North Lawndale's illegal uniforms result in two technical fouls at Final Four
As the final second ticked off the clock, Marcus Jordan cradled the basketball in his arms and sprinted down the Carver Arena court.
Thus began the celebration for Whitney Young High School in the Illinois Class 4A boys basketball championship game on the campus of Bradley University in Peoria Saturday night.
With his dad Michael Jordan watching from just behind Young’s bench, Marcus fell to the floor and shouted in delight.
Marcus Jordan, son of Michael Jordan, led his team to the Illinois 4A state title Saturday.
File photo by Nicholas Koza
He wouldn't let go of the ball. Much like his dad couldn't stop clutching the championship trophy after his first title.
Whitney Young’s much documented, well-traveled, coast-to-coast journey had ended with a state championship, and with all the hardware that sits in Michael Jordan’s trophy room, a high school state title is something he doesn’t have.
Marcus Jordan had a very big hand in this championship. He made four straight free throws in the final 26 seconds and scored a game-high 19 points in a 69-66 title-game win over Waukegan. In a 59-54 semifinal win over Thornton, Jordan scored 19 of his 22 points in the second half.
“He can play good basketball. He had a good pedigree,“ Young head coach Tyrone Slaughter said.
Marcus Jordan, who transferred to Young from Loyola two years ago, enjoyed the moment.
“We knew it wasn’t going to be an easy game,“ he said. “I just had to go out and win the game.“
The victory left Michael Jordan teary eyed. He stood for the final minute of the game, applauding his son and the Dolphins. Jeff Jordan, Marcus’ older brother who plays for the University of Illinois, also attended the game, along with numerous other family members and friends.
The Dolphins (26-9), who rose to No. 1 in the MaxPreps Illinois rankings with the victory, had to hold off Waukegan (26-5) after going up by 17 points in the second quarter. Young played tough down the stretch, as it did the night before against Thornton, which came in with 29 straight wins.
The Wildcats rebounded in the consolation game Saturday, as Richie Thompson scored 18 points and had seven rebounds in a 73-52 win over Dundee-Crown.
The state championship finished off a roller-coaster season for Young in which its coach missed the team’s first five games due to a recruiting violation.
Marcus Jordan can get to the rim.
File photo by Nicholas Koza
The Dolphins had a rigorous schedule which took them to New Jersey, California and Hawaii for elite tournaments. They didn’t win the Public League tournament in Chicago and lost to unranked Morton at the Proviso West Holiday Tournament, yet escaped all those bumpy roads in the postseason to win the big prize.
“God blessed us this year,“ Slaughter said. “We had some tough games this year.“
“I can’t even tell you what this feels like,“ Marcus Jordan told the Chicago Sun-Times. “It’s just amazing. This is better than any dream I’ve ever had.“
In the middle of this “dream,“ Jordan became Young’s shining star.
And as of yet, he is an uncommitted shining star. A senior, Jordan has been recruited by Toledo University head coach Gene Cross, a Chicago native and former assistant coach at Notre Dame, all along. The Rockets have offered a scholarship.
But now, Jordan is said to be getting interest from Oklahoma, Arizona State, Miami, Stanford and Butler, among others.
“My phone has been ringing off the hook,“ Brian Davis, Jordan’s AAU summer team coach, told the Chicago Tribune.
Young junior Ahmad Starks has already committed to Oregon State
File photo by Nicholas Koza
The late signing period for high school seniors begins April 15, and Jordan may have a number of schools to pick from by then.
Young’s lineup also included Iowa State-signee Chris Colvin, Oregon State verbal Ahmad Starks and Purdue verbal Antonio Johnson, who had eight points and seven rebounds in the title game.
Young’s championship weekend did have one controversial ending, when 27 people were arrested for under-age drinking at a Peoria hotel. Nineteen of the 27 were Whitney Young High School students, but none were identified as basketball players. The students may face expulsion, since Whitney Young is a selective-enrollment school.
Champaign Centennial captures 3A title
Champaign Centennial won its 19th and 20th consecutive games in dramatic fashion to win the Class 3A title. The Chargers, in the Final Four for the first time since 1984, defeated heavily favored North Lawndale by one point in the semifinals and then Oswego, 61-59, in the title game.
Rayvonte Rice, who scored 43 points in the two games, hit two free throws with six seconds left in the championship game to win it for Centennial (32-1).
Oswego’s Jordan Mitchell scored 22 points, one night after he hit a 3-point shot in the final seconds to beat Leo in the semifinals.
Oswego (26-7) came from 11 points down to force a 59-59 tie in the game’s final minute.
In Friday’s 66-65 win over North Lawndale, Rice grabbed an offensive rebound and stuck in a put-back shot with 2.1 seconds left.
“We just needed that rebound, simple as that,” Rice said.
North Lawndale (30-6), which was hit by a technical foul before the game began because of illegal uniforms, led Centennial by 10 points after three quarters. However, Centennial scored the first 10 points of the fourth quarter to tie it.
Uniform-gate at North Lawndale
North Lawndale, which won the Public League championship and was the state’s top-ranked team until losing in the 3A semifinals to Champaign Centennial, began both its games in Peoria down 1-0 due to technical fouls called for uniform violations.
The controversy blew up into a battle that the Illinois High School Association was still explaining Monday, four days after the issue surfaced at a final four practice session in Peoria.
The Phoenix players were dressed in a jersey that included a stripe which extended from the back of the jersey to the front, and was wider than the four inches allowed by the National Federation of State High School Associations (Rule 3-4-1). IHSA basketball administrator Kurt Gibson directed the referees at the semifinal game Friday and the consolation game Saturday to whistle North Lawndale for a technical foul.
IHSA officials said North Lawndale was told of its illegal uniforms during last year‘s tournament and before the semifinals this year at a practice session Thursday. The Phoenix was not penalized for the uniforms during any other game this year. The IHSA cited emphasis on uniform regulations this year, per orders from the national federation.
What made matters worse was that the Phoenix lost to Centennial by one point in the semifinals.
“We feel that too much emphasis is being placed on this one call,” IHSA Executive Directory Marty Hickman said. “In any close contest, there are going to be a number of plays that factor in the final outcome. Both teams had opportunities to win this game and the technical foul played no more of a role than dozens of other made shots, missed shots, turnovers and fouls that occurred throughout the contest.”
Oswego, a 3A finalist, was notified of illegal uniforms earlier this season, but ordered new uniforms to avoid penalties.
Coleman is King of the Hill
Michael Coleman of Berwyn-Cicero won the “King of the Hill” competition, hitting 11-of-15 3-point shots in the contest held during halftime of the Class 4A title game. He beat out Tom Norton of Bloomington Central Catholic (9-of-15), Derek Back of Patoka (6-of-15) and Tyler Les of Peoria Notre Dame (6-of-15).
Joseph Bertrand, a senior at Sterling, won the dunk contest over Meyers Leonard of Robinson, D.J. Bennett of Sandburg and Ethan Koehler of Vama Midland. Bertand is an Illinois recruit.
Recruiting: Montini junior picks UConn
Michala Johnson, a junior at Montini High School who missed almost the entire 2008-09 basketball season due to a torn anterior-cruciate ligament in her left knee, announced Wednesday she had verbally committed to the University of Connecticut.
Johnson is a 6-foot-3 forward. She averaged 18.3 points and 11.6 rebounds per game as a sophomore. She injured her knee in July 2008. Johnson played in one high school game in November, re-injured her knee and had surgery in January.
Johnson also had offers from Georgia, Maryland, Vanderbilt and Penn State. She can sign with the Huskies in the early signing period next October.
Policies: CPS takes aim at abusive coaches
For years, paddling and other incidents by coaches at Chicago’s public schools have been virtually ignored, if not outright accepted.
Over the last year, a handful of coaches were fired by former Chicago Public Schools CEO Arne Duncan, now Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education, for paddling incidents. Wednesday, the Chicago Board of Education took an additional step, approving a policy that would allow district administrators to fire coaches for abusive language or hand out lifetime bans for “inappropriate or unprofessional conduct.”
“We’re emphasizing that coaches are role models … and the obligation that they conduct themselves accordingly at all times,” said Patrick J. Rocks, the board’s lead legal counsel.
Paul Bowker covers the Chicago area for MaxPreps. He may be reached at
bowkerpaul1@aol.com
