Farragut is ranked No. 1 in the Chicago area--at least until the Admirals prove themselves in the Board of Education Holiday Shootout on Wednesday through Saturday--and boasts arguably the best college/NBA prospect in the state in 6-10 Michael Dunigan.

The Oregon-bound Dunigan has elevated himself to being one of the elite players in the nation. A year ago, coach William Nelson admitted Dunigan was "so-so, lukewarm, had potential but hadn't arrived."

Now Nelson has another opinion. "He has more polish and is more aggressive. He belongs in a class with the best big players we have produced--Kevin Garnett, Elliot Poole, Michael Wright, Curtis Ganes," Nelson said.

But after observing Whitney Young, Homewood-Flossmoor and Marshall at the Proviso West Holiday Tournament, I give an edge to H-F as the favorite to win the Class 4A championship in March. Farragut must prove it has a backcourt that can handle pressure and deliver the ball to Dunigan.

H-F, Young and Marshall have no such problems. They have strong backcourts, which is a requirement of any team hoping to contend for a state title.

H-F point guard Kevin Dillard is Dunigan's biggest rival for Player of the Year recognition. And Supo Sanni, who is committed to play football at Illinois, has lifted his game to another level. The Vikings are quick, athletic and physical. They need more help from Russell Ellington, another football player who is headed to Illinois.

Young's A.J. Rompza demonstrated while leading his team to the Proviso West title that he might be the best point guard in the state, next to Dillard. Coach Tyrone Slaughter appears to be settling on a starting lineup and an eight-man rotation with Marcus Jordan, Chris Colvin and Julian Kenner coming off the bench to provide a spark.

Marshall can't be overlooked. First-year coach Courtney Hargrays still is getting comfortable in his new job and point guard Darius Smith and Ryan Hare are looking for more help from their friends.

Posted by Taylor Bell at 10:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

In the wake of the Mitchell Report and all of the recent revelations about doping and drug usage in amateur and professional sports and the Olympics, the public is getting a not-too-respectful view of how the media goes about doing its business.

As a card-carrying member of the print media for nearly 50 years, I must admit that I am embarrassed by it all.

One Hall of Fame writer excused the Barry Bonds/Roger Clemens reports in major league baseball by pointing out that the game has never been more popular, that the presence of record crowds indicates fans will tolerate anything as long as the home team wins.

Another writer admitted he was aware of what was going on in the clubhouses from coast to coast but opted not to blow a whistle for fear of reprisals, including loss of access to news sources.

Another, confessing that his hindsight was 20/20, said he had suspected for years that Olympic sprinter Marion Jones was using performance-enhancing substances but chose never to get involved in the issue unti it became an international scandal.

Another authored a book with Marion Jones and never even touched on the controversy over drugs. Afterward, when Jones confessed to allegations that she had taken steroids and the International Olympic Committee ordered her to return her gold medals, he never addressed the subject.

So it's no wonder that the public has lost faith in the media, as it has with politicians, insurance brokers and mortgage lenders.

The media has become so competitive. I recall covering the Chicago Bulls in the early 1970s in a playoff game in Los Angeles. It was one of the great Lakers teams with Wilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor, Jerry West and Gail Goodrich, one of the best NBA teams of all time.

When I walked into the Lakers locker room after the game, I was astonished to see that hardly anyone was there. Just four writers from Chicago and a few from Los Angeles. I had a one-on-one conversation with Chamberlain, then with West. I was like a kid in a candy store.

Can you imagine that situation today? It would be like the Michael Jordan years...dozens of sportswriters, television cameras, radio, Internet, free-lancers, all trying to get a quote or a sound bite.

That's the way it is in recruiting, too. Every recruiting Web site, every college Web site, is trying to get a breaking story. Some provide almost daily updates on a recruit's thought process. Who are you considering? Have you dropped anyone? Have you added anyone? Are you leaning to anyone? Did you enjoy your campus visit last weekend? Why? Why not?

Everyone wants an exclusive story. They want to be the first to reveal which college a prize recruit is committing to. Any wonder why some kids bow to the intense pressure and commit early to avoid the hassle, the constant phone calls? Any wonder why the system is broke and desperately needs to be fixed?

Posted by Taylor Bell at 09:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

After losing some outstanding senior recruits to Duke, Kansas and Indiana and failing to cash in on his Final Four appearance in 2005, Illinois basketball coach Bruce Weber opted for a new recruiting strategy--and it appears to be paying off.

Weber still is counting on the loyalty of home-grown players but he is focusing on freshmen and sophomores, not seniors. He is building solid relationships from the grass-roots level and counting on his time-tested ability to evaluate talent to uncover future stars.

It is hard to find fault with his game plan. Juniors D.J. Richardson (Peoria Central), Joseph Bertrand (Sterling) and Brandon Paul (Warren) and sophomore Jereme Richmond (Waukegan) already have demonstrated that they rank among the state's most promising players, in any class.

The trick is to turn Richardson, Bertrand, Paul and Richmond into pied pipers who will persuade other standouts, from Illinois and beyond, to join Weber's program. Cazzie Russell did it at Michigan. Quinn Buckner did it at Indiana. And Mark Aguirre did it at DePaul.

Nobody did a better job of preaching Illinois Loyalty than Harry Combes. It was a different era, of course, a time before interstate highways, cell phones, Internet, McDonald's and Holiday Inn. Even the new-fangled television sets only came with black-and-white reception.

Combes was one of the most successful high school coaches in Illinois history. He posted a 254-46 record at Champaign, winning a state title in 1946. After finishing second in 1947, he succeeded Doug Mills as head coach at Illinois. He won three Big Ten titles in his first five years and had three third-place finishes in the NCAA tournament in a four-year period.

And he did it with home-grown talent. His 1948-49 team was captained by Centralia's legendary Dike Eddleman and included future NBA star Wally Osterkorn (Amundsen), Bill Erickson (Rockford East) and Don Sunderlage (Elgin). His 1950-51 team was captained by Sunderlage and included Ted Beach and Rod Fletcher (Champaign), Irv Bemoras (Marshall), Clive Follmer (Forrest) and Bob Peterson (Elgin). And his 1951-52 club was captained by Fletcher and included Peterson, Follmer, Bemoras, Johnny Kerr (Tilden) and Jim Bredar (Salem).

During the early 1950s, Combes dominated recruiting in Illinois, landing other outstanding players, including Max Hooper (Mount Vernon), Billy Ridley (Taylorville), Harv Schmidt (Kankakee), Paul and Phil Judson (Hebron), Bruce Brothers (Quincy), Bill Altenberger (East St. Louis), Ted Caiazza (Lyons), Don Ohl (Edwardsville) and Hiles Stout (Peoria Central).

Later, in 1956, Combes signed a blue-chip class that included Mannie Jackson and Govoner Vaughn (Edwardsville), Johnny Wessels (West Rockford), Ed Perry (Salem) and Al Gosnell (Lawrenceville).

Oh, Combes didn't get everybody. He still had to confront Iowa, Indiana, Kansas and Bradley, which were national powers in the 1950s. He lost Archie Dees (Mount Carmel) to Indiana, Bobby Joe Mason (Centralia) to Bradley, Tom Hawkins (Parker) to Notre Dame, Joe Ruklick (Princeton) to Northwestern and McKinley Davis and Carl Cain (Freeport) and Nolden Gentry (West Rockford) to Iowa.

But if Weber is as successful as Combes was at keeping a majority of Illinois high school stars at home, he won't have to worry about what Kelvin Sampson is doing at Indiana.

Posted by Taylor Bell at 02:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

High school basketball fans in the Chicago area haven't heard about Dyricus Simms-Edwards or Zeke Schneider. But they will. They are two of the fastest rising juniors in the state. Illinois coach Bruce Weber knows about them. So does Kansas coach Bill Self. That should tell you all you need to know.

Why didn't anyone know about them until now? Because neither Simms-Edwards, a 6-1 junior guard at Washington, and Schneider, a 6-9, 220-pound center at Metamora, played AAU last summer. They didn't receive an iota of exposure.

This season, Simms-Edwards is playing in the same backcourt with Indiana-bound Matt Roth on one of the top teams in the state and Schneider is averaging 20 points and 12 rebounds.

Simms-Edwards, who played with Illinois-bound D.J. Richardson at Peoria Central for two years before transferring to Washington, has received no scholarship offers. But Illinois, Kansas, Wisconsin, Illinois State and Wichita State are interested. He has just begun to attract attention.

"He is a point guard who is outstanding on defense, athletic, a good distributor, a good jumper, unselfish and sees the floor well," said recruiting analyst Bill "Flash" Flanagan, who observed Simms-Edwards in the Hersey Hawkins League in Peoria last summer.

"He was playing against college players and the best high school players. I'm not surprised he has emerged this season. He keeps getting better and better and he plays for one of the best coaches in the state in Kevin Brown. It's a Cinderella story. He didn't have any exposure until he came to Washington."

Flanagan said Roth, perhaps the best pure shooter in the state, and Simms-Edwards form "one of the best backcourt combinations I've seen" and he rates Simms-Edwards among the top five juniors in the state along with St. Joseph's Diamond Taylor and Sterling's Joe Bertrand, who will be Simms-Edwards' future teammates on Mike Mullins' Wolves AAU team.

Add Schneider to Mullins' AAU roster. Metamora is recognized as a football school so Schneider plays second fiddle. Like Simms-Edwards, he didn't get any exposure in AAU competition last summer. But his size and athleticism and ability to run the court has attracted interest from Illinois, Kansas and Illinois State. It won't be long before others find their way to Metamora. He is still growing. By next year, he could be 6-10 and weigh 235 pounds.

"He will be a high major (college) player in another year," predicts Flanagan.

Posted by Taylor Bell at 03:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Contrary to anything you might have read on the Internet in recent months, Diamond Taylor still is playing basketball at St. Joseph in Westchester.

If you want to become one of the best performers in your sport, does it make sense to transfer from a school that produced Isiah Thomas and has sent players to colleges from Illinois to Indiana to Iowa to Penn State to Marquette to Kansas State to Nebraska and on to the NBA?

Coach Gene Pingatore may have gotten a bad rap in the award-winning documentary "Hoop Dreams." But his track record for developing outstanding players and championship teams is unblemished.

Taylor, a 6-3, junior guard, is his latest blue-chip product. He has received scholarship offers from Illinois, Wisconsin, Marquette, Notre Dame, Southern Illinois, Bradley and Northern Illinois.

"Last year, I said he was a diamond in the rough. Well, he has emerged," Pingatore said. "He did a lot of great things in AAU in the summer and was seen by the colleges. He was good enough to be rated a high Division I player before his junior year."

According to Roy and Harv Schmidt of Illinois Prep Bulls-Eye, Taylor is ranked as the No. 3 player in the junior class behind Whitney Young's Marcus Jordan and Chris Colvin and ahead of Illinois-bound D.J. Richardson of Peoria Central, Darius Smith of Marshall and Illinois-bound Brandon Paul of Warren.

Like Richardson and Paul, Taylor made great strides last summer. As a sophomore, he came off the bench for St. Joseph. He played well as the team's sixth or seventh man but he didn't make a name for himself on a 25-5 team that lost to eventual state champion Simeon in the supersectional.

Taylor went to elementary school on the Near North Side of Chicago. After his family moved to Broadview, his father brought his son to Pingatore, who observed the youngster as an eighth grader in the Bulls Academy.

"I realized he had talent," Pingatore said. "I saw him in his first freshman game and said: 'Oh my, this kid is talented.' He had all the tools. He could shoot from the outside, put the ball on the floor, take it to the basket and finish."

Taylor is being recruited as a shooting guard but Pingatore believes he handles the ball well enough to play point guard in college.

Pingatore reminds that former St. Joseph star Evan Turner developed in a similar manner. The difference was Turner didn't play on the varsity as a sophomore, then had a great summer and eventually committed to Ohio State. There is another difference, of course. Turner is 6-6.

But the pressure will be on Taylor this season. He hasn't been in this situation before. He will be called upon to be a scorer and a leader, which wasn't the case a year ago.

Could Taylor be another Isiah Thomas?

"Ask me that question a year from now," Pingatore said. "He has the tools to do that. But he needs to get stronger and bulk up. And he's just starting to play better defense.

"I've been coaching for 39 years and the fun of coaching is to watch these kids come in and emerge as future superstars. Taylor is that good. He has a bright future. I think his improvement in the next two years will be phenomenal."

Posted by Taylor Bell at 12:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Please help me out here.

If you were writing a book on high school football in Illinois, what would you include in it?

Well, University of Illinois Press in Champaign has asked me to author a book on the subject. Lots of books have been written about high school basketball in Illinois. I know. I wrote two of them. But football? Never before.

I have a lot of ideas. When I first contacted U. of I. Press in 2001, I submitted two book proposals--one for football, one for basketball. At the time, the editors preferred basketball because they felt there was more interest in basketball in Illinois, especially Downstate. I agreed.

But I kept a file on football. And when I traveled around the state for two months to research my first basketball book, "Sweet Charlie, Dike, Cazzie, and Bobby Joe: High School Basketball in Illinois," I made notes, gathered telephone numbers and thought about what I would do if this day ever came.

Like the basketball book, I plan to highlight the top players, coaches and teams that have dominated the game. Also the top games, dynasties and rivalries. Not to mention chapters on the Chicago Public League, Chicago Catholic League, Prep Bowl and state playoffs.

There are some no-brainers, such as:

Players: Red Grange, Dick Butkus, Ray Nitschke, Otto Graham, Buddy Young, Johnny Lattner, Alex Agase, Mike Alstott, Otis Armstrong.

Coaches: Tony Lawless, Murney Lazier, Gary Korhonen, Bob Shannon, Frank Lenti, Gordie Gillespie, Matt Senffner, Deek Pollard, John O'Boyle, Pat Cronin.

Teams: Mount Carmel 1950, Joliet Catholic 1975, Wheaton Warrenville South 1998, St. Rita 1971, Evanston 1971, East St. Louis 1985.

Rivalries: Englewood vs. Hyde Park; East Aurora vs. West Aurora; Moline vs. Rock Island; Mount Carmel vs. St. Rita; Champaign vs. Urbana; East St. Louis vs. Belleville.

Games: Austin/Leo 1937; Glenbrook North/East St. Louis 1974; Wheaton Warrenville South/Joliet Catholic 1992; Maine South/Mount Carmel, 1995; St. Laurence/Glenbard West 1976.

Programs: Mount Carmel, Providence, Joliet Catholic, East St. Louis, Geneseo, Metamora, Carthage, Marian Central, Arcola, Pittsfield.

Your suggestions are welcome.

Posted by Taylor Bell at 03:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

It's an argument that never will be settled to everyone's satisfaction.

Who were the five best high school basketball players you ever saw?

After observing and covering the game for 50 years, I think my starting lineup would hold its own on any playground or in any gym.

Farragut's Kevin Garnett. St. Joseph's Isiah Thomas, Carver's Cazzie Russell, Marshall's George Wilson, Simeon's Derrick Rose.

Size, quickness, versatility, athleticism, leadership. Is there anything they couldn't do? And if you think someone else deserves a spot, who would you drop?

To back them up, I'd fill my bench with Thornridge's Quinn Buckner, Westinghouse's Mark Aguirre, Proviso East's Doc Rivers, Thornton's Lloyd Batts and Collinsville's Tom Parker.

And if you're looking for the most entertaining and exciting five you've ever seen, how about Hales Franciscan's Sam Puckett, Hirsch's Rickey Green, Dunbar's Billy Harris, Proviso East's Dee Brown and Farragut's Ronnie Fields?

I first became aware of high school basketball and the state tournament when I watched Hebron/Quincy in the first televised event in 1952. I still recall the Judson twins and Bruce Brothers in that dramatic overtime game playing out on a small, black-and-white screen with Jack Drees doing the play-by-play.

Then there was favored Du Sable with Sweet Charlie Brown and Paxton Lumpkin losing to Mount Vernon in the controversial 1954 final. John Wessels and Nolden Gentry leading West Rockford to consecutive titles in 1955 and 1956, winning a pair of two-point thrillers over Elgin and Edwardsville. And Herrin upsetting favored Collinsville to win the 1957 crown.

There was a lot of drama and excitement in the 1950s. With television exposure, it was a time when the state tournament emerged as a major attraction among sports fans in Illinois.

It reached a crescendo in 1958 when Marshall, with George Wilson, became the first all-black team and the first Chicago Public League representative to win the state title. And later in 1963 when Carver beat Centralia on Anthony Smedley's last-second shot in a game that attracted more viewers than Loyola's NCAA's championship team.

Some critics discount Garnett because he only played his senior year in Illinois. But he did and it matters. If you saw him, you immediately recognized his enormous talent and understood why he was regarded as an NBA lottery pick from the first time he was evaluated by a professional scout.

Perhaps there are two players on my 10-man list that some might question, Batts and Parker. At a time when 6-5 players were centers, Batts played guard and displayed great quickness and ball-handling and outside shooting skills. He went to Cincinnati, became the school's No. 2 all-time scorer behind Oscar Robertson, then played for 10 years in Europe.

Parker was the greatest player ever produced by legendary coach Vergil Fletcher at Collinsville, the fourth of his All-Americans after Terry Bethel (1957), Bogie Redmon (1961) and Rodger Bohnenstiehl (1964). In 1967-68, the 6-7 center/forward averaged 35 points per game, mostly on 15-17 foot jumps shots, and scored 50 pooints in the final game of the Carbondale Holiday Tourament, a milestone that still stands. The two-time all-stater later starred at Kentucky.

Until I saw Rose, Buckner had always been my choice as the fifth starter. To be honest, I can't see how anyone could argue with the other four. Buckner and Thornridge's 1972 team have always been my favorites. Nobody was a better team leader than Buckner. He went on to prove that in college and in the NBA. But a spot had to be made for Rose, a better offensive player than Buckner if not a better defensive player, and a superb leader in his own right.

Posted by Taylor Bell at 11:43 AM |