No. 1 Bolingbrook and No. 9 Geneva finally lost.
On the same Friday night that the Raiders and Vikings were knocked from the ranks of the unbeaten by Lincoln-Way East and St. Charles North, No. 2 Young lost to No. 5 Simeon and No. 3 Curie lost to No. 4 Morgan Park in the semifinals of the Public League playoffs.
With at least one eye looking ahead to Sunday’s city championship game, Simeon lost to No. 8 Evanston and Morgan Park to Stevenson in the City-Suburban Showdown on Saturday in Arlington Heights, throwing the rankings into chaos.
Further complicating the matter, Simeon played great in Sunday’s 68-64 victory over Morgan Park, making the Wolverines the champions of the two toughest tournaments in Illinois this season — Public League and Pontiac.
Evanston did not play in either tournament, but not only do the well-traveled Wildkits (23-3) have just one loss to an Illinois team (Naperville North), they defeated Simeon soundly on Saturday, 56-38.
So, as the regular season concludes this week for Class 3A and 4A teams and the 1A and 2A playoffs begin, who’s No. 1?
“It doesn’t matter,” Simeon coach Robert Smith said following his team’s city championship victory. “It doesn’t make a difference. They beat us last night. We could play them again Wednesday and it could be a different outcome. Plus this (Morgan Park) game was big for us.
“It doesn’t matter who’s No. 1 now. We can be wherever at this point. We just want to get some rest and get ready for the regionals. In the regional I think we have to play Marian Catholic, so it’s not going to be easy at all.”
On the eve of the postseason, the identity of the best team in the state has yet to reveal itself.
What’s clear is that Evanston has the resume of a No. 1 team — the other two teams it lost to, Montverde (Fla.) and Philadelphia Imhotep, are ranked in the Top 10 nationally by USA Today — and as long as the Wildkits defeat Deerfield (17-10) in the Central Suburban League crossover championship game Wednesday night, that’s what they’ll be entering the state playoffs.
“No. 1 is great for our fan base, alumni, student body,” Evanston coach Mike Ellis said. “As far as the 15 guys in the locker room, we never set out to be No. 1. We set other goals, and that is what we keep our focus on.”
Ellis, of course, was referring to the postseason, and he’s much more concerned with Deerfield and Maine South than Evanston.
Both CSL rivals are extremely well-coached with a recent history of success against the Wildkits, and the Maine South-Deerfield winner in the regional semifinals will most likely oppose Evanston in the Class 4A Niles West Regional final.
“Our focus is more there,” Ellis said.
Showdown shake-up? One of the premier events on the high school basketball calendar for two decades, the City-Suburban has the gravitas to attract Simeon as a regular participant.
The timing, however, has come in conflict with the city tournament the past few seasons, sandwiched between the city semifinals and championship game without any days off in between.
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A switch to an earlier date may be necessary to keep Simeon coming back.
“It’s their event,” Smith said. “I can’t talk to them about it. The only other side of it is I may not be able to play anymore. If it is not going to be beneficial to our kids, I can’t keep setting them up for failure.”
The event is run by David Kaplan‘s Integrity Group. The Chicago sports broadcaster and former college assistant coach said he is receptive to concerns about the event’s date.
“We might have to look at adjusting the date,” Kaplan said. “I completely understand. I coached at Northern Illinois and I remember going to the city championship game. To me Chicago is the best city for high school basketball and I want to make sure teams are at peak efficiency for that event as well as ours. Whatever we have to do.”
Mid-Suburban showdown: No. 5 Fremd (25-0) has not played a schedule on par with the Public League teams its ranked between, but the Vikings have faced more Top 20 teams than they did while going 25-0 in the 2013-14 regular season.
They have one more significant hurdle to clear before entering the playoffs undefeated again. Fremd, the Mid-Suburban West champ, will play at No. 12 Prospect, the MSL East winner Wednesday night.
The Knights (22-4) are as hot as anybody, rolling off 12 straight wins since falling to Waukegan in the second round of the Wheeling Hardwood Classic.
Regional powers: Uplift (21-5) and Orr (16-5) are ranked No. 2 and No. 3, respectively, among all Class 2A teams in Illinois by the Associated Press, behind only Quincy Notre Dame.
Yet the Public League teams were seeded first and third, respectively, out of the 10 teams in Sub-Sectional B of the Guerin Sectional.
The result figures to be a Peoria-caliber matchup in Friday night’s regional final at Orr. DePaul Prep (18-9) drew the fortuitous No. 2 seed and can avoid Uplift and Orr until the sectional final.
Orr defeated Uplift 82-73 in last year’s DePaul Prep Sectional final.
Mike Helfgot is a freelance reporter for the baiduhai.