The Public League boys basketball semifinals were seemingly designed for the aficionado, almost to the exclusion of everyone else. The last few years they’ve taken place at DePaul’s Athletic Center, where the Fullerton el stop around the corner fails to make up for the tight parking, which discourages less avid fans. And this year the semis were scheduled for a Friday night, which seemed to drag down student attendance. It was just as well, because there’s no spare seating in the gym–just matching banks of bleachers on both sides of the court–and the place was filled by the end of Friday’s first game. The vast majority of the crowd was adults: parents of players, sure, but mostly people from across the city who love basketball and appreciate seeing it played with skill and passion.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
The first game pitted the Marshall Commandos against the younger, untested Simeon Wolverines. Simeon had challenged for the city championship last year with a team made up largely of seniors. But the Wolverines replenished on the fly with sophomores Tim Flowers, a wide-bodied center, and Derrick Rose, already considered one of the top guards in the league. Broad-shouldered yet lithe, the 6-foot-3 Rose cut like a halfback on the dribble, and he displayed innate court sense. He was composed at all times, keen and intent, and he routinely drove into traffic, drew the defense, and found an open teammate to pass to. Simeon showed their youth in their sartorial style, wearing their shorts well below their knees. The guy sitting next to me said they looked like pirates and that he half expected to see Johnny Depp on the sideline coaching them.
Yet Callaway began hitting shots long and short with that chin held high, and when he drove for a basket and was fouled he not only put Marshall up 62-59 but removed Flowers with five fouls.
Green, the Simeon senior, looked increasingly pained as the game went on, but the Wolverines were unashamed. Rose isn’t yet a deadeye shooter who can take over a game, but that skill is the easiest to attain with practice, and otherwise he was everything one could want in a sophomore basketball player. Westinghouse looked likely to go on to win the state crown too–no team can match its inside-outside game with Thomas, Ballard, and Harris. But after those guys graduate, Simeon figures to be the team to beat in the city the next two years. Or so says this aficionado.
