Winter sports draw excitement, in part, from the weather, to include cold Winter Olympic Games, such as skiing and bobsled, to high school and college indoor sports. Fans who cut through snow and bitter cold to reach their destinations, especially in smaller high school gyms, can be rejuvenated upon arrival, not only with warm temperatures from furnaces, but, with reactive fans who lustily cheer at upsets and potential upsets. Teams which have suffered through slow starts and find quality improvement, can offer unexpected victories. Some dynamic examples may include:
• The University of Illinois men’s basketball team, with senior Aaron Jordan of Plainfield East High School and a strong contingent of quality freshmen and sophomores, has reflected revival with impressive recent victories over teams ranked in the top 25 nationally, Minnesota and Maryland, the latter Saturday in Madison Square Garden.
• If quality basketball teams prove to be a barometer for excitement, the gym at East Aurora High School Saturday should be a hot spot coming out of bitter cold snap this week. Four great boys games with eight quality teams will be in the ninth annual Kivisto Hoopfest. Lincoln Park High School, a Chicago Public School League team in the top 25 in the Chicago daily newspaper rankings, will play quality Naperville North, led by 6-7 forward Tom Welch, in the first game at 2:30 p.m.; to be followed by East Aurora-Lyons, the latter in the West Suburban Conference at 4:10 p.m.; once-defeated Geneva and Class 2A power Aurora Christian at 5:50 p.m. and top 25 teams York and Oswego East at 7:30 p.m.. It should be a special day of high school basketball. Geneva is 20-1 and leads the first-year DuKane Conference with a 7-1 record. See high school boys basketball standings on page 12. Aurora Christian is 20-4, Oswego East 17-5; York 21-3, Naperville North 12-9, and Lyons 15-8. Enjoy!
• East Aurora will play the day after the annual intracity rivalry game against West Aurora, the latter which has dominated the series the last 10 years. The game will be in the Upstate Eight Conference standings for the last time. Next year West Aurora will be in the newly-increased Southwest Prairie Conference fold, which will go from 10 teams to 12 teams with the addition next school year to include Yorkville High School. East-West will be at 7 p.m. Friday following the girls varsity game at 5:30 p.m. and the girls and boys sophomore teams will play in the Veterans Fieldhouse at West Aurora at 4 p.m. and 5:30 p.m., respectively. There will freshman games in the Red Fieldhouse in another exciting day of basketball.
• West Aurora fell to St. Charles East Saturday at the Sylvia and Jim Roberts Batavia Night of Hoops. West Aurora will enter the game against visiting East Aurora with a record of 19-4, 12-0 in the Upstate Eight. St. Charles East, of the DuKane Conference defeated West Aurora, 67-55. There were three other quality games in the Night of Hoops. See the results on page 12.
• “The game should be a good one,” West Aurora High School head basketball coach Brian Johnson said about the renewal against East Aurora. “East comes into the game playing very well. They will put a lot of pressure on us on both ends of the floor.” West Aurora will not play Saturday. There will be rivalry games Friday, Feb. 1 other than East-West: Naperville North will play at Naperville Central; Waubonsie Valley will be at Neuqua Valley in a District 204 game; St. Charles East at Geneva; Glenbard East at Glenbard South; Larkin at Elgin; Bartlett at South Elgin in a game of District U-46 teams.
• The Little Ten Conference delayed its annual Little Ten Conference basketball tournament to Friday and Saturday at Somonauk High School because of mid-week cold. Newark is seeded No. 1 and Indian Creek No. 2.
• In reference to the first item, the University of Illinois basketball, U of I fans and State high school basketball fans will recall Bruce Douglas of Quincy High School of the early 1980s. Research by Daniel Makarewicz has uncovered that Bruce Douglas’ four-year varsity high school won-loss career at Quincy was 123-5 to surpass Chuck Travis of Lockport with 108 victories and Sergio McClain and Marcus Griffin, each at 121 victories. Research continues to search for more than 123 victories. Douglas was a Big Ten Conference leader for Illinois in assists and steals.