I don’t know if it had anything to do with the groundhog seeing its shadow, but March madness arrived about six weeks early this year. Actually, the Illinois High School Association brought it on by ending the practice of giving a berth to the Public League boys’ and girls’ champions in the state tournaments’ so-called Elite Eight. In theory the change would allow more than one Chicago team to go downstate; in actuality, the IHSA stacked the deck against the top city teams by putting them in the same sectionals and supersectionals. Regardless, the Public League playoffs now had to be done with before the IHSA elimination process began. So the boys’ playoffs began last week, and the girls’ actually ended Saturday with the city championship game. The girls drew a good crowd to DePaul’s new Athletic Center for their title game, but the early opening of the boys’ playoffs seemed to catch everyone off guard. At least that’s the impression I got at Whitney Young for the Dolphins’ opening-round game against lowly Taft.
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It was indeed a shame so few came out to Young’s near-west-side campus for the game, because the Dolphins have a terrific team. They entered the playoffs ranked tops in the city by the Tribune at 20-1, above even unbeaten Crane, which had received an opening-round bye. I knew nothing about the Young players, but their quality was immediately apparent. They were led by a long, lean center named DeWitt Scott; it turned out the boys in the back were shouting Witt to him, not Whit for the school. He wore a white headband tucked behind the ears in the manner of Quentin Richardson, the Los Angeles Clipper who led Young to the state championship five years ago. Equally impressive was Andre Knox, a shorter but more muscular player, broad-shouldered and lithe-waisted, sporting a Giancarlo Esposito moustache. These two were smooth and polished; point guard Anthony Harris–the orange headband holding his braids back, the black shoes setting him apart from his teammates–had more of a playground style, driving and dishing the ball with panache. Arms over shoulders, the Young players formed a circle before the game began and rocked back and forth with a rhythmic chant, while the Taft huddle seemed almost dreary. The Eagles collected around their coach for a pep talk punctuated by a group shout that sounded like Dee-fense! The Young players sported various stylish shoes–most of them Nike–while some Taft players wore Nikes or Converse All-Stars, others dark and tattered shoes seemingly bought some time ago at Kmart.
Harris stripped the Taft point guard of the ball at midcourt and cruised in for a layup to make it 22-6, and then Young called off the press and sat back, taking a 26-7 lead at the quarter. Taft tried to get back in the game by running a press of its own, but after one turnover Knox recognized what was going on and started beating it, setting up his teammates for easy baskets near the hoop. Harris, too, used Taft’s press to his own advantage. Trying to break a half-court trap, he faked a pass to get his defender in the air, then put the ball on the floor and dribbled in to hit a floating runner in the lane. And while Scott rested on the bench, Knox took advantage by dropping a series of threes on the Eagles. Knox has a slightly unusual shooting style, holding the ball in front of his face and almost shot-putting it up heavy with backspin; but the longer the shot the better that style suited him, and with time running out in the second quarter he found the ball in his hands behind the center line and calmly banked it in to send Young into intermission up 54-27. Someone should have shouted, “No prisoners!”
Marshall led 19-14 at the quarter and padded its lead early in the second period. Grant went coast to coast with a rebound, finishing with a behind-the-back dribble and a running jumper in the lane to make it 23-17. But when Marshall went up 25-17 Roberison answered with a three-pointer, and then Hope seized the initiative and forced Marshall back on its heels. Hope ran off 13 straight points to end the half ahead 30-25.
