12 thoughts on the IHSA boys basketball state playoff bracket

We are just over a week away from IHSA regional play tipping off across the state.

With a newsworthy week highlighted by sectional seeds and where teams will be playing, here are a dozen takeaways from the IHSA’s recently released state tournament brackets.

1. The brackets are set throughout the state in every class. If the seeds and highest ranked teams were all to advance to Champaign on the final weekend of the season, here is how the state semifinals in the two largest classes would look:

Class 4A: Curie vs. Homewood-Flossmoor; DePaul Prep vs. Benet

Class 3A: St. Viator vs. Kankakee; Hyde Park vs. East St. Louis

2. There are clearly coaches who still only look at win totals and award seeds to the teams with the most — even if it’s simply a one or two-win difference. It’s easy and lazy for the coach and it really cost a few deserving teams in the seeding process this past week.

3. The Loyola Sectional has the most ranked teams of any sectional with six: DePaul, Evanston, Loyola, St. Patrick, New Trier and Lincoln Park.

4. The sectional with the most teams with winning records? That would be the 4A Mount Carmel Sectional with 13 teams above the .500 mark.

5. Regionals typically bring rematches and rivalries. There isn’t a rivalry that surpasses the Notre Dame-St. Patrick one that will play out in a regional semifinal at New Trier. Will they fill the place as they do during the regular season?

6. There is the potential for so many rematches in regional championship games if games play out how they’re projected to, starting with a trio of 4 vs. 5 seeds.

Those three games include: Batavia and Wheaton South playing a third time this season and just one week after facing one another in the regular-season finale; St. Laurence and Mount Carmel squaring off in a Catholic League rematch; and Brother Rice and Joliet West, who met way back in November, playing again three months later.

DuKane Conference teams Glenbard North and Wheaton North meet up this week to finish up the regular season. They are projected to meet for a third time in the regional championship one week later.

If No. 9 Glenbard West can pull off a minor upset over No. 7 Leyden, the Hilltoppers would play No. 2 seed York for the third time on its home floor.

Sandburg, No. 8 seed playing the regional on its home floor, played Homewood-Flossmoor pretty tough in two conference matchups this season. They could get a third crack at top-seeded H-F in the regional championship.

Barrington has struggled this season. But the Broncos played Palatine tough in a 52-51 January loss. As the No. 2 and No. 7 seeds, they are expected to meet again.

And two other Mid-Suburban League teams, Hersey and Rolling Meadows, are expected to meet after splitting their two regular-season games this season.

Back in January, No. 2 seed Evanston handled No. 7 Niles North in a 80-64 win. A likely rematch awaits in the regional championship.

7. With the return of Christopher Kirkpatrick this past weekend from injury –– and the instant impact he made with 24 points in a win over Evanston –– New Trier is the best No. 5 seed in the state.

8. You really have to search for potential competitive regional semifinal games involving top four seeds. High-seeded teams matched up against double-digit seeds generally don’t produce a whole lot of drama. But there are a few that could prove to be tricky.

No high-seeded team wants to play its biggest rival in the first game of state tournament play. That’s what St. Patrick, the No. 4 seed, gets when it faces Notre Dame.

Glenbrook South has had an uncharacteristically down year. But always well coached and playing on its home floor, No. 14 seed Glenbrook South could be problematic for third-seeded Loyola.

No. 4 seed Brother Rice must play 16-win Richards, a team it beat 50-41 just this past week.

Mount Carmel, another No. 4 seed, must play on the road at Hinsdale Central, a disciplined team that has knocked off Oak Lawn (24 wins) and Downers Grove South (21 wins) while playing a very competitive schedule.

9. Simeon as a No. 11 seed is wild. The Wolverines earned that 11 seed, but simply seeing that seed attached to this program is like a high school basketball ultra reality.

The realization this program is up against it in winning a regional title has officially set in. Simeon has never lost in a regional since Bob Hambric took over the program in 1980. That streak dates back 45 years.

Simeon will need to beat No. 6 seed Riverside-Brookfield and likely Whitney Young to continue that phenomenal run.

10. The teams seeded 1 through 8 are expected to meet in regional title games. But the most dangerous team outside the top eight seeds is No. 9 Lyons.

The Lions, who impressed in the summer and came into the season with some high expectations, fell off the map a bit after hitting a midseason lull. But a reborn Lyons team is now 19-6 and has won eight straight and 10 of its last 11. There is talent, size and length on a team that will pose a threat to any team seeded higher.

11. There are several basketball programs in positions they are not accustomed to being in at this time of the year. But none more so than Joliet Catholic.

The Hilltoppers are the No. 1 seed in the Hinsdale South Sectional. It’s been 38 years since the last time the Hilltoppers won a sectional championship.

Joliet Catholic, which has won 17 games and are in fifth place in the East Suburban Catholic Conference, have had just one 20-win season in 45 years. With three regular-season games remaining, a regional championship will undoubtedly get them their second 20-win season in four-plus decades.

12. The landscape outside the Chicago area is pretty enticing and intriguing along one state tournament road in Class 3A.

East St. Louis (25-3), the top-ranked team in Class 3A, and No. 5 ranked Centralia (27-1) are on a collision course to meet in the sectional championship game at Waterloo. The winner would then likely face Decatur MacArthur (28-1), the No. 4 ranked team in the Springfield Super.

Neither East St. Louis or MacArthur have lost to an in-state team all season. Centralia’s only loss came to Marist in December.