Basketball storylines we’re missing this season

The sound of bouncing balls and the swish of the nets should be echoing throughout gyms in Illinois. Instead the gyms remain silent as the basketball season continues to be put on pause.

The longer the delay, the reality becomes there will be no games played this year.

The IHSA will be making what they have called “hard decisions” soon as the IHSA school calendar continues to dwindle with too many sports to squeeze in and not have days to play them.

Here are some storylines we’ve missed this basketball season.

Chasing scoring records

Three area basketball players were on pace to become their school’s all-time leading scorers this year.

Senior Jamie Reinhardt was taking aim to break the boys record at Princeton held by legendary Tiger great Joe Ruklick, who passed away last fall. A prep and collegiate (Northwestern) All-American, Ruklick scored 1,306 points in two seasons on PHS’ state teams in 1953-54 and 1954-55.

Reinhardt stood at 869 after his junior year, having scored 482 a year ago, and was within 437 of Ruklick’s record.

Paul Hart has scored 1,082 career points in just two years at St. Bede, on target to break the Academy record of 1,459 held by big leaguer J.A. Happ (1998-01). Hart scored 796 points (24.1) in a breakout sophomore season.

With no hoops in Illinois, Hart headed to Arkansas for the winter to play for Flippin High School.

Mendota star Amellia Bromenschenckel graduated at midterm to get an early start on her collegiate career at Purdue-Fort Wayne for the second semester.

With 1,752 career points, “Bromo” was only 359 points from catching Jaci Bice (2,111) for the Mendota scoring record.

Looking up

Things were looking up literally for the Princeton boys with the addition of the Monroe brothers, junior Kaden and sophomore Kolton, both who moved back into the district from Milwaukee and stand 6-6 to 6-7 tall. They would have joined a strong nucleus, highlighted by Reinhardt, from a team that upset No. 7 ranked Kewanee at regional last year.

The PHS girls’ prospects were on the rise with a seasoned group of seniors to go with a talented junior and sophomore players.

The St. Bede Lady Bruins had a young core that came on late and won a 1A regional last year and was ready to step up their game.

Similar growth was anticipated for the St. Bede (12-21) and Bureau Valley (6-25) boys and the BV girls (8-21) teams.

The Hall (19-14) and LaMoille-Ohio (18-13) boys and Hall girls (21-10) were coming off stellar seasons.

Defending champs

Defending girls conference champs from the 2019-20 season were Newman (20-9, 1-11) in the TRAC East, Riverdale (28-5, 10-0) in the TRAC West, Seneca (27-7, 7-0) in the Tri-County and Newark (24-10, 6-1) in the Little Ten.

Riverdale reached 2A state, finishing fourth, while Seneca won a 2A sectional.

For the boys, defending conference champs are Kewanee (27-5, 11-1) in the TRAC East, Rockridge (27-6, 9-1) in the TRAC West, Roanoke-Benson (35-1, 9-0) in the Tri-County and Indian Creek (35-1, 8-0).

Roanoke-Benson was set to play at State before it was canceled while Indian Creek was undefeated before falling to Aurora Christian in the 1A super-sectionals.

Top teams of decade

Hall had the winningest teams among local schools from the past decade for both the boys (157-137) and girls (166-113).

Bureau Valley (154-148) and St. Bede (147-145) also had winning records followed by Princeton (130-155), DePue (106-147) and LaMoille-Ohio (75-200).

No other local girls had winning records: St. Bede (150-166), Bureau Valley (106-179), Princeton (103-182) and LaMoille-Ohio (28-203).

Other storylines

The boys state basketball tournament was all set to make its grand return to Champaign this year after 25 years in Peoria.

The shot clock was on the clock for discussion to be implemented in Illinois in the near future.