Plan B: Warren, Mundelein Mustangs stay home

It was a good idea while it lasted.

Warren and Mundelein were going to glam up their North Suburban Lake Division tilt this weekend by playing on a college court in Peoria as part of a shootout that involved some of the top teams in Illinois.

But the shootout hit a speed bump recently when it was discovered that a fairly new NCAA rule prohibits high school games that are not directly sponsored by a school entity (like a high school or the IHSA) from being played on college courts.

The shootout in Peoria was sponsored by a third-party organization.

So now, the game that was to be played between Warren and Mundelein on Saturday in Peoria will be played at 7:30 p.m. tonight at Mundelein.

"We were looking forward to playing on a college floor," Warren coach Chuck Ramsey said. "The people who are organizing the shootout were trying to get a high school down in Peoria so that they could still play all the games. But we talked with the guys at Mundelein and we all figured why would we want to drive to Peoria to play one of our division games on another high school floor.

"We just decided it would be easier to play it back on Mundelein's floor as it was originally scheduled."

Mundelein coach Dick Knar is expecting a packed house, and an environment that will rival the excitement that both teams would have felt playing on a college floor.

Warren, the defending Class 4A state runner-up, should be fired up in the wake of its loss to Stevenson on Tuesday. It was the Blue Devils' first North Suburban Lake Division loss in 19 games. And Mundelein is a sparkling 7-0 on the season and looking for some revenge after losing to Warren in the sectional championship game last season.

"It's going to be a great game and a tough test for us," Knar said. "Warren is so good, and for them, a one-point loss is probably better (for its mindset heading into the Mundelein game) than a close win would have been. They're going to be hungry and angry and ready to go.

"We better be ready, too. Even though they lost that game to Stevenson, I still consider Warren to be one of the top two teams in the state."

Munda moving up: After a break-out football season in which he earned all-area honors as a sure-handed receiver, Warren's Mitch Munda hasn't lost a beat since transitioning to basketball.

Munda, a 6-foot-4 guard who played a reserve role last year and was coming off the bench earlier this season, has worked his way into the starting lineup of one of the best teams in the state with scrappy defense and bursts of offensive brilliance.

Munda scored a career-high 18 points last weekend against New Trier and has typically guarded the opposition's top player.

"Mitch has worked so hard and I think part of his success comes from the fact that he's hungry," Warren coach Chuck Ramsey said. "Here's someone who has something to prove, someone who is willing to do whatever it takes to play after not playing as much as he wanted last year. That can go a long way sometimes.

"Mitch competes so hard in practice and he tries to give us anything we need. He's off to a real good start and we felt like we really wanted to start him the last several games."

Big hair, big game: In a tip to one of his idols, Julius Erving, Mundelein junior forward Cliff Dunigan is growing his hair out into an Afro.

Perhaps not coincidentally, Dunigan's numbers keep growing outward, too.

Dunigan scored 11 points in Mundelein's win over Lake Zurich on Tuesday and hit four big free throws down the stretch.

"Each game, our expectations for him get bigger and bigger," Mundelein coach Dick Knar said. "He's a really young junior. He just turned 16, so he has a lot of growing and learning to do. But he just gets better and better. He didn't start our first game, but he's been starting every game since. He doesn't get a lot of (media attention), but he's someone who has really stepped up for us."

Quote of the week: "Last year is last year. What we did last year doesn't matter. And all that the preseason and early season mentions and predictions do is inspire our opponents." Warren coach Chuck Ramsey on Wednesday, the day after his team had its 18-game North Suburban Conference Lake Division winning streak broken by Stevenson in a 44-43 loss in Lincolnshire. Warren was the Class 4A state runner-up last season and many prognosticators expect a similar showing this season.