The buzzer sounded on Benet’s triumph over Warren a little over two weeks ago to end the 2024-25 high school basketball season. It’s time to take a look back at what transpired over the past four months.
Best story: Dyett
As Dyett marched closer to an appearance in the IHSA State Finals in Champaign, the intrigue of just who is Dyett grew. Think NCAA Tournament selection Sunday and college basketball fans across the country diving into and rallying around a Fairleigh Dickinson, Hampton or Troy for the first time in their sports lives.
Unknown Dyett, a Class 2A school in the Washington Park neighborhood on the south side of Chicago, not only crashed the party for the first time in history but upset Belleville Althoff in winning the whole thing.
Dyett, which had never won a sectional before this season, opened in 1972 and became an arts high school in 2016-17.
Anyone paying close attention knows it wasn’t an unlikely run. But it still came from a team — and school — few, if any, knew anything about when the season began.
Biggest story: DePaul’s Three-Peat
The number of programs in the state to win three straight state championships is a miniscule one. But coach Tom Kleinschmidt’s DePaul Prep team joined elite company by claiming a Class 3A title in March.
Peoria Manual won four in a row in the 1990s, while Simeon won four straight from 2010-2013.
With three returning starters, DePaul Prep will shoot for its fourth consecutive state championship next season.
Best game: Rich 86, Marist 85 (OT)
There was a postseason atmosphere with a raucous crowd. There were plenty of points scored. There was a dramatic comeback and drama in the closing seconds. And the most important piece were the stakes in a win or go home sectional championship game.
Marist led by 18 points at one point, 14 in the third quarter and was up 75-70 with less than a minute remaining in regulation. Jamson Coulter’s free throw with five seconds to play sent the game to overtime and Nyshawn Turner’s free throw with four seconds in overtime gave Rich the win.
Career achievement award: Luke Smith, Addison Trail
My goodness what a career Smith put together, albeit in relative obscurity for the majority of his four years.
Smith finished his career with a whopping 2,531 points and leaves as the all-time career record holder in points, rebounds (625), assists (321), steals (186) and three-pointers made (289). He also broke the single-game scoring record with 46 points in a January game against Proviso East and assists with 12.
Best Conference: Public League’s Red Shield
This was a tough call. And very easy to debate. But the Public League’s best edges the Catholic League’s best. Barely.
The head-to-head? In the biggest Public vs. Catholic matchups this season, Kenwood beat DePaul early in the season and Simeon beat St. Ignatius in the regional.
The Catholic League truly did have an incredibly impressive season. But the league’s postseason rampage had a lot to do with two factors:
a) Wide-ranging sectional geographical representation. The top five teams in the Catholic Blue were in five different sectionals.
b) Success in an inferior Class 3A (minus Loyola’s 4A regional title), where early-round matchups are simply way more winnable.
A prime example of the latter is Curie, Simeon and Young had to beat the following just to win a regional championship: highly-ranked, 29-win Hinsdale Central, 25-win St. Ignatius with Phoenix Gill, and a ranked 23-win Lincoln Park team.
Meanwhile, Brother Rice, Mount Carmel and DePaul won their 3A regional title games by an average victory margin of 32 points.
It’s not the Public League’s fault every top team was placed in the same — and best — Class 4A sectional. There were four Red Shield teams playing in the Hinsdale Central Sectional semifinals.
Biggest rankings jumper: Evanston
The Wildkits were unranked when the season began. Now four months later coach Mike Ellis’ team finished the season at No. 4, following a trip to the IHSA State Finals and a third-place finish in Class 4A.
This overachieving group won the Central Suburban League South and finished with 31 wins on the season.
Biggest rankings dropper: Lincoln Park
The two biggest drops were Niles North and Lincoln Park, two teams ranked No. 11 and No. 12, respectively, in the preseason Super 25. But Niles North won 27 games, a conference championship and advanced to a Class 4A sectional.
It’s not as if Lincoln Park had a bad season. The Lions won 23 games and finished second in the Public League’s Red Shield. But they fell out of the rankings as a result of coming up short in the biggest games, falling in the title game of the Proviso West Holiday Tournament in December, losing to Hyde Park in the city quarterfinals and finishing with an early postseason exit in the regional.
Biggest surprise: Downers Grove North
Yes, Evanston was the biggest rankings jumper, going from unranked to No. 4 in the final Super 25. Still, it’s Evanston, a perennial ranked team under coach Mike Ellis. This year’s Wildkits were on the radar heading into the season, labeled as a sleeper to watch.
But Downers Grove North? After two magical seasons, the best back-to-back seasons in program history, the Trojans were pretty decimated by graduation. That included losing the cornerstone of the team’s success the previous two years; star guard Jack Stanton was off to Princeton.
Coach Jim Thomas was the City/Suburban Hoops Report Coach of the Year in 2023. But he did a masterful job again in 2024-2025 in leading this no-named group to 26 wins and a regional championship. That included a pretty stunning upset of Bolingbrook in the sectional semis.
Most improved: Hinsdale Central
While it was expected that coach Nick Latorre’s team would be among the most improved from a year ago, Hinsdale Central still had to go out and prove it.
They did just that behind senior Vincas Buzelis. The Red Devils finished with a 14-win improvement from a year ago — from 15-16 in 2023-24 to 29-4 this season.
Although the most loaded sectional field in the state led to an early departure from the state tournament, losing on the road at Curie in the regional final, the Red Devils still finished with the second most wins in school history.
Breakout player: Rykan Woo, DePaul Prep
Of the 20 Sun-Times All-Area selections this year, each one made a significant impact at the varsity level a year ago with the exception of two players: Neuqua Valley’s Cole Kelly and Woo.
Kelly, remember, was just an eighth-grader 12 months ago. Woo, however, was a sophomore at Young awaiting his turn.
Woo made the move to DePaul Prep for his junior campaign and led the Class 3A state champions in scoring with 15 points a game. He was a Sun-Times All-Area choice and a consensus all-state selection.
Best debut: Cole Kelly
The Neuqua Valley freshman came into high school last fall with hype and a big rep following a significant spring and summer on the club basketball circuit.
He shined in helping a young Neuqua team to a 20-win season, earning Sun-Times All-Area recognition. The 6-5 Kelly put together 14 double-doubles on the season as he poured in 19 points a game while adding 10 rebounds and three assists a game.
Memorable milestones
➤ Mike Bailey reaches state
When you head a program for 30 years and win 15 regional titles, five sectional championships and nearly 600 games, you can’t help but think about what you haven’t achieved as a coach.
For St. Patrick coach Mike Bailey, the missing piece on the coaching résumé was a trip to the IHSA State Finals. The veteran coach did that this year after plenty of close calls, finishing third in the state in Class 3A.
➤ Simeon’s streak stays alive
It wasn’t easy but Simeon kept its regional championship streak alive. Coach Tim Flowers’ Wolverines escaped St. Ignatius with a 57-51 overtime win to make it 22 consecutive regional titles in a row.
➤ Kenwood’s first city title
As of late, it’s been very difficult for any city team to break through and win a Chicago Public League championship.
Simeon, Curie and Young had won 12 of the last 13 city titles. Bogan’s win in 2015 is the lone outlier during that stretch. Now Kenwood, which lost title games in 2016, 2023 and 2024, have joined the club.
➤ Sectional champs — at last
A couple of long sectional title droughts ended this season. Rolling Meadows won its first sectional championship since 1990, while Kaneland’s Class 3A title was its first since 1982.
➤ Sutton’s 700
Neuqua Valley coach Todd Sutton hit an iconic coaching number in January, reaching 700 wins in his career.
Moline’s Sean Taylor also joined Sutton in the 700 club this season as the two are among just 25 coaches in state history to reach that win total.
Among Chicago area coaches, Sutton is tied with Aurora Christian’s Don Davidson with 709 wins and trails only four others: St. Joseph’s Gene Pingatore, the all-time leader with 1,035 wins, West Aurora’s Gordie Kerkman with 805, Mike Flaherty, who piled up 779 wins at Mendel, Thornridge and Mount Carmel, and Ron Johnson, who won 710 games at Kaneland and St. Charles.