Hope guard Zhaque Gray, a Sun-Times all-area pick last season, has narrowed her college choices to five: DePaul, Illinois, Penn State, Rutgers and Temple.
Tina Akouris

According to his stepfather, former Manley coach Bo Delaney, highly-touted sophomore Crandall Head will not be ending his recruitment any time in the near future.

"Crandall has been down in Champaign a lot the last three weeks, but there isn't going to be any kind of an announcement," Delaney said Tuesday afternoon.

According to Delaney, Head's recruitment is still open and a commitment to Illinois is not a done deal.

Rich South's highly-touted sophomore (and Luther Head's brother) has told a few members of the Illini media that he will be making a decision early this week. All signs point to Illinois, which would give coach Bruce Weber a stellar 2010 class, as Weber picked up Waukegan's Jereme Richmond (the top player in the class) last fall.

I'll keep you updated.

Sandburg sharpshooting guard Madelline Kish has chosen her college.

The 5-8 guard who won the Illinois High School Association's Queen of the Hill three-point shooting competition in March has chose Eastern Illinois to continue her playing career.

Kish is regarded by many as the best pure shooter in the area.

Possibilities, and not predictions

It isn't exactly bracketology, but a quick look at the Class 8A "North" bracket gives some food for thought

Lane Tech, which hosts Palatine to open the Class 8A playoffs could be one of the most important games the first weekend, especially for Mount Carmel and Maine South

I covered my first football game for the Sun-Times in 1984.
I attended my first high school football game in 1960.
But I never attended a better high school game than last night's Naperville North-Wheaton Warrenville South three overtime thriller.
The effort from both teams was mind boggling
Jordan Tassio, the Naperville quarterback, started slow but finished by scoring four touchdowns on his last four carries
And the effort of the WW South players would have made Red Grange proud

Hales senior Josh Crittle, a 6-8 center, gave an oral commitment to Oregon Wednesday. Crittle is the third player in the class of 2008 to choose Oregon, following his Meanstreets club teammates Michael Dunigan of Farragut and Matt Humphrey of Hales.

"It's great to be going there with my friends," Crittle said. "But I would have chosen Oregon regardless, I just fell in love with the environment there and I really think the coaching staff is going to get the best out of me."

Crittle chose Oregon over Minnesota and Southern Illinois.

I'll have a full story up soon on the new prep website http://highschoolsports.suntimes.com/index.html

Crittle, who trimmed his list to Oregon and Minnesota last week, will likely give an oral commitment to the Ducks sometime tonight or tomorrow, but according to his mother Stephanie, nothing is official yet.

Crittle would join three former Meanstreets teammates at Oregon: Thornton's Joevan Catron, Hales' Matt Humphrey and Farragut's Michael Dunigan.

Keisha Hampton, a 6-1 jumping jack forward from Carver in Philadelphia became the fourth player to give DePaul women's basketball coach Doug Bruno a verbal this fall

According to Simeon coach Robert Smith, Simpson gave an oral commitment to Illinois tonight.

"It's all due to his relationship with [Illinois coach Bruce Weber]," Smith said. "We talked about it a lot. You can't go somewhere because of an assistant. Stan liked Illinois because he got along so well with Weber."

Simpson, a 6-9 senior, transferred from Leo to Simeon over the summer. Smith said that Simpson's grades are not a problem, contrary to the rumors that started circulating this summer.

"That might have been from people upset that he left the other school," Smith said. "Stan's grades are fine. A school like Illinois wouldn't be interested in him if it was otherwise."

On Thursday, Illinois received oral commitments from juniors D.J. Richardson, Joseph Bertrand and Brandon Paul. Butler believes that Richardson being the first to commit played a large role in the surge of players headed to the Illini.

"D.J. is fun to play with," Butler said. "He gets guys to elevate their play. Just having him for a month and watching how much better he makes everyone, I was totally impressed. He's the best player in that class. He gets the ball to people in the right position and he's got a great attitude."

According to Ilinois Warriors coach Larry Butler, Simeon center Stan Simpson will announce an oral commitment to Ilinois tonight.

"[Simeon coach] Rob Smith is supposed to call Bruce Weber tonight," Butler said. "I knew once Jerrance Howard got there things would start moving. Ilinois hassome people in their corner trying to get stuff done. Michael Jordan is at practice tonight. Things are going good for Illinois. Everything seem to be falling into place."

According to Illinois Wolves AAU coach Mike Mullins, Sterling guard Joseph Bertrand gave an oral commitment to Illinois Thursday night.

I've updated the story on our new preps site http://highschoolsports.suntimes.com/index.html and we'll be getting a Bertrand photo in soon. What a day for Illinois!

Check out the full story on the Paul and Richardson commitments on the Sun-Times new prep sports site: http://highschoolsports.suntimes.com. I just spoke with Warren coach Chuck Ramsey about Paul, so I'll be adding some of that in a bit.

Two of the top players in the class of 2009, Peoria Central's D.J. Richardson and Warren's Brandon Paul, have given oral commitments to Illinois. We'll have more soon.

DePaul women’s basketball coach Doug Bruno got his third commitment of the fall when Courtney Webb, a 5-8 guard from Michigan’s top-rated team, Benton Harbor gave him a commitment. She follows Resurrection star Deanna Ortiz and Carmel, Ind. standout forward Danille Haver in the Blue Demons recruiting class.

Whitney Young girls basketball player D'Frantz Smart, considered one of the best players in the Public League, orally committed to Rice over the weekend. The 5-0 senior point guard led the Dolphins to three consecutive Public League titles and averaged 15 points, three steals and four assists per game last season.
Tina Akouris

I've fielded calls and e-mail about the Super 25 in football that is published Mondays in the Chicago Sun-Times

There are a lot of people that think that Naperville North should be ranked No. 1 over Mount Carmel after the Caravan's close game against De La Salle Friday

And there is also a lot of support for Bolingbrook getting back into the rankings after it beat Lincoln-Way East on Friday night