Kane County Preps Podcast

None

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Josh, we're getting to that partof the year where we were just talking
about it, but I can't evenremember what games I was at a week
ago, because it's going to bethe end of basketball season, soccer and
football in two weeks. So we'rewriting that that weird gauntlet. You know,
it's just nuts. Yeah, thisbasketball season has definitely gone by in

(00:21):
a blink of an eye. AndI mean because it's kind of been a
blink of an eye. It's onlybeen about a month or five week week
season. But and now we're atthe time where, I mean we have
boys soccer starting next week, girlsvieball, and of course football is starting
a week after that. I mean, you know, at other levels,
we have the NCLWE Tournament starting ina couple of weeks. Major League Baseball

(00:43):
is just a month away. Imean, it's getting really warm outside.
You're getting to the temptation and maybe, hey, what's maybe you know,
take a walk and maybe we're someshorts outside. Maybe not quite yet,
but you know, the weather hasbeen really great all week and the snow
is almost all melted. But yeah, kind of a kind of a crazy
time and just just a lot goingon, but a lot of excitement too.
I mean with basketball on the stretchrun with the last week, and

(01:07):
then the other sports, including footballstarting very soon. I know there's a
basketball podcast and we're gonna be talkinga lot of basketball, but I just
wanted to do sort of a publicservice announcement that you and I are going
to be taping our first football podcastof the year on Monday, and you'll
be able to see it on oursocial media platforms and on Friday Night Drive

(01:30):
dot com. We're gonna be doingan initial dive into some of the teams
around Kane County, Kendall County,to Page County and beyond. I know
you and I both were at acouple of practices this week. You were
at Saint Charles North and Kaitlin andI was at Glenbard West and york Field.
So we're gonna be we'd be talkingabout that a little bit and in

(01:53):
focus. If you have not subscribedFriday Night Drive yet, I mean,
I again I cursed people to doso, because the great thing right now
is that there's a an offer foran anal subscription that will get you coverage
not only for this spring season butthe fall season, which is just you
know a few short months away.So we appreciate all the support that we
have from our subscribers and we encourageothers to do so as well. So

(02:17):
so with that being said, again, this is a basketball podcast. Let's
talking some hoops and Jake, Iremember last Friday, which seems forever ago,
but it's only seven days ago.We were talking about the game that
you were going to see that night, that we thought it came together at
the last minute, but we thoughtit's gonna be one of the better games
of the year. M Brunch inCentral and Bartlett girls basketball playing and from

(02:43):
all indications, it live up toit. You know, what do you
see when you're out there? Sofirst and foremost on the Burlington Central side,
there was a little bit of history. Alana Wells, who is one
of the best guards in this area. For sure, she had another career
milestone. Reached over one thousand,five hundred career points for her career,
so that put her on third onthe list for all time scoring in the

(03:08):
Central program with Jenna Reale and catchmidwho was I think people know much about
her, so that was neat justfrom a historical standpoint. She got it
on three that was cool. Theykind of stopped the game. There's a
little bit of a standing ovation,or as much as there could be,
you know, with the amount ofpeople in the gym. And then on

(03:28):
the Bartlett side, you know,we talked about Lexie Sinclair and McKenzie hare
and they did not disappoint whatsoever.There was a point it was actually,
you know, postgame Bartlett able topull it out there. But I just
I asked the Bartlett coach on us, like do you ever stop yourself in
the middle of the game, andbe like, wait, did McKenzie actually
just do that? Like how didshe how did she knife through the lane

(03:51):
like that? And there were somany of those plays time after time in
that one, just some really highlevel, high bast wall iq place that
quite frankly, you just don't getfrom every single athlete. But mackenzie was
able to make them. So areally good contest too, because Burlington is
one of the better teams in Classthree A, Bartlett being in four A,

(04:13):
you know, higher up in thatthat classification, and so and I
thought Colin Callamadis, the coach ofCentral, made a really good point about
this too. He's like, itreminded me of that Geneva Thanksgiving Tournament championship
game that we had a year agowhen Kat and Alana and then Lindsay Blackmorn.
It was a similar, you knowtype atmosphere, similar type of game.
Geneva ultimately end up winning that game, similar to Bartlett, but just

(04:38):
the competition was high and it wasit was it was a really good game,
so highly enjoyable. Yeah, reallygreat to see. And in those
two teams, I'm not sure ifthey normally played each other in a season.
Obviously this was kind of put together. Um, you know, it's
for the moment because there is aCOVID situation and with another Box Felly conference
school. But you know, ina season where there's not going to be

(04:59):
a playoffs in big, big gameslike that, Uh, kind of cool
for for kids to get the opportunityto play a really another high quality team
like that and kind of tests themselvesand and be in the heat of the
moment against teams like that. Youknow, obviously there wasn't able to be
a big crowd for it, butyou know, hopefully there's some people watching
on stream or whatever. But um, great game and I'm glad they're able

(05:20):
to put together Burlington sent I'm notsure if you saw that, but they
did another sort of last minute gamethat they're playing tonight. They're playing Uh,
I'm gonna push it's either Carmel Carmel. Yeah. Um, they're playing
Carmel tonight. And I don't knowher name, but Karma is one of
the better sophomores in the state.Um, so that should be a very

(05:41):
another really good game for Burlington Centralto get ahead of the Fox Valley Conference
tournament that starts next week. Thatthey will I mean, I would assume
they're the favorite, uh in thattournament. But uh, but good to
see, you know, Burnington goingout and testing themselves non conference in a
season where I mean, hey,what's just you know, get games when
you can, and they obviously have. Yeah, they're they're building block games,

(06:03):
you know for the program moving forward. You know, those are the
types of things that you kind ofget a really good sense of, Okay,
where's my program at where does itneed to be? In judgment with
some of those games. It's alsosenior night for for Burlington tonight. UM.
I received a DM asking if Icould come. I'm already scheduled to
be out and Willow Brooks, Sothank you for the invitation. But yeah,

(06:24):
the next week for sure. Soyeah, well we'll be covering plenty
um, you know for that FoxFlight tournament. So that will not be
the end of watching Burlington Central hopefully. Yeah. Right, And and and
obviously Alana Wells is going to bemoving on and you know, playing on
the next level. But the Burlington'sgot some They have a nice spread future
with tay Or Charles is gonna becoming back. If I'm not mistaken.

(06:46):
You wrote about another young way ofthis year this week that is an underclassman
that sounds like she's having a reallynice season. Yeah, Beca. So
Becca is a player that I've actuallywanted to write about for a while.
I noticed her from the first gamethat I saw, you know, for
Burlington, and over the courts ofthis season, there just wasn't a great
way to featurize her impact on thecourt in the middle of a game story.

(07:11):
So um, you know, soI thought it was a really good
time to highlight the type of impactthat she does. And boy is she
making it. She makes fifty fiftyseven percent of her shouts from the field.
She shoots fifty six percent from three. I mean that that stout the
page. I almost thought that wasa misprint when it first. I mean,
that's really impressive. Yeah, soobviously takes great advantage of the three

(07:33):
point opportunities. But I think thebest part of her story was just kind
of how she got to be astarter and to be a high impact player
for them, you know, asa sophomore. Obviously last year there was
a lot of girls in front ofher, and so she actually made a
goal sheet and sat down with coachand was like, hey, listen,
these are the things that I wantto do in order to become a better

(07:53):
player for you. One of themwas to be a starter. The next
one for her senior year was eventuallybe a captain, and there were some
other ones as well. But Ithought it was just kind of a neat
initiative, you know, for asophomore to take to be you know,
become a bigger piece of the puzzlefor them, and she and she's done
it, and she fits really wellwith what they do, not only offensively,
but defensively. I know, Taylor, uh, you know, gets

(08:16):
a lot of the accolades and attentionin terms of defense with you know,
rebounding and blocking, in different things. But Becca isn't you know, a
nice piece in there as well.And um, you know, coach a
kid of a coach um over atelegant academies, So clearly a seasoned,
you know, basketball player, probablyhave been playing since she was little.
So I just really enjoyed getting toknow her a little bit more in her

(08:37):
rise and what she was able todo. Yeah, good for her.
It's a good work Becca, andgood work Burlington Central. And you know,
we'll be seeing them as we goforward in the next week. Pivoting
of the Duqueanne Conference and um,they do not have a conference tournament,
um, but it appears that it'sgonna be pretty interesting and a hot stretch
run. There's it's currently a threeway tie for the conference lead with Saint

(09:00):
Charles North, Geneva and Wheat andNorth. And you got to see Wheat
and North on Tuesday night against SaintCharles North and and obviously they were pretty
impressive and a tough night for thenorth Stars. But but Wheaton North is
a type team that you know theycan do that. They're a very good
team. Uh, you know,before I ask you about them, I
wrote, I wrote, I've seenhim a couple of times, and I

(09:20):
wrote about Claire Hyde, the juniorguard this week. She is just a
you know, just a bulldog competitor. I know. This week when I
talked to their coach, he saidthat they did a they did like a
drill where they had to do likea scissor step drill where you had dribble
between your legs and they see likehow many how many of those steps,

(09:41):
like how many steps can you takedrilling between your legs or whatever. And
he told me that he had afew girls get to like eighties, some
in the mid eighties. She didthirty five hundred steps dribbling between her legs.
She just basically walked around her neighborhood. He said. The only time
she stopped doing is when a caralmost hit her. So but and uh,
just just she he said, youknow, she doesn't want to break

(10:05):
record, she wants to destroy them, which is like that's a good glove.
She's a competitor. Yeah, Imean, they they they they have
another drill where they see how manykids can how many three point shots you
can make in five minutes And apparentlythey do it for both the boys and
the girls collectively, and the recordwas like seventy or seventy two that was

(10:26):
held by a boy several years ago. She hit eighty and five minutes this
week or this year. So,um, just a just a tough kid,
uncommitted, but I think she's definitelygonna play at the next level.
And they have a lot of othergood players like Julia Simon, who's gonna
be playing soft or soccer at Louisville. Ellie Hubbard's gonna play softball at Wisconsin.

(10:48):
A very good team and again yougot to see him on Tuesday night
against against Cram. Yeah. Sothe one thing that really stuck out to
me before we start talking about theoffensive boys from North was was just the
Bob movement. I mean it wasChris Chris. It was a sink clearly
in sync with everything that they wantedto do. And I thought about making
a comment to Tally Pella Greeny forNorth at the end of the game because

(11:11):
she just had a sidestep like sideside to side across court the entire time,
and I'm like, I would havegotten tired by that, like middle
of the first quarter open they takeme out and she kept going. But
anyway, Um, offensively just supertop to guard. You talk about the
three point shooting ability, and Ifeel like this is kind of just the

(11:33):
evolution with basketball, is that thethree point line it really is like another
five six feet back. I mean, there are there are players that are
comfortable shooting near the logo UM andyou know, Wheaton North has that type
of range and so UM definitely madetheir shots. And then for you know,
for for the North Stars, obviouslyone of the more forgettable first halfs

(11:54):
they probably ever had, and certainlyin the last five six years. And
coach Tom Zach said a sell Um, but it was it was it was
miss layups, it was miss freethrows. I think they were two or
fifteen at you know, at theend of the first half. And then
when you couple it with Wheat andNorth just not missing, it's gonna be
a really tough night. Yeah,it really is. And definitely uncharacteristic of

(12:18):
Saint Charles North. But Wheat andNorth that you know, I've seen him
a couple of times. They canthey can do that. They play that
running jump pressure, really getting yourface and really making it uncomfortable with the
way um that you want to dooffense. I mean they had about a
two game stretch about a couple weeksago where they just kind of struggle and
didn't really look like themselves. Butother than that, they've been just steam

(12:39):
rolling, um, you know,most of the year, beating teams by
pretty significant margins. And in anormal season they probably would be a team
poise for a pretty deep run inthe playoffs. They've kind of um running
the Geneva in recent years. Uh, and the regionals or sectionals that if
Geneva has gotten their way. Butuh, but um, you know,
definitely a very very talented team.And we mentioned Saint Charles North, you

(13:01):
know, tough game the other night, but you know they're right in the
thick of that conference race. They'regonna be at and even tomorrow, I'm
gonna be there. You're you gotthe boys game tomorrow. I'm really looking
forward to seeing both of those teamsbecause I know that they played earlier in
the year and you were there.I believe it was a pretty that was
a pretty competitive game. I thinkNorth kind of got them, you know

(13:24):
at the end of the game.Yeah we're talking about the girls game,
right, yeah, the girls game. Yeah, Yeah, that one in
particular, Geneva just had a reallypoor fourth quarter, right, you know,
not not great defensive stops. Northwas able to at least in that
one coincidentally make some free throws,uh, you know, make some of
their opportunities. So I gotta thinkthat Geneva obviously knows that they didn't play

(13:45):
well at the end of the game. I would I would bet fake money
that they would make sure that they'renot going to let that happen again,
or at least try. Um.I've talked about her before for North,
but Reagan simple is gonna be sucha good player. I mean, she's
already solid and now as a freshman, I'm so looking forward to seeing what
she'll be like in two years.I think she adds so much to what

(14:07):
North can do on the court,whether it's rebounds, it's hustle plays,
it's just knowing where her spot isin the floor because sometimes like you'll see
like coaches will kind of direct players, No, you're not in that right
spot, You've got to go overthere. Not a problem with her,
at least from what I observe.So Um on the other side, it's
been a while, but Leah PalmerI think is going to be a really
nice player too. In a coupleof years. She is a freshman.

(14:31):
Yeah, so it's that's yeah,so it's we're gonna we're gonna have some
enjoyable years watching her play. Thereare a lot of good, uh freshman
girls basketl players in the King Countyarea. When you think about the Saint
Charles North girl, when you thinkabout Leah Palmer, ro Carlos and Batavia,
we've talked about a lot. Sheis. She has really lived up
to kind of advance billing a littlebit. She's been a great player for

(14:54):
Batavia. Then Saint Charles Needs withAlexis Maridas said a really nice year for
Batavia, you know, really contributingto their wins earlier in the year.
Yeah, Alexis and Alexi Jorial fora year. Stam, Yeah, yeah,
good, good stuff. So well, I think before we pivot over
to the to the boys side,I want to maybe highlight, um,
some players outside of the King Countyarea. Um. You know you mentioned

(15:16):
Mileston of Alana earlier in this podcast. Glimbart South, Um, really fine
senior point guard Lauren Cohen, it'sgoing to Illinois State. Um. She
had a nice milestone last night.She reached her one thousands per point.
Um. Lauren is the girl thatum. She's always been known for her
defense. She was a starter asa freshman or maybe that I think she

(15:39):
might have come up the bench,maybe a six sixth person role nonetheless,
Yeah, but anyway, she wasa very significant part of two state teams
in Class three a UM always agreat defensive point guard. But when Maggie
Bear their great post graduated and wenton to Drake, Laurence kind of become
maybe their focal point offensive way aswell. And just again ry town and

(16:00):
player, and a great milestone forher. The other night or last night
against Barnbe Glenn Ridy is actually atSaint Francis Cape Chaperrol. She is apparently
eight points away from one thousand cardpoints and they still have a few games
up, so I have to believethat she's going to be getting getting there,

(16:22):
So you know, early congratulations toCade for that. And then another
team that's outside in the King Countyarea and a player specifically that I really
need to speak about is Brena Loftusfrom Riverside, brooks Field. This is
a girl that she doesn't get alot of pub but maybe she needs to.
She averaged close to thirty points togame last year for Riverside Brookfield.

(16:45):
She's going to Washington University in SaintLouis. They played Aurora Christian in the
last week and a Roora Christian asa really good team. Um, they
have a girl and a griffin.It's going in Virginia. Well, Brena
Loft has scored forty two points inthat game and and a griffin I think
got twenty or twenty one. Imean it's not even I don't want to
make this one on one thing,but anyway, Brenta Last scored forty two

(17:06):
points in that game in rivers atBrookville one. So, Um, she
is a really talented player, hashad a great career and I'm really looked
forward to seeing what she could doat the next level as well. So
that's what's going on. That's someof the some of the things that I'm
seeing. Yeah, that's great stuff. Yeah yeah. Over on the over
on the boys side, Um,it appears that the Duquesne Conference has kind

(17:30):
of come down to like a twohorse race to Whedon's have kind of separated
themselves. Um, Wheeden Mooreville Southonly has one conference loss. Wheedon North
only has two conference losses and everybodyelse has at least four. Um,
if I'm not mistaken, I PoIDthings that kind of kind of blurred for
a while. But I think yousee Whedon Mooreville South over this week against
Patavia I believe was Geneva. Yeah, so I saw them, Yeah right,

(17:53):
I know, it's just just theother night, um thing about them.
We'll start with Wheat and South.The last time I had seen them
was earlier in the season against St. Charles North and this is just for
context, and they were not shootingthe ball ball at all. I mean
just the shooting percentages were extremely low, even in the teams the low twenties.

(18:14):
I mean, it was it wasnot pretty. They've certainly cleaned that
up in the last number of weeks, and against Geneva, you know,
they they shot really well. TylerFawcett, you know, I don't get
to see Wheaton South all that much, but when I do, I told
him at the end of the game, I was like, that was probably
the most forceful that you were tostart the game in the first quarter,

(18:34):
Like it clearly was a focal pointto get him involved, and he did.
I think he scored nine of hisfifteen points or whatever. In that
first quarter. There was a dunkthere pretty pass you know from their point
guard Parker brown sou They looked reallysolid. Geneva was a little shorthanded.
I think they were missing Dylan Foozack, Nate Valentine. You know, obviously

(18:57):
everybody knows about him, and soWheaton's out did everything to try to force
the ball out of his hands.And um, he saw twelve points off
and threes. But you know we'veseen some higher shooting and scoring performances from
him. But Josh as you know, you see Wheaton Wheaton South. I
mean they are defense. Um,I'm honestly like I love watching coach Hiley

(19:18):
coach just because he like every play, every plays turns hard on a sleeve.
I'll tell you that more as muchas any coach out there. I
mean, he is, uh.I feel like he's maybe maybe he maybe
wears like a mouth guard or somethingwhen he's I mean, he looks like,
you know, like an almost it'slike an offensive line coach for football
that he's out there. He's justso intense. And they're a team that's

(19:41):
speaking of football. I mean alot of their guys are football players too.
I mean, Fawcet is a tightend you know type player. Park
Brown's quarterback Jayalen Brown, plays footballas well. They're both going to Indiana
Westland and they'll guard. I meanthey play. They will guard every night
if they're if they're you know what, if they're not hitting shots, they

(20:02):
still can be they can win gamesand they can be tough to beat.
Good luck Medium if they're hitting shots. Good luck Medium, because they are
gonna guard. So um um.And they've had it. They've had a
great season. I mean, they'vedefinitely, um, you know, established
themselves as the best team in thatleague. And and there's some other teams
in that league that, you know, like Geneva. I think there's sort

(20:23):
of in a trans transition mode rightnow. Saint Charles North obviously graduate a
lot of guys from last year,and they're sort of kind of going into
a transition. Um. You know, Batavia, some of their really talented
players are younger, I think,you know, like Ethan Ivan so um.
But I think Wheat and South isfrom what I've seen, they've definitely

(20:44):
established themselves as the best team inthat league. Yeah, I personally haven't
seen Wheaton North, you know thisyear at least on the guy side.
But North's good too. They're younger, they graduate a lot of they're better
players, um from last year.I did get to see the first game
between those two teams, and itwas I mean, it was a defensive
struggle that came down to the lastfew minutes. Wheaton North's best player,

(21:06):
he turned his ankle with four minutesleft. That kind of hurd him and
he didn't play the rest of thegame. But it came down to the
last couple of minutes and I rememberParker Brown made a great play. They
won, but they're gonna be playingon Sunday because you know, the Jucane
Conference plays those those Sunday games andthat game most likely will decide who wins
the conference. Uh you know withthose two teams, those two teams moving

(21:27):
out ahead. Yeah, you knowwe mentioned see Charles and Earth a little
bit with the Wheaton South analysis strugglesfor them. Well, let me start
with the Trent toussn a buzzer beater. Did we talk about that last week?
Right? We might have, butwe could talk about it again.
And the reason why this this tiesin is because part of the reason why
they've lost that game was because ofthe miss free throws at the end,

(21:49):
some misdefensive cues, missques. Andit happened again pretty recently when when Kevin
Winn saw them the other night.So yeah, you know, boy,
yeah, I'm really kind of thedays just kind of blurred. But was
it last Saturday that Trent that shotbefore? Yeah? Yeah, I mean

(22:12):
you were there for that one.I mean, a great moment for Trent.
Jisane Um, you know, tellme about what you saw there?
Well, I mean with the start, at the end, I mean the
very end of the game. Imean, the fact of the matter was,
is North miss some free throws towardsthe end, Batavia was able to
claw back. And then in thatfinal play, Trent's taking the ball off
the court, his primary option EthanIvan, who I wrote in our Basketball

(22:34):
Notes this week, was not open, so Trent kind of had to improvise.
He was just past the logo.He kind of had to dance round
to the sidestep to the left andbaked into three. It was a great
shot, and uh, you know, kudos to him. But you know,
for for North, it's one ofthose things where the little things are
starting add up for this team,and they know that. You know,

(22:55):
they're talented, but when you're missingfree throws, when you know you're not
boxing out and getting those rebot lategame rebounds, those are the things are
going to add up to put youin the position to be in those one
two point games. And and they'vebeen, you know, losing their fair
share of them in the last youknow week two weeks. Yeah, yeah,

(23:15):
that that that's that's very true.But but yeah, I mean,
fortunately for them, you know,being this is a year like no other,
and you know, hopefully they learnand they grow and then next year
when it's you know, hopefully amore normal year than then, you know,
they kind of take this as aas a learning experience. Um.
You know, I'll tell you whatlet you mentioned trend shot last weekend was

(23:36):
wild. There was a lot ofreally crazy finishes. UM. Nathan Valentine
surprise surprise, he had a prettybig shot UM for Geneva. On Saturday
night, UM Bennett Academy played upat Notre Dame and now is Notre Dame
which is number one in three Aplayed him, played him great, um
and Notre Dame beat him on abuzzer beater and over time. And then

(23:57):
I was at Kane And on Fridaynight and that game went was just kind
of back and forth and Kinlin,who was down ten and second half,
came back and and took the leadwith about a minute left. Jamari Meeks
said a shot, and then thenit was the tie game and on the
last possession, plan as star playerMason x and Tally goes sort of length

(24:22):
of the court in the last nineseconds and he thought he was going to
take the shot, he kind ofdrives left and basically the whole defense followed
him, kicked it out to CameronWilliams from the top of the key,
and he nailed the three to wina game. Just a great finish for
them, and it sounds like it'ssort of been the indicative of Kinlin's season
good and bad. Ernie Clone,their coach told me that I think every

(24:45):
game they played up to that pointwas within seven points, and like five
out of their seven were within threepoints with three games going to overtime.
So what do you say about that. I mean, especially when you don't
have many practices in between, itjust kind of move on to the next
one. Yeah, I mean,that's the thing, right. I mean
that's the typical kind of post gamediscussion where it's like, okay, like,

(25:07):
yeah, you know, this gamehappened, but all right, go
home and watch film because we havethe next team tomorrow, you know.
So it's it's kind of like youjust have to have that short term memory,
you know, in the sense of, Okay, let's try to take
these lessons, but then also wegotta keep moving forward with the game.
Yeah, yeah, that's that's forsure, you know. I on the
Kalin side, I'll say, youngman that really kind of impressed me as

(25:30):
a freshman, Troy or Carlson.He had a three pointer at the end
of the third quarter to tie thegame, and he is a number of
really good plays, so kind ofa good player to watch for game one
going forward over the next two years. Real surprising we've made it this far
without talking about Burlington Central. Yeah, let's talk about them a little bit.
I mean, again, the FoxValley Conference tournament starts next week,
and I and again I think BurlingtonCentral should be the favorite on both the

(25:55):
boys and the girls side. Yeah, no, yeah, no doubt,
you know, just the way they'vebeen playing this year, you know,
with that schedule. I wrote inmy basketball notes, you know Ethan was
the primary focus, you know,for Batavia, but I do want to
mention Matt lemon Um. This isa young man that comes off the bench
towards the you know, the backhalf of things. You know, he

(26:18):
is still getting his feet wide andvarsity, but he's doing the little things
that he needs to do in orderto play. And you can just kind
of tell that the confidence is buildingfor him, and he'll tell you that.
And so no disrespect to him.He's not Gavin Sarvice at this point
of his career. He knows that. But the little things are going to
add up to a nice varsity careerfor him as he moves forward. And

(26:41):
that's what I wanted to kind oftalk about in those notes, is,
you know, there's so much focuson you know, a handful of guys
makes sense, but then there's theplayers that are doing the right stuff that
might not be scoring ten points agame. He might only have two points,
four points, but he might havea rebound or something that's key to
you know, close the possession ordeflection whatever those types of things, and

(27:02):
that stuff matters. Yeah, andagain, they have a very talented,
Like I think they have a reallytalented junior class. They have a lot
of good juniors have been that mistakenand you know he's he's kind of like
right behind them. But I meanif he, you know, puts his
head down and makes his contributions andand does what he does, then I
mean he's gonna see his his hisrole in the team grow. I mean,

(27:23):
he talked about Becca earlier in thepodcast about how she was a contributor
and then she you know, putthe goal sheet and now she's where she
is. So you know, hatsoff to him as he continues to move
forward in his career in Burlington Central, as they you know, go into
next week. Yeah. Yeah,So they're in good position, I mean

(27:45):
with Gavin, with Carson, AndrewSharnowski, Zach Schmidt. I mean,
I mean they're in good shape whereyou got, generally speaking, at any
point in time, four or fiveshooters out in the floor that have played
others since they were in fifth gradeor sixth grade, and they're comfortable.
So, um, you know,Burlington last year, you know, just

(28:07):
to bring up last year, Iknow last year is last year, but
you know they were favored in thatregional. I know, it's a little
bit of a different situations. SaintFrancis ended up winning that, you know,
just just try not to repeat,you know, those types of things
in the in the Box Valley Conferenceto close things up. Yep. Yeah,
so so I look forward to seeinghow they do next week in the

(28:27):
conference tournament. There is a numberof conference tournaments next week, one of
them down in the Kennal County area, Will County whatever will be the Southwest
Prairie Conference. Joy At West isleading the one side of the conference.
Oswego East is on the opposite side. I saw their game on Tuesday night
at Joliet, and that was agame they came into leading in respect from

(28:51):
divisions, and joy At West wasvery impressive. They sort of controlled the
game. They're a you know,physical team, maybe a little bit older
than Oswego East. They were ateam that, um, you know and
again in a normal season they verywell could have had aspirations to go pretty
far into playoffs. Um. Butthey had a very talented sophomore, Jeremy
Fears junior that in a fall whenwe weren't sure if you're getting basketball,

(29:15):
he transferred to LA I don't knowhow to pronounce the Laalumry School in Indiana.
Oh yeah, okay, yep,sorry, Yeah, he trans he
transferred there. He actually was atthe game on Tuesday night because I guess
they're on spring break and I thereis a possibility that he could be going
back to Joliet Um, you know, next year when things are all a

(29:37):
bit normal. But but he transferredTrent and Holland who's the great football player
that's going to Indiana. He decidedto not play basketball, so you get
focus on football. But they're throughreally good and they were very impressive against
oswego East and again kind of we'rea little more physical and and handle that
matchup. But that's gonna be aconference tournament that I'll be keeping my eyes
on on next week. Um,and then just it kind of highway a

(30:00):
few other teams. Um, youknow, I know I've talked about these
teams at nauseum, but Glenbard Westand YORKFOA Christian are going to be teams
to watch, not only this yearbut next year. I mean they are
almost all underclassmen. And Glenbard Westhas just rolled basically everybody in the West
Suburban Conference this year and they continueto do it again this week, just

(30:22):
dominated teams with Braid and Hoff andin Kaden Pearce and everybody, and then
yorkfall Christian. I mean I sawhim the other night against West Roora and
it's a very uncharacteristically down the WesternRoa team this year. But RFA Christian
just they just they just took itto home. I mean it was it
was. They had thirteen threes andJay didn't shut who's a great three point
shooter. He only had two ofthem, which kind of tells you just

(30:45):
how deep they are. I mean, they scored fifty seven points in the
first half. I mean there's alot of games that I cover that teams
don't score fifty seven points in thegame. I mean, they just they
just play at such a at ahigh level, back and forth. And
the scary thing is they only graduateone one senior, so um next year.
I would say put them down asa favorite in one A and put

(31:07):
Glenbard West down as a, youknow, maybe a dark horse in four
A. I mean, usually likecity schools our favorites, butt Glenbard West
has got to be in that conversation. And then before we get out of
here, I know we've talked alot about milestones this week. But a
team that you're gonna be seeing tonightMorton. I know people. They're kind
of under the radar because they're rightoutside of Chicago and sort of the east

(31:29):
of US. But they have areally good point guard at Jesus Perez sort
of undersize. He's only five fteight play soccer two. He's a great
soccer player, but he is heis a blur and he is a ball
handling wizard, and he is justunbelieable to watch. I know Bob Murrange,
he does a lot of writing forus. He said he's one of

(31:51):
his most favorite players that he canwatch. But he had a career high
thirty one points ere in a week. And they also be a Proviso East.
So Jeseus is a guy to watch, not only right now because basketball,
but but soccer starts next week anduh and he's gonna be one of
the better players in these suburbs insoccer. So so that's a guy.

(32:14):
I look, you know, youhave to tell me what you think of
him. Well, it's a greatscouting report. Yeah, yeah, he's
great. They have three three sophomoresthat are like six five, um,
that are very talented, so umuh interest see how it comes out of
there. Willowbrook is having a bitof a down year. They graduate,
ever at stubble Field, who istheir all time leaving score. There's another

(32:34):
stubble Field in the program that Ikeep seeing in the box score. I
have a feeling it's probably his alittle brother. I mean, it seems
evan. Yeah, it just seemslike it would make sense. But so
uh so, yeah, yeah,that's that's what I have for this week.
Yeah, looking forward to that matchuptonight. Um and as always,
you know, as we talked aboutat the top of this podcast, make
sure you're following us at on Twitterat Chick Barleston at Jewelgee ninety six.

(33:00):
Plenty of football content coming your way, like we had earlier in the week,
first football practice of the year,which we briefly mentioned. But I'll
just simply say it was fantastic toget out there, even for half an
hour and just hear the whistles andand here guys, I mean honestly,
they're like North players were clapping likethey were just thrilled. It was it
was it was cool. Yeah,Yeah, it was pretty great. But

(33:21):
the weather wasn't bad either. Imean it was like mid fifties. I
mean, the guys are in short. It was. I know, I'm
cynical. It's gonna get you know, it's gonna get to the first football
game of the year, and it'sgonna be two two degredation snow. If
we could dial up nine Fridays likeit was Wednesday, I would take that
an heartbeat absolutely all right, thenI'll do it for us this week,
Thanks so much, and we'll seeyou next week.