The taking-turns offense served Curie well.
That’s how Curie guard Elijah Joiner described the balance he struck with Devin Gage in the Condors’ backcourt last season.
More than play off one another, Joiner and Gage took turns doing their thing.
Joiner’s damage typically came during quarters one through three, Gage owned the fourth, and the understanding they came to worked so well they hoisted the Class 4A trophy together.
“We won 27 games last year and lost three,” Joiner said. “So I can’t complain too much about that.”
With Gage now playing for DePaul, Joiner becomes the Condors’ go-to scorer, but the pressure to duplicate Gage’s knack for fourth-quarter heroics will likely be light.
The 6-foot-2 Joiner, a Tulsa recruit who averaged 11 points a game as a junior, still has 6-8 twins Treavon and Tyree Martin, point guard Allante Pickens and 6-5 senior Terry Smith on his side.
They are the No. 1 team in the Tribune Top 20, but their new leader is working on convincing them otherwise.
“We still feel like we’re the underdog,” Joiner said. “People are still always talking about Simeon and Morgan Park.”
Simeon is ranked No. 3. Morgan Park is ranked No. 2.
Like Curie, both have future Division I guards who have waited their turns to make the transition from secondary scorer to top dog.
Joiner, Simeon senior Evan Gilyard and Morgan Park junior Ayo Dosunmu should have a lot to say about how the 2016-17 season turns out — figuratively if not literally.
“When we step between the lines it all takes care of itself,” Joiner said. “So I try to limit the trash talking off the court. I notice it, but I try to stay away from it.”
During the first several weeks of the 2015-16 season, Simeon coach Robert Smith said Gilyard was the team’s best performer, which may or may not have been intended to motivate current Gonzaga freshman Zach Norvell.
What motivated the 5-9 Gilyard to speak his mind was a December matchup with the eventual Mr. Basketball of Illinois winner, Morgan Park’s Charlie Moore.
A major-conference future looked like a strong possibility after he outplayed, outscored and stole the ball from the California freshman in a key sequence late in Simeon’s 60-57 victory over then-No. 1 Morgan Park.
“It feels good,” Gilyard said at the time, “but me, I already know who the best point guard is.”
Perhaps as Smith planned all along, the Wolverines became Norvell’s team down the stretch as they won the city championship and advanced to the 4A semifinals in Peoria.
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Gilyard certainly did his part, including a 14-point fourth quarter of Simeon’s 54-49 victory over Kenwood in the city championship game, and he entered the spring AAU season ready to carry the mantle.
But Evanston’s Nojel Eastern was on his AAU team. So was high-scoring guard Alonzo Verge, now with Thornton.
“He didn’t have a great spring,” Smith said. “When they played (under) 16s, he was the man. With 17s those other guys were more the focal point. That was an adjustment period, but he made the best of it and I think that will help us.”
What Gilyard, who signed with Texas-El Paso, thinks will help his ascension to the leadership role is cohesion.
For the first time in Gilyard’s four varsity seasons, Simeon isn’t integrating any transfers.
“We’ve got people who’ve been in the system for a minute,” Gilyard said. “That is the only thing different. Everybody has been in the system and they know how Coach Rob is and he like to run his team.”
Simeon has less size than usual but two other promising point guards in junior Kezo Brown and sophomore Kejuan Clements.
The pecking order is clear, and Gilyard is ready to right perceived slights.
“I have a chip on my shoulder toward everybody,” Gilyard said. “Everybody’s going to get the same treatment.”
Moore had a sensational senior season for Morgan Park last winter, but there were times when the Mustangs needed a consistent No. 2 scorer.
With capable options abound, coach Nick Irvin wanted it to be his sophomore, Dosunmu.
“I would tell him to be more aggressive and he would say, ‘Nick, I’m learning from Charlie, I’m learning from Jarrin (Randall), It is their time,'” Irvin said. “Really good kid, really humble. The way he carries himself you’d never know he can play.”
It became pretty clear in the off-season.
The long-armed, 6-3 guard became the belle of Illinois’ 2018 class on the AAU circuit, checking in at No. 26 on 247Sports’ composite national ranking.
While he scored 51 in Morgan Park’s 116-55 season-opening victory over Bowen, he may not be the volume shooter Moore was.
“His basketball IQ is so high,” Irvin said. “He can play off the ball, score with it in hands, he’s good off screen-roll, he can hit a spot-up. He takes what the defense gives him and doesn’t force his game.
“And he can pass. That’s what makes him so good. He loves when people double team. You’re not going to force him into a mistake. You can’t speed him up.”
As usual, Morgan Park has talent up and down the roster. Cam Irvin, Nick’s nephew, is a lights-out shooter, and sophomore Lamond Johnson is expected to follow Dosunmu in the Mustangs’ line of great guards.
There’s also 6-7 Romelo Burrell, 6-7 Lenell Henry, 6-8 Tamell Pearson and 6-6 Aaron Cash.
The key, though, is Dosunmu.
“I embrace the challenge,” he said. “I’m ready for it.”
Mike Helfgot is a freelance reporter for the baiduhai.