State Finals review: Metamora steps up; injuries make crushing impact

The four-class system has been around since the 2007-08 season. Since its arrival there have been years where figuring out just which team is the best in the state was debatable.

That very first year of four classes in 2008, there were plenty who believed the Class 3A champ, Marshall, was better than the 4A champ Richards.

There was always some wrangling over a Morgan Park team or two that won 3A titles and whether they were better than the 4A champ.

Was 4A champ Curie or Belleville Althoff and Jordan Goodwin in 3A the best in 2016?

There have been plenty of years, most really, where there isn’t much of a debate. Generally, most all agree the 4A champs — think Jabari Parker’s Simeon teams, Young and Jahlil Okafor, Jalen Brunson’s Stevenson team, last year’s Glenbard West team — have been superior most years.

Which brings us to this 2022-23 season.

Roughly a year ago when putting together the lineup for the annual When Sides Collide Shootout — these shootout schedules are always lined up approximately a year in advance — there was one matchup I wanted more than any to be played: Simeon vs. Moline.

The thinking at that time, at least in my mind, was that Moline would be the best Class 4A team and Simeon would be the best Class 3A team. And if it didn’t happen to be played during the regular season, it wouldn’t be played at all. Fortunately, it came together and turned out to be one of the best, if not the best, regular season games of the year.

Simeon won, thanks to a blocked shot at the rim just before the buzzer sounded by Wesley Rubin to preserve a 67-66 win.

Moline went on to dominate the rest of the regular season, rolled into Champaign and the State Finals this past weekend and won its first state championship.

The best 4A team in Illinois: Moline. Mission accomplished.

Simeon fell just short in holding up its end as the best team in Class 3A. The Wolverines fell to Metamora, Simeon’s recent kryptonite, in overtime in the 3A state championship game.

Thus, it’s no longer just Moline and Simeon in the conversation. Their head-to-head January showdown no longer decided the best in Illinois.

Enter Metamora. The Redbirds took down mighty Simeon — for the second straight season. Metamora wrapped up a brilliant two-year run in Class 3A with a state title, state runner-up finish and 64 wins.

When measuring and stacking up the schedules the three teams played this past season, both Simeon and Moline clearly played the tougher schedules over the past four months, including trickier roads to Champaign.

Metamora lost to Joliet West by 14 points back in November and didn’t lose again. Coach Danny Grieves’ team headed to Mississippi for the holidays, where it won the Gulfport Holiday Classic. The biggest regular-season win was an impressive one, beating defending 3A state champ Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin.

Meanwhile, Moline absolutely walloped state-ranked Rolling Meadows and East St. Louis in January, the latter of which Metamora was able to edge in the state semifinals last Friday. The Maroons played Quincy twice, St. Louis Vashon, Chicago Mount Carmel and Oswego East.

There were several common opponents, including Morton, Sterling and Urbana. The most interesting result from the common opponents was Sterling. Moline beat Sterling by a combined 32 points in two wins while Metamora escaped with a 72-70 win over Sterling in the sectional.

There was one high-level team both Metamora and Moline faced in high-profile, marquee events: Simeon.

But even Simeon coach Robert Smith says it’s difficult to choose one over the other. He said that’s due to the matchups that play into basketball results.

“It’s tough,” Smith said when asked which team is the better one. “Their styles of play are different.”

Smith said it actually helped that Moline had a true big man in matching up with the Maroons. He says it played into Simeon’s favor, because he could keep both his big men on the floor, clog up the lane and it didn’t take away from what they could do offensively.

“With Metamora, it took away what our bigs could do in having to chase around their shooters,” Smith said. “We had to adjust. How Moline and their big man would do in handling that, chasing around their shooters? I don’t know.”

While a season’s full résumé does offer some insight and value, it’s about who wins in March and who is playing the best when it does. Both Moline and Metamora were cleary playing their best.

We aren’t getting a Moline-Metamora matchup. But if we did, I’m taking Moline and the 1-2 difference-making punch of point guard Brock Harding and 6-10 Owen Freeman.

Chicago area goes 1-for-3

There were three Class 4A teams from the Chicago area in Champaign. Moline made sure Downers Grove North, New Trier and Benet all went home without a state championship trophy.

In Class 3A, it was Metamora that ended Simeon’s hopes of bringing home another state title to Chicago.

Prior to this year, there have been just seven state champions out of 26 in Class 3A and 4A from outside the Chicago area. Those state champs include Champaign Centennial (3A) in 2009, Rock Island (3A) in 2011, Peoria (3A) in 2012, Belleville Althoff (3A) in 2016, Belleville West (4A) in 2018 and 2019, and Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin (3A) in 2022.

And only once has the Chicago area been shut out completely in Class 3A and 4A, back in 2019 when Belleville West won the Class 4A title and East St. Louis captured the 3A championship.

This year, however, the rest of the state gained ground on the Chicago area dominance with Moline and Metamora both claiming titles; it’s now nine state champs out of 28 for “downstate” teams.

But DePaul Prep, making its second straight State Finals appearance, got the job done in Class 2A. The Rams’ dominating two wins in Champaign assured the Chicago area — and the Catholic League — of hoisting one first-place state trophy in the air on the season’s final day.

Impactful injuries

Injuries happen. But injuries at the height of the postseason? Those are crushing.

So often teams tend to withstand the injury during the actual game where the injury takes place. Then the impact sets in.

That was the scenario for both Downers Grove North and Benet in the latter stages of their state runs.

Downers North lost a key player, versatile 6-5 senior Jacob Bozeman, early in its sectional championship game against Hinsdale Central. The Trojans managed to beat their West Suburban Silver rival and then discard Kenwood in the super.

But by the time DGN reached Champaign, it appeared to be a team on fumes. Bozeman has been critical in the team’s success at both ends of the floor while providing some size and athleticism. But he was just unable to give DGN anything in the final few games, including the semifinal loss to Moline.

Benet was greatly impacted when senior leader Brady Kunka went down with an ankle injury in the opening minutes of its semifinal matchup with New Trier. Kunka is not only the leading scorer and rebounder for the Redwings, but the loss really depleted coach Gene Heidkamp’s bench.

Benet was not a very deep team to begin with and it showed. There was a certain trickle-down effect by plugging in a very valuable sixth man into the starting lineup for the state championship game having to ride all five for the duration of the meaningful minutes.