Here we go again: Basketball season in jeopardy due to COVID

Good morning,

Here we go again. Everything else has receded into the background and COVID cancellations are the top concern.

As of now no holiday tournaments have been canceled. There are rumors of a team dropping out of one, but nothing confirmed. The Hinsdale Central Holiday Classic tips off Wednesday and Jacobs is currently underway. Most everything else starts up after Christmas.

I’m assuming that all of the tournaments will try and continue, but a lot can happen between now and Dec. 27. At the very least I’d expect some teams will have to forfeit games. And it is possible things could spiral out of control after everyone gathers in the gym for the first day or two.

The hopes and dreams of a “normal” basketball season are over. It’s depressing, but not surprising. I was in gyms over the last few weeks where I was one of the only people wearing a mask, despite the Illinois Department of Public Health’s rule.

Our political leaders have repeatedly dropped the ball on COVID and we haven’t done any better with our own personal responsibility. So here we are again. The season is in jeopardy.

That was a rough week. My plan for the last few days was to cover St. Patrick vs. Notre Dame, Evanston at New Trier and DePaul Prep against Benet. Only one of those games happened, which is the way things are going these days. About 40 games were canceled over the weekend.

Make sure to triple-check that a game is actually happening before you head out to one this week. Twitter is probably the best source for that, especially with a lot of the schools already out for the holidays.

This week is pretty quiet. The Hinsdale Central Holiday Classic starts up on Tuesday and the Jacobs Tournament continues.

Marian Catholic and Oak Forest both dropped out of the rankings. The Spartans lost to Tinley Park and Brother Rice, two talented teams. Richards beat Oak Forest.

Larkin and Benet, two teams that have done nothing but win this season, join the rankings. The Redwings have only lost to Proviso East and Larkin’s loss was the first week of the season to Rockford East.

The IHSA recently announced its sectional assignments for boys basketball. In the story below Joe Henricksen provides instant reaction and a few quick observations to where all the teams are headed in a little over two months from now.

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