Boys basketball: Scouting Grayslake Central

Coach: Brian Moe, 4th season

Last year: 17-13, 9-3 (FVC Fox)

Last year’s tournament: Lost to North Chicago in the sectional semifinals, 64-60.

Key players lost: C CJ Stempeck (Colgate, football), C/F Tim Abbott

Key players returning: G Jordan Taylor, sr., C Casey Boyle, sr., G Danny Reed, jr.

Top newcomers: G/F Connor Daly, jr., F Matt Spalding, jr.

Outlook: Consider Grayslake Central ahead of the curve. The Rams have the two toughest positions on the floor to fill covered by savvy veterans who played major roles on last year’s sectional semifinal team. Back is point guard Jordan Taylor and center Casey Boyle. Taylor led the team in scoring at 13.3 points per game and the 6-foot-9 Boyle added 9.5 points and 6 rebounds per game last season. “Obviously, returning a three-year starting point guard and a 6-foot-9 senior center, there are going to be some pretty high expectations placed on us this year,” Grayslake Central coach Brian Moe said. “Our playing time will be heavily skewed toward players who played significant minutes last season. We are going to put a lot of pressure on them to play at a high level and be leaders.” One area in which the Rams don’t want to be leading the way is turnovers. Last year, that was an Achilles heel, especially in some of Grayslake Central’s toughest games. “We lost to Elgin by 3 points and we had 17 turnovers, we lost to Glenbard East and we had 20 turnovers, we lost to Waukegan by 6 and had 27 turnovers and we lost to North Chicago by 7 and had 16 turnovers,” Moe said. “I hope that showed us that we can play with anybody as long as we take care of the ball and rebound. Our main concern this year will be turnovers and defensive rebounding. If we can shore up those two areas, we will give ourselves a chance to win many of our games.”

Opener: Monday vs. Mundelein at the Mundelein Thanksgiving Shootout