DePaul Prep Defeats Notre Dame 35-25

The DePaul Prep Rams defeated the Notre Dame Dons 35-25 in the Battle of the Bridge Thanksgiving Tournament semi-final. It was the first test of the new young Rams. It turned out to be a test of the Dons.

The game started slowly . . . really slowly. The Dons moved the ball around well but didn’t shoot the ball. When they did shoot, they weren’t good shots. And they got no second chances.

The Rams weren’t much better. They moved the ball around well enough and got some shots up. Most did not fall. And they got no second chances either.

It was Rams 4, Dons 0 at the end of the first quarter. I don’t remember such a score in a game with two solid teams. At least not since my days coaching the 5th grade St. Benedict Bengals.

The Rams and their senior guard and playmaker Maurice Thomas started scoring in the second quarter. The Don’s finally scored with 2:21 left in the half when sophomore forward Brady Sanhorst drained a long three. 15-3 Rams at the half.

It was a pretty normal second half. Both teams were running the floor and scoring. But the damage to Notre Dame was done. Only on the rarest of occasions does a Tom Kleinschmidt team give up a large lead. Tonight was not such an occasion.

Final—Rams 35, Dons 25.

Kevin Clancy and his Dons will be better than they showed tonight. I wrote on Instagram yesterday that it’s a strange new basketball world that we find ourselves in. Tonight produced more evidence supporting such a conclusion.

DePaul Prep will face Niles North in the Battle of the Bridge championship game against Niles North at 6:00 p.m. on Friday.

As for the photos, I am not publishing as many as I have in the past. I used a new camera setup. A Canon 5D Mark IV with a 50mm, f1.8, prime lens at a lower ISO than normal in addition to my regular camera. I just wanted to see what I could get with that setup. I came up with bigger, richer files but the photos are not particularly good. A 50mm lens at a basketball game is pretty useless.

I got a great shot of Johnny “Mas” Maciaszkiewicz, DePaul Prep’s legendary scorekeeper.

It was great to see Paul Chabura and Shay Boyle. Just two great men. I just think the world of both of them.

Happy Thanksgiving to all. I know I have a great deal to be thankful for this year.

Basketball is Back, So Is the Blog

My last basketball game was 332 days, March 11, 2020. The DePaul Prep Rams loss to St. Ignatius in the 3A Sectional semi-final. After that, nothing. Until yesterday.

Shay Boyle and the wonderful people at Notre Dame College Prep allowed me to come out and photograph their game against Prospect. I have photographed quite a few Notre Dame games in recent year. They have had great teams. It truly was a shame that they could not complete their playoff run last year. They just had a great team, really fun to watch, really skilled, tons of talent and heart. I have no doubt they would have won 3A. Okay, they might have beaten St. Viator in the sectional final, maybe. But if they did, I have no doubt they would have beaten Fenwick in the Super-sectional, some downstate team in the semi-final and then Morgan Park in the state championship game. No doubt.

These COVID games are weird. No fans. Worse yet I can’t photograph from the floor. Shooting basketball from above doesn’t make for good photos. Photographing anything from above does not make for good photos. But we can only do what we can do. And we can’t shoot from the gym floor.

I am not the most naturally gifted photographer. I really have to work at it through trial and error. These Notre Dame photos are not very good, either in terms of exposure and color or composition. I will figure it out. I will find the best spot from above in the gym to get usable shots. I mostly try to watch what other photographers were doing. Allen Cunningham found a great spot got some excellent shots. He always does such fine work.

So here they are.

Team Rose Shootout 2019

It was a busy weekend of basketball. Whitney Young v. Lincoln Park and DePaul Prep v. Providence on Friday night. Then the Team Rose Shootout on Saturday and Sunday.

I love the Team Rose Shootout. It has a real gym-rat feel. The Chicago Elite Classic is fancy. Wintrust has fabulous light. But for pure basketball pleasure, the Team Rose Shootout is it. So many knowledgeable people to talk to. So many good players and good teams. Had some blowouts but all well played games.

Of the 900 games (14 actually), I got to see six. I really wanted to see Bloom and Orr, neither of whom I had not seen yet this year. Bloom is something—big and athletic. Well deserving of their #1 status. Orr looked really good. Evanston was just too good for the Spartans. The Wildkits handled Orr’s pressure. Not many others could. Orr will be there for the CPS championships.

I got to see Leo in advance of the Friday’s Chicago Catholic League game against DePaul Prep. And St. Laurence too. I like to see as many Chicago Catholic League teams as I can. I still haven’t seen Fenwick. It will be strange to see St. Joe’s without Gene Pingatore.

Notre Dame amazed me with a huge win over an extremely talented Bogan Begals squad. I still don’t know how they did that. Troy D’Amico played two positions at once. He was bringing the ball over the time line and then passing it to himself under the basket to score.

Okay, I know everybody contributed—Louis Lesmond, Jason Bergstrom, Jimmy Murphy, Frank Lynch and Mac Ross all made it happen without Anthony Sayles.

And the inspired coaching from Kevin Clancy and Shay Boyle. They had the Dons ready and did not fold under the intense pressure from Bogan. It was an interesting move to put D’Amico at point guard after the rash of turnovers. And the murderer’s row schedule too. As a St. Viator grad, I am not one to say nice things about the Notre Dame Dons if I can help it. But I have to take my St. Viator baseball cap off to them. It was very gutsy to put this schedule together and even more impressive to go out and back it up with high quality wins.

I couldn’t speed a lot of time there on Saturday so I missed OPRF and Stevenson. I will get to see Stevenson at the Hinsdale Holiday Classic coming up.

Michael O’Brien wrote in the paper today (or maybe it was Twitter) that the season is one quarter over. It seems like it just started to me. It has been very enjoyable so far.

Well, on to the Christmas tournaments.

Photos from:

Tinley Park v. Schaumburg

Bloom v. St. Laurence

Leo v. Kenwood

Notre Dame v. Bogan

Orr v. Evanston

First Day of R-B Summer Shootout in the Books

Riverside Brookfield High School was packed on Friday evening (June 21, 2019) for the Summer Shootout. Fun to see this year’s versions of high school teams.

There were a million college coaches in attendance. The special seating areas were packed.

I only saw parts of a few games: Notre Dame v. Ridgewood, De LaSalle v. Nequea Valley, Whitney Young v. Oak Park River Forrest, DePaul Prep v. Belleville West.

I got a preview of the Notre Dame Dons with recent Evanston transfer Luis Lesmond. The Dons did not impress in win over Ridgewood. They just looked they were going through the motions but poured it on in the end winning 63-37.

DeLaSalle did not not impress. Lots of reckless individual effort without a whole lot of team coordination. I did not get a good sense of Nequea Valley, except they were big.

I saw a little of the Whitney Young v. Oak Park River Forest game. I was impressed with the OPRF’s point guard Demetrius Dortch.

DePaul Prep knocked off Belleville West 46-30. The Rams led the whole way. Brian Mathews dominated early play on the boards and scoring inside. He made the difference early. In the second half, the Maroons dialed up the pressure. The Rams struggled to score inside and Maroons cut into the lead. Three 3-pointers late kept the Rams ahead. Under two minutes, the Rams made their free throws and expanded their lead to 16 points.

It was a typical Tom Kleinschmidt win. Get a lead, push the ball up the floor—“Go with it,” run a weave, shoot the three and make free throws.

Headed back out there this afternoon to see the rest pool play.

As for the photos, I really wasn’t there to take photos. So I apologize if the photos were not up to my usual standards. The light was pretty good in the Fieldhouse. I pushed the ISO high and didn’t worry about it too much. The photos are pretty grainy but the only purpose for the photos is this blog post. They are not going to a newspaper or website so it doesn’t matter.

Come out and see next year’s players and teams.