Okay. This is it. Rubber meets the road. Go time. Put up or shut up. No tomorrow. Win or go home.
16 good teams left in 3A. Morgan Park, Bogan, Farragut, North Lawndale, Sterling, Metamora, Marian Catholic, Kankakee, Marion, East St. Louis, Lanphier, Springfield Southeast, DePaul Prep, North Chicago, Burlingto Central and Boylan.
After tomorrow, eight.
The DePaul Prep Rams come into the their game tomorrow against North Chicago with a record of 26-6. The Rams haven’t advanced this far into the IHSA playoffs since . . . well, last year. They lost to eventual 2A state champions Orr in the only game that Orr played in the playoffs that was even close. The Rams were within 5 or so most of the game and eventually lost 64-54 after taking some defensive chances at the end and giving up some easy buckets.
The North Chicago Warhawks come into the game 19-8 overall and 14-0 in the weak Northern Lake County Conference. The only common opponent that North Chicago and DePaul had was Antioch. Neither team had any trouble with Antioch. In fact, North Chicago beat them twice.
Max Preps has the Rams ranked 9th in 3A and the Warhawks ranked 41st. Those Max Preps don’t mean a great deal but it is does show that based purely on record and strength of schedule the teams are at much different levels. Even so, they are still going to play the game. Don’t look for a Tom Kleinschmidt coached team to stumble. They have been here before, last year. I have seen these Rams play most of their games this year. They did not lose a game to any team that did not turn out to be a regional champ, except Fenwick. Oh, and Fenwick was the Catholic League Blue champ and last year’s 3A runner-up. Plus the young men just look serious. The tough boxing matches that were the Catholic League regular season games were good preparation. The Rams have been all business in the playoff games. No goofing around, even against competition in the Regional that was not even close to top tier.
North Chicago won a state championship just a few years ago and rolled over Gordon Tech to get it. The Warhawks did not stumble either. 14-0 in conference. They took care of business.
A win over North Chicago and then, next Tuesday, a win over either Burlington Central or Boylan and then will be going to the State Tournament in Peoria.
Curiously, such talk just makes me more focused. I have been charging my batteries, cleaning my lenses, erasing my memory cards and packing and repacking my camera bag since I got home late Tuesday from the Antioch game. He even reset and practiced my auto-focus settings. I’m ready. Let’s play ball.
