As an eighth-grader four years ago,
Ryan Boatright was sold on Southern Cal.
One week ago, Providence College seemed to be the leader.
But on Monday, Boatright, a 5-foot-10 point guard at
East (Aurora), announced his verbal commitment to West Virginia in a news conference at his high school. The reason? West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins.
"He wins. He knows how to win and puts a lot of pros in (the NBA). As soon as I went down there, I liked the atmosphere. But what really sold me was coach Hugs," Boatright told the Chicago Sun-Times News Group.
According to news reports, Boatright informed Huggins of his decision Sunday after returning home from a weekend recruiting visit to Providence College, one of West Virginia‘s rivals in the Big East Conference.
At Providence, Boatright may have been an incoming consensus starter at point guard, but at West Virginia he‘ll have to battle Darryl “Truck” Bryant, currently a junior, for playing time. Among Huggins' other three verbals is
Jabarie Hinds of
Mt. Vernon (N.Y.), a 6-foot point guard.
"(Huggins) told me, 'I wouldn't be recruiting you if you couldn't play.' I'll probably have to distribute more than I did in high school because there are guys who are bigger and guys who can catch and actually shoot,” Boatright said.
Boatright, who averaged more than 26 points and 5 assists last season at East Aurora, actually verbaled to Southern Cal four years ago when former Chicago Bulls coach Tim Floyd was the Trojans’ head coach. When Floyd resigned in 2009, Boatright de-committed. Floyd is now the head coach at Texas-El Paso, and did try to recruit Boatright.
In addition to Providence, Boatright also had offers from DePaul and Miami.
In other basketball recruiting:
* Megan Rogowski of
Hersey (Arlington Heights), a 5-foot-9 guard, verbaled to the DePaul women’s basketball program. Rogowski, who averaged a team-high 21.3 points last season in a 27-9 season for the Huskies, also had scholarship offers from Marquette, Illinois State and Loyola of Chicago. With one season still to play, Rogowski is the school‘s all-time leader in points scored. "DePaul has such a great legacy of women’s basketball and Coach (Doug) Bruno is a great coach," Rogowski told the Chicago Tribune.
* Ivory Crawford, a guard at
Proviso East (Maywood), verbaled to Illinois. Crawford averaged 16.4 points per game last season for the Pirates, who had a 24-5 record and defeated Hoffman Estates for a Class 4A regional title.
FOOTBALL: 50-0 FOR INSERRA?Dave Inserra, the head football coach at
Maine South (Park Ridge), has never lost a Central Suburban South game since coming on board in 2001. Friday night, when the Hawks play host to Winnetka New Trier, he’ll go for his 50th consecutive win.
Inserra’s former pupils include quarterback Charlie Goro, now a redshirt freshman at Vanderbilt University, and running back Matt Perez, a freshman at Indiana.
Maine South, the defending Illinois Class 8A champion, has won six consecutive games following season-opening losses to Schaumburg and unbeaten Wheaton Warrenville South. The Hawks averaged 49.6 points per game in those six wins, and a victory Friday would give them a 10th consecutive league championship. They’ve already clinched at least a share of the title.
5 BIG PERFORMANCES …*
Morgan Park's (Chicago) Dae’ Shawn Hurley struck twice in the final 65 seconds of the Mustangs’ 28-20 Chicago Public League football win over Hubbard. With 1:05 left, Hurley threw a 36-yard touchdown pass to Javon Bright. Then, as time expired, Hurley intercepted a pass thrown by Hubbard quarterback Quincy Skanes, finishing off the win which gave Morgan Park the Illini Prairie State title. Both teams are 7-1 overall.
* Maine South's Paul Preston rushed for 231 yards on 13 carries, and scored four touchdowns in the Hawks' 55-16 win over Glenbrook South in a battle of CSL South unbeatens.
*
Glenbard West (Glen Ellyn) sophomore running back
Kendall Johnson rushed for a career-high 197 yards on just 11 carries, leading the Hilltoppers (8-0, 5-0) to their 19th consecutive West Suburban Silver victory. Johnson scored three touchdowns in the 47-7 win over Downers Grove North. The Hilltoppers can win the league title with a victory Friday over LaGrange Lyons (7-1, 4-1).
*
Wheaton-Warrenville South senior receiver
Travis Kern caught eight passes for 137 yards and two touchdowns from Illinois quarterback recruit
Reilly O'Toole as the Tigers defeated Glenbard North, 49-6. WW South, the defending Class 7A champion, has won 20 straight.
* Jose Gonzalez, a senior defender at
Kelly (Chicago), scored on a penalty kick in a shootout, sending Kelly to a victory over Washington in the Chicago Public League boys soccer championship game. Kelly has won two city soccer titles in four years.
3 TO WATCH …* Simeon (Chicago) (8-0) vs. Brooks College Prep (Chicago) (3-5) at Gately Stadium, 7 p.m. Thursday: Quarterback
Robert Gregory leads the unbeaten and Illini Red Bird champion Wolverines into the opening round of the Chicago Public League playoffs. In his last three games, Gregory has accounted for 10 touchdowns.
* Plainfield South (8-0) at Plainfield North (6-2), 7 p.m. Friday: South has scored nearly 400 points this season, and needs only a win to capture the Southwest Prairie championship. Not so fast. North’s offense is led by running back
Kapri Bibbs, who rushed for 520 yards and seven touchdowns in a 49-43 win over Oswego.
* Loyola Academy (Wilmette) (7-1) at St. Rita (Chicago) (8-0), 7:30 p.m. Friday: The Mustangs can win their second Chicago Catholic League Blue championship in three years with a victory over Loyola. However, a Loyola win and a Mount Carmel win over defending league champ Providence Catholic would produce a title shared three ways.
STORYLINES AROUND CHICAGOLAND:* Make that eight shutouts for the Vernon Hills football team. Oops. After posting a school-record seven consecutive shutout wins, Vernon Hills was shut out 21-0 by Lake Forest. Notre Dame recruit
Davaris Daniels led Vernon Hills with 101 rushing yards, but he and Ohio State recruit
Evan Spencer were held scoreless for the first time this season. “It was a great ride while it lasted,” Vernon Hills coach Tony Monken told pioneerlocal.com.
* Saturday is selection day for the state‘s football teams. Playoff pairings will be announced at 8 p.m. CDT Saturday at
www.ihsa.tv. First-round games in eight classes begin Oct. 29.
*
Marist's (Chicago) girls volleyball team, ranked No. 21 in the nation by MaxPreps, won the East Suburban Catholic Conference title, defeating 2009 Class 3A state champion Joliet Catholic, 25-20, 25-23. Katie Krasowski and Lauren Zielinski each had seven kills for Marist (28-2), which is a Class 4A sectional No. 1 seed and opens play Oct. 28 in the regionals against Oak Lawn Richards or Blue Island Eisenhower.
* Bill Chesbrough, who won 573 boys basketball games at Elgin High School in a 35-year coaching career, died at age 92 Monday at Provena Saint Joseph Hospital in Elgin. He retired in 1985. An inductee of the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame, Chesbrough’s 573 wins rank No. 37 in state history. “Bill was a coaching legend. He was one of the all-time great coaches in the history of Illinois,” former West Aurora coach John McDougal told the Chicago Tribune.
Paul Bowker, an online and newspaper sports journalist for 25 years and the author of two Major League Baseball books, covers the Chicago area for MaxPreps. He may be reached at bowkerpaul1@aol.com.