Game 93: Minooka vs. York (Boy's Basketball)

Game 93
Minooka vs. York (Boy's Basketball)
Galesburg Martin Luther King Tournament
(1/15/11)

On my drive to Galesburg on Saturday morning, I caught the local talk program on K100 or WJEQ in Macomb hosted by John Maguire.  His guests on this week's show were Rich Egger from Tri-States Public Radio and Jodi Pospeschil from the McDonough Voice. 



What I found most interesting was a comment made by Egger about the relationship between the university and Macomb community, and how it has been strained in recent years.  He mentioned the personalities of Mayor Mick Wisslead and WIU President Al Goldfarb, and how their personalities are so different.  Both leaders will be leaving office in 2011.  There was also quite a discussion regarding the main corridor to enter Western Illinois University, Adams Street. 

Adams Street is known as the party street at WIU, and frankly gives the university an awful image.  There are many talks surrounding changes on West Adams street leading to the campus, and hopefully they can get it cleaned up.  It's an embarrassment at how atrocious the entire northwest quadrant of Macomb looks, with very nice homes being turned into student rentals and destroyed by tenants.  Without sounding so negative about that side of the city, the townhouses on Adams Street were a nice addition a few years ago, and I really like the Adams Street Coffeehouse, owned by Mark Bloom.

York Dukes
Mr. Leone (the father of the Dukes' Kyle Leone) helped me with some tough pronunciations on the Dukes squad....
Jake Rzeszutko (Ruh-zoo-koh)
Sean Kahovec (Kuh-hoh-veck)
Matt DiFrancesca (Dee-Fran-Chess-kuh)
Cody Kliethermes (Klih-Thermos)
Mike Despinich (Duh-Spinach)

Remember Tom Kleinschmidt
The York Dukes have a familiar name on the bench for basketball fans.  Tom Kleinschmidt is an assistant coach under Dominic Cannon.  Kleinschmidt led Gordon Tech to the Class AA state finals in 1989-90.  He went on to star at DePaul, and was named an honorable mention All-American in his senior season.  He spent a month in tryouts with the Seattle Supersonics in 1995, and then played with the Chicago Rockers in the Continental Basketball Association, before playing overseas in Japan.

Indians vs. Dukes
It was a tight game from start to finish, with Minooka leading 10-8 after the first quarter.  York's Will Sullivan scored the first 6 points.  He is getting Division-I interest from Tulane, Eastern Kentucky, Loyola, Eastern Illinois, and Miami-Ohio.

York outscored Minooka 17-6 in the 2nd quarter and took a 25-16 lead into halftime.  The Indians got back into the game out of the break and trailed by 5 points heading into the 4th quarter, and made a run behind the hot shooting of Jake Hogen.  The 6'0" sophomore finished with 24 points and nailed 6 three-pointers, including a game-tying three-pointer in the final seconds, making it 49-49.  With 0:02.9 on the clock, Will Sullvan was fouled and made both free throws to make it 51-49, setting the final score.  A three-pointer at the final horn hit off the rim for Minooka.  Sullivan finished with 17 points for the Dukes, and David Cohn added 12 points.

Between the Minooka/York game and the United Township/Warren game, I made a quick run to the hospitality room to fill up on some Pizza House subs.  Delicious, and I encourage any visitors to Galesburg to check them out at 132 East Simmons Street.  They also have a website, http://www.sperlinspizzahouse.com/.

My lunch was the equivalent of a six-inch sub with some potato chips and a bottle of water.  I also ate very quickly, because there was only 10 minutes to spare!  Others in the hospitality room were Galesburg coach Mike Reynolds and Galesburg sophomore coach Ryan Hart.  I chided Reynolds about the comment section in the Galesburg Register-Mail, saying his critics will be after him again after getting a technical this afternoon.  He said he doesn't read that stuff, but his wife tells him about it.