December 2009 Archives

What do you remember most about high school sports in the past decade? Maine South, Joliet Catholic and Driscoll in football, Jon Scheyer, Derrick Rose and Shaun Livingston in boys basketball and Candace Parker in girls basketball come to mind immediately.

But there were others. And the rise of Whitney Young in boys basketball and Whitney Young and Bolingbrook in girls basketball at the end of the decade bodes well for the quality of competition that can be projected for the future.

Here's a look at the top 10 teams/athletes for the last 10 years:

1. Maine South football. The Hawks posted a 117-12 record and three state championships and settled for two seconds. They closed the decade by sweeping two straight Class 8A titles while winning 28 games in a row. And they produced three Players of the Year--Sean Price, Charlie Goro and Matt Perez.

Memo to Jereme Richmond:

You and your Waukegan teammates recently played a game in Ames, Iowa, that was nationally televised live on ESPN. The marquee read: Matchup of Illinois-bound Jereme Richmond, the top-rated player in Illinois, against North Carolina-bound Harrison Barnes, the No. 1 player in the United States.

For high school kids, it doesn't get much better than that.

I couldn't wait to read your Friday diary in the Sun-Times to learn how it feels to compete in that kind of environment.

Joe Henricksen, editor/publisher of City/Suburban Hoops Report, is the fifth and last analyst to offer his observations on the top high school basketball players he has seen. It has been only 16 years since he began evaluating high school players but he insists he saw enough of King's Jamie Brandon to include him in his top five.

"I saw enough of Brandon prior to the Hoops Report to know he was one of the most dynamic high school basketball players in state history," Henricksen said. "He was a man among boys as a pure scorer, strength in getting to the basket and simply knowing how to put the ball in the hole. He was about as unstoppable as it gets at the high school level."

With that said, here are Henricksen's top five: Brandon, Kevin Garnett, Derrick Rose, Quentin Richardson and Jon Scheyer.

Over the years, I have rarely gotten worked up over a regular-season matchup in football or basketball. Oh, you had to be a box of rocks not to get excited by Isiah Thomas vs. Doc Rivers at the Proviso West Holiday Tournament. But with few exceptions, I prefer to wait until the state playoff, when it really matters.

One of those exceptions, in my view, was last Saturday's duel between second-rated Simeon and top-ranked Whitney Young. Young's 62-55 victory probably will be only a footnote to the 2009-10 season. But it was memorable in many respects. For one, in the history of the state basketball tournament, No. 1 and No. 2 have rarely met. And I can't imagine two better teams in the state.

Here are some other scribblings I jotted on a yellow pad during the course of the game:

Roy and Harv Schmidt started scouting in 1984 and have been publishing Illinois Prep Bulls-Eye since 1998. But they began watching high school basketball in the 1970s. They remember some of the great players of that era, such as Quinn Buckner, Isiah Thomas and Doc Rivers, but they don't have clear or live recollections so they didn't make their list.

Here is their list of the top five players they have observed in the last 25 years:

Ben Wilson may have been the greatest high school player in Illinois that we ever saw--and that includes Kevin Garnett. His skills were comparable to Garnett. Like Garnett, Ben Wilson had outstanding mobility and agility, length, shooting range and point guard-like ball-handling skills. He had great athleticism and the will to win that set him apart. He did not have the strength and ferocity that Garnett had but he had the same will to win.

Bill 'Flash" Flanagan has been evaluating high school talent for more than 30 years. He is a former assistant coach at the high school and college levels. In recent years, he has directed one of the most successful summer exposure events in the Midwest.

Flanagan began evaluating basketball players in the early 1970s when he was an assistant at East Carolina. He later coached at Elgin High School and at Illinois State.

His top five:

Dwyane Wade: This is probably a no-brainer.

Isiah Thomas: Another no-brainer.

I was talking to Illinois and Chicago Bears legend Dick Butkus the other day about some football-related subjects, including the demise of the Bears and his reaction to a recent survey that reported 6 percent of all NFL players over 50 suffer from a memory-related disease such as dementia or Alzheimer's.

As you can imagine, Dick is very opinionated on both subjects. He is especially "ticked" that the NFL hasn't taken care of the old-timers of the 1950s and 1960s who helped to build the foundation of the league, the ones who paved the way for today's millionaires.

But Dick had something else on his mind. "What's wrong with Illinois? Why can't they recruit the bet players from the state and around the country?" he asked.

Van Coleman of Hoopmasters.com has been criss-crossing the nation and evaluating high school basketball players for more than 30 years. Coleman and Bob Gibbons were two of the pioneers in the business and no one has spent more time on the road than they have.

Here are Coleman's choices as the best players he has observed in Illinois, accompanied by the following note: "The rankings below are based on high school play as I remember it. That is why a player like Dwyane Wade isn't among these rankings as his ascension to top 10 in the world came after high school. The same logic appears in these rankings as pro success is not the driver, but high school play was. That is why at least a dozen players have an argument to be rated among the top 25 who didn't make it."

Coleman's top 5:

Loren Tate has been covering Illinois sports and high school basketball in this state for nearly 50 years. He joined the Champaign News-Gazette in 1966. Born in nearby Monticello, hometown of former Illini basketball coach Harry Combes, he always has possessed a keen eye for basketball talent -- even though he once was one of the leading semipro baseball pitchers in the country.

Here are Loren's picks as the five best high school players he has observed:

Quentin Richardson: total player, his rebounding on offense in high school was superior. No one went to the boards harder than him.

Isiah Thomas: He was discovered as a junior when he led St. Joseph to second place in the state tournament. He had a flair that was special for his time. He captivated the audience.

The high school football season is over. I can't think of a better way to tip off the high school basketball season than to launch a debate on the best players ever to compete in Illinois. Who are the five best players you have seen? Does Derrick Rose belong in a class with Cazzie Russell and Isiah Thomas? How many of you saw George Wilson?

With that in mind, I have asked some veteran observers--media and analysts--to offer their opinions. Loren Tate of the Champaign News-Gazette and former coach and Bloomington-based analyst Bill "Flash" Flanagan have more than 40 years of experience. Van Coleman of Hoopmasters.com has been evaluating players for 30 years. Roy and Harv Schmidt have 25 years of experience, Joe Henricksen of City/Suburban Hoops Report about 20. Each has some interesting views on the subject.

I'll open the debate with some views of my own.