Proviso West and Big Dipper pairings…

Here are the pairings for the Proviso West Tournament, in bracket order:

St. Joseph vs. Homewood-Flossmoor

Young vs. Proviso East

Glenbrook North vs. Hillcrest

Morton vs. Von Steuben

Foreman vs. Fenwick

Proviso West vs. New Trier

Zion-Benton vs. TF North

Evanston vs. St. Patrick

A couple points:

-It is very likely that round two will feature two recent rematches, Young vs. H-F (which is happening Sunday night) and Evanston vs. Zion-Benton (which happened last week). Isn’t the whole point of holiday tournaments to see games we don’t get to see during the rest of the season? Something should have been done to make sure that half of the second round wasn’t a rerun.

-I understand that Proviso West is the host, but matching them up against New Trier in the first round really weakens the bottom half of the bracket.

Big Dipper pairings:

Rich East vs. Hales

Seton vs. Morgan Park

Thornton vs. Rich Central

Leo vs. Marian Catholic

Bolingbrook vs. Fenger

Bloom vs. Shepard

Lincoln Park vs. Rich South

Crete-Monee vs. Tinley Park

-The second round should be a blockbuster, with possible matchups of Thornton-Leo and Bolingbrook-Bloom. I’d recommend taking in the first round at Proviso West and then heading to Rich South on the 27th. Overall, Proviso West has five ranked teams and the Big Dipper has seven, although three other Proviso West teams (Hillcrest, St. Joseph, Evanston) were ranked in the pre-season.