Shootout Wrap-Up

A long day of basketball was also a very good day of basketball - especially if you are Bruce Weber, Wayne McClain, Jay Price or Jerrance Howard or, really, an Illini fan.

The five committed or signed prospects - Richmond, Head, Leonard, Paul and Bertrand - combined for 85 points, 41 rebounds and their teams went 4-1. Long way to go, but the potential is apparent.

"You want them to play well. For a lot of our fans, this might be the only time they see them," Weber said while watching Brandon Paul. "Fans create an opinion and you want to create as much excitement as possible. Last year it was the ultimate. I think they all went crazy. And the guys have played well today."

Loads more of Shootout coverage on HQ later tonight and tomorrow. One final recruiting update, courtesy of Curie sophomore Wayne Blackshear.

In no particular order, Blackshear listed Memphis, USC, Texas, Purdue, Illinois, LSU, Kentucky, Kansas and Marquette as some of the schools he's considering. Illinois has extended an offer, he said.

"I'm going to decide on my college my senior year probably," Blackshear said.

Centennial 60, Sterling 43 (final)

Rayvonte Rice scored 23 points and Jeff Johnson added 14 as the ninth-ranked Chargers were in control the whole way against the state's No. 5 (Class 3A) team.

Illnois recruit Joseph Bertrand was 7 of 17 from the field and finished with a team-high 14 points and six assists.

The Chargers shot 57.4 percent and had 21 assists on 27 baskets.

Centennial 29, Sterling 18 (halftime)

The Chargers, looking to go 3-0 in Shootout games, jumped ahead quickly behind the strong play of Rayvonte Rice and Ohio-bound James Kinney.

Warren 54, Chicago Curie 42 (final)

Brandon Paul heated up in the second half, finishing with 17 points and nine rebounds to lead the Warriors (6-1).

Paul scored the first six points after halftime, part of a 16-5 spurt that gave Warren the lead for good midway through the third quarter. Included in that burst was a baseline drive that resulted in a one-hand dunk, and a nifty one-hand, no-look pass to Jake Anderson for a layup.

Anderson, James Poliquin (14 rebounds) and David Duncan each had 10 for Warren.

Jeremy Price led Curie (2-2) with 18 points. Wayne Blackshear, defended by Paul, had eight points and five rebounds.

To listen to the broadcast, click here

Richmond high on UI's future

Paul Klee here. Waukegan's Jereme Richmond had the dunk of the day, but Brandon Paul just tried to one-up his future teammate. Richmond came down the lane for a big jam in his game. Paul came down the right side of the lane for his slam. But we digress.

This is a different Jereme Richmond than you've seen. If you can believe it, it's been 25 months since he committed to Illinois, and there were issues raised when he was dismissed from the team at the tail end of last season. Today, Waukegan coach Ron Ashlaw called Richmond "our leader," the kind of statement that is telling of Richmond's maturation.

And Richmond likes what he's seen from the other six committed or signed prospects in Illinois' 2009 and 2010 recruiting classes.

"I have the utmost trust in U of I recruiting and the staff. I think they've brought in the necessary components and pieces to compete for that national championship," Richmond said. "The talent will be in place. The biggest key for us in 2009 and 2010 is to come down here and play every day in practice to win a national championship."

Scout.com's Evan Daniels, sitting a few seats down, informs us "it's definitely possible" Richmond will be a top-10 recruit (if that matters) when it's said and done. (Richmond currently is No. 13 in the 2010 class).

Having followed Richmond since the day after his commitment, I don't think there's a better prospect in the state. I think he's the kind of talent that takes you from the second weekend of the NCAA tournament to the third.

Speaking of the state's best players, Illinois State guard Osiris Eldridge is in the house. He's with Redbirds assistant Paris Parham.

Tony Bleill will be back in a few.

Chicago Curie 22, Warren 20 (halftime)

Illinois recruit Brandon Paul of Warren is struggling. Paul has six points on 1-for-5 shooting. His only field goal was a rainbow three-pointer from 23 feet at the first quarter horn.

Jeremy Price's back-to-back buckets to finish the half put Curie in front. Price and Dennis Hodges have six points apiece for the Condors. Sophomore Wayne Blackshear, whom Illinois has expressed interest in, has four points and three rebounds.

David Duncan has eight points for Warren.

Neither team is taking care of the ball in a sloppy contest. Warren has 14 turnovers, Curie 13.

Peoria Manual 71, North Lawndale 70 (final)

The Rams wasted an 18-point third-quarter lead, then fended off the feisty Phoenix on Julian Washington's 10-footer with 2.0 seconds left.

It was a measure of revenge for Manual, which lost to North Lawndale 56-42 in last year's Class 2A state title game. 

Washington scored 15 of his 17 points in the final period to keep Manual afloat. The Rams nearly let it slip away with some sloppy ballhandling (23 turnovers) against North Lawndale's relentless pressure.

Paris Gulley led Manual (7-2) with 22 points and C.J. March had 20. Washington added 11 rebounds.

North Lawndale (3-1) got 15 points from Terry Johnson. John Taylor added 13 and Jermaine Winfield 11.

Here's the podcast from Game 5

Peoria Manual 33, North Lawndale 23 (halftime)

Paris Gulley has 17 points to lead Manual, which got off to a hot start against one of the Chicago area's best teams.

Manual hit eight of its first nine shots to jump to a 14-4 lead but then went cold, and North Lawndale climbed back. 

C.J. March has eight points for the Rams. Jermaine Winfield has eight points for North Lawndale. The Phoenix's highly touted senior forward, Jonathan Mills, has five points and seven rebounds.

Here the podcast from Game 4

Plus, we've got pictures from some early games right here

Waukegan 65, Rock Island 55 (final)

He didnt get a whole lot of tou ches, But Jereme Richmond still put up some numbers. The 6-foot-7 forward scored 18 points and pulled down 11 rebounds in the Bulldogs' win in the fourth game of the day.

Richmond ignited the crowd with a two-handed tip dunk at the third quarter buzzer. And another one-handed flush in traffic in the fourth.

Colin Nickerson, a Fairfield signee, didn't play a minute in the third quarter after picking up four first-half fouls — including a technical — finished with 16.

Chasson Randle, an Illinois target, had 22 points and six boards for the Rocks. Brandon Pullman added 21 points and 12 rebounds.

Former Michigan football star Tai Streets is in attendance. Streets spent time in the NFL with the Lions and 49ers before injuries derailed his career. He's a Thornton grad and helped the Wildcats beat Kevin Garnett and Farragut in the state tournament in 1995 state semifinals at the Assembly Hall. Thornton would go on to lose to Wayne McClain's Peoria Manual team in the title game.

Streets is a prominent figure in Chicag-area AAU basketball.

Tony Bleill will take over for the next game featuring Peoria Manual and North Lawndale.

 

Waukegan 38, Rock Island 30 (halftime)

Jereme Richmond might be the most talented player in the building, but so far he's done a nice job of getting his teammates involved. Richmond has 10 points and seven boards for the Bulldogs at the half.

Waukegan's Colin Nickerson has been particularly impressive. The 6-foot-2 senior has a team-high 14 at the break and connected on a breakaway dunk in the second quarter.

Nickerson picked up a foul late in the half, then promptly was handed a technical foul for saying something to the official. He's got four fouls at the half. That's going to hurt the Bulldogs.

On the other side, Rock Island's Chasson Randle is having a solid outing. The sophomore guard has 16 for the Rocks. He's being coveted by the likes of Iowa, Bradley and Iowa State.

Richmond wore size 17 shoes as a freshman. By the looks of it, his show size might be in the 20s by now. He's rocking some huge kicks today.

Bruce Weber is sitting courtside where the band normally sits. Jerrance Howard's here, too.Rich Semrau, Demetri McCamey and Bill Cole have joined the players I previously mentioned courtside. They've got to like what they see in their future teammates.

 

Crane 51, Peoria Central 49 (final)

Crandall Head had a huge block of a layup with less than 20 second left and his team leading by one to help seal the win.

The Cougars appeared disinterested at times, but pulled this one out late. Crandall Head winished with a game-high 21 points. He shned in other areas, too, pulling down 11 rebounds and handing out two assists.

Crane was overall more talented, but Peoria, without D.J. RIchardson, is a fine basketball team.

Lookout for point guard Antonio Drummond. The 5-foot-8 freshman finished with 11 points for the Lions. He did a good job of pressuring Head on the peremiter and forcing a few turnovers by the blue-chipper, who is 9 inches taller than him.

Travis Kellam led the Lions with 12 points. D. Tony Banks had 11 for Peoria.

The next game pits Jereme Richmond and Waukegan against Rock Island. t;/p>

In between games, check out Bob Asmussen's story on Ron Zook's reaction to the Martez Wilson incident. Kudos to Bob for staying on top of this situation.

 

Crane 24, Peoria Central 20 (halftime)

Crandall Head ditched the tape on his wrist early in the first quarter and appears to be fine. If you've watched him play before, don't worry about the limp, thats just the way he walks.

Head's not on pace to scrore 34 as he did in last year's Shootout for Rich South, but he's playing well. He's got seven points at the break and scored his team's first five points. And he's a terrific passer — think LeBron James.

There are two other Heads on the team, SirTony and Jeremy. SirTony has seen action at the point.

Cran head coach Timothy Anderson and Peoria coach Dan Ruffin would give Bruce Weber a run for his money in the vocal department. Neither has stopped yelling since the game started.

Peoria's Travis Kellam has six points.

Jereme RIchmond just walked by and Illinois fans will be glad to know he's decked out in Illini gear from head to toe.

More after the game.

Here's the podcast from Game 2

 

Crane (6-1) vs. Peoria Central (6-1) — pregame

Crandal Head appears at home on the Assembly Hall floor during warmups. He's got his left hand/wrist heavily taped, so we'll keep an eye on that.

There is a delay to the start because of some issues with the Peoria Central roster.

Illinois director of basketball operations Sean Harrington is sitting courtside, as is assistsnt Wayne McClain. C.J. Jackson, Stan Simpson and Chester Frazier are here, too.

Robinson 49, St. Thomas More 42 (final)

Leonard was pretty quiet early in the second half, mostly because his teammates got hot from the outside and they had trouble getting the ball to him in the post.So he took it upon himself to step out and hit an 18-footer from the baseline in the fourth.

Leonard did have a nice dunk in the third quarter and a short jump hook in the fourth. He finished with 15 for the Maroons.

Freeman was impressive for the Sabers. He finished with a team-high 18. Clark Schmidt had 11 for STM.

We've got about 20 minutes until Crane, featuring Crandall Head, and Peoria Central squar off.

While you wait, check out Bob Asmussen's update on Illinois linebacker Martez Wilson.

Also, here's the podcast of Game 1 in case you want a listen.

Robinson 21, St. Thomas More 19

The Maroons took the lead with a jumper by Ben Jones at the buzzer.

From an area standpoint, the Sabers are definitely a team to watch. They're off to a good start and for the most part have controlled the 6-foot-11 Leonard.

Leonard has six at the half, including a nice fadeaway jumper from 15 feet.

Klee likes Leonard and thinks he has plenty of room to grow, both physically and as a basketball player. He's aggressive to the ball and is a preat athlete for such a tall kid.

Clark Schmidt, who finished in the top 10 at the state golf meet for the state champion Sabers, is off to a nice start. He has four points on a pair of nice pull-up jumpers.

Nate Freeman is a nice little player, too. He's got seven for the Sabers.

Check back once this one goes final.

 

Robinson vs. St. Thomas More (pregame)

We're minutes away from tip-off and Illinois coach Bruce Weber has made his first appearance. The Illini just finished a morning practice session over at Ubben.

Assistant coach Jay Price is here with Weber.

Klee just came from practice, Weber held tru to his word and the Illini spent the last 20 minutes of practice doing wind sprints. It might be a nine-day break between games, but it won't be an easy break, necessarily.

Of course Meyers Leonard  is the main attraction, but St. Thomas More's Nate Freeman and Will Rudolphi are a couple of guys to watch out for.

Check back for an update at halftime.

 

Olympia 68, Mahomet-Seymour 54 (final)

Marcus Jackson here taking over for Rossow/Kroner at the Shootout. I'll be here for the next three games.

If there's a better team in the Corn Belt Conference than Olympia, I'd like to see it. The Spartans are pretty balanced and barely broke a sweat in handling the Bulldogs in today's opener.

Matt Frahm lead a trio of Spartans in double figures with 19 points. The 6-foot-6 swingman also grabbed 10 boards and completed an impressive fast-break dunk.

Brady Cremeens also poured in 19 and Spencer Pratt 15 for the Spartans.

Mahomet-Seymour got 21 from junior Nick Radliff and 11 from Brannon Kwiatkowski.

Check back at halftime of the St. Thomas More-Robinson game. Robinson features Illinois commit Meyers Leonard.

 

Olympia 40, Mahomet-Seymour 19 (halftime)

Matt Frahm, considered one of the better players in the Corn Belt Conference, has 13 points for Olympia. Luke Radliff leads the Bulldogs with eight points.

Our prep sports coordinator Fred Kroner estimates the crowd at 1,000, "very good for such an early game," he said.

Congratulations to Joe DeLuce, a former president of the Champaign County Sports Commission who was honored before Game 1. The organization does a wonderful job for sports in the area.

Klee talked to Bruce Weber about today's event in his latest blog entry. Click here to read.

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We've got a stable of writers, photographers and video folks at the third Shootout at the Hall. Seven games, five Illinois recruits, three local teams. We'll provide updates all day long.

If you have questions, e-mail college basketball beat writer Paul Klee at pklee@news-gazette.com. He'll be at the Assembly Hall until around 11 tonight.