Lane a threat with Solebo, Scantlebury
With a Super 25 ranking and the return of a Division I talent in Shaheed Solebo, Lane was receiving plenty of preseason hype in November.
These were to be uncharted waters for a program that has been building under coach Nick LoGalbo.
Lane, however, lost promising 6-8 big man Dalton Scantlebury to injury for all of December. He slowly returned in January. But as the Champions passed the midway point of the season, they were 11-10 and a bit of an afterthought.
A six-game winning streak, which included recent victories against Lincoln Park and Young, is a reminder that Lane should not be counted out as a major threat in these last few weeks of the season.
On Tuesday night, LoGalbo’s team hosts Simeon in the city quarterfinals in what is arguably the biggest regular-season game for the program in decades. Lane fans are now imagining beating Young and Simeon in the same season.
Solebo, who surpassed 1,000 career points in January, has been his stat-filling self. The 6-5 uncommitted senior is averaging 15.5 points, 4.1 rebounds and two assists. Also, the return of Scantlebury (11.1 ppg, 9.3 rpg) has made a big difference.
Blue Demons vacancy
DePaul and director of athletics DeWayne Peevy are in the beginning stages of their search to replace recently fired Tony Stubblefield.
There’s a groundswell of support from a group of Chicago-area high school coaches for DePaul Prep coach Tom Kleinschmidt, the Blue Demons legend from the 1990s, to replace Stubblefield.
A large group of coaches from the Chicago Catholic League and East Suburban Catholic Conference have reached out to Peevy and DePaul decision-makers to get them to consider hiring Kleinschmidt. In a lengthy letter signed by 24 coaches from the two leagues, they “vehemently support coach Tom Kleinschmidt to be the next Head Coach of DePaul University.”
“The challenges for the Blue Demons have been and continue to be daunting,” the letter reads. “Coach Kleinschmidt thrives on the impossible.”
Kleinschmidt starred at DePaul, scoring 1,837 career points. He was part of former DePaul coach Jerry Wainwright’s staff during the 2009-10 season.
As a high school coach, he turned DePaul Prep into a power, winning a state championship last season.
Evanston is back
Coach Mike Ellis has taken three teams to a state championship game — twice while at Peoria Richwoods and once at Evanston.
He has won 20-plus games 15 times and has captured seven sectional championships. He was the City/Suburban Coach of the Year in 2018.
But we might be seeing his best job of coaching this season.
Evanston didn’t return any starters from a year ago. There were no hot-shot, big-name young players in the pipeline. But the Wildkits (19-9) are on the cusp of another 20-win season while getting better and becoming a bigger threat by the week.
Last week, the Wildkits not only took care of rival New Trier but also beat two quality teams in St. Patrick and De La Salle.
Ellis’ team was young and inexperienced coming into the season. It was going to take time to acclimate to playing major minutes at the varsity level. But the Wildkits are competing and defending.
Evanston is led by junior guard Theo Rocca, who averages 14 points. Morgan Brown, last year’s sixth man, and point guard Brandon Watson average eight points apiece.