Facebook AppSimeon takes a leap
After its stunning upset of Oak Hill Academy on ESPN Thursday, and Red-South wins over Carver Friday and Morgan Park Monday, Simeon has jumped from No. 24 to No. 7 in the national rankings of RISE Magazine
After its stunning upset of Oak Hill Academy on ESPN Thursday, and Red-South wins over Carver Friday and Morgan Park Monday, Simeon has jumped from No. 24 to No. 7 in the national rankings of RISE Magazine
Several sources are reporting Tuesday that Hubbard running back Robert Hughes will announce for Notre Dame at his 6 p.m. press conference this evening at the school.
A four-year starter, Hughes was been on the fence between the Irish and Illinois
Apparently, Darius Walker's decsion to go to the NFL may have been the difference
1. Simeon: Thursday night on ESPN everyone saw why the Wolverines remained #1 despite losses to Farragut and Rice (NY).
2. Loyola: I'm very confident the Ramblers are a top 5 team. They still have a lot to prove though.
3. Lincoln Park: Smoked a pretty good De La Salle team yesterday, look like they are finally becoming the team we expected them to be. With Marshall and Crane both faltering, the Lions have a good shot at Peoria.
4. Thornwood: Looked terrific against New Trier on Saturday. They haven't lost since before the holidays. I'll say it now: Expect to see the Thunderbirds in Peoria again.
5. TF North: I'm still not sold on the Meteors. They have a ton of talent, but just aren't disciplined enough to win against elite teams. Friday against Bloom they had 12 field goals and 18 turnovers.
6. Warren: The opposite of TF North. Warren is precise, disciplined and talented. I haven't seen anyone in the state stick Derrick Rose like Shannon Adams did in the title game at Pontiac. Don't be surprised if Simeon-Warren is the Class AA state championship game.
7. Conant: They proved it on the court this weekend, beating Schaumburg and Joes. How did we all miss on Geoff McCammon? He's a player.
8. Thornton: One of the few teams in the area that seems to get better every month. That Conant loss doesn't look too bad now, does it?
9. St. Joseph: Besides for their performance at Proviso West, the Chargers have been pretty disappointing.
10. Proviso East: This is too low for the Pirates, but Joes has beaten them twice.
11. Richards: Why is Loyola #2 and Richards #11? Probably just due to preseason expectations. Both are undefeated. Richards beat Bloom, which is better than anyone Loyola has beaten.
12. Farragut: Dangerous, dangerous, dangerous. The Admirals are figuring it out quickly. The best is still to come for this team.
13. Marshall: What is going on? The Commandos almost beat Farragut with their bench in the third place game at Chicago State, then the starters lose to them last week? All the pieces are there for Marshall, but something just isn't clicking.
14. Oak Park: Dominant win over Proviso West proves that the Huskies are for real.
15. Von Steuben: These Public League teams are tough to figure. Occasionally spectacular, then prone to letdowns.
16. Glenbard East: Who knows. The win over West Aurora doesn't seem so impressive anymore.
17. Hillcrest: Crushed by Thornton. The game was over early in the third quarter.
18. Washington: See TF North.
19. Crane: They can beat anyone and lose to anyone. Having McGee back should help things.
20. Lake Park: Imagine if they still had DiNunno.
21. Curie: The win yesterday over Fenger was a bigger victory than you'd think. Fenger is a pretty solid team.
22. Proviso West: Need to prove something against Proviso East tomorrow night.
23. Batavia: Bulldogs are rolling, we will find out a lot Saturday against Marshall.
24. Jacobs: Dominating the Fox Valley, Moran is a stud.
25. New Trier: They are much better than I thought they were after Proviso. The whole team can shoot, and Peter Boehm is deadly down low.
Conant upsets St. Joseph, Lockport over host West Aurora and Richwoods beat Schaumburg.
Thornwood wins in overtime...
Cameron Snelling isn’t sure if his game-winning layup in overtime beat the buzzer Saturday in Winnetka.
“I have no idea,” Snelling said. “I was busy concentrating on putting it in the basket.”
New Trier coach Rick Malnati had a definite opinion. He streaked across the court, chasing the referees into their locker room, screaming that the basket was no good.
Whatever the opinions, the basket counted and gave No. XX Thornwood a 72-70 overtime win.
Snelling drained a three with 26 seconds to play in overtime to tie the score. The game-winner came on an assist from Deandre Taylor.
“I had no idea if he was gonna shoot it or pass it to me,” Snelling said. “I just knew we had to do something fast.”
Thornwood guard Trey Blue had one of the premier shooting performances of the season. The 6-3 senior scored 30 points. He was 9 of 11 from the field, 5 of 5 from three point range.
Both teams shot incredibly well. The Thunderbirds drained 12 threes in the game and New Trier had eight.
“I’ve been having a decent year but I know it is time to turn it on now,” Blue said. “We’re hitting the end of the season soon and we need to be playing well.”
Blue scored 23 in the first half. He became the primary focus of the Trevian defense in the second half, but managed to fight through the double-teams for seven points.
Backcourt mate Reggie Hamilton (16 points, seven rebounds) picked up the slack, scoring 11 points in the fourth quarter.
“He’s like my brother,” Blue said. “He had my back when they were hounding me. Reggie came over and told me he was going to take care of things.”
A reverse layup by Tim McCrary with 4:40 to play in the third quarter gave New Trier a 13 point lead. The Thunderbirds used a 12-2 run early in the fourth quarter to tighten things up.
Peter Boehm was nearly unstoppable in the post for the Trevians, scoring 25 points and grabbing six rebounds.
Jack Boehm scored 14 points, Romey had 12 and junior Tim McCrary added 10 points and nine rebounds for New Trier.
Snelling finished with 11 points and Taylor had seven points and five rebounds for the Thunderbirds.
In the last two minutes, the Cougars break a tie with four free throws and an Eric Loos trey
McCammon finishes with 23 points and Loos with 16 and four three-pointers
The teams are tied for first with 5-1 records in the MSL West
Conant leads 53-49
Schaumburg had a four-point lead before the Cougars made three three-pointers, the first two by Eric Loos to go up by five
In the Red-West Farragut knocked off Marshall by 3
and Crane lost in a shocker to Clark
In a battle for first place in the Mid-Suburban West, No. 23 Conant leads Schaumburg 34-32 at halftime
Conant led by nine in the second quarter but the Saxons got even
Geoff McCammon has 14 at halftime for Conant
Grant Monroe has 15 for Schaumburg
The Wolverines beat the No. 1 team in the country..
Derrick Rose, Tim Flowers and Daniel Green grew up together on the South Side, attending Beasley Elementary and Simeon.
Thursday at the UIC Pavilion, the group of friends and teammates shocked the basketball world by defeating defending national champion and USA Today No. 1 ranked Oak Hill Academy (Va.) 78-75 in a game televised live on ESPN.
Derrick Rose staked his case for national player of the year honors, finishing with 28 points, 9 assists and 8 rebounds against the most highly regarded team in the nation.
“Before the game I said I wanted to make history,” Rose said. “My mother told me this morning that not even LeBron James or Greg Oden had played on ESPN.”
Chicago Bears Devin Hester and Chris Harris were among the 3,070 fans on-hand for the game. Hester was more than impressed with Rose.
“What a great player,” Chicago Bear Devin Hester said. “I heard he was good, but I didn’t know he was this good. He’s like a Michael Jordan for his team. Not only can he score, he keeps all of his teammates involved. I’m glad I got a chance to watch him play.”
The unlikely hero for Simeon was Daniel Green, Simeon’s sixth man, who drained three three-pointers to finish with 11 points.
“We’ll be taking about this later on,” Rose said. “It’s something we will laugh about later on.”
A three-point play by Flowers with 4:47 to play put the Wolverines ahead by 15, but Oak Hill charged back behind star guard Brandon Jennings, who scored all 19 of his points in the fourth quarter.
Jennings’ three with seven seconds to play cut the lead to 76-72 but Rose drained two free throws a second later to seal the win.
“When I was walking out I was shaking [the fans] hands thanking them for supporting us,” Rose said. “The whole city came to together as a family and I’m happy for that.”
Senior Kevin Johnson (18 points, 10 rebounds) contributed in the paint and in transition, providing the combination of length and speed that Simeon lacked in last year’s loss to Oak Hill.
“Johnson did a great job of stepping up,” Simeon coach Robert Smith said. “Our bench players all stepped up and gave us a tremendous lift. That’s why we won the game.”
Flowers finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds and junior Keyon Smith came off the bench to add nine points, four steals and four assists.
“The only thing I hate about coaching at Oak Hill is that you’re expected to win every game,” Oak Hill coach Steve Smith said. “Simeon is going to beat most teams that come into Chicago.”
Michigan-bound guard Alex Legion led the Warriors (22-1) with 23 points and nine rebounds. Nolan Smith added 12 points.
“I’m just happy everyone was here to support us,” Rose said. “Even our rivals were here.”
Tonight's the night. ESPN is in town and Oak Hill is ready. Can the Wolverines pull off the upset?
Sure, Oak Hill is 22-0 with an average margin of victory of 29 points. But it's not as crazy a thought as you might think.
Julian Wright and Homewood-Flossmoor knocked off Oak Hill two years ago in Kentucky. Oak Hill won the national title and only lost one other time that season.
In 1999, Westinghouse, with no player taller than 6-3, beat Oak Hill 58-57 at the KMOX Shootout in St. Louis.
Here are some snippets from Daryl Van Schouwen's article in the Sun-Times on the Westinghouse-Oak Hill upset:
"ST. LOUIS—The best little basketball team in Chicago beat the
best high school team in the nation Thursday night.
Westinghouse, which starts no player taller than 6-3, never
stopped pressing, scrapping and badgering Oak Hill Academy's five
Division I recruits in the Coca-Cola; KMOX Shootout.
The Warriors' big hearts and fighting spirit paid off in the
end. The area's No. 1 team bounced back from several deficits,
including an eight-point margin in the final 2:50, to win 58-57 on
5-10 senior guard Martell Bailey's eight-foot shot from the middle of
the lane with 3.3 seconds left.
The defeat was the first for Oak Hill - named national champion
by USA Today last season - in two seasons. Westinghouse's seniors
improved their four-year record including frosh-soph games to an
extraordinary 104-1."
Like Westinghouse, Simeon has had an incredibly successful run with this group of seniors. It's the perfect receipe for an upset. Oak Hill is incredibly talented, but they have only been playing together as a team since November. The key Simeon players have been together for seven years.
Whichever way it goes, it is bound to be a remarkable night for Chicago high school basketball.
Live from Michael O'Brien at Madison Square Garden
Simeon All-American Derrick Rose and Madison Square Garden should have been a perfect match — the top-rated point guard in the country performing on the most prestigous basketball court in the world.
But things didn’t go according to script on Sunday. Simeon lost 53-51 to Rice, NY in the Nike Super Six Invitational and Rose found himself sitting courtside after the game, trying to figure out what exactly went wrong as a trainer untaped his often-injured ankles.
“I want the pressure from my teammates” Rose said. “I’m supposed to lead them to the victory.”
Rose was unhappy with one of his final shots, an off-balance, fading away five-footer that hit the bottom of the backboard. The shot could have given the Wolverines a three-point lead with 1:15 to play.
“When we went up one I think I shot a stupid shot,” Rose said. “That could be why we lost.”
Rose was trying to deflect the blame from his younger teammate, guard Keyon Smith, who missed a potential game-tying free throw with five seconds to play.
“[Smith] is going to get better,” Rose said. “He’s still young. Hopefully this experience will help his game.”
The Wolverines started out sluggish and trailed 15-6 after the first quarter, thanks to a four-minute scoring drought. The Raiders (11-2) drained six three-pointers against Simeon’s zone-defense in the first half.
“We didn’t attack the holes like we are supposed to,” Rose said. “We looked like two different teams from the first half to the second.”
A dunk by Rose with 1:10 to play in the third quarter cut the deficit to 35-32. The Wolverines (11-2) took the lead on a layup and free throw by Rose with 1:33 to play in the game.
Rice responded immediately. Lamont Jones drained a jumper and Durand Scott stole the ball from Smith and converted a layup to but the Raiders ahead by three.
Smith atoned with a fast break layup to cut the lead to one, but then miss