Entering shootout season
With holiday tournaments finished and conference races still heating up, boys basketball fans need something to spark their interest.
Enter shootout season.
The one-day, multigame events begin in earnest on Saturday with the M&M Classic at Downers Grove North and the Naperville North Shootout.
The annual shootout at Downers North features an interesting matchup between West Suburban Conference teams and DuPage Valley Conference teams.
For Glenbard North, Saturday's 3:30 p.m. game against Downers South will mark the Panthers' third game against the Mustangs in the last year. Downers South edged the Panthers 54-51 in last season's regional semifinals.
"We know them pretty well," said Glenbard North coach Joe Larson. "We've got a lot of respect for Downers South, especially after playing them last year."
Downers North's girls kick off the shootout at noon against Hinsdale South. Wheaton Warrenville South's boys play Hinsdale Central at 2 p.m., Downers North faces Wheaton North at 5 p.m., and Glenbard East plays Hinsdale South at 6:30 p.m.
The Naperville North Shootout begins at noon Saturday with Rich East playing Kenwood. Wheaton Academy faces Proviso West at 1:30 p.m., followed by Oswego East against Morton at 3 p.m. Benet and Oswego meet at 4:30 before Naperville North closes the day against Danville at 6 p.m.
Big man on campus:
Every day Wheaton North sees improvement from 6-foot-11 junior center Andrew Zelis. That's good news heading into the heart of the season.
"Sometimes he looks like he's really progressing," said Falcons coach Jim Nazos. "He has the makeup of having some real good things happen. I think he's going to be a good one."
Evidence of Zelis' potential came in Friday's 68-54 DuPage Valley Conference loss at West Aurora. He scored 10 straight points during one stretch and finished with 14 points for the game. In Saturday's 60-52 loss to Naperville Central, Zelis pulled down 7 rebounds, including 5 offensive boards.
While Nazos stresses that Zelis is still raw and needs to develop, the ceiling is very high. In fact the University of Illinois-Chicago already has offered a scholarship to the first-year varsity player.
"When he's 21 I think you're really going to see how good he is," Nazos said. "But he's going to go through some growing pains. He works, he's a good kid. I think good things are going to happen for him."
Belated congratulations:
We'd be remiss not to mention that Neuqua Valley's 44-42 victory over South Elgin on Jan. 3 gave Wildcats coach Todd Sutton win No. 450 in his 23-year career.
Sutton and Neuqua Valley (10-7) have an outside shot at another milestone this season. Sutton has 289 wins in 14 years at Neuqua, 11 shy of 300 with 12 regular-season games left and at least one playoff game.
The veteran coach, who will enter the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in the spring, has been the Wildcats' only boys varsity head coach.
Bouncing back:
It was bound to happen to Glenbard West sometime.
The Hilltoppers, who won their first 10 games of the season, finally suffered a loss with last week's 67-61 overtime defeat at Bolingbrook. Glenbard West lost its second straight game two days later when York pulled out a 53-44 West Suburban Silver matchup in Elmhurst.
Friday against Downers Grove North (4-10, 0-4), the Hilltoppers (10-2, 2-1) hope to bounce back from the mini-slump.
"We had a rough couple of games, but they're not panicking," said Glenbard West coach Tim Hoder. "Our kids are fine. They just know we have to get headed in the right direction."
Life's a beach:
Wheaton Academy (8-7) had its Winterim break this week. For the boys basketball team that meant road trip some basketball, sightseeing, recreation and study.
Since they visited the West Coast from Jan. 4-10, it also meant beach time.
"Eighty and sunny every day," coach Paul Ferguson reported Monday, from Santa Barbara, Calif.
The Warriors took in two college basketball games Arizona at UCLA and Arizona at USC. They toured Azusa Pacific, Point Loma Nazarene, Westmont College and Pepperdine University. The team met with the college coaching staffs and even practiced on a couple of their courts.
After watching surfers navigate 15-foot waves on Jan. 7 the Warriors even played a game, losing 55-54 to San Diego Christian on a last-second tip-in.
Their Winterim study theme surrounded pastor Tim Keller's book, "Counterfeit Gods." The boys studied it chapter by chapter and every day broke into groups to discuss it.
"They seem to enjoy class a lot more when it's 80 degrees and sunny," Ferguson said.
"It's been a really fun trip, a great team bonding experience, and we've seen our unity and our team chemistry continue to develop. We're excited to see how that plays out in the second half of the season."
That starts Friday against Marmion.
"Hopefully, we're not jet-lagged at all Friday," Ferguson said. "That's a big game."
A biggie
While Wheaton Academy and Marmion hit the court and St. Francis hosts Aurora Christian on Friday in a match of teams that are 3-1 in the SCC Blue, on Friday Immaculate Conception (14-1, 4-0) visits Walther Lutheran (4-0) with the SCC Gold Division lead on the line.
The Knights' three-headed monster of forward Brian Harvey and guards Demetrius Carr and John Cheng MVP of the IC/Westmont Holiday Classic join with forward Dan Ribando, Adam Muellers and friends to try to get a body on Walther's Patrell Green. The little guard is a handful, a coast-to-coast dribbler who may be the fastest man on the court.
"The Walther game should be a tough one, they are very athletic and quick. They present some matchup issues that we will have to prepare for," said IC coach Darren Howard.
"We're excited to be playing for first place at this point, as this game ends the first half of the Gold Division schedule and being 5-0 with a game lead over them and two over Montini (2-2 with Chicago Christian on Saturday) would be huge as it allows us to control our own destiny in the second half," Howard said.
Stepping up
Waubonsie coach Steve Weemer was still keyed up at 10:30 p.m. Wednesday, his Warriors (11-4, 4-1) having dealt Metea Valley its first loss, 62-61 in overtime.
He called it a "heavyweight fight" in a well-attended Waubonsie gymnasium Weemer said had the atmosphere of a regional or sectional playoff game.
"We walked about it at halftime," Weemer said. "The team that executed would win. ... Our kids made a nice play down the stretch to win it."
On an inbounds play with three seconds left in overtime, Warriors leading scorer Jared Brownridge went around a double screen, but when the Metea defense stuck with him, Tyler Yanisch passed instead to Brandon Malby for the game-winning layup.
Brownridge got his team-leading 18 points, which is expected. But the Warriors also got double-figure scoring by Malby, Bryan Jefferson and Dee Gray.
"The key for us was we had other guys who stepped up tonight," Weemer said. "That's the sign of a team that's getting better."