After 58 regular-season and postseason games, plus an anxious anticipation that has existed at Waukegan High School since March 2009, Illinois‘ biggest hoops battle is about to tip off.
Whitney Young versus Waukegan. The defending Class 4A boys basketball champion against the team it beat by three points for the state championship one year ago.
"A heavyweight battle," fans have declared on Internet message boards.
Anthony Johnson, Whitney Young
File photo by Greg Behrens
Indeed, it is that. When the teams meet in Friday’s Class 4A semifinal at 8:15 p.m. at the Peoria Civic Center, it’ll be more than a simple rematch of the 2009 title game. It’s a matchup of Chicago’s best-known magnet school (Young) against the best team in Chicago’s suburbs. It’s a matchup of Illinois recruit Jereme Richmond of Waukegan against Oregon State recruit Ahmad Starks and Purdue recruit Anthony Johnson.
As the 4A tournament field whittled itself down over the last three weeks, this is the game that seemed inevitable. The final hurdles were cleared in Tuesday’s supersectionals, when Waukegan (26-4), the Chicago area’s No. 1 team, defeated Bartlett 75-61 and Young (22-6) blasted Maine South, 63-39.
"We’re looking forward to facing them. But we realize we just need to get past them to get to the championship game," Starks told the Chicago Tribune.
Oh, yes, there are two other teams in the state’s final four. The winner of Friday’s other semifinal game between Chicago Simeon (23-9), led by Dayton recruit Brandon Spearman, and O’Fallon will face either Young or Waukegan in Saturday’s title game at 8:15.
Starks has been on fire for Young. He scored 22 points in the win over Maine South and 29 in a sectional championship win over Foreman. A 5-foot-9 guard, he averages 13.4 points per game and has a team-high 176 assists. Johnson averaged 16.2 points and has a team-high 226 rebounds.
But one of the big stories around Chicago this season has been the play of Richmond, who scored a team-high 16 points and had a team-high 11 rebounds in a 59-42 win over Young in the City-Suburban Showdown on the final regular-season weekend of the year. Richmond, a 6-8 forward, is the real deal, and the state’s most highly-recruited senior whom should have a big impact at Illinois next season. Fans line up for autographs after every game. He has led the Bulldogs in rebounding in 27 of their 30 games and has scored as many as 30 points in the postseason.
Waukegan’s only in-state loss was to Maine South on Jan. 29, when Richmond was serving a one-game suspension. Since then, the Bulldogs have won 10 straight.
Young finished its regular season with three straight losses to Morgan Park, Akron’s St. Vincent St. Mary and Waukegan, but now have won five straight in the postseason by an average of 15 points.
Simeon’s Spearman will also be a handful. He has led the Wolverines in scoring in all five tournament games. Spearman, a 6-3 guard, averages 14.8 points per game and has a team-high 228 rebounds.
3A: Marshall chases after second
title in 3 years
For the fourth time in five years, Chicago Marshall (27-7) is in the state’s final four. The Commandos, one of three Chicago Public League schools in the 3A/4A final four, have lost just once in their last 18 games, to Morgan Park in the city championship game. Senior forward Vincent Garrett leads Marshall, the alma mater of Arthur Agee in the famed 1994 documentary "Hoop Dreams," with 16.6 points per game and is the team’s leading rebounder with 304 in 34 games. Marshall, which won the 3A title in 2008, will play Peoria Richwoods (29-2) at 12:15 p.m. Friday. Richwoods has won 18 straight and has four wins over Chicago schools.
Kent State recruit Eric Gaines, who scored 26 points in a supersectional win over Robeson, leads Hillcrest (29-3) into the other 3A semfinal against Champaign Centennial (31-1) at 2 p.m. Friday. The Chargers’ only loss was to Peoria Richwoods. The title game is scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday.
Around Chicagoland: JV sports on the chopping block
* Facing $700 million in budget cuts for the 2010-11 school year, Chicago Public Schools CEO Ron Huberman outlined a plan this week to high school principals in which no sports under the varsity level would be financed by the district. The savings would be about $7 million. Huberman’s stunning announcement comes just two weeks after CPS athletics director Calvin Davis eliminated sophomore teams for all spring sports. The new plan would knock out junior varsity and all other sub-varsity squads in all sports. Chicago’s budget dilemma comes at a time many other school districts are facing a similar situation.
Elgin, located outside of Chicago and facing a $48.6 million deficit, plans to lay off a third of its teaching staff at the end of the school year. Pontiac has proposed eliminating all sports programs. Decatur has proposed a pay-to-play plan.
* In the midst of all these budget cuts and an uncertainty of what city sports will actually be, Lane Tech named former Loyola Academy assistant Fred Proesel as its new head football coach. He succeeds Rich Rio, Lane’s athletic director. "There were only a few select schools that I would consider. Lane Tech is a school with great tradition and great academics and great alumni base. It’s an easy sell," Proesel told the Chicago Sun-Times.
* Naperville’s gold medalist is coming home. Evan Lysacek, a 2003 Neuqua Valley High School graduate who won gold in men’s figure skating at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, will be honored March 26 in a pep rally at Neuqua Valley. He will also be recognized by the Naperville Chamber of Commerce and receive the keys to the city. Lysacek, 24, is the USA’s first gold medalist in men’s figure skating since Brian Boitano in 1988.
* Patricia Liston, a Duke recruit from Oak Park Fenwick, has been named the Gatorade Illinois Girls Basketball Player of the Year for the second year in a row. Liston, a 6-foot guard, scored a Class 4A tournament-record 40 points in a win over Hersey, and averaged 28.8 points per game for the Friars in a 33-3 season in which they won regional, sectional and supersectional titles.
3 big performances
* Oregon State fans, here’s a big reason to get excited about Starks. He scored a game-high 29 points, including hitting a halfcourt shot as the third-quarter buzzer sounded, leading defending Class 4A champion Whitney Young back from a 17-point deficit and to a 65-60 win over Foreman for a sectional championship.
* Illinois recruit Meyers Leonard had a pair of double-doubles in the 2A semifinals and finals, scoring 16 points, grabbing 15 rebounds and blocking six shots to help Robinson win its first-ever state championship in basketball with a 76-68 win over Peoria Manual. In the semifinals, a 64-61 win over Hales Franciscan, Leonard, a 7-foot senior center, had 19 points and 14 rebounds. After winning the title game, Leonard went into the stands and hugged his mother. "This is what we’ve been working on since the fifth grade," Leonard told the Chicago Tribune.
* Also leading his school to its first state title was Salt Fork’s Joel Learnard, a junior forward who scored a game-high 20 points and had 14 rebounds in the Storm’s 55-42 Class 1A championship-game win over Sesser-Valier. Salt Fork finished with a 33-1 record, winning its final 27 games.
Recruiting
* Jamie Adams, a 5-10 guard from Hales Franciscan, has a basketball scholarship offer from the University of Chicago-Illinois, and after watching Adams score 22 points in the 2A third-place game against Breese Central, Hales coach Gary London talked highly of Adams. "If I’m a college coach looking for a point guard, Jamie would be on my list. He has skills not many guys have. He is as quick as all get-out," London told the Chicago Tribune. Hales scored 35 points in two games last weekend for the Spartans (29-3) and averaged 16 points a game this season.
Paul Bowker, a sports journalist for 25 years who has worked at newspapers nationwide, covers the Chicago area for MaxPreps. He may be reached at bowkerpaul1@aol.com.
