It’s a wrap for the Illinois high-school basketball and fans can now devote their attention to the NCAA tournament. It used to the IHSA tourney extended into the college post season and attendance suffered because of that.
That is one of the reasons the IHSA brought 1A-4A together on the same weekend, cutting the season short by a week.
Smart move and it also made more sense not to have the girls and boys championships spread out over four weeks. Plus, attendance is helped with all four title games being played on the same day.
Still, crowds at Champaign were miniscule compared to the glory days of the 1960s and 1970s. Likewise with media coverage.
The IHSA tournament used to be front-page news in the big Chicago dailies, while the NCAA got second billing. Today, you hardly see a mention of the preps.
Still, it means a lot to the communities that made it downstate and people from Byron sure had to enjoy their time at the State Farm Center.
It was basketball royalty, with Benton as their opponent. Back in the glory days of the 1960s, the Rangers held their own with the best in the state in a one-class system.
In watching the game on TV, Byron appeared to be the aggressor from the mid first quarter on, forcing turnovers and pounding the boards. In a rare feat, they had more offensive rebounds than Benton had defensive ones.
That led to 56 field goal attempts to only 39 for Benton. With stats like that, one would have thought the Tigers won.
Unfortunately for Byron, their shots weren’t dropping and that proved to be their demise. One example occurred early in the third quarter, when the Tigers had a three-on-one following a turnover and failed to convert on two shots under the basket. Later in the same quarter, it was three missed shots near the basket.
Ryan Tucker hit a three-pointer that would have been good in the NBA, but that was it. The Tigers were only one-for-13 for the game from beyond the arc. Tucker also had an acrobatic reverse lay-up.
Even with overall 30 percent shooting, the Tigers did manage to take a 37-36 lead. They harassed the Rangers enough to win, but couldn’t get it done on offense.
Going from a high-school gym to a college arena, it takes a while to adjust to different dimensions and Benton didn’t exactly shoot the lights out either, going six-for-19 in the second half.
Nonetheless, making it downstate is the big reward most teams in the state are looking for.
I’m guessing there was more excitement for Byron in winning the super-sectional than winning the third-place game downstate. Be it individual or team sports, sometimes getting there can be better than being there.
The word on the street is that Byron has an excellent chance for the trifecta of having a boys team downstate in each of the three sports seasons, with a highly-touted boys baseball team.
Let’s not forget the boys golf team finishing eighth as one of the smallest schools in 2A, quite an accomplishment.
A bit of trivia for you: Quinn Virgil, former head coach at Oregon, serves as an assistant to Matt Huels at Byron. He also served as an assistant to Benton coach Ron Winemiller, when Winemiller was at Forreston in 2003 and 2004.
Here’s a neat story and also one that chronicles the fascination with the state tournament.
As a 10-year old in 1960, Patrick Heston started the “Predictors Club” with a couple of college students. The trio had caught March Madness fever and the sole purpose of their club was to predict how the IHSA basketball tournament would turn out.
Soon, it expanded to 250 people and then up to 400. Members of the media, coaches, former players and officials sent their picks in by mail to Heston, with an early deadline of Dec. 31.
That’s an example of the hype Illinois March Madness garnered. The contest went on for decades until its members began to die or lose interest.
With Heston and another man in his 80s the only ones left, the Predictors Club recently disbanded.
Andy Colbert is a longtime Ogle County resident with years of experience covering sports and more for multiple area publications.
