IHSA Playoff Look Ahead

The IHSA boys basketball playoff brackets come out on Friday at 4:00 p.m. I have been looking at various brackets and prognosticating some scenarios for area schools.

3A

There are eight sectionals in 3A: Brother Rice, Washington, Little Village, Glenbard South, Antioch, Rochelle, Decatur and Marion. The Brother Rice Sectional has all southside or south suburban schools. Washington has Central Illinois teams. Little Village has Chicago and west suburban schools. Glenbard South also has Chicago and suburban schools. Antioch has Chicago and North suburban schools. Rochelle has northern Illinois and west suburban schools. Decatur and Marion have southern Illinois schools. The first four sectionals lead to one finalist (championship game participant) and the other four to the other finalist.

All the northside of Chicago 3A schools are in the Antioch Sectional: DePaul Prep, Lake View, Payton, Amundsen, Roosevelt, Northside and CICS/Northtown.

DePaul Prep

With respect to DePaul Prep, let’s look at the best teams in 3A. The top 3A teams in Illinois, in particular order, are Brother Rice, DePaul Prep, Morton, Kankakee, St. Lawrence, Centralia, Metamora, Kaneland, Mount Carmel, Kaneland, Fenwick and I added in St. Patrick for fun. It’s very possible that three of these four Chicago Catholic League teams, Brother Rice, St. Laurence, Mount Carmel, Fenwick and DePaul Prep could be 3A finalists in Champaign for the State Finals.

It is very possible to have three Chicago Catholic League as 3A finalists. DePaul Prep has beaten all of the top 3A teams it has played in the regular season except Brother Rice. Brother Rice could advance to one State Final spot (final four) while Fenwick, St. Patrick, St. Laurence or Mount Carmel could land a second the State Semi-final spot. DePaul Prep could be the third CCL State finalist.

Lake View

The Lake View Wildcats (13-11, 9-0) are in the DePaul Prep regional and would have to get through the Rams to advance into the Antioch Sectional.

Amundsen

The Amundsen Vikings (13-6, 8-1) open the playoffs on 2/24 at home against Northside. The winner of that game takes on #2 seed and #21 ranked Lake Forest in the Vernon Hills Regional on 2/26.

Payton

The Payton Grizzles (14-12, 7-4) host a regional and open on 2/25 against Noble/Muchin. The Grizzles could face either Elmwood Park or Noble Street Charter in the regional championship before advancing into the Little Village Sectional. The Little Village Sectional may well have Fenwick or St. Patrick standing in the Grizzlies’ way.

4A

4A is a tougher nut to crack. As one might imagine, the best teams are from the bigger schools. There are only seven 3A schools in the Sun-Times Super 25, those being four being the top Chicago Catholic League teams, DePaul Prep, #11 St. Laurence, #12 Mount Carmel and #13 Brother Rice. The others being #17 Kankakee, #21 Lake Forest and #25 Kaneland.

Lane Tech

The sectionals of note in 4A for our purposes are New Trier and Hinsdale Central. Lane Tech landed the #4 seed in the New Trier Sectional. Also in the New Trier sectional are #9 ranked Evanston with the #1 seed, Loyola Academy with the #2 seed and Niles North with the #3 seed.

The Lane Tech Champions (17-11) open against Maine East in the Maine South Regional and could face either #5 seed New Trier or Maine South in the regional final. A sectional championship would require also getting through either Loyola Academy or Niles North. Lance defeated Nile North in the Thanksgiving tournament. This is a doable path for the Champions to a sectional championship. But it is doable for the others as well, particularly the New Trier Trevians who have a history of doing it.

A New Trier Sectional championship would put the Champions into a Super against the St. Charles East Sectional Championship. As 4A sectionals go, St. Charles East is not the toughest. The only ranked team is #19 Glenbard West (22-5). The #2 seed is Geneva (24-4). I have seen Geneva. They are good but the Champions can easily play right with them. So it is entirely possible that the Champions could be sectional champs. I dare not speculate further than this. 

Lincoln Park

#14 ranked Lincoln Park (22-5) draws the Hinsdale Central Sectional—the toughest sectional in all the IHSA playoffs. in addition to the Lions, Hinsdale Central has #1 Kenwood, #4 Hinsdale Central, #16 Simeon, #20 Whitney Young and previously ranked St. Ignatius.

The Lions open the playoffs against Morton (the Cicero Morton, not the Morton Morton) at Whitney Young on 2/26. After that would probably be Whitney Young at Whitney Young the following Friday. Lincoln Park defeated Whitney Young 74-71 at Whitney Young in December. Then possibly Curie again the sectional semi-final. And then, possibly Kenwood, Simeon or St. Ignatius. Tough indeed.

Lane Tech’s Zach Mazanowski ducks against Phillips in November.

DePaul Prep Defeats St. Francis de Sales 66-37

DePaul Prep Rams (17-1, 2-0) defeated St. Francis de Sales (5-10, 2-1) 66-37 at DePaul’s Tom Winiecki Gym on Tuesday. Rams face Mount Carmel at Mount Carmel on Friday in big Chicago Catholic League Blue matchup.

These are some photos from tonight’s game.

Morgan Park Falls to St. Francis in 5A Quarterfinal

In a game marred by constant penalties, the last remaining Chicago Public League team, the Morgan Park Mustangs, fell to the St. Francis Spartans 37-14 in IHSA 5A quarterfinals Saturday.

Turnovers and penalties throttled the Mustangs in the first half. The Mustangs had a sixty-two touchdown called back. On the next play, Morgan Park QB Marcus Thaxton throw a side arm pass late down the middle of the field. A big no-no. St. Francis easily picked it off. The Spartans worked the ball down to the Morgan Park nine yard-line and scored on a quick slant to the slot receiver, senior wide receiver Ian Willis. Even so, it was 13-8 St. Francis until late in the second quarter.

Morgan Park (10-1, 7-0) came into the game as the 4 seed with a 10-1 overall record. Its only loss this year was to second ranked Mount Carmel 22-12 in week two.

The Mustangs were 7-0 in the Chicago Public Leagues’ new super-conference, the new Red Division. Before the season, CPS Sports Administration combined the top teams in the Red Division into one sixteen team super-conference. Seven other teams from the conference made the IHSA playoffs the season, Whitney Young, Kenwood, Amundsen, Lane, Simeon, Phillips and Taft. Morgan Park was the last surviving team. It was Morgan Park’s twenty-fifth appearance in the IHSA football playoffs since 1985.

St. Francis in Wheaton came into the game on a hot streak. After getting pummeled 47-0 by Loyola in early October, the Spartans have put together a four-game win streak at the right time. The Spartans come out of the Orange Division of the CCL/ESCC joint Catholic Conference in football this year. The Orange also has two other surviving playoff teams, IC Catholic Prep and Nazareth Academy.

St. Francis is no stranger to playoff football having qualified sixteen time since 1997, winning a state championship in 2005 and advancing to the 4A semifinal game last year.

The game turned late in the first half with St. Francis quarterback Alessio Milivojevic’s eleven-yard touchdown run.

“I like getting hit once or twice on a run. Then I get locked in, clicked in,” said St. Francis senior quarterback and Ball State recruit Alessio Milivojevic. It was the Milivojevic’s 11-yard touchdown run sparked his game on Saturday. Sun-Times Reporter Michael O’Brien captured a video and included it in his Twitter feed. https://twitter.com/michaelsobrien/status/1723424427335925919

After the Milivojevic’s touchdown to make the game 19-8, Morgan Park’s quarterback gave up another interception with under a minute to go. The Spartans worked their way down the short field for a twenty-two yard field goal making the half time score 22-8.

In the second half, Morgan Park scored on a quick bubble screen out to senior wide receiver and Montana recruit Chris Dorr who took it up the sideline 40 yards for the score.

But the second half was just about St. Francis and Milivojevic being able to drive the ball with the run and the pass. Morgan Park gave up two more touchdowns and fell 37-14.

St. Francis advances to play conference rival Nazareth next Saturday in the 5A semi-final. Curiously, the two other surviving 5A teams, Joliet Catholic and Providence Catholic, are also from the CCL/ESCC conference.