Notre Dame, the No. 3 ranked team in the Sun-Times Super 25, survived an absolutely grueling 10 days.
Coach Kevin Clancy’s Dons played five games, with four of the five opponents a combined 30-3 and ranked No. 2, No. 4, No. 8 and No. 15 in the current Sun-Times Super 25.
Plus, Notre Dame played Marian Catholic, Loyola and Bogan without arguably its most important player, point guard Anthony Sayles. The talented 6-2 junior sat out the week nursing a sore knee that isn’t expected to keep him out too much longer.
Behind juniors Troy D’Amico and Louis Lesmond, a pair of Division I prospects, and unheralded senior Jason Bergstrom, the Dons handed Bogan its first loss of the season on Sunday. The fact Notre Dame survived the quick, athletic and tenacious Bengals without its point guard says a lot about the growth and maturity of this team over the past 10 days.
Having already played five teams ranked among the top 20 and going 8-2 thus far, along with future dates with ranked Fenwick, Morgan Park, Simeon and Benet, Clancy’s team will be as prepared as possible for March and its Class 3A road.
Big winners in Class 3A sectional assignments
There are a number of teams who dropped from Class 4A to Class 3A this year. The two biggest winners in making the move to 3A are Fenwick and Notre Dame.
Fenwick, which lost to Curie in a regional final last season, will be in a Class 3A St. Ignatius Sectional with little to no depth. The Friars will battle Catholic League foe DePaul Prep for the top seed in a couple of months.
Notre Dame will be an overwhelming favorite to capture the Grayslake North Sectional. The Dons, who would be a threat in any class with three Division I players, do avoid a Class 4A sectional that would have included a pair of teams that are currently unbeaten in Evanston and Loyola.
Meanwhile, Benet may be the one team to have the misfortune of dropping down to Class 3A. The perennial Class 4A power now has Bogan in its sectional and potentially Morgan Park in a super-sectional.
The Addison Trail Sectional Benet would have played in if it had stayed a Class 4A school has just one ranked team — Lake Park.
Why are they playing in Evanston?
When it comes to the IHSA state tournament in March, there is nothing more unappealing or makes less sense than having the Lyons and Bloom sectional winners playing in the Evanston Super.
But that’s what we have following the IHSA’s release last week of the boys basketball state sectional assignments.
The two loaded sectionals at Lyons and Bloom feature powers from the city’s South Side and south suburbs. There’s a great chance there will be a sectional winner traveling 40 or 50 miles to Northwestern’s Welsh-Ryan Arena on a Tuesday night at rush hour and play in front of hundreds of fans, which Curie and Simeon did a year ago.
Maybe certain potential sites didn’t step up and offer to host a super-sectional. But it’s something the IHSA needs to address. A smaller venue like St. Xavier — or even a large high school gym like Lyons — that’s more centrally located would make more sense.
The IHSA preaches geographical representation for its state tournament. That should include super-sectional sites.
