Surely, we all can agree that Waukegan High is holding the boys basketball hammer for 2009-2010.
In The Locker Room, we like Mundelein, led by Iowa-bound Ben Brust, to be the primary challenger.
But other than the Mustangs, is Waukegan going to be a runaway train in terms of Lake County hoops or will some other school be good enough to challenge them come tourney time?
After Waukegan ... then who?
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No one in Lake County maybe but wait till GBN kicks your butts back next year after what happened this year. Wait till shooters Alex Dragicevich, Stefan Kovacevic and Austin Weber shoot your boys out of the gym. And 6'7 post presence Peter Szostak will do the damage in the middle. And the starting lineup will be rounded out by PG Matt Merrigan. And don't forget, this team will be rounded out by members of the one loss freshman team from last year. This team has many fabulous players whose only defeat came to Lake County's best freshman team the Warren Blue Devils. And this team did all this without freshman sensation Ethan Schmidt who was on varsity. Many of the Warren and GBN freshman players would've been on sophomore or varsity at other schools. This year's match may be Waukegan vs. GBN but it will be Warren vs. GBN for a few years after that. Book it!
BEN BRUST IS THE REAL DEAL, IOWA GOT A REAL PLAYER, HE WILL SUCCEED IN THE BIG 10!
The only concern in The Locker Room is that Iowa also got Cully Payne from Schaumburg, who, basicly, is the same player at Ben, and Payne will be a year ahead of Ben at Iowa. Don't know if you can play both those guys at the same time.
I don't think there's any reason to believe that Zion won't be much better than Mundelein. They'll have Lenzelle Smith at the point, and he is bound for Ohio St. Paul Williams and Owen Worthington form a large front line. Each of those 3 have a ton of experience on very successful teams. Supplement that solid core and you have a team very capable of winning the NSC.
Mundelein could be similar to last year's Lake Forest squad, but I don't think Ben is as good as Vogrich, and the supporting cast at LF was better.
Zion will win the NSC next year, and likely lose to Waukegan on their home floor for the sectionals. Talk about a huge advantage for Wauktown? I love the dog pound, but would be a bit more fair to rotate that site - perhaps even look at LF College's gym.
With the exception of Mundelein, every team in the NSC Lake figures to be weaker next year than last. So, yes, Z-B could very well win the conference. But that said, the bar in terms of area boys hoops has been raised with back-to-back second-place finishes in the IHSA Class 4A state playoffs, and with that as the measuring stick, it does not appear that anybody in the NSC Lake is going to be able to touch Waukegan.
By the way, the bar being raised also affects North Chicago, which has won 49 games in 2 years but has been non-competititve at the Round of 8 super-sectional both years. Those who follow prep hoops are saying the Hawks will not be nearly as good this year as they were last year, but that the team will still rule the NSC Prairie Division and win regional and sectional titles. Problem is, NC needs to be setting its sights higher, as in figuring out what it has to do win win at the Sears Center and advance to Peoria.
Round Lake will go undefeated and will win the state title. You heard it here first!