Yes, Kenwood is the No. 1 ranked team in Class 4A.
In last week’s IHSA 4A boys basketball AP state rankings, eight of the top 10 were Chicago area teams.
In the most recent Class 3A poll, DePaul Prep, Brother Rice, St. Laurence and Kankakee were the top four ranked teams in the state.
But there are a whole mess of teams that have put together tremendous regular seasons from across the state. It’s time to get familiar with 11 of those 4A and 3A teams outside the Chicago area as state tournament time is on the horizon.
Class 3A
Metamora (24-6)
The buzz: This program has become a familiar name around the state in recent years. That’s what happens when you play in two state championship games and win 94 games the past three years.
While the Redbirds may not possess as much firepower as the last three seasons, it’s still a dangerous 24-win team with a bonafide star in Bradley recruit Matthew Zobrist. The 6-4 senior is a monster. He’s averaging 20.1 points a game and has buried 85 three-pointers on the year while adding four rebounds and 3.2 assists a game.
The road: The road to Champaign is extremely tough.
There isn’t a Class 3A team with a tougher regional than the Redbirds. They will need to beat a state-ranked Morton team in the regional championship, followed by Kankakee and Peoria in the sectional. Playing three state-ranked teams before the super-sectional is a very real possibility — and significant obstacle — for Metamora.
Morton (21-6)
The buzz: This team has taken off since a very shaky 2-5 start to its season. The Potters are 19-1 since with a Pekin Holiday Tournament title and wins over St. Ignatius, Mount Carmel, Normal, Moline and Metamora. That’s a pretty healthy résumé for a 21-win team.
Wes Gudeman, who was the Pekin Tournament MVP in December, is a multi-faceted 6-5 senior. The lefty brings an old school approach and game. He can post up, put it on the floor, pass and shoot the three while not exactly looking like a basketball go-to star.
The road: It’s filled with early potholes but ones the Potters are familiar with.
The sub-sectional of the Washington Sectional includes two 3A powers and two of the state’s elite players in Metamora and Matthew Zobrist and Peoria and Leshawn Stowers. Throw in a 20-win East Peoria that is the only team to have beaten Morton in two months and it’s a rugged road just to get to the sectional championship. The likely opponent there would be Kankakee.
Peoria (24-6)
The buzz: This is the best Peoria team since the 2012 state championship team. They are scrappy, tough and boast a star. However, this proud program hasn’t won 20 games or a sectional championship since 2012.
With star senior LeShawn Stowers, who is headed to Miami-Ohio, that drought could come to an end. The 6-3 bully of a guard is a game-changer. He does it all for the Lions, averaging 17.5 points, 7.2 rebounds and four assists a game.
While there was a rough three-week stretch in January for the Lions, the upside is evident with wins over Bolingbrook, Morton, Rock Island and Metamora.
The road: Peoria will be heavily favored to reach the sectional championship game where they would be matched up against either Metamora, Morton or Kankakee.
Then it would be on to the Pontiac Super to potentially face Brother Rice, a top sectional seed and last week’s No. 2 ranked team in Class 3A.
Centralia (25-4)
The buzz: Centralia won 32 games a year ago and reached the super-sectional, losing 47-46 to Mt. Zion. The Orphans are back for more and looking to return to the State Finals for the first time since finishing second in 2011.
This is a team that beat two Chicago area ranked stalwarts, Marist and Evanston, to win the Centralia Holiday Tournament in December. The Orphans rattled off 18 straight wins before an upset loss to Marion this past weekend.
This Centralia team has been lifted by the arrival of freshman Archie Goewey, who was the tournament MVP of the Centralia Holiday Tournament. Goewey, 6-4 senior Dustyn Collins and 6-2 sophomore Michael Organ lead the way.
The road: It’s never easy advancing in state tournament play, but the Orphans have one of the more favorable routes to Champaign. There isn’t a state-ranked team in the sectional. Then in the Super it could be either Decatur MacArthur or Lincoln, teams with a combined 16 losses on the season.
Class 4A
Quincy (27-3)
The buzz: There is plenty of it. That’s what happens in this basketball-crazed town when the goal — and realistic one — is a state championship. This is one of the state favorites after suffering a grueling and impossible to forget sectional final loss a year ago.
The Blue Devils have Santa Clara recruit Bradley Longcor, an unselfish star averaging 17.5 points a game. Keshaun Thomas is a 6-5, 225-pound warrior who averages 14.7 points and 8.8 rebounds a game.
The road: It will be a long one — literally.
Quincy will have to travel 150-plus miles for every postseason game it plays this season.
On the floor, the Blue Devils will be favored to win the Collinsville Sectional where a combination of Edwardsville (25-2), Normal (24-4), Moline (24-6), Rock Island (24-6) and Alton (22-6) are all vying for the three other semifinal spots. It won’t be easy to get two wins there. The Blue Devils lost to Rock Island on Tuesday.
The Collinsville Sectional feeds into the Illinois State Super. A Quincy-Bolingbrook Super could be the best of all the supers.
Edwardsville (26-2)
The buzz: Edwardsville has had some dynamite teams over the years. There was the 30-1 state quarterfinal team in 2006. The 2013 and 2014 teams that finished third and fourth in the state, respectively. But this is the best team since the 2016-17 team that won a sectional and finished 30-2.
The Tigers feature a big-time scoring weapon in 6-1 senior Herbert Martin, an attacking guard who is averaging 22 points a game. Micah Butler (14 ppg) is a serious shooting threat with 77 three-pointers on the year.
The road: A potential deep state tournament run gets dicey very quick. Edwardsville will need to beat a dangerous Alton team — on the road — in the regional, a team it split with during the regular season. Then it’s a showdown with Quincy, the state’s No. 2 ranked team, in the sectional semis.
Normal (24-6)
The buzz: A thrilling four-overtime win over Peoria Richwoods recently continued what has been one heck of a season for a team that graduated all five starters from last year’s team. If you remember, that team reached the Class 4A state championship game where it lost to Homewood-Flossmoor.
But people forget the job coach Dave Witzig has done in his 25 years at Normal, winning three state trophies (runner-up finishes in 2015 and 2024) and 20-plus games in 14 of the past 17 years and
The Ironmen are led by the vastly improved play of big man Kobe Walker. The 6-9 Central Michigan recruit is having a huge season, averaging 20 points and 12 rebounds a game. He went for 24 points and 23 rebounds in a win this past weekend.
Normal has beaten Metamora, Moline and Peoria. They did lose to Waubonsie Valley 53-44 back in January.
The road: The Ironmen play rival Normal West on the road in the regional semifinals, which will be just five days after those two play in the regular-season finale.
With a win they face big man Nick Allen and Bradley-Bourbonnais, a team Normal beat 50-38 in late December. They would then get the Moline-Rock Island winner in the sectional semis.
Moline (24-7)
The buzz: There is star power with a team that boasts 6-5 Trey Taylor and 6-4 Braden Freeman on the floor and Hall of Fame coach Sean Taylor on the bench.
Taylor (18.5 ppg, 7.4 rpg) is the program’s winningest player and second all-time leading scorer, while Freeman (17.5 ppg, 6.2 apg), the brother of current Iowa star Owen Freeman, is a Division I player who has signed with Cal-Poly who has surpassed 1,000 career points.
The road: A local showdown awaits immediately with rival Rock Island in the regional final. The two split during the regular season and have a combined 49 wins between them. Normal, Edwardsville and Quincy could all stand in the way in the Collinsville Sectional.
Rock Island (26-5)
The buzz: The Rocks beat top-ranked Quincy at home on Tuesday and played them tough on the road in January.
Coach Marc Polite has four double-figure scorers in Lawson Zulu (14.4 ppg), Benjamin Goeh (14.3 ppg), Deven Marshall (13.5 ppg) and Jae’vion Clark-Pugh (10.3 ppg). Marshall is an exciting sophomore backcourt talent.
The road: A regional title matchup with Moline in the legendary Wharton Fieldhouse will always be special. That’s what is likely in store for Quad Cities basketball next week. But it could also mean a quick out for a Rocks team that, pardon the pun, faces one rocky road to a sectional title.
Alton (23-6)
The buzz: They haven’t been prominently ranked or featured this season, but the Redbirds have one of the better juniors in the state. The game-wrecking Stampley is averaging just over 20 points a game and shoots 41 percent from beyond the arc (74 three-pointers).
The road: There should be some confidence in knowing it has beaten the team standing in their way of a regional title. Alton knocked off Edwardsville in December with Stampley scoring 20 points. But Edwardsville won the second matchup, 53-52, one month ago.
A win would lead to a very tall task on its state tournament road: knocking off top-ranked Quincy in the sectional semifinals.
Rockford Guilford (24-4)
The buzz: This has to be the most puzzling 23-win team you’ll find.
They have lost to both Young and Curie. Fine. But the other two losses have come to Oswego and Proviso West, teams who are a combined 19-40 and in last place in their respective conferences.
Guilford, led by junior guard Branden Chatman (17.7 ppg) and Jaden Webster (11.9 ppg), has beaten talented Rockford Auburn twice and last week knocked off a red-hot Stevenson team, so it makes them a very worthy team in the Waukegan Sectional.
The road: If it can take care of Rockford East in the regional championship, the Vikings would likely square off with Waukegan, the top seed in the sub-sectional, in the sectional semis.