Just in time!
The list of recognizable players, coaches, and schools arrived just in time Tuesday morning this week from the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association (IBCA) with this year’s Hall of Fame list.
Thoughts had focused on the high school, and, even college, holiday tournaments which usually begin to take shape around this time of the year.
There will be no annual boys and girls high school basketball tournament sites to include East Aurora, Pontiac, DeKalb, Wheaton North, Oswego East, Dundee-Crown, Proviso West, Plano, and York.
Wait until next year, with hopes for hoops.
In the meantime, the ample list allows the high school and college basketball fan to recall many exciting and good glory days. The list includes names from Carbondale to Rockford and from Rock Island to Lawrenceville.
There were some entries which defied logic why they were not in the Hall of Fame previously, however, better late than never. The most surprising were the three University of Illinois Final Four teams in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) tournaments, the 1949, 1951, and 1952 teams. In fact, those teams accelerated an already strong State fan base. The 1952 team, led by Johnny Kerr, former Chicago Bulls head coach and long-time television game commentator, has had only one Illinois Final Four team to follow, the 1989 Flyin’ Illini team which included Kenny Battle of West Aurora High School, Kendall Gill of the Bulls and seven other teams in a distinguished National Basketball Association (NBA) 16-year career, Steve Bardo, Marcus Liberty, Lowell Hamilton, and Nick Anderson.
Can the 2021 Illini be the second University of Illinois team since the 1952 team to be a member of the Final Four? It is a long way to go, however, the door remains open. This year the Illini have size, speed, good guard play, an apparent balance and chemistry, and defensive tenacity, to make a deep run.
Other teams selected for the IBCA award included the Hinckley-Big Rock girls teams in 2009 and 2010 and Driscoll Catholic girls in 2009.
Among the players who stand out include Billy Taylor of West Aurora and Notre Dame University, Corey Williams and LaMarr Justice of Batavia, and John Moran of Jacobs High School. Williams played at the University of Arizona and Justice played at Notre Dame. Moran played at Northern Iowa University. Moran coached several years at Northern Iowa.
Taylor went into college coaching and made several stops as an assistant coach, including his alma mater at Notre Dame. He has been a head coach at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, Ball State University in the Mid-American Conference, and three years at Belmont Abbey in Division II prior to returning to the University of Iowa for a second stint as an assistant coach. He played at West Aurora though the 1991 season.
Williams and Justice played on the 1992 Batavia State Tournament team.
Coaches on the list for the Hall of Fame include Dan Batka, head coach at Lake Park High School and assistant coach at West Aurora.
Lee Maciejewski has a long history as head coach and assistant coach at Downers Grove North, West Chicago, Hinsdale Central, and Glenbard West.
Scott Trost is the men’s head coach at Lewis University, Keith Bunkenburg is the men’s head coach at Benedictine University, and high school coach Todd Fisher of Immaculate Conception and Walther Christian for girls.
Other inductees include Brian Randle, Notre Dame High school in Peoria and the University of Illinois. Former Northern Illinois University men’s basketball coach and assistant coach at the college level, Rob Judson was presented the Herrins Award.
The Illinois High School Association (IHSA) representatives, associate executive director Kurt Gibson, and Scott Johnson, recently-retired assistant director, both were named in the category of Friends of Basketball.
The next issue will be to begin playing the next season, when COVID-19 lets up.