May we have the 2007-08 basketball awards envelopes, please:
MapQuest Trophy: O’Fallon. There aren’t many Class 4A schools in southern Illinois, so the Panthers wound up making three trips to Bloomington-Normal for sectional and supersectional games. That’s a mere 1,000 miles and 16 hours on the bus within eight days.
Best reality series: “Marshall Law.” Shortly before the 50th anniversary season of the 1958 Marshall state championship team, the first Chicago team to win the state crown, Principal Juan Gardner fired coach Lamont Bryant. Bryant sued to get his job back.
Courtney Hargrays, a Marshall girls assistant coach and former boys star, took over and led the Commandos to the Class 3A title two weeks after athletic director/coach Dorothy Gaters led Marshall to her and the school’s eighth girls state crown. Hargrays assisted Gaters during that Final Four and wound up accepting two gold medals.
Best ‘based on a true story’ movie: “Englewood Forever.” When Louis Adams took over Englewood’s basketball program about five years ago, it lacked talent, discipline and tradition. Adams brought in a promising freshman group in 2004, but the following February, Chicago school officials announced that Englewood, one of the city’s worst-performing schools, would stop taking new freshmen. It would close in 2008, and its building began switching to a site for new, smaller high schools.
Those freshmen stuck around anyway, and this year the team had 12 of them, all seniors, in a school with only 140 students. Those dozen kids became one of the Chicago area’s top teams, shocking powerhouse Hales Franciscan 60-57 in a Class 2A regional title game before losing 70-68 to eventual state champion North Lawndale in the sectional finals.
Best coaching job, girls: Dorothy Gaters, Marshall. Marshall lacked the talent and basketball smarts you’d expect of a Class 3A champion, which made this Gaters’ most impressive coaching job. She described it as “like squeezing lemonade sometimes.”
Best coaching job, boys: John Chappetto, Richards. During the regular season, the Bulldogs had plenty of talent but not the look of a state champion. After squeaking by Eisenhower in the regional semifinals, they just kept getting better and won the Class 4A crown.
Toughest decision: Julie Chappetto. John’s wife had to decide whether to attend his team’s supersectional game at Chicago State or watch her son, Mt. Carmel senior guard Jimmy Hayes, at the Sears Centre 4A supersectional. She chose the latter and shot photos for Mt. Carmel, where she teaches. “John will still be coaching next season,” she explained before Evanston defeated Mt. Carmel.
Most maddening Final Four play: Blown dunks when games are still on the line. Marshall missed three dunks in the fourth quarter of its 63-57 Class 3A semifinal victory over Washington. (Hey, a layup is still worth two points, guys.) Then Simeon missed a tip-slam in the fourth quarter of its 69-61 title game loss. When did style points become more important than championships?
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Best defensive performance: Ryan Hare, Marshall. The 6-foot-4-inch senior guard-forward drew three charges in the Class 3A championship game to go with a team-high 19 points and five assists.
Favorite moment: The Central Suburban League boys all-conference team awards presentation. Standing amid some pretty big-name recipients was a 5-8, 155-pound guard from Maine West named Jimmy Orlowski. He had been cut from his 7th-grade team and had barely escaped that fate the next four years, but by his senior season he had turned himself into a solid player and great three-point shooter through almost unceasing practice. During that presentation, Orlowski wore a huge grin that was equal parts joy and amazement. No one deserved it more.
Toughest job: Forecasting the top Chicago-area boys teams for 2008-09. Curie, De La Salle, Evanston, Glenbrook North, Hales Franciscan, Marshall, North Lawndale, St. Joseph, Thornton, Young and Zion-Benton should all be strong, but who really knows until we complete the transfer season?
If 6-9 Stanley Simpson hadn’t switched from Leo to Simeon, for example, Simeon would have been strictly average instead of this year’s 3A runner-up. One big question now is where 6-6 Jereme Richmond, the state’s top-rated sophomore, ends up. He was kicked off Waukegan’s team about a month ago.
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Read Barry Temkin’s blog, “Upon Further Review,” at chicagosports.com/temkin