It’s a long way from the bench to the Sweet 16.
It’s a particularly long way when the bench is in a junior high school gym.
That was where Cyrus Tate was planted as an 8th-grade basketball player. Many a game, he said, he was lucky to get more than a minute of action.
“I was not serious about basketball then,” he said.
He is now, and Friday in the Class AA sectional championship game at Bloom, the 6-foot-8-inch senior center was seriously good. He scored 17 points and grabbed eight rebounds to help lead Homewood-Flossmoor to a 67-50 victory over Rich Central and a supersectional date with Thornton on Tuesday at the United Center.
Tate also neutralized 6-7 Rich Central center Mike Harrington in a matchup so physical it at times resembled a football pass-blocking drill.
Tate believed that football was his athletic destination when he entered Homewood-Flossmoor. But he quit that sport soon after starting it, and then friends such as Mitchell Hayes talked the reluctant 6-3 freshman into trying basketball.
“I remember saying, `You’re not going to play? But you’ve got height,'” said Hayes, Tate’s junior high teammate and H-F’s sixth man now.
Tate had height but little skill when H-F coach Roy Condotti first spotted him practicing with the freshmen. Condotti, however, immediately saw potential in Tate.
“We knew Cyrus could be a real good player, but he didn’t know,” Condotti said. “He did not have a lot of confidence in himself basketball wise.
“He really didn’t think like a basketball player. We had to convince him he could be a good player.”
More Top Picks Best Fidget Chairs For Office Workers
Tate had a so-so season at the freshman level, but Condotti made him a varsity starter as a sophomore.
“All we asked him to do was just play defense and rebound,” the coach said.
That display of confidence made an impression on Tate, who improved steadily thanks to hard work.
“Coach Condotti saw good in me,” he said. “I decided to take it to the next level with the talent I had.
“Coach got me involved. I thank him a whole lot for that.”
Friday, it was Condotti who was thankful after Tate played what the coach called “his best all-around game.” Tate scored eight points to lead H-F to a 21-13 halftime lead, then added eight more during a 6 1/2-minute stretch that began early in the third quarter.
Tate, who scores mostly inside, hit two 16-footers in that span, the second of which gave his team a 42-33 lead with 6:54 to play. For Condotti, it was just another step on a road to stardom that began the middle of Tate’s sophomore year.
“Once he figured out he could be good, no one could stop him,” Condotti said.
Experience made H-F (28-2) hard for Rich Central (22-8) to stop Friday. Condotti returned his entire starting five from last year, including seniors Tate, 6-6 forward Brian Nussbaum and 6-foot guard Excell Hardy.
Those three and Hayes have played significant minutes since they were sophomores.
“We always knew when we hit high school we’d be a heck of a team,” Hayes said. “We’re doing things on the court now as a team, a unit.”
Balanced scoring and unselfish play have been the keys to Homewood-Flossmoor’s ability to live up to its preseason No. 1 ranking.
Late in Friday’s third quarter, for example, junior guard Freddie Barnes passed up an open layup on a fast break to feed junior forward Julian Wright for an even easier layup and a 38-29 lead. Wright, meanwhile, put on a second-half passing clinic while finishing with 17 points and six assists.
“If one guy doesn’t do it, the next guy steps up to the plate,” Tate said.
Friday’s victory was payback for Homewood-Flossmoor, which lost to Rich Central last season in the regional finals. Central coach Glen Hefferman bemoaned his team’s impatience on offense, a result perhaps of being too charged up for the game.
“Homewood-Flossmoor is not only a very good team but also a very smart team,” Hefferman said, “and that’s a hard combination when you’re trying to catch up.”
Tate, it would appear, has caught up. He has a scholarship waiting at Northern Illinois, and the former benchwarmer doesn’t touch the bench much anymore.
“It feels real good,” he said of his journey. “I’ll do whatever it takes to help the team win.”
———-