The college season started on 11/6 and the most games any team in the top five has played is 23 (Gonzanga).
West’s season started on 11/20 and they are 23-1.
Off season round ball thread
- Thread starter Cross Bones
- Start date
West’s season started on 11/20 and they are 23-1.
We are into February with the boys' tournaments starting in two (small schools) or three (large schools) weeks. So it is not too early to list the top six teams in the state, in my humble opinion, as well as predicting the 2A and 1A champions.
1. Morgan Park
2. Belleville West
3. Curie
4. Springfield Southeast
5. Bogan
6. Collinsville
2A Champion - Bloomington Central Catholic
1A Champion - Providence - St. Mel
One cannot sleep on Whitney Young as a dark horse because they always seem to peak at this time of year.
Curie beat Morgan Park this year already. Nothing has happened over the season that suggest MP is two position higher than Curie. Both ESL and Alton have beat Collinsville this year. Not that you have to prove your logic to me, I am curious how you selected your top 6.
Sun Times says MP playing the best ball of them all right now.
This also after the West/Simeon game:
Remember that No Shot Clock earlier this week about Public League domination? Well, that might be even more of the case than we originally thought. Simeon, the fourth place team in the Red-South/West, went down to O’Fallon tonight and lost to Belleville West 55-54 in overtime on a three in the final seconds.
The Maroons, featuring EJ Liddell, are the top-ranked team in the state and the defending Class 4A champions. I watched the livestream of the game. This wasn’t a case of Simeon suddenly finding itself and playing a great game. It was a fairly typical performance (just got off the phone with Simeon coach Robert Smith, who agreed). The Wolverines didn’t score a basket for the final 6:29 of regulation and only had one basket in the final 10:07 of regulation
Liddell finished with 19 points and five rebounds for Belleville West. Antonio Reeves led Simeon with 17 points. Jeremiah Stamps had 10, Jaylen Drane and Kejuan Clements each scored 8.
Star sophomore Ahamad Bynum, recently back from injury, isn’t quite in the flow of things yet. Simeon’s playoff ceiling is clearly high and nothing that I saw in that game from the Maroons demonstrated that they are better than Young, Morgan Park or Curie.
It’s safe to say the the Class 4A field is wide open.
This also after the West/Simeon game:
Remember that No Shot Clock earlier this week about Public League domination? Well, that might be even more of the case than we originally thought. Simeon, the fourth place team in the Red-South/West, went down to O’Fallon tonight and lost to Belleville West 55-54 in overtime on a three in the final seconds.
The Maroons, featuring EJ Liddell, are the top-ranked team in the state and the defending Class 4A champions. I watched the livestream of the game. This wasn’t a case of Simeon suddenly finding itself and playing a great game. It was a fairly typical performance (just got off the phone with Simeon coach Robert Smith, who agreed). The Wolverines didn’t score a basket for the final 6:29 of regulation and only had one basket in the final 10:07 of regulation
Liddell finished with 19 points and five rebounds for Belleville West. Antonio Reeves led Simeon with 17 points. Jeremiah Stamps had 10, Jaylen Drane and Kejuan Clements each scored 8.
Star sophomore Ahamad Bynum, recently back from injury, isn’t quite in the flow of things yet. Simeon’s playoff ceiling is clearly high and nothing that I saw in that game from the Maroons demonstrated that they are better than Young, Morgan Park or Curie.
It’s safe to say the the Class 4A field is wide open.
Until Curie lose by an in state opponent, the are right behind West. They have beat everyone mentioned in this article except West.
I did not use a precise formula or any system of formal logic. It was a matter of personal judgment, although my judgment was guided somewhat by conference standings, Christmas tournament results, and state tournament results over the last few years. But I also looked at who seems to be peaking. For example, although Curie defeated Morgan Park easily early in the year and therefore deserves to be ranked higher than Morgan Park, Morgan Park beat Simeon by 18 points a week or two ago and seems to be peaking. In my personal judgment Morgan Park is better than Curie right now.
As another example, you might note that the top five teams all won major Christmas tournaments, and Collinsville finished second in their own tournament after losing to Springfield Southeast in the championship game by only three points.
The last of the guiding principles was recent state tournament performances. People are frequently critical of this and state that what happens this year is the only thing that matters. For the most part I agree with that assessment, but experience has shown that recent tournament history does provide valuable information in relation to two issues. It demonstrates to some extent what kind of talent feeds into the program and it demonstrates to some extent how well the coach prepares the team for tournament play.
Again, I agree with you that Curie deserves to be ranked higher than Morgan Park in terms of any type of formal ranking system. My post simply reflected my personal opinion as to who the best teams are right now and which teams are most likely to perform the best in the upcoming state tournaments. Curie has one championship game appearance in the last six seasons, having won the 4A title in 2016. They are a very capable team. Morgan Park has won four state championships in the last six years, including the last two seasons. To me, they seem well positioned to have another long tournament run.
West v Collinsville streaming in nfhs.
Weirdest warm up music during the initial shoot-around.
LaBamba???
This may be the JV precursor - lookin to see if any white kids on the floor for West.
Yep - JV.
Varsity later.
Weirdest warm up music during the initial shoot-around.
LaBamba???
This may be the JV precursor - lookin to see if any white kids on the floor for West.
Yep - JV.
Varsity later.
No one is playing hesitant - not deferring. Everyone thinks they are the star tonight, in a good way.
But boy or boy - Collinsville has themselves a big boy on the blocks - has to be 280.
But boy or boy - Collinsville has themselves a big boy on the blocks - has to be 280.
It's interesting that this mentions the Simeon player recently coming back from injury and not being in the flow of things, but fails to mention Liddell playing injured for the majority of the game. Maybe they mentioned Liddell's injury in another portion of the article?
I’ll advised West shot with minute left -ties 54. Collinsville with rebound the a layup
There are 23.3 seconds left - West ball. Take it out inside half court, three - No, put back for two. Tied. Then a weird west Gould. 6.2 left - Collinsville at the line.
Time out.
Made the first. 57-56 and the second. West takes a tree - MISSES!
First loss to IL team in two years.
There are 23.3 seconds left - West ball. Take it out inside half court, three - No, put back for two. Tied. Then a weird west Gould. 6.2 left - Collinsville at the line.
Time out.
Made the first. 57-56 and the second. West takes a tree - MISSES!
First loss to IL team in two years.
I'm still trying to figure out why that BW player took that bad shot with 44 seconds left in a tie game. I thought for sure that they were going to waste clock and try and get the last shot.
A 17 year old boy’s balls are always bigger than their brains.
That did not lose the game - no particular thing did.
Collinsville won.
That did not lose the game - no particular thing did.
Collinsville won.
Meh, that was definitely a costly error, but that's how it goes. I wonder if Collinsville will get more than 2 votes in the AP poll now?
That's what I figure too. Belleville West will definitely be losing that #1 spot for the first time this year though.
Thanks for reply. I understand your logic. I will add that a lot of MP success is due to being in 3A. Simeon, Curie, WY all have to play each other to get to State whereas MP road is a little different. Not to mention the top suburban Chicago schools are typically in 4A as well. I am not saying 3A is easier however I am saying the matchups are very different.
They may look at it in a different way. Without Mr. Basketball and Gatorade player of the year, BW only lost to Collinsville by 2 with a chance to win on the last shot. The same situation as Saturday against Simeon. Saturday they hit the shot, last night they missed. I would have thought Collinsville margin of victory would have been larger. I was shocked and impress that BW played they way they played. I was also a little disappointed that Collinsville didn't attack the post more with those big bodies with EJ not being the enforcer.
This is how they will prep for post season:
East St. Louis (East St. Louis, IL) - streaming
@ Belleville East (Belleville, IL)
@ Collinsville (Collinsville, IL)
Chaminade (St. Louis, MO)
@ Alton (Alton, IL)
Granite City (Granite City, IL)
East St. Louis (East St. Louis, IL) - streaming
@ Belleville East (Belleville, IL)
@ Collinsville (Collinsville, IL)
Chaminade (St. Louis, MO)
@ Alton (Alton, IL)
Granite City (Granite City, IL)
I agree. When I saw that EJ wasn't going to be playing, I thought that Collinsville would have won by a much wider margin. Belleville West played well without EJ, however I doubt that keeps them the #1 ranking.
That's a tough schedule. The question is, will EJ be healthy for those games?
If EJ not healthy enough to play the rest of regular season. West needs to sit him until ready, To get ready for the post season run.
Agreed - there is no perfect record to chase. The only thing that matters now is March Madness - and his future career.
I agree. I somewhat feel like they were waiting for them to take one on the chin.
I'd love to match up the top four SWC teams with the top four CPS team this year. Each conference seeds their teams and I'd even stipulate SWC takes the even numbers ... set up the games and see who is playing at the end of the bracket.
With his future being top priority. High Ankle sprains can last up to 8 months. I don't know if its high or low but his future is the most important issue right now.
number 2 ESL went to overtime with #1 Curie at the beginning of the year. This tournament would be one to see and worth the price of admission.
An article in today's Chicago Sun-Times describes the Corliss team: "assembled (as) an athletic, talented group of players who were overlooked or under-appreciated at other schools." This seems to be outside the scope of how public school athletic programs are supposed to work - in theory. Is this a result of some open enrollment model in place or something more sinister?
This is a pretty good article.
https://www.suntimeshighschoolsport...etty-good-starting-with-the-defending-champs/
https://www.suntimeshighschoolsport...etty-good-starting-with-the-defending-champs/