This ongoing series will provide a recap of the season for each of the top conferences in the area, continuing here with the Southland Conference, Southwest Prairie Conference and the Southwest Suburban Blue and Southwest Suburban Red.
◼︎ Southland Conference
Preseason favorite: Bloom
Conference champ: Bloom
Signature moment: The 26-4 season Bloom put together included eye-opening regular-season wins over Morgan Park and south suburban victories over the likes of Hillcrest, Homewood-Flossmoor (twice), Thornton and Thornwood. The Blazing Trojans reached the title game of the prestigious Pontiac Holiday Tournament, where they lost to Curie, and won a regional championship.
Biggest surprise: Rich Central finished the regular season with a pedestrian 12-12 record but strung together three wins in March to win a regional title and advance to a sectional title game where it lost to Normal U-High.
Featured attraction: The Bloom juniors have been hyped and they lived up to it over the course of the season. The foursome of Martice Mitchell, Donovan Newby, Dante Maddox and Keshawn Williams instantly became the biggest must-see attraction in the conference. The idea of those four finishing off their careers together as a top five team next year will be one of the featured attractions –– and highlights –– of the 2019-2020 season.
Breakout star: Kankakee’s Darion Binion went from being the Kays’ sixth man as a junior to leading the team in scoring as a senior with 18.3 points a game.
◼︎ Southwest Prairie Conference
Preseason favorite: Oswego East
Conference champ: Oswego East
Signature moment: While three other Southwest Prairie teams fell in regional title games, Oswego East punched its way through and then beat Waubonsie Valley in the sectional semifinal. It was the deepest postseason run in program history.
Biggest surprise: That there was no team coming close to rising to the level of Oswego East was a surprise. While there was balance and depth, the belief was there would be another team (or two) that would put together a talk-about-season. There were six teams with winning records but no one with 20-plus wins or postseason success outside of Oswego East.
Featured attraction: RayJ Dennis put together a pretty special senior season. The Boise State recruit carried the league champs with 23.5 points a game and filled the stat sheet along the way with 5.7 rebounds, 5.1 assists and 2.6 steals a game. He also buried 80 three-pointers on the year.
Breakout star: A promising prospect since he entered high school, Romeoville’s Destin Whitaker hit his stride as a junior. The 6-6 forward took a big step forward and put up 17.4 points and five rebounds a game.
◼︎ Southwest Suburban Blue
Preseason favorite: Bolingbrook
Conference champ: Bolingbrook and Homewood-Flossmoor
Signature moment: Both of the league heavyweights impressed in March. H-F made it all the way to the championship game of arguably the state’s toughest sectional, while Bolingbrook won a sectional title before falling to eventual state champ Belleville West in the super-sectional.
Biggest surprise: There weren’t many surprises throughout the league. However, H-F was the No. 4 seed in arguably the state’s toughest sectional and took care of No. 5 seed St. Rita in the regional and then beat top-seeded Bloom in the sectional semifinal after losing to Bloom twice during the regular season.
Featured attraction: Bolingbrook’s devastating speed and quickness. The Raiders used their strength to put points on the board and blitz opponents with suffocating fun-t0-watch runs.
Breakout star: Bolingbrook already had a pair of Division I guards in Joseph Yesufu and Tyler Cochran. Coach Rob Brost had another one as junior Darius Burford burst on the scene by leading the Raiders in scoring with 17 points a game.
◼︎ Southwest Suburban Red
Preseason favorite: Thornwood
Conference champ: Thornwood and Thornton
Signature moment: With both Thornwood and Thornton falling short in hard-fought regional title games, the league failed to produce a regional champ or holiday tournament champ. Thus, the highlight was the old Thornton-Thornwood rivalry deciding the conference champ, with the two south suburban foes splitting the two regular-season matchups.
Biggest surprise: Thornton’s 22 wins, along with nabbing a share of the league title, surpassed preseason expectations. The Wildcats nearly pulled off a regional title game upset over Marian Catholic.
Featured attraction: Thornwood’s Zachary Carr emerged as the league’s most potent player and broke through with a big senior year. The exciting 5-10 guard averaged 17 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.1 assists a game for the Thunderbirds.
Breakout star: Thornton’s junior tandem of Derrick Williams and Demarco Minor. Although just a junior, the 6-3 Williams filled a stat sheet and was named the league’s player of the year. He scored, rebounded and created for others while Minor, a 5-11 guard, averaged 15.5 points, 5.1 assists and 2.1 steals a game.
