wauconda, so we're 2-2 without Eric. That's not too bad," Wauconda coach Scott Luetschwager said before his team lost to Carmel on Wednesday to fall to 6-15 on the season. "But obviously, we'd rather have him in there. When we needed a basket, you knew who to go to. Now, we don't know who our go-to player is.
"But neither does the other team. So I guess that goes both ways."
Change of scenery: The loss of Eric Hartnett to a season-ending knee injury means that Wauconda is not only losing its leading scorer and rebounder, it's losing the focus of its offensive philosophy.
The 6-foot-5 Hartnett was averaging about 17 points and 7 rebounds per game and because of his play, the Bulldogs were noticeably inside-oriented.
Now, Wauconda is doing a major shift.
"We've pretty much changed our offense," Wauconda coach Scott Luetschwager said. "We're going to have to do more scoring outside than inside because we've lost some size with Eric out and we're much more guard-oriented now.
"We're going to be running a five-man motion now that is more for guards. It spreads out the defense and it gets everyone in motion and it allows our guys to attack the gaps that get created. We've got some guys who are quick off the dribble who may be able to take advantage of this offense."
Luetschwager has two sophomores in mind.
Guard Kyle Ryan will see his role increase while Connor Rueb seems ready for more challenges. Rueb was promoted to varsity last week, in part to fill the void left by Hartnett. In one of his first varsity games, which came last weekend against Grant, Rueb scored a career-high 14 points.
"Pretty much everyone is stepping up here and there," Luetschwager said. "Both Connor and Kyle are good shooters and this offense gives them a lot of freedom.
"The only tough thing is that without being able to pound it in to Eric down low, if your shooters go cold, it's going to be hard for us."
Sub to starter: Although he wishes it were under different circumstances, Wauconda guard Jesus Zamudio is the beneficiary of Eric Hartnett's season-ending knee injury.
Zamudio, formerly a reserve, has been given Hartnett's spot in the starting lineup.
"Jesus is handling his new role of starting very well," Wauconda coach Scott Luetschwager said. "He's been one of our leaders all season with his actions. He's always asking about how we can get better, if we can try this or that. I think it will help us to have him in there as we get used to playing without Eric."
No fair: To add insult to injury, Eric Hartnett's season-ending knee injury knocks him out of contention for a record.
Wauconda coach Scott Luetschwager says that Hartnett was on pace to become the school's all-time leading scorer for a single season. He was averaging about 17 points per game.
"Eric was having a great senior season and he really wanted to keep playing," Luetschwager said. "He's definitely devastated about all of this."