Inside Boys Basketball

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Athlete of the Week

Sean Valentine

Prairie Ridge, sr.

Valentine led the Wolves with 14 points in their 52-32 victory over Cary-Grove on Feb. 3 as the Wolves ended a seven-game losing streak.

Valentine came back with eight points and a game-high 11 rebounds Wednesday at Dundee-Crown as the Wolves nearly pulled off an upset before falling, 44-39.

Valentine, a 6-foot-3 forward, is fifth in the area at 14.6 points a game.

Noteworthy

Seeds and pairings: The IHSA announced the regional seeds for Classes 3A and 4A on Thursday, then released the pairings Friday.

Huntley and D-C are the Nos. 1-2 seeds at the Class 4A Huntley Regional. The other two area teams to get top seeds – McHenry (at Cary-Grove in 4A) and Johnsburg (at Johnsburg in 3A) – have losing records at this point.

Crystal Lake Central (17-5) was seeded No. 3 at the Class 3A Marengo Regional and will face the home team in a play-in game.

Central coach Rich Czeslawski was displeased with the seed and believes the seeding process is flawed. There no longer are seeding meetings, where coaches can state their teams’ cases, and for several years now, the IHSA has predetermined regional sites and assignments.

Czeslawski, who is communications director for the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association, said the subject has been broached with the IHSA the past four years.

“It makes no sense. Why have the predetemined pods?” he said. “If you seed the whole sectional, it’s a better tournament.”

Czeslawski raises a good point. Huntley and D-C are the two best teams in the FVC Valley Division, but one of the other five teams will advance from the C-G Regional. Likewise, Central gets a third seed at Marengo, but easily could be a top seed at Johnsburg.

The IHSA lines up the predetermined regionals supposedly to reduce travel distances, although there still are some head-scratching lineups.

“The bottom line is you have to beat them all sometime,” Czeslawski said. “Now, we have a little more motivation to do that.”

D-C survives: Prairie Ridge almost knocked some of the luster off the FVC Valley Division’s big game today at Huntley. But the Chargers prevailed and could force a tie atop the division with a win today at Huntley.

“We’ve played them twice, and both times have been similar,” D-C coach Lance Huber said. “We start out hot and they put the clamps on us with their defense. We have to find a way to be more consistent on offense.”

Huntley (20-2 overall, 9-0 FVC Valley) can clinch a share of the title with a victory. D-C is 15-7, 8-1.

This week’s

top games

Dundee-Crown at Huntley

7 p.m. today

Defending champion Huntley can repeat as champion with a victory.

Grayslake Central at
Crystal Lake Central

7 p.m. Tuesday

Grayslake Central is well on its way to the FVC Fox title, but the defending champion Tigers would love to at least give the Rams one blemish in the division.

Richmond-Burton at Marengo

7 p.m. Tuesday

R-B is chasing Burlington Central in the Big Northern Conference East Division. The Indians are out of the race, but they can make it tougher for R-B with a victory.

– Joe Stevenson
jstevenson@shawmedia.com