Kaneland making second half surge
Kaneland boys basketball coach Brian Johnson strives to teach more than how to run offensive sets and play full court defense.
He said for the past several games the surging Knights have taken the court in warm-up jerseys with the name of a cancer survivor or victim on the left breast.
"It just kind of reminds them that it's more than the game of basketball," Johnson said. "They're fighting for each other but they're also doing it to honor people in their lives and that they care about."
Maybe coincidence, maybe not, but Kaneland (11-10) has gone 6-3 since its ninth-place finish at Plano's Christmas Classic. In addition to usual suspects Ryan David and Dylan Vaca the Knights have gotten more scoring from center Jacob Gomes, guard Mark Lilly and guard Connor Fedderly, whose 2 free throws with less than a second remaining beat a solid Ottawa team 53-51 on Tuesday night.
"I'm excited how our boys are playing of late," Johnson said.
Kaneland hopes to duplicate a result from its post-holiday streak Friday when it visits DeKalb. The Knights nipped the Northern Illinois Big XII East leader 53-52 on Jan. 9, Vaca netting four 3s and 17 points plus 14 from forward David.
On Saturday Kaneland pairs hard court and community interests in the program's second annual Day and Knight of Basketball. Spanning sophomore and varsity games it presents six games from noon to Kaneland's 7:30 p.m. varsity game against Larkin.
Intriguing varsity matchups also include: 4:30 p.m. Champaign Centennial-North Chicago; and 6 p.m. St. Charles North-Hillcrest. The same schools' sophomore squads play from noon-3 p.m., in reverse order.
The daylong event includes a 50/50 raffle and other raffle prizes and an exhibition game by the eighth-grade Kaneland Cager program during halftime of the St. Charles North-Hillcrest game. The Kaneland cheer and pom squads will be there all day long.
Versions of the pregame jerseys the Knights have been wearing will be provided to each varsity team, Johnson noted. It may be too late at this point, but to help sponsor the event, the coach can be reached at brian.johnson@kaneland.org.
"I hope people come out to support it," he said. "It's something unique to our community. We don't see that style of basketball in our area, and so hopefully people come out and enjoy that style of hoops."
Respect the headband:
Kudos to Geneva senior Mike Landi.
In the Vikings' biggest game to date, the 75-63 rematch victory over St. Charles East on Feb. 5, each time a Saint got knocked to the floor and Landi was in the vicinity, the 6-foot-8 senior forward extended a hand and helped him up.
Those acts of sportsmanship do not always occur even on the high school level and particularly in a rivalry game such as that.
May it rub off. Respect the headband.
Gearing up:
Throughout 23 games Marmion (12-11) hasn't been more than one game below .500 or more than two games over .500.
"We just continue to work and improve on what we're doing," said Cadets coach Joe Currie.
They've been doing so while playing a schedule blending usual private-school opponents but heavier on larger public-school teams. Marmion's next three games reflect this.
The Cadets host Dundee-Crown and South Elgin on Friday-Saturday, then look to secure the outright Suburban Christian Conference title Monday against St. Francis. It will be the final SCC title - next season Marmion, St. Francis and Montini head to the Chicago Catholic League North and Aurora Christian goes to the Northeastern Athletic Conference (but stays in the CCL for football).
"Obviously the Francis game will decide a lot of things for conference," said Currie. Marmion, 4-1 in the SCC, holds a 1-game lead over the Spartans and Aurora Christian, which beat Marmion 64-48 on Feb. 6.
Currie said the Aurora Christian game was both "one of those games" and also "a good eye-opener for us."
The Cadets have a little bit of everything - rebounding specialist Matt Fletcher, top scorer Jake Esp, outside shooters such as Hunter Weber and Richie Jarnall, inside power in Evan Pickard and Luke Juriga, ballhandlers in Jon Young and Josh Ruddy and a senior who does all of the above, Jordan Glasgow. Marmion also promoted sophomore guard Myles Schoonover for a bit more defensive grit.
A .500 record doesn't do much for a team's playoff seeding, but Marmion's steady diet of Class 4A opponents does.
"Hopefully our schedule will benefit us as we get to the end here and get ready for the playoffs," Currie said.