Holiday Tournaments: Steve’s Big Question

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>We finally have reached the end of the holiday events in the state of Illinois. At Prep Hoops we covered the majority of the top tournaments including Pontiac, Jack Tosh, Big Dipper, Proviso West, Hinsdale Central, and State Farm. In this recap I touched on a major topic that was discussed often in the stands.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Who holds the power in the Chicagoland area of high school basketball? City schools, Catholic Schools, or Suburban Schools?&nbsp;</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>By the numbers, it's not a surprise that the Suburban area schools had a better showing.&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The suburbs had 4 champions in Warren (Proviso), Bolingbrook (York), Hinsdale Central (Hinsdale Central), and Rich Township (Dipper). Two runner-up teams in Homewood Flossmoor (Dipper) and Romeoville (State Farm). You also had 4 teams that finished in the Final 4 in Lake Zurich (York), Niles North (Hinsdale), Hillcrest (Dipper), and Proviso West (Proviso). As we reach the middle of the season the Suburban Schools have been very impressive showing and have a chance of being heavily represented downstate in March.&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The sleeper team of the bunch has to be Lake Zurich.&nbsp; A team who started the tournament 3-6 but ran off some impressive upset wins against Lemont, Lyons, and St. Ignatius before falling to Fenwick in the Semis. Lake Zurich had a run that could change their season around and make them a tougher team towards state time with scoring from [player_tooltip player_id='1522682' first='Kain' last='Kretschmar'] and [player_tooltip player_id='2405470' first='Connor' last='Strauss'] along the physical defense the Bears bring. Expect another similar push in the late stages of the season.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The Catholic Schools were just as impressive at the holiday events finishing with one champion in&nbsp;DePaul Prep (Pontiac) and three runner-ups with Benet (Pontiac), Fenwick (York), and Brother Rice (Hinsdale). Now we know the Catholic Schools don't have as many participants as the surrounding Suburban Schools but between Chicago Catholic and East Suburban Catholic the competition on a nightly basis prepares the schools for long tournament runs. The sleeper team of the season has to be Fenwick. They play with a strong 10-man rotation and apply tons of pressure on defense. They will be a team that pushes many teams to the brink.&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The Chicago Public Schools came into tournament time with a ton of momentum. They had several teams hold the #1 seed going into the holiday tournament only to have 1 team participate in a championship game. Lincoln Park was the only tournament runner-up. CPS had 5 teams reach the final four before taking a loss in Simeon (Pontiac), Curie (Pontiac), Lane Tech (Hinsdale), Kenwood (Dipper), and Crane (Proviso). This is one of the few years that a CPS team hasn't won a prominent holiday tournament in quite some time. Public schools won't panic. They still have a good chance to have a team or two make it downstate come March. The sleeper team of the bunch has to be Crane. The new Red Division team has a good foundation behind 2026 [player_tooltip player_id='2416041' first='Brad' last='Blackman'] and 2027 [player_tooltip player_id='2125641' first='Jamier' last='Montgomery']. These two have the firepower to put Crane back amongst the elites in the city.&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->