Hoops Dreams Dashed: #NeverForget
State basketball tournament returns to Illinois, but stain of two season's worth of cancellations remains
(Photo Courtesy: IHSA)
This weekend, the Illinois High School Association Boys Basketball tournament is being played in on the campus of the University of Illinois in Champaign.
The first games were played Thursday. In total, 16 games will take place at the State Farm Center over three days, culminating Saturday when all four classes play championship games.
“March 12 (Saturday) is the final day and when the boys championship will be crowned, it will be 1,000 days since the state was able to crown a boys state championship,” Illinois High School Associate Executive Director Kurt Gibson said on the “Jon and Joe” show podcast a few weeks ago. “For a state with a history of basketball as long as Illinois, we are really excited.”
Gibson should be excited. So should the players, coaches and support staff of the eight teams participating. The thousands of fans attending the games this weekend are in for a treat. Carver Arena in Peoria, host of the tournament for 25 years before Champaign won back the rights in 2020, did a fine job putting on the tournament. But Champaign is the right host moving forward, with a terrific renovated arena and location as the state’s flagship university.
Early returns are fantastic.
I’m not going to be the skunk of this weekend’s hoops garden party. Enjoy the games and the competition.
But what I am going to do is remind everyone of what’s been lost.
How this year should be the second year of the state boys basketball tournament in Champaign. And how so many young athletes and coaches were robbed of the opportunity to play for a state championship, dreams poached by dirty politicians and betrayed by those charged with protecting their interests.
Remember the good days of “phases” and “regions” and “tiers?”
Those ubiquitous terms defined #ReturnToPlay in 2020-21.
In January of 2021, Governor Pritzker’s public health valet, Dr. Ngozi Ezike, took the podium at a press conference and granted permission for “all sports will be allowed to play at inter-conference region or league levels in Phase 4.”
Being January, it was basketball season. Ezike added “if your region is in Phase 4, you can play basketball – have a game or practice.”
Thus began the mad scramble to play some semblance of a basketball season.
Teams could play as many games as they wanted, provided the competition occurred within a specified “Covid Region” and that the mini-season contained a hard out of March 13.
But here was the punch-to-the-gut kicker from that January 2021 announcement: no state-sponsored playoffs. No state tournament. For programs building for years to get to March 2021 and a shot at making a run, they would be shit out of luck.
Sucks to be them.
To this day, no reason has been given other than the absurdly shadowy “the health and safety of all involved is our highest priority.”
As other neighboring states (Wisconsin, Indiana, Iowa) somehow pulled off state tournaments (and no one died), Illinois conceded to fear and anxiety over a virus that kills less teenagers than pneumonia.
Having attended sporting events for over 40 years, I don’t ever recall a mandatory "mask timeout” for lung fever.
You?
(From 2020-21, The Illinois Department of Public Health had a risk labeling policy for individual sports. It listed basketball “high-risk” which triggered a specific set of mitigations, one of which was the inability to travel and compete outside of a “Covid Region.” The IDPH, as of this writing, has yet to release any data explaining it’s labeling process or how it came to the conclusion that basketball was “high risk”.)
At the time of basketball’s return in January 2021, the Illinois High School Association, charged with putting on state series events, was faced with a difficult task.
It had received little-to-no communication from Pritzker or his public health footmen. When the IHSA attempted to defy Pritzker, as it did in October 2020 and recommend playing a basketball season against recommendations from public health, the decision backfired.
Asked about the IHSA’s defiance in October 2020, Pritzker said this:
We've told school districts what the rules are and I think they all know. The IHSA may have their views on it but the school districts know the rules. It's unfortunate...they could be taking on legal liability
As soon as district lawyers heard “legal liability” that was the end of any chance of a legitimate basketball season.
One with a full regular season, state playoffs and state champion.
The chickens had come home to roost for the IHSA. It had ceded authority to Pritzker in the summer of 2020 and there was no going back. The big bully boy controlled not just the corner block but the entire neighborhood.
IHSA Executive Director Craig Anderson and Board of Directors, stripped of any power, could only twiddle their thumbs and wait for permission. When they got it, rather than ask for more concessions, like a state playoffs, Anderson spoke like someone grateful for any crumbs left at the table.
Anderson said this in January 2021:
Our Board faced an impossible task with a litany of factors. They were conscientious in considering every possibility and I believe their decisions today are a positive step for the mental, emotional, and physical well-being of our students. We are excited to channel our energy into creating as many positive experiences for Illinois high school students as we can between now and the end of this extraordinary school year.
Extraordinary is right. With a dozen or so other sports to consider, there was not enough ‘energy to channel’ into hosting a state basketball tournament.
And that’s a shame. A shame more wasn’t done to try and make it happen.
Some readers of this article might respond to that statement by saying “it was impossible. There were too many variables with the virus and the vaccine…”
Stop. Just stop.
Try telling that to the thousands of athletes who’s careers ended prematurely in empty gyms all over the state.
For the Karens who like to throw out the self-righteous line, “well, basketball is just a game. A small sacrifice for the betterment of mankind,” we all know a few of them. They are losers and live lives we all should pity.
Because it could have been done, holding a true postseason tournament. Play the darn thing without fans if need be. Other states and sports found a way. Again, it could have been done.
But as has been the case quite often the past 24 months, the adults in the room failed the kids they were tasked to look after.
There will be lots of good feature sports writing to consume these next few days from Champaign.
I covered four state tournaments in Peoria and enjoyed every minute of them. Being on the floor at Carver Arena when Stevenson High School accepted the trophy for winning the 2015 Class 4A state title is a highlight of a my prep sports writing career. A fantastically visceral moment.
(Happy the girls got their shot last weekend in Normal. Heard great things about the crowds and experience.)
The IHSA knows how to host a state basketball tournament.
And mainstream media sports writers know how to write feature stories on athletes from towns like Scales Mounds, Monticello, Metamora and Barrington (all participating this weekend).
But here’s what we won’t get from the IHSA or legacy media outlets this weekend: any mention of what was lost. It will be as if 2021 (and 2020, as that year’s state tournament was also cancelled) never happened.
“This absolutely brings that hope back to youngsters in the driveway or wherever they’re honing their game to go play on that floor, especially with the renovation and what they’ve done at State Farm Center,” Anderson said, via the Champaign News-Gazette about March Madness returning in 2022. “We anticipate the experience and the environment created in there will be special.”
I’m sure it will be special for the participants.
But let’s never forget those that didn’t get their shot.
Don’t forget the politicians and bureaucrats who failed to fight hard enough for the young athletes robbed of the chance to create their lifelong memories being made this weekend by so many others.
Never, ever forget.
For story ideas, article comments/feedback, media inquiries and more, drop note to jon@jonjkerr.com, or @jonjkerr on Twitter.
Jon, you have been on the case re: the virus and its handling, and specifically re: sports and Illinois, since the beginning; so it is expected that you continue to help us keep perspective on where we are today. Thank you!
I'm not big on sports, (especially since leagues, etc... have gone woke), but I love your writing and have stayed with you as you explore(d) so many other areas. It is sad how Illinoisans have all been negatively affected in so many various ways by the awful way we were treated by those who run this state. I will not forget.