Blog Posts and DePaul Prep's 3A Semi-final Opponent Glenwood

By Jack Lydon

I think I am finding my voice when it comes to blog posts. The blog on my website usually just contains galleries of photos from games and events I cover with some explanation. I also post my news articles that appear in the Inside—Booster.

Starting tomorrow, I am going to post news related items from the IHSA boys basketball playoffs that the U. of I. State Farm Center in Champaign in more of a first person blog format. I hope to do it in as close to real time as I can for games that I am not photographing. Tomorrow are the 1A, 2A and 3A semi-finals.

We have six Chicago area teams in playing tomorrow: Chicago Hope, Christ the King, Dyett, Brother Rice, DePaul Prep and St. Patrick. So I will post what I can as I watch the games. But I will probably be photographing the 3A games with just the usually Twitter/X score updates.

Here is some stuff DePaul Prep’s opponent, Glenwood. The Rams take on Glenwood in tomorrow’s 3A sem-final starting at 8:15 p.m.

The Glenwood Titan (24-9), with an enrollment listed by the IHSA as 1,466, are from the Central State Eight conference where they finished fourth behind MacArthur (3A in Decatur), Springfield (3A) and Lanphier (3A from Springfield). All of those schools were in the same sectional that the #3 seed Glenwood won.

The Glenwood starters are senior guard Cameron Appenzeller, senior guard Gavin Simmons, junior forward Jack Kurman, senior forward Mason Neumann and senior forward Jonathon Helm.

Glenwood’s leader scorer is Appenzeller followed closely by Helm. Based upon the games played, it looks like their starters get almost all of the playing time with the only bench player getting significant playing time being junior guard Brody Green.

Knowledgeable high school basketball commentator Big Tim Shabazz suggests in his blog that Glenwood’s size could give DePaul Prep some trouble. Check that out at Big Tim’s blog. Click here to read it.

Michael O’Brien reported this afternoon in the “No Shot Clock” podcast that the Glenwood’s Cameron Appenzeller is a 6’5” lefty pitcher who might be a first-round draft pick in the Major League Baseball draft. So that’s something. Must be quite an athlete.

Appenzeller does not show up in the PrepHoops.com rankings of Class 2025 basketball players. I am guessing that is because he probably plays baseball and not club basketball in the off-season, so he is not on that radar.

Chatham (Glenwood) team photo as appears on the IHSA website.

DePaul Prep Going to State Again with 68-28 Win Over Kaneland

By Jack Lydon

“I feel like we came out and we just punched them in the mouth. We weren't trying to let them get going. We knew that they could get hot pretty fast. We wanted to limit their shots . . . We never gave them a chance to get going,” said DePaul Prep senior guard Rob Walls after the game.

Punched them in the mouth is a good way to describe how the DePaul Prep Rams dismantled the Kaneland Knights 68-28 in the 3A Super-sectional game at Hoffman Estates NOW Arena Monday evening.

It was by no means clear before the game started, how Kaneland would contend with competition such as DePaul Prep. Kaneland came into the game was a gaudy 32-1 record running through their competition with impressive wins over DeKalb and Crystal Lake South. But the Knights haven’t played anything like the level of competition that DePaul Prep would bring.

It showed in the first quarter. The Rams opened the game with 12-0 run. Senior forward Gus Donohue added two big three pointers in a row midway throw the first quarter opening an 18-2 advantage. It was 21-3 at the end of the quarter.

“I thought it was good to get the offense going. . . The guards got me the ball, [Kaneland] to help on our good guards and then I had wide open shots. I was happy that I could knock them down,” Donohue said.

The rest of the game was not much different. 43-12 at the half 60-22 after the third. Running clock and subs for both teams in the fourth with a 68-28 final.

DePaul Prep coach Tom Kleinschmidt was complementary of Kaneland.

“Three and five are excellent players. Five [Kaneland senior forward Freddy Hassan] is a thousand-point scorer,” said Kleinschmidt.

“Three [Kaneland’s junior point guard Marshawn Cocroft] is an unbelievable guard, all state last year in 2A. We wanted to make sure they saw a man and a half. I know we're a good defensive of team, but if you play those two guys, one on one, they give people problems. They're thirty-two and one.”

Kaneland is good. They have good players and are well coached. A team can’t go 32-1 without that. It just seemed the Rams were just that much better. Dialed in. Ready and anxious to get back downstate.

Kleinschmidt was a little more forthcoming about the season than he usually is.

“There's a reason we play the schedule we play. We played eight rank teams in like twelve days. We got beat by [Brother] Rice at home by one. The next day within thirteen hours, H-F beat us by one. The kids were really down after that H-F game. I told them when we get down state this weekend, it's gonna be that weekend that got us down state.

“We had Benet at home. I thought it was important to start seniors like Gus and Jonus who helped us build the program. [Benet] took it to us. We gave them another day off and then they have been laser focused at practice and I think that's why. We are rested, we're tested and we’re prepped.

The DePaul Prep Rams have put together such a string of successful seasons that it hardly seems real. They have advanced to the state finals five of the last six years which had state finals, including this year. They won 3A last year and 2A the year before that. In 2022, they finished in third place in 2A. And in 2019, the finished in third place in 3A. Oh, and in the COVID year 2021, they won the non-IHSA Chipotle Tournament ending the season ranked No. 1.

The Rams will face Glenwood High School (24-9, 6-4) from Chatham, Illinois (population 14,525), in Thursday evening’s IHSA 3A semi-final at the University of Illinois’ State Farm Center. The Glenwood Titans finished fourth in the Central State Eight conference behind MacArthur, Springfield and Lanphier.