Great win for Oswego East last night against East Aurora. The BasketBlog was outside the winning locker room.

Here's sound with Wolves head coach Jason Buckley-

We had a one-on-one with Wolves guard Jay Harris, who finished with 32 points-

....in front of a handful of college coaches at the East Holiday Tournament, EA junior Ryan Boatright (34 pts, 7 asst), EA senior Tramell Weathersby (22 pts, 6 reb) and OE senior Jay Harris (32 pts) put on a show for a nearly capacity crowd.

I was sitting in front of a handful of Oswego players, who inbetween mocking each other, agreed that if Snoop Viser had played for the Tomcats, EA would've been victorious.

A night after Belvidere North used a box-and-one on Boatright, the Wolves did the same thing using Johnny Savu on Boatright.

The junior had his left knee wrapped during the game, but said it was OK. He seemed like he moved okay, but Wolves PG Wesley Brooks (22 points) was able to get by him - which showed he wasn't 100%.

East definitely missed Viser as they lacked a legit third scoring option. Andrew Fischer got into scoring position twice at the very beginning of the game but he missed a bunny and had another attempt blocked, and he was done for the night.

I don't quite get it - he gets good position. It seems like he has a feel for the post - but he just doesn't go up strong.

Keanu and Keenan McGhee combined for 10 points and 9 rebounds. I think for East to get over the hump and be a sectional title contender they'll have to combine for 15 and 12.

A thought on Oswego East: They're good. But I have a hard time putting a lot of faith in jump shooting teams. Brooks is the only one that really wants to go to the basket. Derek Drew (10 pts, 10 rebs) and Sean Gant (12 pts, 8 reb, 4 steals) had nice point totals, but many of their points came on jumpers.

I don't think Harris will ever have a horrific night shooting, but if the shots aren't falling for the others, it might be tough. The Wolves shot 49.2% (incl. 47.8% from 3) from the field, and they didn't have many layups.

"I felt like they were hitting shots they would never hit ever again," Boatright said. "That's how basketball works and you've got to keep your head up."

Some things are certain this Chicago sports year...Alfonso Soriano will swing at an outside breaking ball, Jay Cutler will throw an interception and the Northwestern Wildcats men's basketball team will crack the Top 25.

OK, so it's a bit of stretch to label the Wildcats in the Top 25 a "certainty." But it is a reality.

For the first time in almost 31 years, Northwestern is in the same elite company as usual suspects Kansas, North Carolina, Michigan State and Duke. This week they are ranked 25th in the nation in this week's AP poll.

When you win 9 straight and knock off teams from major conferences (Notre Dame, Iowa State, Stanford) voters have a tendency to notice.

I caught up with Wildcat sophomore and Batavia native Nick Fruendt after practice Monday. The 6'5" guard said he and a few teammates have been literally counting the votes for a few weeks now.

"For the past couple of weeks, we've (John Shurna and Davide Curletti) have been keeping tabs on votes," said Fruendt.

When the 'Cats beat Notre Dame and Iowa State Thanksgiving weekend at the UIC Pavilion, that earned them 7 votes. After beating NC State in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, that got them 8 more, 15 total. They were climbing. A convincing win over Stanford the Saturday before Christmas sealed it. 144 votes. Welcome to the club.

"We finally made it, everyone's excited," said Fruendt. "It's neat to see all of our hard work pay off. But it's not our goal. The beef of our season is in Big 10 play."

Fruendt and Northwestern get their first taste of conference beef Wednesday when they play Illinois in Champaign. Then they host Big 10 powerhouse Michigan State Saturday. The question moving forward is...now that the Wildcats are experiencing a little prosperity, how will they handle it?

East Aurora junior Ryan Boatright is used to having a target on his back.

Responding with a verbal commitment to the scholarship offer of Southern Cal coach Tim Floyd as an eighth grader made certain of that. It also guaranteed the youngster would develop thick skin if he was going to survive and excel in high school. He has.

I don't think he needs any extra motivation when he steps on the court, but if he does, "Boat" might want to pin a quote from Hyde Park coach Donnie Kirksey on his bulletin board. Kirksey, interviewed for a Chicago Tribune feature on his point guard Fabyon Harris, wasn't exactly diss-ing Boatright. Or was he? You be the judge:

"I think (Harris is) the top point guard in the state," Hyde Park coach Donnie Kirksey said. "I don't see anyone stopping him. (East Aurora's) Ryan Boatright has the name and is a good player, but the one thing Fabyon has over Boatright is attitude. He's going to play hard and defend all the time. Not to take anything away from Boatright, but Fabyon wants it bad."

I haven't seen Harris play, so I can't compare them.

I have seen Boatright play. Often. And one thing I don't question is his attitude. If Harris does, indeed, have it over Boatright in that department, he must truly be something special.

As first reported this past summer by the Beacon News, this year's East-West game (Jan. 16th) will be moved from West's gym to the 9,100-seat NIU Convocation Center in DeKalb.

The school has held its last three graduations there and school officials hope to take advantage of the expanded capacity for the rivalry game that dates back to 1913 and includes more than 200 meetings. Proposed by West Athletic Director Andy Lutzenkirchen, the contract with the arena was finalized last week when the school board OK'd the move.

Since West's gym only holds 2,200 fans and fewer than 400 West students are likely to get seats for the rivalry game when it's held at home, it's well worth the try to see how the event is received. Kudos to Lutzenkirchen for getting it done. Too bad it couldn't have come together sooner but I think he's right when he says he doesn't think West's slow (1-6) start to the season will have a negative impact on ticket sales.

"East-West goes beyond the won-loss records," he said, knowing full well that when one of the teams is down and pulls off a win in the rivalry game it can make the season.

Reaching the Convo Center from West High is about a 35-minute drive west on Interstate 88.

Playing in the big arena on a college floor (10 feet longer than a prep court) is the main reason veteran West coach Gordie Kerkman agreed to give up a home date to play the game in DeKalb.

This will be only the second time the schools have ever played outside the city of Aurora. In the 1999-2000 season they met for the Neuqua Valley Sectional title after sixth-seeded East upset the third and second seeds to qualify for the final against the top-seeded Blackhawks, who won by 20 points.

Tickets ($5 for adults, $3 for students) will be offered for sale at both schools with each getting half the designated space in the facility's lower bowl. Tickets can also be purchased through Ticketmaster in the upper bowl and walkup sales will be available the day of the game.

West officials plan to have student buses available ($5 apiece) for the event as well as buses for adult fans if there is interest. NIU parking fee for cars is $5.

East coach Wendell Jeffries said school officials haven't had time to organize buses for East fans but hopes it becomes a reality.

Any profit from ticket sales will go to the West district's general fund and Lutzenkirchen said ticket sales of 2,000 will be needed to break even on the event. He hopes the games (6 p.m. frosh-soph, 7:30 p.m. varsity) will draw from 4,000-5,000.

Northern's men's team has a Mid-American Conference game with Eastern Michigan that was originally scheduled for 3 p.m. that day. The start time has been moved up to 1 p.m.

"We would have liked to tie it in with Northern's home game with Ball State and (coach) Billy Taylor," said Lutzenkirchen, "but the date (Feb. 13th) didn't work out."

Taylor is a West High grad who went on to star at Notre Dame.

In the ultra-competitive world of college basketball, coaches are always looking for an edge. Usually that edge comes down to players. Your guy is bigger than my guy. My guy can jump higher than your guy.

Here's a new twist--I can tweet better than you.

In the Big Ten, coaches are embracing the social networking site Twitter. Anyone can open a Twitter account--it is free, like Facebook--and you can send messages as long as they are 140 characters or less. Your "friends" are called "followers" and the messages you send to your followers are called "tweets."

The BasketBlog ranked the top five Big Ten coaches on Twitter-

5. Todd Lickliter, Iowa (@coachlick). Right out of the gate, Coach Lick posted this tweet:

"about to brush teeth. Always make sure to spend 35 seconds on each tooth. One has to spend their time with the important stuff."

Only on Twitter can you read these deeply engaging insights. But right when he had us hooked, he dropped the ball. Only one tweet since. That's too bad, as I was dying to hear Coach Lick's thoughts on proper shaving technique.

4. Thad Matta, Ohio State (@thadmatta). The Buckeyes coach has "protected" his tweets, so this is an incomplete. If you want to read Matta's tweets, you have to ask for permission, like sending a friend request on Facebook. The request is in, yet to receive invite back. I'd like to read Matta rap on Twitter about Greek center Zisis Sarikopolous. Of course, just fitting the dude's name into the 140 character limit might be a problem.

3. Tubby Smith, Minnesota (@coachtubbysmith). Has the second most number of followers among this list--3,566--despite the fact he hasn't tweeted since Nov. 19. When he was tweeting, content was pretty bland, mostly coach-speak stuff like "team is working hard today, getting better every day." Prime example of just because the technology is available, doesn't mean you have to use it. One of the tenets of social media: be interesting.

2. Bruce Weber, Illinois (@coachbruceweber). Coaches like to justify freshman mistakes by saying "he just needs more reps." I feel the same way about Weber's tweets. On Aug. 11, Coach Weber posted this: "Mike Davis had his tonsils removed this morning...his throat is sore, but he's doing fine. We're glad it went well." We love it. Where else can you get post-tonsillectomy updates on your favorite Illini power forward? Weber's frequency of tweets has slowed now that the season has started, like most coaches. But not all.

1. Tom Crean, Indiana (@tomcrean). Hands down the best in the Big Ten, if not the entire country. Not only does Crean have a huge number of "tweeps"--14,469 followers as of this post--he consistently gives us good, compelling content. The Indiana coach tweets two or three times a day on topics ranging from NCAA rules--"I don't like the one and done rule. Players should be allowed to leave after high school if they choose to"--to complete candor about his team--"Nights like tonight make us remember we are in full scale rebuilding mode." Crean makes us remember why we like Twitter--no filter, insights from newsmakers we otherwise wouldn't get.

Tweet away, coaches.

Starting today and continuing every week throughout the college basketball season, Batavia graduate Nick Fruendt and Oswego alumna Teah Gant will share their thoughts with The Beacon-News on a variety of topics. Both are former Beacon players of the year; Fruendt is now a sophomore guard at Northwestern and Gant is a senior guard at Wisconsin. This week, Beacon social media reporter Jon Kerr touched base with the two area hoops stars on what life is like for them this busy time of year.

Nick Fruendt
Q: This is your sophomore year. How has the transition from high school to Northwestern been? Do you feel you made the right decision to stay close to home?
A: The transition has been very smooth. I'm surrounded by great friends, teammates, coaches, professors and peers. Northwestern is the most diverse place I've ever been, and I have had many great experiences already. So I know that I made the right decision. Even though I'm only about an hour from home, I still am away. It's tough to only see my best childhood friends only two or three times per year, and I miss my sisters a lot, but I like that at any moment I could call my parents and they could come pick me up.

Q: The Wildcats are off to a great start (8-1). What's been the difference this season?
A: We've shown a great deal of toughness and resilience, so even though we had one blip on the radar I feel like we're on the right track as we get closer to conference play.

Q: OK, so finals were last week. What was your toughest exam and why?
A: Microeconomics, because there is so much to learn in such little time. I studied more for it than I have for any other exam and I was still sitting there taking it and trying my hardest to remember how to do a certain equation or read a graph.

Q: Help us understand what type of teammate you are. Are you a prankster or all business?
A: Most of the time I'm all business, but having fun is what sports is all about. We always are joking around in the locker room or on the bus, but when it is practice time or we are preparing for a game, it is all business. No messing around, we have to focus in 100 percent to try to get this win.

Q: I know you are coming home for a few days over the holidays. Where do you hang out when you are home in Batavia?
A: I'll be with Sara and Liza, my sisters, and trying to see my great friends whom I miss a lot. I think this is the weirdest part of going from high school to college, not seeing my boys whom I saw all the time for a number of years. So my favorite hangouts will be my house, a friend's house, maybe the movie theater but probably not, and definitely a delicious place to eat like Portillo's. My friend Jordan and I can run up a bill of over $20 a piece at that place -- it's soooooo good!
I'll also be hanging with my mom and dad. I'm very close to them. A week or two ago my dad picked me up and we surprised my mom and sisters by arriving at Sara's game at BHS. Wow, it has changed a lot there, but the gym is still the same!

Q: What about a favorite Christmas movie?
A: "Elf." I watched it recently with my girlfriend Ariel. Hi, Ariel!

Teah Gant
Q: This is your senior year and you are team captain. The team is off to a really good start. You've got to be pretty happy so far, right?
A: I'm very pleased with how we've started so far. We're 10-2 now going into the Big Ten season so have a good foundation to build on. Last year we had a similar record after the non conference season, but we didn't really do as well in conference. This year we're looking to really be a big competitor for everyone and hopefully end up as one of the top teams.

Q: What's expected of you as a captain?
A: As a captain, a lot is expected of me compared to previous years. I have to be a leader and set a good example for the rest of my teammates to follow. I'm not as vocal as everyone else, but I like to show my leadership through my actions.

Q: Help us understand what type of teammate you are. Are you a prankster or all business?
A: My teammates would describe me as the chill one. Coach Stone always says I am the calming factor on the court. I just see it as conserving my energy. When game time comes I try to be more focused, but there still has to be some element of fun. I'm a very sarcastic person so my teammates and I definitely joke back and forth a lot.

Q: It's finals week at Wisconsin. What thought comes to mind when someone says that? What is the general mood around campus?
A: Finals week means a lot of late nights at the library, stress, and sleep deprivation. I love to sleep so this is always a struggle for me. The campus is a lot more quiet during finals week. Most people are locked in a room rather than going out. It's definitely more work being an athlete because not only do you have to study so you don't fail your tests, you also have to save energy for practices or games that are scheduled at the same time.
The most frequently asked question is "When are your finals done?" That week of tests is always dreadful, but being done and knowing that you have a month or so of break is the best feeling.

Q: I know you are coming home for a few days over the holidays. What do you want for Christmas? Do you have a favorite Christmas movie?
A: I don't really ask for gifts anymore. I just look forward to spending time with my family. It's rare that we all are at home at the same time because of our busy schedules. I will definitely take advantage of the time I do have. Normally we just all sit on the couch and watch TV together. I'm not really a fan of Christmas movies, but if I had to choose it would be the newer version of "Miracle on 34th Street." Oh and if "Elf" counts, I definitely love that movie too. It's hilarious.

The sectional pairings were announced less than two weeks ago - have you checked them out yet?

East Aurora is going to have a helluva time making it to the Neuqua Valley Sectional.

The 22-team sectional not only has East, but West Aurora, Oswego East, Batavia and Geneva. Not to mention Benet Academy, Naperville Central, Naperville North and Neuqua Valley. The two Downers Grove schools are in the mix as well.

Regional hosts are Waubonsie Valley, Geneva, Plainfield East and Willowbrook, so if the Tomcats drop a couple of games, there's a good chance they could end up in regional with Waubonsie, West and Neuqua.

This is a joke. Benet is off to a 9-2 start has their best team in years, Neuqua is still undefeated at 7-0 and the Naperville public schools have tremendous height and are just good enough to beat anyone.

Once again the area's best teams will have to navigate a minefield just to get to a sectional final.

In Class 3A, state runner up Oswego opens up in the ACC Regional with Marmion, ACC, IMSA and Yorkville. Kaneland is in the Kaneland Regional and the champs from each will probably play each other.

Unlike last year's Rochelle Sectional, which was a cakewalk for the Panthers once they beat ACC in the regional final, there are some decent teams in the other half of the bracket - but no real powerhouses.

Oswego has to be a favorite to once again contend for a sectional championship.

Covered Wheaton North's 70-67 victory over West Aurora tonight in Wheaton - game wasn't as close as the final....

Long time West observers said the team hasn't started this poorly since the early 1990s...

Blackhawks soph. swingman Juwan Starks is on track to be the next great WA player - he's already getting letters from schools in the Big Ten and Big East...he dropped 28 on 12 of 14 shooting to go with 4 blocks, 2 steals and 6 rebounds....

Starks is also emerging as a vocal leader for this team - here's what he had to say about the Blackhawks' poor defensive effort:
"We need to work harder in practice and stop going through the motions, work hard and stop goofing around in practice. We tried to do help side (defense) but the man would kick to the ball out to the 3-point line and we had trouble getting that rotation up. We have to work on that in practice."

This team is in need of a point guard. Badly. The players they have handling the job now are OK - but when it matters bad decisions and turnovers ensue...

Freshman PG Jaquan Lee, right now, is the better dribbler, penetrator and passer. But in the sophomore game he tended to fall asleep defensively. This is probably what is preventing him from getting a nod on varsity...

But let's be honest - West coach Gordon Kerkman will have to do something soon.