Red-South/Central tops rankings
No. 1
While the depth is likely a little deeper in the Public League’s Red-North/West, the elite teams at the top of the Red-South/Central still make it the best conference in the state of Illinois.
The Nos. 1, 2, 4 and 8 teams in the Super 25 reside in the Red-South/Central, and the league could produce two state champions. Curie is the No. 1-ranked team in Class 4A, and Simeon is always a threat. Bogan and Morgan Park are two of the top title contenders in Class 3A.
Conference rankings midway through the season in the Chicago area look like this: 1. Red-South/Central; 2. Red-North/West; 3. Central Suburban League South; 4. West Suburban Silver; 5. Catholic League Blue.
Evanston and New Trier headline the CSL South. Both are ranked and have 32 wins between them. Glenbrook South has 14 wins, while Maine South, which picked up a nice victory over Leo on Sunday, and Niles North have 10 wins each.
The West Suburban Silver, featuring ranked Oak Park and York at the top, have five teams with 11-plus wins on the year. The Catholic League Blue has three teams ranked in the top 25 — DePaul Prep, Loyola and St. Laurence.
No. 2
After falling to Quincy Notre Dame and Providence St. Mel in the State Farm Classic in Bloomington over the holidays, Aurora Christian bounced back in a big way Friday with a comeback win in overtime against Riverside-Brookfield.
Coach Dan Beebe’s team, which improved to 16-3, hopes to be a major player in March as Aurora Christian makes the jump from Class 1A to 2A. The Eagles, who lost in a sectional final last year, will host a sectional this year that will include defending state champ Orr.
While junior guard Taaj Davis is rock-solid and the emergence of sophomore guard Jaehshon Thomas has been a big boost, 6-6 junior Will Wolfe is the reason the Eagles can be considered among the top small-school teams in Illinois.
Wolfe was terrific Friday with 27 points, scoring in every way imaginable. He’s among the City/Suburban Hoops Report’s top 20 prospects in the Class of 2020 and a legitimate Division I prospect.
No. 3
Thankfully, this season has provided a couple of pretty injury-free months — until last week.
Highly regarded St. Viator lost half of its potent 1-2 punch of Jeremiah Hernandez and Trey Calvin when Calvin, the star point guard, went down with an injury in practice.
St. Viator headed into last weekend ranked among the top 10 teams in the Super 25 with visions of repeating as East Suburban Catholic Conference champs and making a deep run in Class 3A. That’s in jeopardy as Calvin, who’s headed to Wright State next year, broke his left hand and is expected to miss a minimum of six weeks.
The Lions, who lost to Notre Dame and Waukegan last weekend without Calvin, not only lost their point guard and perimeter shooting threat (42 percent three-point shooter), but also 17 points, 4.1 assists, 5.4 rebounds and 2.5 steals a game.