Throughout the school year, Niles North teams have experienced their first taste of the Central Suburban South after the school’s athletic program moved from the North division.
While the Vikings boys basketball team regularly had plenty of competition from the likes of Glenbrook North, Highland Park and Deerfield in the CSL North, a move to the CSL South means facing schools with larger enrollments and, often, more height.
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In case the smallish Vikings needed a reminder of just what they’re up against in the CSL South, the schedule makers had them open conference play against arguably the division’s biggest and best teams: Evanston and New Trier.
“It’s a baptism by fire,” said Niles North coach Glenn Olson, who coached in the CSL North for nine years, spending two years in charge at Maine East before coming to Niles North ahead of the 2009-10 season.
While the Vikings lost 70-56 at Evanston on Dec. 2, Niles North turned in a much stronger effort in a 57-55 home loss to New Trier on Dec. 9 in Skokie. The Vikings (4-3, 0-2) had chances to tie or take the lead in the game’s final 8 seconds.
“It was one of our better games that we ever played,” said Niles North junior guard Damaria Franklin, a Skokie resident. “We played better defense versus New Trier than we did against Evanston and we shared the ball more.”
Franklin tied for team-high scoring honors with 18 points against the Trevians.
Without a player over 6-foot-4, Niles North opened conference play against an Evanston team featuring a 6-6 point guard, two 6-4 wings and a 6-6 center. New Trier took that to another level with 6-8 and 6-9 post players. The Vikings visit Maine South on Friday, and the Hawks feature a 6-4 guard and a pair of 6-7 frontcourt players.
“Size does make a difference in basketball. There is no NBA team that starts five 6-3 guys,” Olson said. “We’re not going to grow overnight, so that’s why we have to rely so much on disrupting the other team’s offense, turning teams over, making them a little uncomfortable. Kids are finally starting to see that, ‘Hey, if we do this, if we play embarrassingly hard, we give ourselves a chance.’ “
Olson added: “We didn’t do that against Evanston. We played on our heels. (The New Trier game) wasn’t perfect, but I feel we took a step in the right direction.”
Olson said having a difficult early-conference schedule has highlighted some of the areas in which the team needs to improve. The coach said film study has been valuable in correcting those mistakes.
“Playing against Evanston there were certain things exposed about our team, and the same on Friday versus New Trier,” Olson said. “Now it’s on us as a coaching staff and players to respond to those lessons and get better.”
At one point in the week leading up to the New Trier game, Olson showed his current squad the first half of Niles North’s 2015 Class 4A regional semifinal game against Zion-Benton, a game in which the Vikings’ 73-68 victory was later overturned because Niles North had an ineligible player.
But the video served as a reminder of just how hard the 2015 team battled.
“I think (seeing that game) helped us, just seeing how those guys competed, what they did and what we should be doing,” said junior Jamal Stephenson, a Skokie resident who was a freshman on that team. “The Evanston game hurt, but seeing that film made us hungrier.”
Stephenson scored 18 points against New Trier, all in the first half.
Dan Shalin is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
Twitter @Pioneer_Press