I miss Sonny Cox' periodic rants against the IHSA.

My dream is to have city schools, either public or private but within the city limits, win all eight basketball championships in one year. Fuck the IHSA and watered down 4-class basketball.

I'm curious to see what will happen with St. Joe with Gene Pingatore's death. They were hemmoraging enrollment already, especially to Montini. I don't know if the church let's them stay open another five years if they start shitting the bed in basketball. I have several relatives who went there from Westchester and SW Berwyn, so it has been a program I followed.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

The IHSA hates everyone north of I-80.

And I believe that in the very near future we will see things go back to how they were pre 1975. The end of catholic league football is not sitting well with many schools.

I just noticed St Rita is now playing 5A football which means that there enrollment is down significantly too like St Joe's.

And the church has no say in whether they stay open based on how they are currently constituted. And if it's just to be a basketball factory then they will go the way of Driscoll.

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Hey fans - the Mudlarks are still in the thick of things this football season in the Valley Conference, riding the legs of one Chance Macy in the quest for the conference championship and hopefully a deep run in the playoffs this year, but it is never too early to talk about hoops. Milford lost a couple of seniors to graduation, but the story of this years team will be the continued development of junior Marcell Irby. This is a name you want to remember, because his contributions down the stretch last year were instrumental in their success. He has soft hands around the rim but also has the ability to step back and take a mid-range jumper as well and make it with consistency. He lacks upper body strength, but the word on the street is that he hit the weight room hard with Coach Thorp and Coach Kaz over the summer and we could see a new, more powerful Irby taking it to the rim more often than not. His shot-altering abilities on defense are undeniable, but with some added bulk he could be a real force defensively as well. This team could be a darkhorse in the Valley this year, but realistically next season may be when things really start to click for the ‘Larks hoop squad.

Catch all the action with me, Marty Moon, on Milford’s own WDIG for each and every game this season!

0-2 so far.

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Saw Notre Dame beat DePaul last night. Both are serious teams with a lot of talent. Louis Lesmond transferred to ND from Evanston. He threw down a monster dunk over DePaul's big man. Notre Dame has this kid Anthony Sayles who can jump out of the gym. He seems like more of an athlete than a basketball player. I think he is going to play quarterback at Duke. They also have a couple of 6'6" white guys who look uncoordinated but are actually anything but. They both have really complete games.

DePaul is faster than hell and their big guy Brian Matthews seems unstoppable in the post but they had trouble getting him the ball down low, or maybe that wasn't the game plan. I didn't really like the way Kleinschmidt ran the team last night. He seems to like deliberate play rather than trying to exploit his team's speed and quickness. But who the fuck am I? Just some dope watching from the bleachers. Anyway, a very entertaining game and two really good teams.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Notre Dame is the real deal. They should contend for a state title. The tall white kid on DePaul doesn't have much game unless something has changed.

Having said that, ND still refuses to schedule. Little Crest's school.

Little Crest had 18 yesterday and they won their first game.

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Matthews is a strong post player. He doesn't appear to have the best hands.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Or footwork.

And he is a 15 yr old Jr. He's a real good kid. My son enjoys competing with him.

He said ND is real good, and that they are championship caliber trash talkers as well.

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Bloom is really good and from what I have seen deserving of their ranking. Start 4 D1 signees and a fifth with offers. The four who signed are actually from their district. The 5th showed up from Plainfield East this year.

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And he is a Div 1 player. Met and talked with his dad this summer.

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3 wins a row, Friday will be 4.

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That Shumate kid is a monster.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Got a chance to see him play at Wintrust yesterday. Saw this alley oop play on an out of bounds. In live action it looked as if he was going to touch the top of the square.
Ed Anderson (@cthalite3) Tweeted:
And then this happened... Christian Shumate w the monster Jam. @greatandgritty @michaelsobrien @suntimes_preps @chilandprephoop https://t.co/Kk5T9adjMs https://twitter.com/cthalite3/status/12 ... 65985?s=20

Can't see anyone beating them for State.

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So we are playing a team from Central Illinois soon and they didn't want to trade. Contacted four teams they already played and three responded with the exact same email. "Can't trade. Coach is a friend of mine." I guess they really do stick together outside of the Chicagoland area.

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Thornton knocked off an injured Bloom squad last night. Not many better places to watch a good game than Thornton's gym.

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I gotta tell you there is no atmosphere in high school hoops that matches when Oakwood comes to the old Milford Fieldhouse when the Valley Championship is on the line. You do NOT want to be on the road in that atmosphere when all the chips are on the table in that kind of bedlam, despite Coach Thorp’s antiquated schemes.

I'm probably going to the first day of the York tournament with a couple of my cousins and their middle school kids. We'd gone to Proviso West many times over the years, but the oldest kid is going to Sandburg next year and they are playing at York. I didn't realize that they even had a tournament, it seems to be pretty new.

I looked through the teams, a lot of mediocre public schools and a bunch of Catholic schools. Oh well, I love my nephew so I will humor him for the day.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

It's amazing how easy it is to get video now due to Hudl, funny that schools refuse to share film though. That one game shouldn't have a ton of effect on regional seeding.

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An unjust law is no law at all--St. Augustine of Hippo

Cause tried and true
I see the light in you
Oh, can you dig in my soul?
Could you smell my whole...
life?--Gener and Deaner

We ended up getting a film from someone who wasn't a friend of coach. I think I have added 10 games this week on Hudl. Basketball coaches have become a lot more willing to trade over the last five years. I think most people have come to realize it is better to trade than spend even more time from home scouting. Outside of tournaments, we may not have to go see one team live unless we really want to.

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Our oldest son played in the York tourney 15 years ago.

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I used to live nearby and don't remember it. Maybe they just renamed it after this old guy more recently.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

I know of a coach that was fired and one of the reasons that he was fired was because he placed his team in the Jack Tosh Christmas tournament.

The Principal of the school wanted to play competitive basketball which meant that he wanted the coach to refrain from placing his team in crappy ass tournaments such as that one.

When he took a look at the field in that particular tournament he was like hell no this dude has to go.

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And then York probably smoked his team in the Regional final.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

That tournament was filled with tomato cans.

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That principal sounds like a fucking idiot. The Dipper is a shell of its former self after the previous principal burned that tourney to the ground. Hinsdale Central and Proviso West are still good. So unless you are going to shell out money to go out of town, there are very few top level tournaments you can even get in.

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Pontiac is the best tournament and the Principal (My guy) was spot on. He canned that crappy ass coach and the guy he hired had the school playing "Big Boy" ball shortly after the dude was canned.

That tournament (York) had a huge field (32 teams) and about 28 of them were outright dogs. Meanwhile the guy he whacked took his losing ass ways out to the Southwest and now Western Suburbs. School he took over had 2 D1 players already in place when he got there and a couple of years later they are winless. The school he happens to be at now has a bit of a tradition and had a highly regarded coach in place before they hired that clown. Doubt if they stand for all of the losing for much longer

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The coach who replaced him blew won one regional, won two more and then was very average the last two seasons and is now gone. All done by relying on transfers.

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The guy he replaced has never won anything anywhere. He also nearly dropped to the white division and had all of the writers lobbying for him as if he was an elite coach. Every program (including the one in which he was fired from) were better prior to his arrival. He also didn't have the kids playing in anything during the spring/summer and never had college coaches in to see any of the players. He was an absolute joke of a coach and the principal that whacked him knew being a former ball guy himself. The proof is as they say "in the pudding" as less than two years after he was hired his team is already on the "pay no mind list". This after taking over a team that was ranked prior to his arrival.

As far as transfers go the former coach took on a slew of transfers himself. They just weren't all that good.
He was as they say "exactly what everyone thought he was"

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The York field is shit. I do not follow the HS game that carefully any more, but I'd be stunned if those 32 teams win more than one sectional.

The Proviso tournament is a cluster fuck since they expanded. My former HS was there, my cousin's was there, and one of my nephews was an assistant coach for a third team. So I went as often as I could.

One of my cousins who lives downstate loves the Pontiac tournament, but I never felt like driving that far.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

Little Crest got Teed Up Saturday


He's grounded until next year for that.

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