High school basketball holiday tournament previews

Good morning,

Holiday Tournament basketball is back. This is the biggest week in high school basketball since at least March 2019 and maybe longer. Hopefully most of the tournaments will be able to keep things together and hold the first meaningful championship games in a long, long time. 

Fenwick dropped out of Proviso West this morning and Von Steuben dropped out of the Big Dipper. That makes nearly a dozen teams that have dropped out of tournaments due to COVID. That’s actually a much smaller number than I anticipated. 

However, none of the tournaments that put teams up in hotels have started yet. Hopefully that doesn’t send everything reeling over the next few days. Get out and enjoy some holiday tournament basketball while you can. 

Seventeen of the Super 25 teams didn’t play a game last week, so there hasn’t been much movement.

DePaul Prep drops out after losing to Hinsdale Central in the second round of the Red Devils’ holiday tournament. The young Rams were sailing by on an undefeated record before that. They lack a high quality win.

St. Rita also drops out. Homewood-Flossmoor knocked the Mustangs off in the second round at Hinsdale Central. St. Rita’s young talent is so tantalizing, but it just isn’t consistently beating quality teams.

Lyons joins the rankings at No. 24. The Lions only losses are to Glenbard West and Riverside-Brookfield and they have a nice win against Hinsdale Central.

Rolling Meadows also rejoins the rankings. The Mustangs don’t have a major win yet, but their only loss is to Wheaton Warrenville South and that keeps looking better as the Tigers rack up wins.

So this is where things stand as we head into the wild holiday tournament week. Expect everything to look totally different next Sunday. We should learn so much about so many teams.

With a number of high school basketball tournaments set to kick off around the area this week, our Joe Henricksen breaks down the favorites, top contenders and top storylines in the stories below.

Check out additional previews for the Wheeling Hardwood Classic and Jack Tosh Holiday Classic.

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