Hey Roy.....

[courtside]

A LOT of upsets in Illinois Hoops Fri night, though most were mild.....Edwardsville lost...#1 St. Joe's lost, Homewood-Floosmoor, who routed Webster at Shootout, pulled off the upset of Hillcrest, Quitman Dillard's Westinghouse lost, no Peoria schools left...Jon Scheyer's team one by a point....brackets looking pretty good now for Carbondale...

Class A state finals

Seneca 45, Flora 39

Hales Franciscan 65, Nashville 57

Liberty 49, Eureka 47

Winnebago 71, Breese Central 66

Class AA sectional finals

At Carbondale

(1) Carbondale 80, (2) Murphysboro 70

At Springfield

(2) Alton 50, (1) Edwardsville 48

At St. Ignatius

(2) Crane 52, (1) Westinghouse 39

At Niles West

(5) New Trier 59, (3) Loyola 42

At Thornridge

(1) Thornton 62, (2) Julian 58

At Joliet

(2) Homewood-Flossmoor 70, (1) Hillcrest 56

At East Aurora

(10) Naperville Central 84, (11) Batavia 73

At Willowbrook

(1) Downers Grove South 45, (11) Benet 31

At Conant

(1) Glenbrook North 37, (3) Conant 36

At Lake Zurich

(4) Waukegan 82, (3) Lake Zurich 68

At Morton

(2) Proviso East 76, (1) St. Joseph 68

At St. Xavier University

(2) Brother Rice 77, (1) Simeon 76 (2OT)

At Barrington

(8) Larkin 70, (2) Prairie Ridge 58 (OT)

At Rock Valley College

(2) Rockford Jefferson 71, (1) Rockford Boylan 65

At Millikin University

(3) Lincoln 34, (4) Normal 28

At Bradley University

(3) Washington, Ill. 63, (1) Peoria Richwoods 45

[billiken_roy]

i've been preaching carbondale since the shootout. i dont know if we have a chance or if the kid is on academic target, but the carbondale jr, emanuel cass is just the medicine the billikens need. imo, just a future stud.

also, read the link below about lucas o-rear's day vs franciscan hales. hales is loaded with d-1 players and sounds like o'rear was the best player on the floor. another player i hope the billikens are watching very close.

http://www.belleville.com/mld/belleville/s...ol/11120037.htm

[courtside]

You would like this article...

March 11, 2005

It's no wonder Hales Franciscan is playing basketball like a team possessed.

Controversy has put a full-court press on this South Side Class A program ever since coach Gary London's comments after the Spartans won the state title in 2003 resulted in their expulsion from the 2004 state tournament.

"I felt really bad after that, especially for last year's seniors," said London, whose mention of illegal recruiting brought about the Illinois High School Association sanction. "We all learn from our mistakes."

That's exactly how Hales standout Nate Minnoy felt after being suspended for three games when he went into the stands to confront an adult heckler during a game at the Rich South Big Dipper holiday tournament this season.

"It's not fair that an adult can try to embarrass me and nothing happens to him," Minnoy said. "But yeah, I did learn my lesson."

Now all that remains for this team that patterns itself after No. 1-ranked Illinois is reclaiming the state title this weekend in Peoria. The Spartans begin with a 1:45 p.m. quarterfinal game Friday against Nashville (28-5).

"We haven't become complacent because we know that something you believe belongs to you can be taken away at any moment," said the 6-foot-4-inch, 265-pound Minnoy, who is averaging 18 points and eight rebounds. "We don't want that to ever happen again.

"Of course I was angry last year. I didn't think the state had the right to take away our chance to defend the title. So now, this is the time to redeem ourselves."

Hales (27-4) is the No. 1 team in Class A and has defeated Class AA powers Brother Rice, Loyola, Bloom, Farragut and Fenwick. The Spartans' losses came to Class AA Thornton (27-2), Farragut and twice to Public League champion Westinghouse (28-3), by scores of 73-69 and 71-69.

The Spartans are loaded inside with the Purdue-bound Minnoy, 6-8 Jeffery Wilson--who is being recruited by Georgia, Loyola and Dayton--6-7 Austin Chapital and 6-6 Evin McCrimmon. Wilson is averaging 12 points and 8.3 rebounds.

"Big team, little me," Minnoy said of the Spartans' unselfishness.

When defenses pack in the zone and double-team the powerful Minnoy, guards Mike Robinson (15 points, four steals), Jerome Randle (12 points, five assists) and Darius Melchor have a field day from the perimeter. The trio has combined to hit 145 three-pointers at a 42 percent clip.

"I think Robinson and Randle are as good as Minnoy," Nashville coach Darin Lee said. "Randle is so fast, he reminds me a lot of Dee Brown from Illinois."

Indeed, the Spartans pride themselves on making the extra pass, just like the Illini.

"You've got to make sure the big guys get the ball as a reward for all their hard work inside," said Robinson, who made back-to-back threes in Tuesday's 82-61 supersectional victory over Lisle. Wide open for a potential third straight three, Robinson instead dumped it to Minnoy for a post-up basket.

Nashville, led by 6-6, 235-pound sophomore Lucas O'Rear (17.7 points, eight rebounds), has just enough size to match up with Hales. There's also Lucas' brother, 6-4 Calvin O'Rear, and 6-5 Andrew Wilson (15.5 points).

Should Hales advance to Saturday's semifinals, Seneca (30-1), with guard Garrett Callahan and 6-6 Robert Rexroade, could be waiting.

The bottom bracket features 2004 Class A runner-up Winnebago (27-3), led by 6-5 junior Devan Bawinkel (20.5 points, 8.7 rebounds), who is being recruited by Wisconsin, Northern Illinois and Marquette.

Also keep an eye on Breese (30-2), led by 6-6 center Ken Detmer, and Liberty (29-2), with 6-8 junior Justin Brock (17 points, 12.2 rebounds) and guard Joe Starnes (13.5 points).

[courtside]

While Hales has been the HEAVY favorite for class A....AA is up for grabs....AT LEAST 6 teams eliminated so far were among the title favorites...including the one that beat Vashon in the pre-season this year.

Carbondale, Thornton, Homewood-Floosmoor, Glenbrook North, would be the favorites of the remaining teams....but that doesn't mean a whole lot....I would however be mildly surprised if someone other than the above won it this year.

[courtside]

is located in inner city of Chicago.

[aj_arete]

of winning Class AA? Glenbrook North is still in it, right?

[courtside]

Considering the upsets so far, they are in good shape. They will be favored to win their Supersectional to go to the state final 8. It helps them that Thornton and Homewood-Floosmoor meet in a Supersectional next, eliminating one. They only have 2 losses all season, and Jon Scheyer puts up about 27 per game plus other stats.

As I said in the above post...there are about 4-5 teams as favorites. They will need to elevate their game to beat one of the above. No doubt about that.

One thing I have noticed by the results...the very quick outstanding up and down guard teams have lost to the big teams....those big teams are athletic, long and talented. They struggle with the quickness of those small teams....think Dwyane Polk speed but bigger more talented guard teams....

If I had to guess, purely guess....I would take Thornton, Homewood Floosmoor, Carbondale, then Glenbrook North as the 4th best...with a couple of other "hot" teams like a Brother Rice with UNC bound Bobby Frasior, or someone else still capable....but sure they have a very good chance...not a favorite, but not an underdog either....Equal shot with a group of other very good teams.

[billikenmetz]

Roy, no Peoria schools - correct, but I was at the Washington-Richwoods game in Peoria at the Fieldhouse and there were more Orange shirts in the crowd (which was capacity) than Richwoods green. RHS is coming off the AA Women's Championship and I think a lot of the RHS fans thought the very tough Washington team was going to lie down. Jamar Smith, a U of I recruit was hounded by tough pressure D all night long and WHS bigmen just punished RHS sophomore Billy Cole like it was nobody's business. WHS is 15 minutes from downtown Peoria and they will represent Peoria (if they can get by the winner of the Lincoln Sectional) better than Manual, Central and Richwoods have in the past. I was very impressed with the turnout.

[billikenmetz]

Minnoy from Hales is going to be a Boiler next fall for Matt Painter...big time off-the-court problems involving altercations with fans...suspended three games back in the Dec.

[courtside]

Junior Jon Scheyer had 48 points in his team's win to send them to state's quarterfinals for Dave Weber's Glenbrook North team. Carbondale gets Crane, Thornton vs Downers Grove South, Glenbrook North vs Brother Rice, Rockford Jefferson vs Lincoln.

[billiken_roy]

it is my understanding from reading the recruiting sites that scheyer is all but a done deal for duke.

carbondale won last night and heads to peoria for the elite 8. i think they have a chance, however, only one inside player to speak of is there downfall.