Dear Diary: Spending a tournament day in Macomb for first time in more than 25 years

MACOMB, Ill. — The last time I spent an entire day at the Macomb-Western Holiday Tournament was in 1996 when a talented Stephen Decatur squad, led by Tarise Bryson, claimed the title by defeating Warsaw in the title game.

That was so long ago that now Stephen Decatur doesn’t even exist.

But when Muddy River News Sports Editor Matt Schuckman asks for your help during the Christmas basketball tournaments, you go where you’re needed. So it’s off to Western Hall for a day-long adventure.

10:30 a.m.: Car pulls out of driveway. We’re off.

10:42 a.m.: Phone call to Rick Gengenbacher to find out if he’s officiating Tuesday in Macomb. No, he says. He’s staying home today to play Grandpa during the holidays. Oh, well. He’ll be missed, but there will be plenty of other officials like Brad Gooding and John Walter who will be good to see in Macomb.

11:28 a.m.: Pull into Macomb. Before heading to Western Hall, however, it’s time to grab lunch at Gelsosomo’s on the square. Long known as Aurelio’s, this local pizza joint serves up a solid pizza buffet. Can’t beat it for $12.49.

12:08 p.m.: Meet a group of people from Abingdon at nearby table. Of course, they’re worried about what Southeastern’s Danny Stephens is going to do to the Tornadoes in a first-round matchup. Turns out one of the people at the table is related to former Quincy High School basketball standout Jeff Klingler, a star from the mid-1980s who went on to play briefly at Western Illinois. Tough to travel too far in this area at a basketball event before you find someone who remembers the Blue Devils’ glory days.

12:25 p.m.: Check in at the pass gate. First person to greet me is Dave Bartlett, the former athletic director at Macomb High School. First thing he does for me is grab two chairs and sets them under the east basket so I can take photos. Sweet.

12:42 p.m.: Before the first game begins, I take an opportunity to visit with former West Hancock coach Reno Pinkston and his wife, Mari. It’s always good to catch up with him and his thoughts on basketball and life in general. I ask him how long he’s sticking around today. He says they’re staying all day today, staying in a hotel and coming back tomorrow. God love Reno.

1 p.m.: We’re underway with West Hancock playing against Canton.

1:31 p.m.: Visited with Steve Horrell, athletic director at Macomb, about finding teams for the tournament. He says willing teams are on a waiting list.

“We could probably use Brophy Hall (across the street from Western Hall) and make it a 32-team tournament,” he said. 

Is Horrell willing to do that in the future?

“Absolutely not,” he said with a smile.

Kewanee Wethersfield dropped out after last year’s tournament, and Southeastern was selected to fill that spot. Horrell says members of the tournament committee always are on the lookout for potential teams. Half of the field is offered a two-year contract each year (with Macomb obviously a fixture in the field).

Horrell said the tournament is adding smaller schools and going away from schools like Jacksonville (enrollment 941), Metamora (enrollment 974) and Rock Falls (enrollment 647). “Those weren’t the fit that we would like here,” he said. 

2:30 p.m.: Central now is on the court against Lewistown. Based on records, this game should be very competitive.

2:38 p.m.: It didn’t take long for the Panthers to prove they’re the better team. They guard hard, they attack the basket and they’re unselfish. They were up 22-5 in the blink of an eye.

2:55 p.m.: Jeff Dahl brought an unheralded Warsaw team to Western Hall in 1996, and the Wildcats eventually finished second to Stephen Decatur. That squad went on to capture a Class A state championship in March 1997.

Dahl now is at West Hancock, one of the state’s most underappreciated small-school teams. The Titans are 12-2 after Tuesday’s 51-48 victory over Canton, but they’re not even in Aaron Britton’s top 25 Class 2A teams on his NestoHoops.com website.

“We are under the radar,” Dahl said. “There’s a lot of good teams in this tournament. There’s a lot of good teams in this area. We haven’t really proven it on a big stage yet. We have to earn that respect.”

The Titans are unselfish with plenty of scoring options. Dahl says it’s not uncommon for his team to get 20 assists in a game. West Hancock turned the ball over 20 times against Canton, and Dahl says his team must cut down on that figure.

“I just worry about us making the right play,” he said. “We’re going to make mistakes. We’ve got some young guys with the ball. We’ve got some guys who aren’t strong enough yet to compete against a really strong team. But our team IQ is way up since last year, and we do share the ball a lot.”

3:32 p.m.: Central scores 36 points after forcing 24 Lewistown turnovers. What’s not to like about this team? The Panthers now are 8-2. 

3:48 p.m.: An interesting crowd is filing into Western Hall. Many are there to see Danny Stephens, who already has had games of 49 and 52 points for the undefeated Suns.

4:07 p.m.: Winless Abingdon is not going to let Stephens completely take over this first-round game. Weston Marler is giving up at least six inches, but he’s been assigned to be the “one” in the box-and-one defense the Tornadoes are employing. Stephens doesn’t take a shot from the field in the first quarter.

4:21 p.m.: Central lost the season opener to Brown County about eight seconds after stepping off the field in the Class 1A state championship football game in Champaign, then won eight straight. The Panthers lost 50-43 on Dec. 20 on the road to Lexington, which has a 12-1 record.

Six of the top eight players on the basketball team also played on the football team. 

“Over the last month, we’ve been trying to find our identity,” Panthers coach James Barnett said. “We need to find what we want to be and what’s going to make us successful offensively and defensively. We had an idea coming in, based upon some things that we were successful with during the summer, and we’ve kind of reevaluated as we went through each game.”

Central’s teams under Barnett typically have been solid defensively. This team is no different, holding opponents to 33 points or less five times in 10 games, but the defensive energy against Lewistown led to offense.

“We’re just trying to spread teams out a little bit more and try to attack,” Barnett said. “We’ve got guards who can beat people one-on-one, and we’ve got to utilize what we’re best at.”

Depth also makes a difference. Four players scored in double figures against Lewistown, and Barnett used three reserves — Kaiden Lohmeyer, Gavin Blewett and Elijah Genenbacher — for a combined 42 minutes.

“When we’re successful, a lot of times there’ll be Nick (Moore) and Isaac (Genenbacher) leading us, but not every game,” Barnett said, “We get guys usually around that 14-to-16-point range, but when you get 6, 7, 8, 9 points out of other guys, it makes it tough to scout us. We preach unselfishness. Unselfishness is what’s going to make us successful.”

5:02 p.m.: With a 90-minute break before the evening session, it’s time to hit the hospitality room. However, I must have arrived at a bad time. Hot dogs are cooking, and no pizza has been delivered. So I get a small cup of chili and a big scoop of cole slaw. An interesting menu combo, to be sure.

5:13 p.m.: Took a break to talk about junior high school basketball with Pittsfield’s Noah Mendenhall. What a talented and personable young coach.

5:27 p.m.: Stephens took only eight shots and scored 17 points in Southeastern’s victory over Abingdon. He’s seen all sorts of gimmick defenses this year.

“A triangle and two, man to man with a red light on me, man to man with a double team every time I get the ball, and man-to-man full court press the whole time,” the Suns star says with a smile. 

The most difficult defense? “Any time it’s a box-and-one,” he admits.

He admits he must remain patient.

“I know I can’t always get the ball, so it just comes down to: Can my teammates make wide-open shots?” Stephens said.

He has spent most of the past five years playing with older players. It’s the first time he’s played with many of the members of this year’s Southeastern team. This year’s Suns are a little bigger than previous years and proving themselves defensively, holding eight of the 13 opponents to 37 points or less.

“We’re learning. We’re getting there,” he said. “We’ve got three or four guys over 6-foot. Our length makes teams think twice about their decisions. That’s helped this year.”

6:30 p.m.: Time for Pittsfield versus Macomb. 

6:33 p.m.: Saukees coach Brad Tomhave told me before the game if his team can score, it will give Macomb a fight. The Saukees miss their first five shots, and three of them are layups. You could almost hear Tomhave sigh on the sideline.

6:35 p.m.: Somehow I wind up sitting next to the head cheerleader from Pittsfield High School. How do I know she’s the head cheerleader? Because she belts out the cheer first before the rest of the squad does, and she’s got a deep, LOUD voice. She’s actually very good. However, the volume is a little high for a grumpy old sportswriter sitting within 18 inches of her.

6:54 p.m.: Sat for the final four minutes of the second quarter next to Gavin Sullivan, director and coach for Mid-Pro Academy — the summer AAU program for many players in the Quincy area. Interesting to hear his take on the recruitment of Stephens. (We were off the record. I won’t spill his secrets.)

7:12 p.m.: Returned to the hospitality room. Finally got a piece of fresh pizza. Just one.

7:32 p.m.: It’s always good to get a hug from Donna Tomhave, even if it’s after her son’s (and grandson Brennan’s) team loses on Brad’s birthday in the first round. 

7:43 p.m.: Pittsfield scored just six points in the first half against Macomb, thought it did redeem itself slightly in the second half. However, the Saukees have scored 50 points or less in seven of their 11 games.

“it’s a combination of several things,” Brad Tomhave said of his team’s lack of scoring punch. “We turned it over 17 times tonight, so that obviously has an effect. I don’t think guys are getting to their spots. They’re settling for shots, especially when there’s pressure on them. They settle because they don’t want to fight the pressure.”

Pittsfield trailed Macomb 21-6 at intermission. It trailed Southeastern 17-1 and Petersburg Porta 16-2 in games played earlier this season.

“We can’t go on stretches like those in a varsity basketball game,” Tomhave said. “I don’t care who you’re playing. It’s not acceptable.”

He hopes the second-half performance bodes well for the future.

“I think the light went on, and they got some confidence,” Tomhave said. “There weren’t many adjustments that needed to be made — just internal adjustments for some of our guys. They’ve got to find a way to compete and be a whole heck of a lot tougher. It’s a cruel world out there. Our schedule’s cruel if you want to play timid or scared.”

8:01 p.m.: All these games and all these photos. Gotta get some writing done.

8:39 p.m.: Returning to my spot on the baseline to take more photos. A ball heads out of bounds next to me, and Illini West’s Colby Robertson tries to flip it back into play. Instead, it hits me in the nose. No blood, so no foul. Back to action. More important, no damage to the camera.

9:12 p.m.: Talked briefly with new grandfather Scott McGaughey, and his daughter, Lauren, after Illini West’s loss to Eureka. Scott got back home after visiting with his son, Evan, and wife Kara after the birth of their first child. Sounds like the former Quincy University basketball stars are doing well as first-time parents, albeit with a little help from Scott’s wife, Theresa.

9:30 p.m.: Remarkably, the tournament has stayed on schedule, and the 9:30 p.m. game is starting at 9:30 p.m. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that happen before.

10:33 p.m.: The horn blows on the final game. Three minutes later, I’ve packed up my stuff and I’m out the door. Still plenty of writing and photo editing left to do.

Amazingly, I even outlasted Reno and his wife.