Proviso West used to be the deal. We played in it and got blasted in the first game and lost the consolation game but it was still a great experience anyway

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This game was heartbreaking for me. I couldn't believe they lost to a hillbilly team. It wasn't even close. Future .295 big league hitter Kevin Seitzer coming off the bench for Lincoln.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfXOFqJHd_k&t=848s

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Ecclesiastes 5:8

bunch of old farts

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

@conns
@Terry's Peeps
@good dolphin's nephew

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ys5ujaP ... SAArchives

Edit: Obviously, this doesn't happen if Behn Wilson is alive.

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Hell of an era.

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Yeah East had 3 pros on that 91 team. Donnie Boyce was probably the best of the bunch but the knee injury derailed his career. Watching the game this weekend and Kenny McReynolds stated that Ben Wilson was the best high school player he'd ever seen. I was in elementary school when he was killed but i did see a little bit of him. Disagree with that statement though.

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I remember going to see Gordon Tech play at Hales during Kleinschmidt and my senior year in High School. Hales had a couple of guards, Tunji Thurmond and Michael Hermon, (both Freshman at the time) that were among the best Freshman in the country. Tunji was and still is a good friend of mine. I was going to check him out and didn't know shit about Michael Hermon. After that particular game I did though. He gave Gordon Tech (mostly Antoine Gillespie) 30 as a freshman, but Hales was no match for Gordon Tech.

The funniest thing from that game for me was seeing the "Rambling Rox" Sonny Cox stroll in with Rashaad Griffith and the entire lineup from King's team that year. It was a show of force that was meant to show Tunji what a mistake that he'd made by deciding to attend Hales instead of King. During the summer Cox had stated that Tunji was the going to be the best guard to come out of Chicago since Isiah Thomas. Then Tunji dissed him and decided to attend Hales instead. Safe to say that Cox was pissed

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Who was the best?

I never saw him play--just the highlights, but a senior guard at MC told us that he was "easily" the best player in the state that year.

Christ, even if he were half as good as advertised, the Illini very likely win it all.

Boyce was fun to watch. That whole team was fun to watch.

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For me, Isiah was easily the best.

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Ecclesiastes 5:8

Are we sure he wasn't going to DePaul?

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Ecclesiastes 5:8

Good call on Isaiah. I wonder who ltg has?

Yeah, I thought Jimmy Collins had him going to Champaign, though I don't think it was official. I thought I remembered them interviewing Henson about it. Could be wrong, though.

I think the CPS was done with DePaul by that time.

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When Ben Wilson was killed he was rated the No. 1 player in the country. When he was killed it was the thought that he was a lock for DePaul but Nick Anderson (whom he got to transfer from Prosser) said years later that he was going to Illinois

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I never saw Isiah in High School or College. I know Jorr has. The best High School player I ever saw was Marcus Liberty. The little bit I saw of Ben Wilson Liberty was better.
They were 2 years apart. Never hooked it up during the regular season but King and Simeon would lock up in the summer and the word was When Liberty would play against him as a Sophomore he got the best of the match up. He should have been a much better pro. They dude was the truth. He regretted the decision to go to Illinois and said if he had to do it over he would have went to Syracuse

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Of the big time guys Yeah you're right. Joey Meyer signed Melvon Foster from Harper and My guy Belefia Parks from Simeon but that was about it. The top guys out of the Public League would not touch DePaul.
Cox vowed to never send a kid to DePaul after what they did to Teddy Grubbs back in the day. Although Ray Meyer really did nothing to him According to people in the know. He just had Demons.

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Grubbs was in prison with my partner, I think at Dixon. He had problems before he ever got to DePaul. Maybe Sonny should have asked why he couldn't help him himself instead of blaming old ass Ray Meyer who was probably confused by it all.

Anyway, I'll never forget that game he had against UCLA as a freshman where he threw up 28 at Pauley.

I always thought Aguirre was great and I liked him better than Isiah, especially when Isiah snubbed DePaul for Indiana, but if I'm honest, Isiah was the best high school player I've seen.

Also, I was at the championship game in Peoria where Simeon beat Richwoods in overtime in that terrible low scoring game. If you look at the box score it looks like Rose didn't do much, but he controlled where everyone on both teams was on the floor. It was something to see if you knew what you were watching.

Finally, another great high school player I'd put in any conversation who doesn't get much attention because he played for a downstate Class A school was Marty Simmons. Tough motherfucker. Played on a couple good Indiana teams and then transferred to Evansville where he made that program.

Best player I saw this year is that point guard from Moline who is going to Iowa.

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Ecclesiastes 5:8

He definitely never reached his ceiling.

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Trib list from a few years back, but it's alphabetical: https://archive.ph/oPMyC

I would have liked to have seen Jack Sikma play. I read a book about a small-town team down near Danville, and these people were insane about their basketball. Still are. I was taking photos last summer of a prairie in Iroquois County and met an old-timer who talked for almost two hours about the local hoops history.

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That list is okay but it leaves out plenty of guys that should be on the list. Lee Arthur Scott and Art Hicks belong in the conversation of the best high school players ever.

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Ecclesiastes 5:8

state championships were must watch tv, even for a little kid

now, I barely watch my own team play in it

different world

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

I remember that game (sort of) against UCLA too. I was really young at the time though.
Teddy Grubbs never played for Sonny though. That's why I never understood why he made his vow to never deal with DePaul. He became King's coach in the early 80's.
As far as Ray Meyer went, it was well known that he (like Sonny) took care of former players. He tried his damnest to help Skip Dillard, Bernard Randolph and even Teddy Grubbs as I remember.
Sonny Cox probably saved Johnny Selvie's life. When he caught the drug case while in high school, Sonny paid for the lawyer who helped him get probation. After that he made sure that he attended college and even got him a job with the board once he was done paying basketball. Aside from being a basketball coach, he was also a counselor so this sort of thing was part of his training I guess.

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Going to four classes was a bad idea. People complained when they went to two. You'll never have a Hebron or a Cobden again. Of course it's not likely that some little hillbilly team from a school with an enrollment of 100 is going to knock off Simeon or New Trier, but if it happened once every twenty-five years it would be worth it.

The shot clock is going to kill the chances of a lot of those downstate teams now anyway.

One more thing. I can't say enough about Rob Walls from DePaul Prep. I would compare him to Howard Nathan. He's that quick. I don't know why he left Kenwood. I would guess playing time. I hope he doesn't leave DePaul for the same reason. If he can get through next season, he'll be a superstar on a super team in 24-25.

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Ecclesiastes 5:8

Kenwood had two kids with D1 offers coming off their bench this year. They also added what would have been a starter at Hillcrest and he was relegated to mop up duty this year.

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No, they wouldn't have.

Looks like Dr. Ken isn't the only irretrievably deluded Illini fan around here.

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They very likely would have TM. Ben Wilson, Nick Anderson, Kendall Gill, Marcus Liberty, Kenny Battle, Stephen Bardo, Larrry Smith, Lowell Hamilton (who was better than Bardo) would have been favorites to win it all.

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That's why Underwood made the smart decision to stick with the Irvins rather than kissing Simeon's ass and take their "B" players only to have the real superstars go to Memphis or Duke.

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Ecclesiastes 5:8

They should have won it all anyway. If they played Michigan ten times they would have beaten them 8 or 9.

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Ecclesiastes 5:8

Yep, graduated in 94 the year he was there. I remember the name and can kind of picture him, but don't recall having any interaction with him. Only guys on the team I hung with were Tommy and Will Macon. A couple other guys I got to know when I was in law school and running the law school intramueral (sp) league, I fired all the expensive refs and hired guys from the team to come in and ref for half the price.

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Yep. Riding the Simeon Wave has killed one of my really good friends that is a college coach for decades. He is really close with Robert Smith, but he never was able to sign the All American types like Rose or Parker. Couldn't even get them to visit campus. However he could get the C list type guys to sign and soon transfer because they were playing above their level.
I once asked him about a dude he'd signed and he told me "what people don't know is that he guarded Derrick Rose everyday in practice". I said so don't sign the dude that guarded Derrick Rose in practice, sign Derrick Rose. Or at least another starter from that squad. You signed the backup to play mid major D1 ball from a team that aside from Rose were really D2 guys

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I was in a grad achool class with Andy Laux. He was there a little before you (played with Strickland) and I remember him having some interesting things to say about Pat Kennedy at the time. I could tell that he was not a huge fan.

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My favorite part about 1991 was years later when I was in law school at DePaul I put together a really good team of law students and we went on to win the DePaul open division intramural league. In the semi's beat a team of all former DePaul players and current walk ons. They had Terry Davis as well as Jim Mitchum at center. we best them pretty good and TD was so mad he threw a chair across the gym. Couldn't believe he just got worked by a bunch of law students.

We were pretty loaded. Our best player was a guy who started as a freshman for some games at TCU at point guard before tearing his ACL and transferring to D3. He started at Arkansas vs Todd Day and Lee Mayberry and years later he's playing intramurals with us.

But we also had this guy....and he wasn't even our second best player....

https://www.ihsa.org/archive/bkb/mm/1991baa.htm
All-Tournament Team
Player & School Ht. Yr.
Dan Cross, Carbondale 6-2 Jr.
Michael Finley, Maywood (Proviso East) 6-4 Jr.
Sherrell Ford, Maywood (Proviso East) 6-6 Jr.
Howard Nathan, Peoria (Manual) 5-11 Jr.
Matt Williams, Libertyville 6-4 Jr.


Our buddy was first team all state all tournament team along with Finley, Ford and Howard Nathan. He didn't move too well, but he could knock down shots like it was pop a shot.

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