DePaul Prep opens the season at No. 1 as the Rams' quest for a four-peat heads to Class 4A
DePaul Prep guard Rykan Woo is a thoughtful kid who spends a few seconds ruminating before he answers a question. But the Brown recruit didn’t pause at all when asked what fans should expect this season from teammate Rashaun Porter.
The two seniors are key players for the Rams, the top-ranked team in the Sun-Times’ preseason Super 25 rankings.
“The only word to describe it is ‘dominant,’ ” Woo said. “He’s going to dominate. He’s a great player and a great person. The best thing about him is he’s really smart. He does the right things to win. That’s going to be showcased this year.”
Porter, a 6-7 Toledo recruit, played with an enticing blend of skill and physicality last season while leading DePaul to the Pontiac Holiday Tournament title and the Class 3A state championship.
“[At Pontiac], I started to figure out my role,” he said. “It was a new style we were playing and a huge change. I had to understand that and step up more.”
Porter, who was born on the West Side and moved to Hillside in third grade, slimmed down and worked on his guard skills over the summer.
“He’s our catalyst,” DePaul coach Tom Kleinschmidt said. “We go how he goes. When he’s vocal in practice, it raises our whole team.”
Kids who stand 6-7 are occasionally pushed into playing basketball, but that’s not the case with Porter.
“Basketball has always been important to me,” he said. “It’s always been the way for me to clear my mind and find success. I value it and work hard in it. And that’s what I found in DePaul — a place where I could do that and ultimately be myself.”
Porter’s first visit to the school to see a high school game several years ago is a core memory.
“There was so much energy,” he said. “It was [St. Ignatius] vs. DePaul on grade school night. Everyone was screaming and yelling. It was hard for me to hear the person right next to me. I could imagine myself on the court, going up for a dunk in the middle of all that.”
Although Woo and Porter are the head-liners, DePaul has a tall, talented team surrounding them.
“I like to play four guards and a big, so it will be an adjustment,” Kleinschmidt said. “This is the biggest team we’ve had. We will go 6-8 and 6-5, so that is pretty long.”
Senior guard AJ Chambers, a Michigan Tech recruit, is another Rams player who made significant strides over the summer.
“He’s a playmaker, a powerful point guard that gets guys the ball,” Kleinschmidt said. “His footwork is unbelievable. He plays his gaps on defense and gets big steals.”
Sophomore guard Blake Choice, senior guard Pat Lovell and 6-8 junior forward Gus Johnson will have bigger roles. The Rams also picked up a major addition in Zion Lee, a 6-5 senior guard who transferred from Sacred Heart-Griffin.
“[Lee] is a freak athlete,” Woo said. “He’s huge, really strong and really physical. He sets great screens, and he’s a great scorer. My favorite part of his game is his mid-range. It’s tough to stop that when he’s 6-5.”
Woo, a fan favorite for a few years, plays with an understated flair when things are flowing. He started and ended last season well but spent a stretch adjusting to being a marked man.
“There were highs and lows,” Woo said. “Teams didn’t know me at the start, but as the season went on, I was struggling with being face-guarded and teams centering the defense around me.”
After winning the Class 2A state title in 2023 and the Class 3A title in 2024 and 2025, the Rams have moved up to Class 4A this season and are attempting a four-peat. Last season, they won their seven Class 3A playoff games by an average of 28 points.
“The playoffs [this season] are going to be vastly different,” Kleinschmidt said. “We understand that.”
Their challenging schedule includes a meeting with Indiana’s La Lumiere — the prep school that former Kenwood star Devin Cleveland transferred to — at the Chicago Elite Classic on Dec. 6.