Night of Hoops highlights busy basketball weekend

This weekend's boys basketball slate brings specialty offerings ...

Batavia's Night of Hoops

At the cost of about a dollar an hour - less if you include sophomore games - the 22nd annual Jim & Sylvia Roberts Night of Hoops draws four varsity basketball games to Batavia High School.

"It's a great day of basketball all day long," said Bulldogs coach Jim Nazos, who hosts longtime Night of Hoops attendee West Aurora in the scheduled 8 p.m. nightcap.

"The community really supports it and supports all the games," Nazos said. "People are excited to see Highland Park play St. Joseph, they're excited to see us play West Aurora. We always get a really good crowd out there. It's basketball purity. They come out to see good games, good teams because they love to." The exhibition, named in honor of retired Hall of Fame Batavia basketball coach Jim Roberts and his wife, Sylvia, starts at 3 p.m. on the varsity side with 2014 Class 4A runner-up Benet against 2013 3A third-place squad Limestone. Night of Hoops newcomer York plays 2014 1A champ Mooseheart at 4:30 p.m.

The solid 6:15 p.m. game pits another Hoops newbie, Highland Park, against regular suspect St. Joseph and legendary coach Gene Pingatore, the state's leader in career victories. Batavia (13-10) and West Aurora (12-6) follow. Blackhawks coach Gordie Kerkman is No. 5 all-time in victories with 795.

Each participating team will bring its sophomores as well, two games concurrently at 11:45 a.m. in the gym and field house, and two at 1:15 p.m. At $7 for the entire day that's a lot of basketball, pure and simple.

"There's no trophy, you're not trying to win a tournament," Nazos said. "You're playing basketball against great competition and that's it."

St. Charles East's Hoops for Hope:

Before all that happens at Batavia, on Friday the Bulldogs visit St. Charles East in an Upstate Eight Conference River Division game that doubles as the host school's benefit for the V Foundation for cancer research.

"It's a great event that obviously raises awareness for cancer, and 100 percent of our profits go to the Jimmy V Foundation," St. Charles East coach Patrick Woods said of the program's third annual Hoops for Hope.

"We'd love for people to come out and support it. We've got a lot of fun things going on in terms of raffles and giveaways, and it'll be a very competitive game with Batavia coming into town," Woods said.

Leading up to the event players sought donations from local businesses, sold tribute basketballs and Hoops for Hope T-shirts, which also will be available at Friday's games, freshmen and sophomores at 5:15 p.m., varsity at 7:15. On Wednesday, a local restaurant donated a portion of its proceeds to the effort.

A program on the V Foundation's founder, the late North Carolina State men's basketball coach Jimmy Valvano, will be held around 6:45 p.m. before the varsity game. Raffle tickets will be sold throughout with prizes awarded after each quarter of the varsity game. Each player from both St. Charles East and Batavia has designated a person they'll "play for" who has been impacted by cancer.

"This program has touched so many people in our community and allows us all to be brought together with a common purpose to raise money for cancer research," said Diane Vyzral, representing St. Charles East's basketball boosters.

Geneva's DuPage Valley-Upstate Eight Challenge:

There's no one more attuned to all things high school basketball than Geneva coach Phil Ralston.

He appreciates the various daylong exhibitions such as the Quad Cities Shootout that normally takes Wheaton North, Wheaton Warrenville South and St. Francis to Moline for a varsity triple-header. (This year it comes to St. Francis Saturday in an event that also serves to raise awareness for Jack's Army. Also known as the Jack Pribaz Foundation, it began in 2011 to find a cure for the genetic mutation known as KCNQ2 encephalopathy.)

Ralston also enjoys the excitement of the collegiate games played between the Big Ten and Atlantic Coast Conference. About two years ago he and Geneva athletic director Jim Kafer started brainstorming to start something similar.

The result is Saturday's inaugural DuPage Valley-Upstate Eight Challenge at Geneva. It doesn't yet offer all six current DVC schools against an equal number of Upstate Eight teams, but Ralston hopes it catches on.

"It's something we're hoping we'll be able to build off of and continue," Ralston said.

Less than 24 hours after its Hoops for Hope game, St. Charles East will open the triple-header at 2 p.m. against Naperville North, whose coach, Jeff Powers, really liked the challenge idea, Ralston said.

Originally Naperville Central was to play South Elgin, but the Napervillians had a scheduling snafu so Palatine will pinch-hit at 4 p.m. against the Storm.

Geneva and Glenbard North take the 6 p.m. slot. Provided Geneva handles West Chicago on Friday the Vikings will be looking to win their 20th game of the season.

Ralston obviously was not putting the cart before the horse.

"We're just excited to be hosting it and I hope it'll be a success," he said.

Finally:

St. Charles North is neither attending nor hosting basketball outings this weekend. Actually, the North Stars are happy to be playing someone beside each other.

Friday's game at Streamwood will be St. Charles North's first since Jan. 17 when it defeated St. Charles East 78-75 in overtime on Jake Ludwig's 3-pointer.

The 12-day layoff could be seen two ways - breaking the momentum or retrenching for the stretch.

"I hope it was a good thing, we'll find out," said St. Charles North coach Tom Poulin. "I would have rather played a game last week if I'd had my choice, but that's the way the schedule fell."

Instead, Poulin called it a "cerebral week" - on the court, in the film room and in the case of players such as forwards Brendan McCarthy and Jack Callaghan, college visits, though they'll not be competing interscholastically.

Sore ankles and knees got a break and minds got refocused.

"It was a fun week last week," Poulin said. "Practice was fun and still competitive. The goal was to get ourselves rejuvenated."