Daniels | Duval, Spartans eager for another Christie Clinic Shootout
Jan. 5—ST. JOSEPH — Watching a college basketball game the other night on TV, as Kiel Duval is prone to do when he's not coaching the St. Joseph-Ogden boys' basketball team in the winter months, RayJ Dennis caught his eye.
Not for the flashy playmaking skills the Baylor point guard and one-time Illinois target displayed. More so for a memory that passed through Duval's mind when Dennis starred at Oswego East, well before he became such a hot transfer portal commodity this past offseason.
Back when Dennis and his Wolves teammates made the trip from the western suburbs of Chicago to the cornfields of east central Illinois in 2019. All to play in the Christie Clinic Shootout in St. Joseph.
"You see some of these big-name guys that are coming to our shootout, and they end up playing really well," Duval said. "It's exciting for our kids because they get to see different teams and players in person that they've never seen before."
Same goes for any fans who set up shop inside SJ-O's gymnasium on Saturday for the sixth annual Christie Clinic Shootout. The 14-team, seven-game event tips off at 11 a.m. with Streator playing Normal West and concludes well into the night, with the final game between Washington and unbeaten Mt. Zion tipping off at 8 p.m.
Sandwiched in between is a lot of ball.
And a lot of planning goes into pulling off an event like the one that unfolds on Saturday.
Duval and SJ-O athletic director Justin Franzen start putting the schedule together almost a year in advance, lining up teams. The goal is to get a mixture of teams throughout the state, both big-school programs and small-school programs.
"We want to get a different mixture of both," Duval said. "We, for sure, want to bring some local schools in because they bring the best crowds, but you also want to have really good programs and really good players because that helps out with the crowds, too."
SJ-O, undefeated Unity and Monticello make up the area teams part of Saturday's event, with three Class 4A teams in Belleville West, Bradley-Bourbonnais and Normal West and a trio of 3A teams in unbeaten Mt. Zion, Streator and Washington all heading to St. Joseph on Saturday.
Admission is reasonable, too, and the $8 price tag for adults and $5 charge for students encourages fans to stick around for multiple games. Folks won't have to go far, too, if they're looking for a bite to eat considering local restaurants like El Toro, The Ribcage and The Wheelhouse are within walking distance of SJ-O.
"The shootout does help with the local businesses just having people from all over the place and a small community where you're not going to have to drive very far if you want to get a bite to eat," Duval said. "You get a full day of watching basketball and not just decent basketball, but really, really good basketball."
Like the basketball Duval's state-ranked team is playing. SJ-O brings a 13-2 record and a No. 8 ranking in the latest Class 2A Associated Press poll into the weekend. Even with questions abonding back in the fall about how the Spartans would replace all-time leading scorer Ty Pence, now a freshman guard at Illinois State, SJ-O has more than handled itself well through the first half of the season.
"Going into the season, the guys heard it a lot that we were missing Ty, and it was going to be a struggle," Duval said. "Our guys have bought in that we've got to share the basketball, while also realizing they've got to do other things to contribute. That's why we've seen the success we've had so far."
Balanced scoring propels SJ-O. Senior Tanner Jacob, a 6-foot-2 guard, averages a team-high 15.2 points and connects on 42 percent of his three-point attempts. But 6-4 junior forward Tanner Siems (11.8 points, 5.5 rebounds) has improved immensely this season and 5-11 senior point guard Logan Smith does a bit of everything in averaging 10.1 points, 5.6 assists, 3.6 rebounds and 1.9 steals while rarely leaving the court.
Coy Taylor, a 6-0 junior guard in his third season with the Spartans, is more than capable offensively and averages 9.3 points. And the Spartans do boast a Division I talent in 6-2 senior guard Luke Landrus. It's just that Landrus will play baseball at Illinois, but is still contributing signficantly by averaging 7.7 points and playing exceptionally well when opponents have the ball.
"Luke has turned into an elite, and I mean elite, defender," Duval said. "We talked about this in practice the other day is I don't think I've seen as good a wing defender as Luke since I've been here. Whatever we tell Luke to do, he does it."
Landrus signed with the Illini in November, but Duval said his committment to basketball this summer stood out.
"He told me before the end of last school year that he was interested in coming back," Duval said. "I know summer is a big time for him with baseball, but whatever he could make for basketball, he did. That showed a pretty big commitment to me and the rest of the guys because he had such a busy baseball schedule."
A busy schedule awaits Duval on Saturday. But it doesn't compare to what Franzen and other volunteers who help put on the all-day event do.
"I know Franzen will be exhausted by the end of the day," Duval said with a laugh. "He's the man behind the scenes who does so many things."
Matt Daniels is the sports editor at The News-Gazette. He can be reached at 217-373-7422 or at mdaniels@news-gazette.com.
