2007-2008 Boys Basketball  Week-3, Top-10 Poll A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith (12-20-2007)

CHESTERTON (12-20-2007) The decline of the holiday tournament and the rise of the 14-game league schedule makes for a two-week quality gap after Friday, Dec. 21.  The problem is, it's too easy for athletic departments to take the holidays off.  It's hard to blame someone for not wanting to organize and execute an eight-team, two or three days event when he or she could be home with their families.  I also don't know how much profit you can make off two days of marathon basketball involving teams from someplace else.

The day of the Christmas tournament may have come and gone with just a couple of old faithfuls hanging on.  The best setup still remains in Gary where, even with the addition of Bowman Academy to the field (I don't know why Calumet high school isn't in the Gary Holiday tournament?  Isn't Calumet in Gary?), all the Gary teams are basically home for the holidays even though they're playing at West Side.

The second best set-up belongs to the South County folks who take four border rivals and play a two-night, alternating (yearly) site match-up that basically brings friends (and enemies) and neighbors together and creates a two-night fund-raiser for the athletic departments.

I've been to both tourneys and though they don't know it, they are almost exactly the same in creating the atmosphere that's very much correct for high school basketball.  While many old timers still live in the one-game Friday night experience, I've always thought that four-team, single-elimination tournaments are what the game is all about at this level.  Two teams play.  Two teams watch.  The loser's play for third place and the winners play for a trophy.  And people come to watch because there's always someone interested in a championship game.

Who else should get together?  Somewhere we've got to get the old Michigan City Holiday Tournament back together.  That was some semblance of the great missing link in Northwest Indiana basketball: The Duneland Athletic Conference (DAC) tournament.

For years, the Michigan City Holiday tournament matched MC, Valparaiso, LaPorte and Portage, half of the DAC.  For years, lots of people liked it.  Lots of people attended it.  Then the rocket scientists in the DAC got together in a bunker somewhere and decided that a sleep-inducing, 14-game league marathon was better than a four-team showcase in the league's biggest gym.  It was a brain-dead thought then and the 'blunder from down under' keeps on hurting region basketball years later as the Hanover Central-Lowell game is now arguably the No. 3 local highlight of the boys holiday season.

East Chicago should also stay home.  Instead of traveling to North Central to help them make money, EC should hosts its own Christmas tournament against a couple of willing Indiana and/or Illinois foes.  I think they could afford to give up one of those epic showdown games with Lew Wallace to bring some marquee teams to the region.

Let's not lie about it.  Outside of the DAC and the PCC, it's a rough year in NW Indiana.  In a year when Andrean, Gary Roosevelt and Munster are below .500 and 4A schools like Highland and Morton are 0-6, this region is in the sub-basement compared to the rest of the state.

1.  (4A) Chesterton (5-0)
2007  (16-7) 2006 (14-9), 2005 (9-12), 2004 (13-8)

CHESTERTON:  The arguments as to why Chesterton isn't much good continue, but so do the victories.  The Trojans average 70 points a game and are 5-0 against 4A schools.  Chesterton has ALWAYS received the short end of the stick consistently from the local NW Indiana media because they're at the east end of Porter County, which is the dark side of the moon to local basketball watchers.  It's simply easier for the papers and the radio stations to cover Munster.  But with 25% of the regular season in the books, the Trojans are off to as good a start as they could have hoped.  And it's not a surprise.  Chesterton returned four starters and their two leading scorers from last year.

Guard Tommy Peller scored 17 in a 73-50 victory last week over Portage (5-2) as Zack Novak was 'held' to 28 points.  After five games, Chesterton had 37 three-point field goals, but was only 57-of-90 from the foul line.  Now, somebody eventually will cool them down.  Chesterton has run to a lead of at least four points in the first quarter of all five game so far and a lead of at least nine or more in four games.  That's got to stop.  I still think the Trojans are a little slow compared to the other top squads, but it didn't appear that way against Merrillville.  This is an unusual big school team full of multi-sport athletes that is going to be difficult to deal with.  They have handed Merrillville and Portage their worst defeats so far.  Teams that want to win at the Michigan City regional may have to find a defensive match for Novak (27 ppg.).  Teams that want to win the sectional have been looking for such a match for three years now.

CROWN POINT:  Crown Point should be 6-0.  The schedule isn't that tough yet.  Only occasionally have the Bulldogs played like last season when they won 12 of their last 16 and finished second in the DAC.  DAC teams have spent the off-season doing serious game-planning.  The CP backcourt stars Kyle Hanaway and Stephen Albrecht and the pair is finding it more difficult to rake in the gold they scored last season.  That's the problem with Chesterton, Crown Point or Merrillville playing the same team three times a year to the point where they know your middle name and every move you have.  CP needs to get more out of the bench and they did in a 51-50 win over Michigan City when Michael Lipton and Jake Burkholder came off the pines to total 16 points.  CP is in a good place.  Nobody's injured and they know prime time is still ahead.  The 76-53 win over Griffith (with 19 points and 13 rebounds from Aleks Alavanja) is nice, but CP should beat Griffith every year.  This team has no excuses.  CP has more seniors than an old folks home in Fort Lauderdale.  Nobody on their schedule should scare them.  The New Year's Day game against 2A No. 1 Winchester (7-0) is getting bigger.  But the Dec. 28 game at arch-rival Merrillville and the Jan. 4 game with undefeated Chesterton (5-0) won't get any smaller.

3.  (4A) East Chicago (4-1)
2007 (22-3) 2006 (19-5), 2005 (13-8), 2004 (13-10)

EAST CHICAGO:  The Cardinals romped past winless Highland Tuesday (12-18-2007), but they still haven't beaten anybody with a winning record.  The early schedule has not been a proving ground.  The one thing you have to love about East Chicago is, they can (they are independent) and will schedule anybody.  As soon as the new 1A Gary school Bowman Academy (4-0) whipped up on Gary Roosevelt on Dec. 7, East Chicago signed them up for a game on Feb. 19.  I wish the IHSAA limit on games was lifted so everyone could schedule that way.  Prep basketball would be a much better game if you could pick up the phone and challenge anybody to a game.  The Cards might need to entertain themselves because, as of this week in the 7-team 4A East Chicago Sectional field, only East Chicago and Gary West Side (2-1) had winning records.  That's pretty soft for a team with 6-10 Angel Garcia and 6-5 Kawaan Short up front and, just like Lovie Smith, you get absolutely no credit for what you did last year.  Obviously, this team has talent and they do play the big guys.  Super-power Lawrence North (5-1) is coming.  Howe Academy (4-0), averaging 82 points a game, is coming.  Crown Point (5-1) and Gary West Side (2-1) are headed for East Chicago.  Like it or not, the Cardinals carry that state championship bulls-eye on their backs now and they didn't get it done in Indianapolis against a crippled Warren Central team.  What they don't need is nine days off before the North Central Holiday Tournament.  There's too much bragging about how great EC is.  They certainly have not proven it so far this year as of yet.

MERRILLVILLE:  The Pirates have losses to Chesterton (5-0) and Michigan City (3-2) already in the DAC and, while that's no big deal in the 14-game league schedule, it can't be doing much for their confidence to have every game be as close as the DAC contests have been.  The Pirates have a lot of experienced talent and they should be better than they've been in the first 25% of the season.  I'm surprised with the speed they have at guard and the size up front that teams are scoring almost 55 points a game on them.  Lots of teams start slowly and then a big win sparks them to another level.  You can't play at peak level all year.  Arch-rivals Valparaiso (Dec. 21) and Crown Point (Dec. 28) are next and the Pirates need two wins here for their own confidence.  They have more than they have shown.

5.  (4A) Gary West Side (2-1)
2007 (14-7), 2006 (7-14), 2005 (19-5), 2004 (12-7)

GARY:   You just can't play once in a while and stay highly-ranked.  The Cougars are in the midst of a 17-day break in the schedule, which means they'll basically start the season over on Dec. 22 against Howe (4-1) in the Indianapolis Public School (IPS) 'Shootout' in Indianapolis and good luck there, trying to handle one of the state's highest scoring (83 ppg.) teams.  Who knows how good West Side is and they probably won't know until after the Gary Holiday Tournament on Dec. 26-28.  I realize there's only three other Gary public schools now and the 'Side' has always been willing to play almost anybody.  But they didn't this month.  And the Cougars will come out of that 17-day break to play five times in one week.  They will take a loss or two before the end of the month.  It doesn't matter how good they are.  You can't be highly ranked if you don't play.  But play five games in one week and you won't be highly ranked, either.  Blame it on the schedule-maker.  But hey, let me know when you find work.

6.  (2A) Bishop Noll (5-1)
2007 (9-13), 2006 (6-15), 2005 (8-14), 2004 (15-10)

HAMMOND:  Bishop Noll isn't really a 2A team, because outside of their league they don't play 2A schools.  The Warriors are 2-0 against 4As and they have dominated 2A foes like Lake Station, a 76-48 victim last Saturday.  As much as you may like Wheeler (4-0) and Hanover Central (4-2), anyone who tells you that Bishop Noll isn't the favorite in 2A Sectional 33 is crazier than Britney's sister.  Noll plays 15 teams that are either 3A or 4A while Hanover and Wheeler simply do not.  The trick for Noll is to play hard EVERY night instead of every other night.  There needs to be a sense of urgency here.  Class 2A is not very tough in this part of the state.  The Noll boys have to decide how serious they are about advancing deep into the state tourney, because, when they beat Wheeler Friday (Dec. 21) , the door will appear wide open.

7.  (3A) Wirt (3-1)
2007 (14-9), 2006 (12-9), 2005 (9-12), 2004 (6-15)

GARY:  Wirt struggled since a 13-day break early this month.  They lost to Lew Wallace (5-2) and then barely beat sub-.500 Munster in two overtimes.  The Huntington North team Wirt defeated is also below .500.  There really is no inside game here to compliment top guards like DeAndre Allen, whose game-winning shot beat Munster (2-4).  Wirt travels to Indianapolis Saturday (Dec. 22) to take on those Northwest Space Pioneers (3-0) in the Indianapolis Public School Shootout.  If Wirt, Roosevelt and Gary West Side are all in the IPS shootout this Saturday how come the memo didn't get to Lew Wallace (5-2), which is in the middle of a 10-day layoff?  Anyway, the same truth walks here as it does for West Side.  You can't take 10 days to two weeks off and still be the same team.  It just doesn't work that way.

8.  (4A) Michigan City (3-4)
2007 (8-13), 2006 (9-12), 2005 (6-16), 2004 (2-19)

9.  (3A) Clark (4-1)
2007 (21-5), 2006 (16-7), 2005 (8-13), 2004 (12-9)

HAMMOND:  Clark has just the one loss to undefeated St. Joseph's (6-0), a loss that was very positive in the respect that it was not against a local team.  Clark didn't travel for years, preferring short bus rides and local foes.  This year, at least one time, they stepped out of their comfort zone and experienced some real Indiana basketball.  That loss is the Pioneers' claim to fame so far, because Clark's other four victims are about as thrilling as the Republican presidential candidates.  The Pioneers' schedule won't test them.  I appreciate them playing in the four-team (Hobart, Wheeler and Griffith) Wheeler Holiday tourney next week.  But Clark plays no DAC, East Chicago or Gary teams and you can't call yourself a power unless you do.  The Pioneers need to roll up big win totals to impress the local folks, but I think they will and Clark needs only to beat Calumet and Wirt (like last year) to get another shot at Plymouth at regional time.  Clark needs to beware of underachieving Hammond (3-2) Saturday night.

10.  (3A) Calumet (4-1)
2007 (14-8), 2006 (4-19), 2005 (4-17), 2004 (2-20)

GARY:  The Warriors haven't played in 10 days due to a postponement at North Newton and this is a team that cant do that.  Now unless their schedule has changed, Calumet has a two-week break after their Dec. 21 game at 1A Marquette (4-2).  Calumet's schedule is a lot tougher in the final 10 games than it is in the first 10.  It would almost have to be.  Polls are about how good you are now and if you're not playing, you're not very good.  You won't even recognize many of Calumet's players by the time they get back to work in January.  And coach Carl Traicoff is just sitting around getting older.  You simply can't take huge slices of time off and stay the same team.  I think Calumet is 10th based on seeing them almost a month ago, but we can't really even discuss Calumet again until they restart their season.

On the outside looking in...

(1A) Morgan Township (4-2)
2007  (16-9), 2006 (5-16), 2005 (10-14), 2004 (19-4)

MORGAN TOWNSHIP:  Morgan has won four in a row after an 0-2 start.  The Cherokees were very strong in a 51-33 win over Hebron and defensively, they've allowed just 44 points a game.  It's all about the tournaments in the Porter County Conference (PCC) and the Cherokees are in the middle of a 13-day break leading into the four-team South County Tournament.  The size of this team (no one over 6-2) is a major concern in a year when the PCC is very tall overall.  If you aren't familiar with the PCC, you may not understand how this is possible, but Morgan Township can still meet arch-rival and neighbor Kouts (4-2) four times in the next 2 1/2 months.  Morgan's second of three potential meetings with Hebron is Dec. 28 in the South County Tournament at Morgan.

(2A) Hanover Central  (4-2)
2007 (9-11), 2006 (7-14), 2005 (6-14), 2004 (11-10)

CEDAR LAKE:  Hanover woke everybody up with a first-ever win over Munster four weeks ago, but the home win 61-55 over South Central last weekend was more significant because HC needed to win at home in league play.  There is a reason they added Griffith and Munster to a schedule that already included Clark and Calumet.  The only way HC can compete with Bishop Noll at sectional time is if they take on a lot of 3A and 4A schools like Noll does.  There is a trio of scoring threats here with 6-3 Andrew DeYoung, 6-2 Jordan Rizo and 5-10 distance shooting star Charlie Huffnagle.  HC has three centers with 6-7 Tim Kubiak, 6-4 Aaron Jackson and 6-2 Jerrod Howard and Howard might be the most consistent.  The Wildcats are 4-0 at home and need a road win sooner or later.  It needs to be sooner.  The truth will be told here in January when Hanover Central is on the road the entire month.

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Revised: December 25, 2007 .