High school basketball: Phoenix Gill lives up to the family name, sparkles in Champaign

CHAMPAIGN — Phoenix Gill wasn’t wearing orange and blue on Friday. St. Ignatius has a maroon and gold color scheme. But he did have number 13 on his back at State Farm Center, just 50 or 60 feet below where his dad Kendall’s 13 hangs in the rafters. 

Kendall Gill was sitting with the other parents, wearing a St. Ignatius baseball hat and Illinois lettermen’s jacket as he hung on every play in the Class 3A state semifinal game against Simeon. 

The Wolfpack lost, but sophomore Phoenix Gill scored a game-high 21 points and announced himself as one of the state’s best young players. 

“It was special,” Gill said. “But honestly, I’m pretty mad. I could have done more to help the team win. But it is a special moment for sure.”

Before the game dad reminisced about his own trip to the state finals in Champaign back at Rich Central. He led the Olympians to a second-place finish in 1986.

“I was in the same building in the same position 37 years ago when my brother and I competed,” Kendall Gill said. “I know what he is going through.”

St. Ignatius is a fantastic academic school, but its athletics teams have achieved a new level of success the past two years. Gill was a freshman on the team that finished third in Class 3A last season. He didn’t play at state. 

“Being at state two years in a row is incredible,” Kendall Gill said. “I didn’t know that would happen when we picked St. Ignatius so that’s been really fortunate.”

Gill had a reputation last year as one of the state’s better young players. But he wasn’t a highly-ranked grade school superstar. 

“I didn’t have him playing much AAU,” Kendall Gill said. “I’m not a big believer in AAU, that’s why he only plays one or two tournaments a year. I believe the summer is for building basketball IQ and skills.”

Kendall Gill believes a lot of the often-injured NBA stars played too much basketball when they were young. 

“The kids play way too much today,” Gill said. “Phoenix will take a month off after today. It’s not about where you are ranked now, in high school. It’s about where you finish as an adult.”

Gill averaged 11.1 points this season, the second-leading scorer on the Wolfpack. 

“I’m not one who looks at the rankings and all that stuff,” Gill said. “What people say about me, really I try to tune that out. I’m just looking to what I can do for my team and what I can do to help us win on the court.” 

Gill, a 6-3 guard, clearly took a step forward on the big stage in Champaign. He already has a scholarship offer from Illinois.

“He’s really grown up a lot throughout the course of the year,” St. Ignatius coach Matt Monroe said. “He’s worked extremely hard to go from a player that wasn’t on the radar with recruiting services to becoming one of the top-rated kids in his class.”

None of the area’s major stars advanced to the State Finals, so Gill was one of the most intriguing players for neutral fans. 

“He’s playing with a lot of confidence now,” Monroe said. “He’s been great at making decisions and he’s really matured as a player. He has a great appreciation for the name that goes on the back of his jersey. But he’s also his own individual.”

Kendall Gill, a 15-year NBA veteran, hasn’t been ruffling any feathers in the St. Ignatius program. 

“Kendall is an all-star parent,” Monroe said. “He’s super-supportive. He is extremely gracious. He will help whenever we need him, and he has never overstepped his bounds. I couldn’t ask for better parents than Kendall and his wife Wendy.”