Benet will be busy, but other teams looking at long layoffs

While the bulk of the boys basketball holiday tournaments involving area teams are slated for the week after Christmas, a handful of DuPage County teams play in tournaments this week and next.

The quirk in the calendar allowed tournament hosts to make a choice before or after Christmas. Elgin and Plainfield North chose before. Glenbard North and Neuqua Valley travel to Elgin next week, and Benet plays at Plainfield North this week.

"The Elgin tournament's been good for years, so I think it'll be a good change for us," said Glenbard North coach Joe Larson, whose team previously competed at Waubonsie Valley. "Overall we've got some good confidence going in."

Benet faces a busy three weeks, playing four games at Plainfield North, four games at Proviso West and a shootout game against Brother Rice on Sunday at Benedictine University.

It's an especially tough grind five games in five days considering the Redwings will be without junior forward Pat McInerney, their lone returning starter. He's out until early January with a broken wrist.

"It is a tough grind, especially without Pat, but it could be good for us," said Benet coach Gene Heidkamp. "It's a chance for these kids to step up and get some experience."

Hibernation:

The downside of the quirky calendar is that many of the teams playing tournaments after Christmas face a long layoff.

Glenbard West is in the midst of an 18-day layoff, and Addison Trail will endure a 13-day layoff before playing at the Hilltoppers' tournament that begins Dec. 27. Many other teams have 10- or 11-day layoffs.

While the lack of games for such a long stretch is not ideal, teams have no choice but to make the most of the extra practice time.

"I feel like we're getting ready for a bowl game," joked Glenbard West coach Tim Hoder. "Ideally we'd play at least one nonconference game, but on the other hand, with four games in a row at the tournament you need fresh legs. It also gives us a chance to get some stuff in and get everyone healthy."

Double the fun:

Joe Spagnolo, executive director of the fabled Proviso West Holiday Tournament, announced Monday that in 2012 the field would double to 32 teams from its present 16. The tournament began in 1961 with eight teams but increased to 16 the next year.

"I got tired of saying 'no' to new teams that wanted to play here," Spagnolo stated in an email sent Monday to the Daily Herald.

As the number of teams expands so too will the Holiday Tournament calendar and footprint. The tournament will move to six days from four. Portable flooring and baskets will be brought into the adjacent field house to provide simultaneous games, in the field house and competition gymnasium.

Hinsdale Central kicks off this year's Holiday Tournament at 9 a.m. Dec. 27 against Morgan Park; defending tournament champion Benet wraps up first-day action at 8:30 p.m. against St. Joseph.

In the email Spagnolo said most of next year's 32 teams have already been secured. Teams and dates for the 2012 tourney will be released possibly as early as next week.

Scoreboard watching:

Heading into the season Fenton faced a major challenge trying to replace graduated All-Area forward Dan Montano and his explosive ability to score.

So far it's been a work in progress.

"With Dan you could count on 20 points a game," said Bison coach Dennis Cromer. "We were aware of that, and when we play our best we have three guys in double figures."

In what Cromer considers his team's best game this season, a 59-57 Metro Suburban Conference win at Illiana Christian, the Bison put Colin Wallace, Adam Kadlec and Jeremy Shimanek in double-digit scoring. Unfortunately, that type of game has been rare for Fenton, which fell to 2-6 after Tuesday's 66-47 loss to Leyden.

Cromer believes consistent scoring throughout the lineup will be the key to making up for the lack of one explosive scorer like Montano. If it comes to fruition for Fenton, the second half of the season should be more successful.

"You can work on shooting, you can work on running your offense more efficiently, you can work on trying to get transition baskets," Cromer said. "Really good teams, they have scorers up and down their lineup, and we don't have that. Therefore we have to do a better job running our offense."

A seamless fit:

In his second season of Immaculate Conception athletics, junior Demetrius Carr has made a huge impact for the Knights.

All-Area as a dual-threat quarterback after transferring to IC from St. Joseph this summer, on the basketball court the 6-foot-2 Carr has provided leadership, points and rebounds for the 7-0 Knights.

"He's almost seamlessly fit in," coach Darren Howard said. "I've had no issue with attitude, no issues with him struggling to figure things out. He fits in almost as if he's been there the whole time.

"He's got a great personality, the kids really like him, they get along. The chemistry in this group is excellent."

In fact the starting lineup of point guard John Cheng, off-guard Jason Dunn, swingman Carr, power forward Brian Harvey and post Dan Ribando gives Howard more leadership than he's ever had in one season, he said.

Howard obviously enjoyed the leadership of the 2007-08 trio of Matt Purdom, Kevin Koch and Antonio Taylor, "but this group is much better offensively than that group was," he said.

IC (7-0, 2-0) enters Friday's Suburban Christian Conference Gold Division contest against visiting Chicago Christian averaging 69.1 points.

Carr, Cheng, Harvey and Ribando all average between 14.6 and 10.0 points as the Knights have shown the ability to score both in transition and, when that doesn't happen, through patient half-court motion offense.

"We haven't played a home game yet and we're 7-0. So we feel really good about where we're at," Howard said.

The road through Riverside:

Timothy Christian coach Jack LeGrand called Metro Suburban Conference heavy Riverside-Brookfield "the kings," and with good reason.

The Bulldogs, who host the Trojans on Friday, have won 10 straight conference championships, holding off Timothy in each of the MSC's two seasons. The Trojans tied for second place each time.

Timothy Christian (5-4, 1-1) has looked forward to Friday's matchup for a long time.

"Riverside-Brookfield (5-3, 1-0) is a really big game," LeGrand said. "We've had it circled on our calendar for a while."

After a 4-1 start at Lisle's Thanksgiving tournament, in which guard Danny Leach and forward Tyler VanderBrug were named all-tourney, the Trojans have since gone 1-3.

"We need other guys to pick it up," said LeGrand, whose Trojans won the final Private School League title in 2008-09.

Guard Chris Ridolphi, whose 10.4 points a game is second to Leach's 14.3, has been the most consistent along with VanderBrug. Forward Matt Morrison has got decent numbers with 5.6 points and 6.2 rebounds. VanderBrug's sophomore brother, Connor, is coming along.

If Timothy can't execute a couple key components, R-B coach Tom McCloskey will earn his 200th win since 2001 with the Bulldogs. McCloskey also won two conference titles at Montini.

"We're finding right now we just really have to defend and we have to shoot well, and if we don't we're going to be in for a long night," LeGrand said.