OT: Just finished watching IL HS 3A championship....

[TheHawkeyeDudeAbides]

Game featured Morgan Park (Charlie Moore, Marcus LoVett, HC Nick Irvin.. MacIrvin Fire AAU) versus (Chicago Catholic League) Oak Park Fenwick ( ex Duke/ NBA alum Corey Maggette) . Great game that went into overtime and Morgan Park won the title for tthe third time in 5 years. Morgan Park lost its star guard (Ayo Duomuso) to a broken foot against Springfield Lanphier in the semifinals.Class 3A basketball in IL is like 4A in Iowa.

I am getting to the point my Hawkeye friends. The kid Fran needs to scout is Fenwick's 6'1" freshman D. J. Steward. Very quick and athletic, great scorer with nice college 3 point range and nice mid range game from 15 feet. Just 15 years old but scored 28 against 3rd placed Bloomington in the semifinals and scored 26 points in loss to Morgan Park. Good ball handler. This kid could be better than Jalen Brunson (Lincolnshire Stevenson HS, Villanova), a kid I mentioned here 5 years as a HS sophomore.

Preparing to watch a great 4A championship on Chicago CSN where Chicago Simeon plays Chicago Whitney Young. KIds to watch are Simeon's Juniors 6-5 SF Talen Horton- Tucker and 6-5 SG Messiah Jones and Whitney Young's junior SG 6-4 Javon Freeman. Expecting Simeon to win.
Talen is a another terriffic ball player and could blow up big on the next few Rivals 150 polls for 2018 class as his shooting stroke has become better and he can take the ball strong to the basket.

As always, Go Hawks!

http://www.chicagotribune.com/subur...etball-dj-steward-tl-0318-20170318-story.html

http://www.csnchicago.com/preps-talk/fenwick-beats-bloomington-advance-class-3a-title-game

 

[TheHawkeyeDudeAbides]

The Tale of Two Halves. Simeon lead the game in the first half and Talen Horton Tucker is one of the best juniors in the IL HS ranks. But Whitney Young 's Lucas Williamson (Sr. 19 points) drained 5 3 pointers and played a great leadership role in bringing Chicago Whitney Young the state title in 4A in OT. Simeon had alot of sloppy rushed shots and some "selfish" play by senior PG Evan Gilyard. Too many times the Simeon kids stood around and let one guy create and dribble drive to the basket to either dish or shoot an off-balanced floater in the lane that would hit the back of the rim and caromed out.

Simeon was not their typical self. Too much out of control and lacking discipline. Next year could be a rematch as many underclassmen players on both squads. Still fun to watch.

 

[DavenportHawk8]

Watching those games compared to the Iowa HS state tournament its just sad. The level of competition in Illinois is 3X better than Iowa. Watching those 3A & 4A games was like watching college ball. There are some serious players in those games. Hopefully Fran can keep the pipeline into Chicago/STL area.