There has been a lot of discussion of where the IHSA seeding process is headed for basketball in this state.
How sectional seeds are determined could be changing dramatically as the IHSA is considering using the MaxPreps RPI seeding system.
The MaxPreps RPI system will be used this spring for the boys volleyball season, so the IHSA — and volleyball coaches — will get a feel for it and be able to produce some feedback.
Currently, basketball coaches hash out the seeds, submitting votes online towards the end of the season. The IHSA gathers the results from the coaches together and the brackets are released with all the sectional seeds and matchups.
The MaxPreps RPI system, which uses analytics in its algorithm, would eliminate coaches having any say in sectional seeds.
On the surface, it sounds like a sign of the times and how seeding has progressed. But is the system really that broken that it needs to be fixed?
Sure, there are some outliers. But in general there are so few questionable, eyebrow-raising seeds that are churned out from year to year.
There is no better proof of this than the fact, historically, the top seeds advance and do so consistently, particularly in the two largest classes.
If you use the past five seasons as a snapshot, there have been a combined 160 teams in 3A and 4A to advance to a sectional championship game. Only five of those 160 teams have been lower than a four seed. And 124 of those 160 title game seeds have been either a No. 1 or No. 2 seed.
Coaching openings
There is always turnover in high school basketball coaching. A number of coaches step down following every season throughout the Chicago area.
Deerfield and Oswego East are two of the openings this spring.
While maybe not the highest profile coaching jobs, they are positions where the coaches took each program to new heights. There were a lot of wins and success under Dan McKendrick at Deerfield and Ryan Velasquez at Oswego East.
The late great Steve Pappas had smashing success at Deerfield over a three-year period in the 1990s, including back-to-back sectional championships in 1996 and 1997.
But McKendrick steps away as the winningest coach in program history, highlighted by this past year’s state runner-up finish in Class 3A.
In 14 years, McKendrick’s team won 20-plus games seven times while winning five regional championships. He finishes his career with 261 wins.
Oswego East hasn’t been around all that long with its first varsity basketball season coming in 2005-06. Velasquez has been leading the program for the past nine years, compiling an impressive overall record of 198-71.
During his time leading the program, Oswego East never won fewer than 20 games in a season, minus the Covid-shortened season when the Wolves finished 10-3.
While winning an average of 22 games a year, Velasquez led the program to its only sectional championship in 2023, a school record 33 wins in 2021-22 and six conference championships.
No burger boys
The McDonald’s All-American game was recently played, and for the third consecutive year no Illinois high school basketball player was selected.
Former Joliet West star and current Michigan State point guard Jeremy Fears Jr. was the last player selected from Illinois in 2023.
Illinois had a historic run of McDonald’s All-Americans with at least one player chosen every year from 1978-2008. But in the 11 years since 2015, Illinois has had a grand total of three McDonald’s All-Americans: Fears, Max Christie (2021) of Rolling Meadows and DJ Steward (2022) of Young.