Boys basketball: May 2008 Archives

Of the 21 area high schools that field boys basketball teams, the three least-successful teams in terms of wins and losses last season were:
3) Round Lake with 7 wins
2) Carmel with 4 wins
1) Antioch with 1 win.

Note that Carmel will have a new coach next season.
Note that Round Lake will have a new coach next season.

Note that Antioch coach Mike Skinner has only been on the job one season. He replaced a coach after the Sequoits won just 6 of 28 games the year before last.

Yes, we were celebrating in The Locker Room when the Bulls won the NBA draft lottery to earn the right to draft Memphis point guard Derrick Rose.

These NBA playoffs have shown how important an all-star calibre point guard is to a team's success, especially if that team does not have a Hall of Fame-calibre player. Think Williams (Utah), Paul (New Orleans) & Billups (Detroit) among others.

The point-guard position is equally vital at the high-school level.

The News-Sun Player of the Year this past winter was Ronald Steward, point guard for Zion-Benton. And it had nothing to do with the halfcourt shot he hit at the buzzer to beat Evanston in the IHSA state tourney semifinals.

Rather, Ronald was the most important player to our area's most successful team.That makes him the most valuable. Maybe not the best ... but the most important.

That's what point guards are ... the most important.

Remember Warren during its great three-year run? It had Jordan Dalton at the point for two years and Ceola Clark for the third. Both were outstanding point guards.

You can't put too much value on a PG. Which is why the Bulls picking Derrick Rose is a no-brainer.

Plenty of mistakes are made in The Locker Room.

But the response made recently about former Niles West High hoops star Nik Garcia cannot go without comment.

Nik Garcia, one of the top prep basketball players in the state, is about to finish his junior year at Niles West High. He has ALREADY announced that he is transferring from Niles West because the hoops program is, in his words, "a shambles." That makes him a soon-to-be FORMER Niles West High hoops star.

The hope here is that he works his way up the shoreline and lands at Waukegan High. We can use him!

If you want to rank Brandon Paul of Warren as the No. 1 soon-to-be-senior boys basketball player in the state, go for it. After all, he is committed to the University of Illinois.

Brandon is not the problem.

Nor is ranking former Niles West star Nik Garcia No. 10.

However, when Web site ChicagoHoops.com lists the top 30 soon-to-be-senior boys basketball players in the state and does NOT include Zion-Benton High's Ronald Steward on it, the list is wrong.

That is as a bad an omission as you will see on any list of top players this season.

Terrible.

Can't think of a single reason why Zion-Benton High sophomore basketball star Lenzelle Smith needs to make a hasty decision about where he's going to play college basketball.

One of the top students in his class academically, the 6-3 guard/forward has already reportedly been offered scholarships by Illinois, Northwestern, Southern Illinois and Purdue.

That said, best he wait so that he can size up where he will best fit in at the next level.

There is no rush. As in just about everything in life, haste in recruiting makes for waste.

Good luck Lenzelle.

P.S. -- I luv the DePaul Blue Demons