Fenwick, Benet, Notre Dame and more improve Class 3A this season

There will be a bit of a face-lift for Class 3A basketball this winter.

Since the IHSA expanded its basketball classes from two to four in 2008, there have been times when 3A basketball has been somewhat of a whipping boy.

While the very best in Class 3A have shown and proved over the years they can play and beat anyone no matter the class, the common belief is that, overall, Class 3A basketball is weaker and not nearly as deep as Class 4A.

You are much more likely to find a team hovering around .500 or below the .500 mark making a deep March run in Class 3A than you would in Class 4A.

But the rhetoric will be changing a bit this winter as a combination of perennial powers or upstart heavyweights find themselves as Class 3A schools this year. And that starts with Notre Dame, which lost to Evanston n a Class 4A regional title game last year.

Notre Dame will be a consensus top 10 team when the season begins. When March rolls around the talented Dons will embark on a Class 3A postseason run instead of battling Evanston, Loyola, Niles North and Stevenson in the north suburbs.

Led by the junior-dominated trio of guard Anthony Sayles, 6-6 Troy D’Amico and Evanston transfer Louis Lesmond, coach Kevin Clancy has a team with legitimate Peoria-bound aspirations.

In addition, DePaul Prep, which finished third in Class 3A last year but enrollment wise is a Class 2A school, will remain in Class 3A due to the success factor of the basketball program.

Perennial power Benet has been a March fixture over the years in Class 4A, winning four sectional titles in the past decade and finishing second in the state in 2014 and 2016. Benet will now drop down to Class 3A where, geography wise, could be playing in a very favorable Class 3A sectional.

Also moving from Class 4A to Class 3A is Fenwick, which boasts a talented young team led by one of the state’s top players, 6-5 junior Bryce Hopkins.

In addition, Kenwood, Riverside-Brookfield, Deerfield, Hinsdale South and St. Ignatius will all be Class 3A schools this year after competing as 4A schools a year ago.

Although Brother Rice’s enrollment places coach Bobby Frasor’s team in Class 3A, the Crusaders have petitioned up and will remain in Class 4A.

State powers Morgan Park and Bogan remain in Class 3A. Loaded Hillcrest and top programs outside the Chicago area –– defending state champ East St. Louis, Springfield Lanphier, Springfield Southeast, Lincoin and Rock Island –– continue to be 3A fixtures. But the additions of Notre Dame, Benet, Fenwick and others to Class 3A, along with upstart programs like Oak Forest, have certainly enhanced the depth.