Last week, the Highland Park boys basketball team welcomed a newcomer to practice.
Doug Collins, former coach of the Chicago Bulls and three other NBA teams, spoke to the Giants and had a clear message for the mostly senior group.
“He talked about how, whether you play basketball in college, pro or the Olympics, that the best time is in high school,” senior center Jordan Krawitz said. “He told us to enjoy it with our friends and embrace it.”
Time is running out on the Giants’ season. For the seven seniors on the roster, the same holds true for their high school basketball careers.
“It’s setting in now that we’ve only got one regular season game left with the crew that we’ve been playing with since fourth grade,” Krawitz said after the Giants’ 57-35 loss on Saturday to Lake Forest at the City-Suburban Showdown. “It’s not games now — it’s just minutes, and we’re looking forward to every minute we have left together.”
“It’s definitely looming over all of the seniors’ heads,” senior guard Luke Norcia said. “We’ve had such a fun career here at Highland Park, and we just don’t want to play our last game.”
But the Giants (18-7, 7-3 Central Suburban North) recognize that they have a significant road ahead of them with the Class 4A playoffs starting next week.
More Top Picks Best Dust Boots With Velcro
“We know every game is going to be a grind in the playoffs,” Norcia said.
After drawing the No. 7 seed in the Waukegan Sectional, they will take on the winner of (10) New Trier and (23) Mundelein on Wednesday night at Mundelein.
“It’s that fine line,” coach Paul Harris said. “You don’t want to be so focused on [time running out] where it makes you play tight. But you want to be ready and excited and play with that urgency that we need at this time of year.”
As of Saturday’s loss to the No. 4 Scouts, the Giants had dropped three of four, also losing to Niles North and then Lake Zurich on senior night before taking down Glenbrook North in Friday’s conference finale.
Harris’ squad is trying to recapture its momentum entering postseason play. The 16th-year coach said that playing in front of a sold-out crowd of thousands at Saturday’s City-Suburban Showdown helped to ready the Giants for a similar, but possibly even decreased, big-game feel in the playoffs.
“It was great experience for our guys to play in this kind of environment,” Harris said. “I think it’ll help prepare us, but even at the regional final we played in last year [a win over Lake Forest], we knew what was at stake, but we didn’t have a crowd like this.
“It’s something that the guys will always remember. But I think they’ll always remember that they wanted to play better.”
Sam Brief is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.