DePaul Prep Defeats #1 Whitney Young 55-43

The Rams had lost to Fenwick a week before. Despite beating Brother Rice in an emotional last game in the Tom Winiecki Gym, it felt like DePaul limped into the Chipotle Clash of Champions. They were ranked 11 or 19 or something. I don’t even remember.

Coach Kleinschmidt had them ready. Ready to play their game. As is their game, the Rams opened a lead. The top ranked Dolphins rebounded and actually lead at half time.

No problem. Just keep playing the Rams’ game. Whitney Young was happy to oblige. Well, maybe not happy. They didn’t have much say in the issue. The Rams controlled the tempo, moved the ball around until they found a seem to exploit. And that they did.

TY had 32. Brian Mathews had 11.

Oh, and they made their free throws at the end. Doing that, when one has the lead at the end, makes winning look easy.

I was more of a spectator for this game. It shows in the photos. I don’t even care. I just enjoyed the game.

It was proof to me just how special this group of young men—this team—is. Proof that Tom Kleinschimdt is a special kind of coach. Proof that even in the disappointment and frustration of the season of COVID, we can all take something special from the experience.

This was just the first game of the Chipotle Clash of Champions; still more work to do. But all the proof I needed.

DePaul Prep Defeats St. Joseph 54-37 in Opener

DePaul Prep defeated St. Joseph 54-37 in opening game of this COVID-19 season on Monday evening in an empty gym. Maybe you saw it streaming. I understand St. Joes was broadcasting it on Facebook or You Tube. Essentially, the only spectators were the teams themselves, the St. Joseph sophomore team, a couple of St. Joseph staff members and me.

It was an interesting game. The Rams came out cold. They had good shots; they just missed the bucket early and often. Both teams were missing shots and turning the ball over. It must have been jitters from the long layoff.

After a St. Joseph 7-0 run to open the game and about half of the first quarter, DePaup Prep coach Tom Kleinschmidt dialed up the pressure having his Rams trap the ball handler.

 “Slow start coming out. You have to hand it to Joe’s. They were way more physical than us. They came and punched us in the face . . .. It’s a Catholic League road game so you have to be ready and we weren’t. For whatever reason. I’m not making any excuses. We picked up pressure and started getting some live ball turnovers. We started getting some baskets,” Kleinschmidt said after the game.

Midway through the second quarter the Rams opened a 12-point lead and it never was close after that.

DePaul Prep senior guard Tyler “TY” Johnson lead all scorers with 26 points. DePaul senior guard Rasheed Bello finished with 9 points but had an end-to-end monster dunk in the first half that fired up the Rams. By the grace of God, I happened to be ready and snapped a photo which I posed on Twitter at halftime and is included below.

Senior center Brian Mathews did not play until the start of the fourth quarter. “Brian hasn’t practiced yet. That’s the only reason [he didn’t play]. We brought him in in the fourth to give Dylan [Arnett] a little plow and that’s it,” Kleinschmidt said.

The Rams were scheduled to play Marmion in the Tom Weinicki Gym on Wednesday. However, the game has been postponed because Marmion is quarantined. The next game for the Rams is Friday evening at Montini.

As for the photos, it’s all about the light at St. Joe’s. Those tungsten or sodium vapor lights must be an effort to freak out other teams. Most CCL teams are used to it, maybe even like it. I admit the lights are kind of growing on me. It makes for weird photos. Everything is under exposed orange.

My string of a game every day or so is coming to an end. Just not enough time to shoot, process and write every day.

Hope you like the photos.

DePaul Prep Handles St. Ignatius 65-34

The DePaul Prep Rams rebounded Friday night (February 21, 2020) from consecutive CCL Blue losses to Fenwick and Loyola in a convincing defeat of the very good St. Ignatius Wolfpack 65-34 at DePaul Prep.

It’s been a rough couple weeks for the Rams with three Chicago Catholic League Blue division losses in a row. Even so, it’s only 5 losses on the season total but tough losses.

St. Ignatius ran into a buzz saw that cut them up in the first quarter. The Wolfpack worked to get up shots that did not fall. It was 16-2 at the end of the first quarter. The Rams wouldn’t let them back in. It seemed they enjoyed putting it on somebody for once. The Catholic League Blue schedule is brutal.

It was a special night at the Tom Winiecki Gym. Tom Winiecki, the former Gordon Tech football coach, was actually there. I have been in that gym a million times and I don’t remember seeing that many people in attendance. It was the 40th Anniversary of Gordon Tech’s 1980 state football championship. There was special half time commemoration and many members of that team were in the Gym for the celebration.

It was wonderful to see the student section break into Go Gordon Go (the Gordon Tech fight song) at the end of the celebration. One could see what it meant to the 1980 Rams. It was a special moment.

I would remiss not to mention that the girls team won the 2A Orr Sectional and will play in the Super-sectional championship on Monday evening at DeKalb High School. This is big. I believe this is Gordon/DePaul Prep’s first girls sectional championship. The girls’ head coach Sarah Zarymbski is only 23 years old but really has her girls dialed in. It must be her St. Benedict Elementary School training. We could be in Bloomington next week for the State Tournament. Just saying.

Go Rams.