Why Maine South?

Pizza at Pizza Villa in DeKalb on the way back.

Streaks lost a tough one to Maine South on Saturday, going down 55-45. It is really the first time all year someone was able to totally dominate the tempo vs. the Streaks. 45 points is our season low.

Maine South has a very nice team, and will be highly rated in the 4A polls. This game got MS to an impressive 10-1 record. They are talented and well coached. They have a 6'4" center with a full ride to the University of Illinois, and their point guard has a full ride to St.Louis University. So they have a tough inside-outside combo at work.

It is a long trip to Chicago to play. Some would say, why go that far for a game.

Coach Rux sharing one of his many NIU stories.

This is our 25th year going to Chicago to play. We have played vs. Maine South, New Trier, Barrington, Buffalo Grove, Waubonsie Valley, Maria, Queen of Peace, and Hillcrest. We started going in the late '80's when we had some good teams. Our thought process was if we were good enough to make it to State, we did not want to be matched up with someone our kids would be intimidated by. We wanted them to have a sense that we play these kinds of teams. And as a result when we first made it to State in '96, we were not intimidated by the situation and had a good run.

Second, we feel it simulates the experience you have playing in Supersectional. Usually you are going to travel a couple hours and usually you are going to play a suburban team, or for sure a top level team. And that is what we try to do with the Chicago trip- play top teams.

Our surprise over the years is to see how many downstate teams go to Chicago to play.

Usually we combine our trip with a Bulls game if we can. Unfortunately this year's game was with the Knicks which they upped the ticket price out of our reach.