A year ago, Zion-Benton High DOMINATED summer-league hoops at CLC and we all saw what happened during the prep season.
Also incredibly strong last summer was North Chicago, and we saw what they did, going 25-5.
Not terribly impressive last summer were Waukegan and Warren -- two teams that didn't get the high-quality results during the prep season.
Dave Masterson actually wrote a column several Fridays ago noting how what happened last summer predicted almost perfectly what was going to occur during the regular prep season.
We think that is going to be the case again this year. Z-B very good, but North Lawndale of Chicago (nowmoving up to Class 3A after winning Class 2A last year) blocking North Chicago from making it to Peoria, unless the draw sends N. Lawndale to the other half of the bracket.
Also, Waukegan has had uneven results this summer, and we expect the Bulldogs to be an up-and-downer during the prep season. And Warren has shown that it is still looking for four players to put around Brandon Paul ... a situation which most certainly is going to exist in the early stages of the winter campaign.
Summer basketball is not always a good indicator of how a team will fare during the regular season, ESPECIALLY if a team is missing a few of its key players to AAU, injuries, vacation, etc. That is a major factor that needs to be taken into account.
Like someone mentioned in a previous entry, a lot of these games are coached by assistants and don't include the type of strategy and substitutions that you would see during the regular season. Some coaches take a "let everyone play and get experience" attitude to summer ball while others prefer to largely develop their better players and give them more playing time. Teams that fall under the first category will not look as impressive for obvious reasons.
So, I wouldn't put too much stock into summer basketball standings. They are not the be all end all.
You can project missing players into the lineup.
Last summer, I saw Mundelein High a couple of times and it was obvious that they were going to be 1 player short compared to the year before. Turned out, they were one player short.
I get all the points about missing players and letting everyone play, etc., but honestly, if Z-B and North Chicago aren't really good next winter, I will eat my Z-B and NC baseball caps.
Jeff,
Clearly ZB and NC will be good next year. No one is even debating that. They'll have a fine year no matter what they do in the summer league games. Don't worry about the standings or results, just the development and progress of these young talents that is being made. Thats the real value of these games.
Horatio
The NS Lake is going to be tough top to bottom this year. Zion is obviously going to be terrific. Mundelein and Warren has obvious returning top players. Libertyville, LF, and LZ all have real nice squads as well. Stevenson won't be bad, but might be down compared to a couple years ago, especiall with how loaded the rest of the division might be. You watch: this division will beat up on each other but post outstanding out of conference records. The Prairie division might not win a single cross-over.