"If I wasn't coaching, I would want to see Deerfield, Chicago Vocational, Waukegan, Johnsburg, Toledo Rogers, Rockford Boylan, Rockford Jefferson and Elgin Larkin.
I know I listed a lot of teams, but Deerfield always plays a great brand of basketball. CVS plays an incredible schedule with the likes of Chicago Simeon. Waukegan is very talented and is led by UW-Milwaukee recruit Carson Newsome.
Johnsburg has Zach Touissant, who is a sophomore point guard with range five to six feet behind the arc. I briefly saw him at Christmas and he averaged 25 points per game in the Algonquin Jacobs tournament.
Rockford Boylan is in first place in the NIC-10 with some very impressive road wins and they have Zach Couper, who recently put up 50 points in a game. The J-Hawks are led by talented junior combo guard Quillin Dixon.
Elgin Larkin, despite losing top talent Christian Negron for the season, has been playing great basketball against a very competitive schedule. They have Jalen Shaw, a 6-10 junior who continues to improve. Normal University is coming in and they have at least one Division one recruit. It's 5-11 point guard, Keondre Schumacher, verbally committed to Winthrop."
Looking at Brannan's list, you can pick out some of the better player matchups.
- Jefferson and Dixon will take on Touissant and Johnsburg Saturday, Jan. 14, at 1:30 p.m.
- Jefferson gets a shot at Schumacher and Normal at noon, Jan. 16.
- Harlem's Allen White III, a solid 6-5 shot-blocking senior forward, gets to test Larkin's Shaw at 3 p.m., Jan. 16.
- Jefferson takes on Newsome and Waukegan at 6 p.m., Jan. 16.
- And Boylan and Couper take on Shaw and Larkin's other D-1 recruit, Anthony Lynch, to close the tournament at 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 16.
This is the fifth year Jefferson has hosted the tournament. Jefferson has advanced to regional finals the past four years. Brannan doesn't believe it's a coincidence.
"I want to test our kids so I know what we need to improve on. Playing four games in two days will certainly test our kids mentally as well as physically. My goal has always been to play our best in February and into March
I feel our program has always been peaking during this stretch of the season. We have been to four straight regional championships, and I feel the competition we have faced in our MLK tournaments has played a huge part of that success."
Jefferson is 7-9 so far this season and Brannan said he believes his young team doesn't realize yet what it takes to get to the top tier of the conference.
"We need to play for 32 minutes. We have been in a number of very close games against very good teams, but we have not executed as well as we need to in order to win."
"I want to test our kids so I know what we need to improve on. Playing four games in two days will certainly test our kids mentally as well as physically. My goal has always been to play our best in February and into March
I feel our program has always been peaking during this stretch of the season. We have been to four straight regional championships, and I feel the competition we have faced in our MLK tournaments has played a huge part of that success."
Jefferson is 7-9 so far this season and Brannan said he believes his young team doesn't realize yet what it takes to get to the top tier of the conference.
"We need to play for 32 minutes. We have been in a number of very close games against very good teams, but we have not executed as well as we need to in order to win."
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