The shift on the horizon in sports is postseason play in high school and college basketball along with other Winter sports.
The Big Ten Conference women’s basketball tournament dates are March 2-6 in Indianapolis and the men’s Big Ten basketball tournament will be March 9-13 in Indianapolis.
High school girls basketball tournaments have started in the State. Boys started regional games Saturday, Feb. 19 and will continue this week. More games make for more exciting times, however, when the we boil down the field in each tournament to a precious few the excitement builds inversely.
What we know:
• Waubonsee Community College men’s basketball team will play at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 24 in the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Region IV Division II District 3 tournament at home in Sugar Grove against Olive-Harvey Community College. The Waubonsee women’s team plays one evening earlier at home against Kankakee Community College. The Waubonsee women are seeded No. 3 and Waubonsee men are seeded No. 2. Always be wary of upsets in tournament play. The Waubonsee men, 18-7, is led by head coach Lance Robinson, and the Waubonsee women, 22-5, are led by head coach Jim Williams.
• High School boys undefeated conference champions included Wheaton Warrenville South, 14-0, in the DuKane, Benet Academy, 9-0, in the East Suburban Catholic, Burlington Central in the Fox Valley, Somonauk in the Little Ten, Harvest Christian in the Northeastern, Oswego East in the Southwest Prairie East, Bolingbrook in the Southwestern Suburban Blue, Bradley-Bourbonnais in the Southwest Suburban Red, Larkin in the Upstate Eight, and Glenbard West in the West Suburban Silver. Burlington Central and Oswego East each won its championship with an 18-0 record. That is significant. See the boys final conference standings on page 11.
• Tournament time for high schools: Aurora Christian boys head coach Dan Beebe after an 18-10 overall record said in anticipation of tournament time, “We are hitting our stride and playing our best basketball. We’re heading into the State series with same momentum.” Many coaches either have the mindset, or, at least would like to think that way. It is sudden death at tournament time with one defeat the season comes to an abrupt halt. Aurora Christian was set to play in its Class 2A home regional this week against Wheaton Christian. Tournament championship games in all regionals this week will be Friday.
• Batavia High school boys head coach Jim Nazos had confidence entering this week’s Class 4A tournament at Batavia against Glenbard North.
“We ended the regular season 21-10 overall and 8-6 and tied for third place in the DuKane Conference (with St. Charles North). I thought we had a very good season. We did play a very tough schedule, too. Some of our losses included numerous teams with 20-plus wins such as Wheaton Warrenville South twice, Lake Park twice, Quincy, Oswego East, and Chicago Leo.
“We were a senior-led team in starting five seniors. Some of our accomplishments: Batavia Thanksgiving Tournament champion; 3-1 at the York Christmas Tournament with wins over Lemont, St. Patrick, and Stagg. Our loss was to Leo. We beat Huntley, a 25-win team and we beat Chicago Lincoln Park at the Chicago Orr breast Cancer Shootout.
“Team leaders: Ethan Ivan, 6-7 senior forward, averaged 18.6 points per game and 4.7 rebounds per game; Trent Tousana, 5-10 senior point guard, 15.5 points per game, 4.7 rebounds, 2.2 assists per game; Austin Ambrose, 6-9 senior forward, 9.0 points, 7.3 rebounds. Both Ivan and Ambrose were all tournament selections at the Batavia Tournament, Ivan was the tournament Most Valuable player, all-tournament at York; unanimous all-DuKane Conference; Tousana unanimous all-Conference; Ambrose special mention all-Conference.
• Girls high school regional tournament champions included: Waubonsie Valley, Downers Grove North, Plainfield East, Naperville North (see page 10 team photo), Batavia; Wheaton North, Geneva, St. Charles East, South Elgin, Barrington, Huntley, Montini, Providence Catholic,, Burlington Central, Aurora Central, Timothy Christian, Joliet Catholic Academy, IC Catholic Prep.
• College NCAA tournament dates: Selection Sunday, 5 p.m. March 13; First Four, March 15-16; first round, March 17-18; second round, March 19-20; Sweet Sixteen, March 24-25; Elite Eight, March 26-27; Final Four, April 2; NCAA championship game, April 5