Sports staples include hard work to yield championships and competition among bitter rivals. It exists at all levels from high schools through college at every level, and major league professional ranks. Examples are easily accessible and can include Chicago Bears vs. Green Bay Packers; Chicago Major League baseball teams, such as Cubs-Cardinals; White Sox and Milwaukee; Illinois-Northwestern; Elgin against Aurora schools; schools within intra-communities and inter-communities. Rivalries develop when competing teams find excellence and seek to thrive with successful victories. It may include Michigan versus Ohio State in football.
Communities, for example thrive on East-West in Aurora, Naperville North vs. Naperville Central with Neuqua Valley added for extra rivalries and added confusion. It is Wheaton vs. Naperville, Geneva vs. Batavia, St. Charles vs. the latter two. There are more rivalries which increase and recede.
Big Ten Conference men’s basketball inspection finds balance with Wisconsin, Purdue, Illinois, and Northwestern among the top four teams. The first place team in conference, Wisconsin, was 5-1, and the last place teams, Rutgers and Michigan, each was 2-5. Such balance continues to grow and has become expected. In the Mid-American Conference, men’s basketball, Northern Illinois University is the only school in the two conferences without a conference victory. Yet, Northern Illinois is 6-11 overall. Only Michigan (7-11) and Penn State (9-10) are below .500 overall.
Martin Luther King holiday weekend, Friday through Monday, has become a big high school basketball time, pivotal in the middle of conference races, following Christmas holiday tournaments, and prior to the regional, sectional, and State tournaments. Games January 20-22 over the weekend provided unusual matches. For example, Glenbard West, 55, Oak Park-River Forest, 52; Plainfied North 55, Lockport, 37; Sycamore, 58, Elgin 55;York 57, Oswego East, 51.
High school conference leaders, emphatically by conference, in boys basketball: Chicago Catholic, St. Francis,5-0; St. Laurence, 5-0; Marmion, 3-1; Chicagoland Christian Christ the King, 5-0; Aurora Christian, 3-0; DuKane,: Lake Park, 8-0; Glenbard North, 6-2; Batavia, 6-2; and St. Charles East and St. Charles North at the bottom, each 1-7; DuPage Valley: District 204 the top three teams with Waubosie Valley, 6-0 and 20-0 overall with an undefeated record and ranked No. 4 in the Chicago area by the Chicago Sun-Times, Neuqua Valley, 4-1 and 18-4 overall; Metea Valley, 5-3 and 15-7 overall; DKalb2-3 in the DuPage and 15-6 overall; the Naperville schools at the bottom, North 2-7 11-11;and Central, 0-6 and 8-16;Benet Academy, 8-0 in the East Suburban Catholic and16-3 overall; Crystal Lake South leading the Fox Valley with 8-9 and 16-3 overall; Kaneland leading the Interstate Eight with 4-2 and 16-4 overall; the Kishwaukee River led by Johnsburg, 6-0 and 9-11 overall and Sandwich, 4-2 and 10-4; Serena is 6-0 in the Little Ten Conference and Earlville, 5-0; Riverside-Brookfield lead the Metro Suburban with 4-0 and 18-3 overall; West Aurora is 8-1 in the Southwest Prairie West and 14-7 overall; Joliet West is 7-2 in the Southwest Prairie East and 13-9 overall; and in the Upstate Eight, the top three teams are Fenton,10-0 and 19-9 overall; South Elgin, 0-1 and 11-9; and Glenbard East 8-3 and 9-11.
There is one month remaining in high school basketball regular season prior to March Madness.
High school sports, college rivalries, professional ranks each has a niche, and its partisans.