Top Teams in Illinois- De La Salle

This next team we’re about to talk about had the potential to be the top team in 2012, despite the talent on other teams. The loss of a key player is more crippling than high jumper in a wheel chair. Some people will write them off and they might not even crack the top 5 in Illinois for best men’s basketball teams. I’m a believer that talent wins out in most cases. Senior leadership will be lack and some young stars will have to grow up quickly for this team to have success. They will have their share of hiccups along the way, but ultimately, I see this team being a serious contender to make it downstate (or upstate if you’re reading this in southern Illinois). This year will be the warm up run before a more experienced and more talented team that will be ready to run down their opponents. For this year, the learning curve starts now……

De La Salle Meteors----- Driven by a couple seniors, De La Salle looked poised for a run to Peoria. After a tough loss to Whitney Young a couple rounds into the state tournament, the Meteors were left to pick up the pieces of a lost season. Some young ballers emerged last year and grabbed some attention from several scouts and for once, it looked like a team could match back-to-back state champion Simeon in talent. A new season begins and that experience and some of the talent no longer are there. This will force the incoming juniors and sophomores to take on a bigger role. For a team that had such high expectations, giving the keys to the car to kids that can’t drive yet can be a bit scary. And after graduation of a couple seniors and the blueprint for a successful season was beginning to be laid out, abruptly, one of De La Salle’s top players opted to take his talents to Simeon and continue his education and basketball career for the Wolverines making them more dangerous than they already were. The decision for Jr. PG Jaylon Tate (6-1, 175 lbs) to transfer left a lot of people in shock, like when people found out Hootie from Hootie and the Blowfish was black. This created a big hole for the Meteors to fill as their backcourt was now depleted. Fortunately for De La Salle, there is enough talent for this team to recover.

The leadership of this team will fall on two of its most talented players, despite some seniors on the team. Jr. SF Alvin Ellis (6-4, 185 lbs, recruited by Illinois, Northwestern, and DePaul, left) and Jr. SF/PF Alex Foster (6-8, 200 lbs, offers from Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Purdue) will have to take on bigger roles as leaders on and off the floor. The talent of these two could make De La Salle a contender. Ellis had a descent season last year playing second fiddle to the senior wings on the team, but this year, Ellis will have a chance to shine in a new role. Foster, on the other hand, will improve on and develop more into a role from key role player in the starting lineup to the key player in the starting lineup. This would be like making Ringo Star go from Drums to lead guitar and vocals for the Beatles. Due to Foster’s talents of an athletic wing who can drive, shoot, and distribute, this should not be a daunting task. If this team has success this year, these two will have a large part in it. However, others will need to step up into bigger roles and be the role players Foster and Ellis were last year.

An unexpected departure led to an unexpected delivery. When the Meteors looked depleted, De La Salle received a surprising transfer all the way from the land of schnitzel and lederhosen; Germany (sorry Milwaukee). Class of 2013 C Gavin Schilling (6-9, 230 lbs, recruited by Iowa, Missouri, and Oregon), makes his voyage back from Germany to his home town of Chicago. As a freshman, Schilling generated some publicity as an athletic big man with good post moves. Schilling decided to follow some family back to Germany and hone his craft in Deutschland. As basketball has become a realistic career for Schilling, Gavin returns stateside to team up with the Meteors. Schilling will add some size to an undersized team and will definitely crack the starting line-up (though an ACL injury has sidelined him, Gavin should be ready for the season). With Schilling, Foster, and Ellis, De La Salle should have a dynamic frontcourt that should compete with most other teams they will face.

The question for this team is how the young stars will develop and who will step up in the backcourt and be the Meteors everyday point guard like Tate was for them last year. If both questions can be answered positively, this should be a very exciting and promising season. In the end, this year will just be the long build up to what should be one of the top teams in Illinois next year in 2012-2013. Foster has a chance to be special; even more so than PF Mike Shaw and SF Dre’ Henley were for the Meteors last year. Win or lose, I expect big things from Ellis and Foster at the end of the season and should be in the forefront of some of the elite recruits coming out of Illinois in 2013.

NEXT WEEK: TOP TEAMS IN ILLINOIS