High school basketball: Class 4A field set for a spectacular finish

The belief all season, particularly in Class 4A, was the 2022-23 season would be wide open. The expectation was there would be parity among the elite in the state’s largest class. 

Class 3A was a little different story. You had the defending state champs, Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin, and the state runner-up, Metamora, both returning virtually intact. Plus, you had mighty Simeon always lurking. 

If not for Sacred Heart-Griffin’s heartbreaking super-sectional loss in double overtime to East St. Louis, the exact same four teams from a year ago would be playing in Champaign.

But Class 4A? There was potential for a super team to emerge. 

St. Rita boasted three high-major juniors in Morez Johnson (Illinois), James Brown (North Carolina) and Nojus Indrusaitis (Iowa State). Maybe it was a year early to burden the Mustangs. But it just never quite came together with St. Rita finishing 23-11 and falling to Brother Rice in the sectional semifinals. 

There was Kenwood with star Dai Dai Ames, size, athleticism, depth and some big talk. Coach Mike Irvin’s team had success, winning just the second sectional title in program history. 

But the Broncos just never quite won the big one that would push them into elite status. Kenwood lost to Young in the Proviso West Holiday Tournament championship game, fell to Simeon in the city final and was drubbed by Downers Grove North in the super-sectional. 

Perennial power Young was always near the top of the rankings and had a pair of Division I seniors leading the way. But this Dolphins team simply didn’t match up with some of the great ones of the past. 

The dominant team that looked unbeatable by the time March rolled around never did emerge among a handful of hopefuls. 

As a result, opportunity awaits for one of these four finalists –– Benet, New Trier, Downers Grove North and Moline –– to win their first boys basketball state championship. It’s very rare when the final four teams in the state’s largest class are all without a state championship hardware in the school’s trophy case. 

The 2015 state finals had a foursome void of a team with a previous state title. But Bolingbrook, Normal and Geneva were staring at a super team led by one of the state’s all-time greats, Jalen Brunson, and three Division I players that, as expected, rolled through everyone.  

Benet, Moline and New Trier have all been very close. For Downers Grove North, it’s all uncharted territory with its inaugural trip to state. 

Under coach Gene Heidkamp, Benet has made two state championship games, losing in the finals both times –– to Curie in 2016 and to Young in 2014.

The 100-plus years of New Trier basketball has included a number of trips to state and four top four finishes. The best came way back in 1973; New Trier lost to Hirsch in the Class AA state title game. 

While Moline just won its first sectional in nearly two decades, it’s still a tradition-rich program with a long basketball history. Moline basketball has done everything but win a state championship. 

Everyone obviously heads to the State Finals with a chance; they’re there for a reason. But there are so many years where there is an obvious giant standing in the way of the other state qualifiers. 

Proviso East’s Three Amigos and King’s Twin Towers in the early 1990s led to those talent-rich Thornton teams banging their heads against the iconic four-peat Peoria Manual teams. Bad timing for Rocky Hill’s Wildcats. 

The 1998 Elite Eight was star-studded and absolutely loaded. But no one was taking down Young, Quentin Richardson and the Division I starting five of the Dolphins. 

The mega-stars in this state of the past 20 years have dominated. 

Jon Scheyer and Glenbrook North had an average victory margin of 17 points in their three wins in Peoria in 2005. Both Shaun Livingston of Peoria Central and Derrick Rose of Simeon, soon-to-be top four NBA draft picks, won repeat titles.

Brunson’s Stevenson team, Jahlil Okafor and Young, Jabari Parker’s Simeon teams and EJ Liddell’s back-to-back titles with Belleville West? Just more examples of individual talent being too much. 

And no one was beating Glenbard West last year. 

This year? Aside from Downers Grove North, a No. 4 seed in what was arguably the toughest sectional in the state, no one is surprised the other three made it to Champaign. New Trier, Benet and Moline were all No. 1 seeds in their respective sectionals. 

These are all really good teams. They have all established an identity. They head to Champaign with gaudy records and they’re all red-hot.

But there isn’t an unbeatable juggernaut among the four. 

This year’s Class 4A finals is somewhat reminiscent of the 4A qualifiers in 2008, the first year of the four-class system. A State Finals first-timer, Richards, held off Zion-Benton, Lockport and Evanston to claim its first and only state basketball championship. 

Fewer powerhouses means more teams with a puncher’s chance. That’s been the case throughout this postseason. Ask any basketball expert or coaches who have watched, played or scouted these four teams and the only consensus on 4A favorites right now is that there is no consensus. There isn’t any separation of teams, which should provide two terrific semifinal games. 

With the tournament trail now dwindled down to just four teams in Class 4A, the belief here –– and beyond –– is that all four can legitimately win two more games and claim a state championship. That is 100 percent realistic. 

And for one it will be a first.