Michael O’Brien’s Super 25 high school basketball rankings for Feb. 28, 2021on March 1, 2021 at 12:33 am

New additions to the Super 25

Corliss (6-0): Harvey Jones has changed everything for the Trojans. They’ve been one of the area’s best programs since he took over in 2017. Jones is one of several Public League coaches that play it close to the vest. He doesn’t pump his team up in the preseason or complain about rankings. Corliss just goes out and wins its way in. That’s exactly what happened this week. The Trojans dominated Clark on Saturday.

Hersey (10-2): High-scoring senior Ethan Roberts is one of the season’s best stories. The Hawks have only lost to Glenbrook South and Rolling Meadows.

Richards (6-0): Bulldogs senior Anthony Taylor hasn’t received much attention yet, but he’s clearly one of the area’s most dynamic scorers. He’s scored more than 21 points in every Richards game this season and had 37 points and 11 rebounds against Evergreen Park on Thursday.

Dropping out

Downers Grove North (6-1): It was a one-week stay for the Trojans, who lost to York.

Lake Forest (8-3): The Scouts lost to St. Patrick and Mundelein. Certainly no shame in that, those are two really good teams. But they are out for now. Sophomore Asa Thomas was excellent against the Shamrocks.

Thornton (2-2): Starting guard Sean Burress has to sit out for another few days. He played in Indiana for a few months. The Wildcat should be much improved when he’s back. They lost to Young and Kankakee this week.

The week ahead

There’s a tremendous amount of basketball this week now that the Public League and all of the suburbs are in full swing. These two teams have especially challenging weeks.

DePaul Prep: It’s possible the Rams are ranked a little too low right now. We should find out this week. They host Loyola on Monday, Mount Carmel on Wednesday and play a Fenwick on Friday.

Kenwood: JJ Taylor is a revelation. The sophomore is probably posting the best numbers in the area. But he hasn’t faced any top-tier competition yet. That changes this week. The Broncos play at Simeon on Tuesday and host Curie on Thursday.

With record and last week’s ranking

1. Simeon (1-0) 1

Isaiah Barnes started strong

2. Young (6-0) 3

Dominated Homewood-Flossmoor

3. Mundelein (10-1) 4

Unbeaten with Scottie Ebube

4. Notre Dame (11-1) 5

Unbeaten with Anthony Sayles

5. DePaul Prep (6-0) 6

Huge week ahead

6. Evanston (9-1) 2

Not small anymore

7. Curie (0-1) 8

Challenged Simeon without Owens

8. Hillcrest (7-0) 7

Julius Rollins is back

9. Glenbrook South (11-1) 9

Split with Evanston

10. Glenbard West (9-0) 10

Won without Braden Huff

11. Rolling Meadows (10-0) 12

State’s best-ever brother duo?

12. DeKalb (13-0) 21

Dominated Indian Creek

13. Brother Rice (8-0) 23

Beat Fenwick

14. Homewood-Flossmoor (7-1) 14

Stumbled vs. Young

15. Kankakee (5-0) 19

Unselfish and hard-working

16. Fenwick (8-2) 11

Lost to Brother Rice

17. Kenwood (4-0) 20

JJ Taylor has arrived

18. Corliss (5-0) NR

Beat Clark

19. Hersey (10-2) NR

Ethan Roberts can play

20. Barrington (8-1) 24

Junior Will Grudzinksi fills it up

21. Bolingbrook (7-2) 25

Winning without Kai Evans

22. Clark (1-1) 17

Won at North Lawndale

23. St. Patrick (5-2) 15

Upset by Marian Catholic

24. North Lawndale (0-1) 13

Lost to Clark

25. Richards (6-0) NR

Anthony Taylor is a force

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