Henricksen: Seeding the Barrington, Eisenhower sectionals

The IHSA will gather seeds from coaches around the state later this week. With three months of basketball in the books, there isn’t a whole lot that can change in the next couple of days, so this is how the City/Suburban Hoops Report believes the seeds should shake out –– based on wins, schedule strength, head-to-head matchups and how well teams are playing right now.

The Hoops Report breaks down each Class 4A sectional, seeding them while providing the reasons behind the seed. For a look at other forecasted sectional seeds, go to the following links …

▪East Aurora and Bolingbrook sectionals

▪Morton and Waukegan sectionals

Here are the projections for the Barrington Sectional and the Eisenhower Sectional. The Barrington Sectional winner will play the DeKalb Sectional winner, where Rockford Auburn will be the favorite. The Eisenhower Sectional winner will travel to Normal to play in the Illinois State Super to face the winner of the Pekin Sectional winner.

Barrington Sectional

(Records through Sunday, Feb. 15)

1. Lake Park (20-5)

2. Palatine (20-7)

3. Lake Zurich (20-8)

4. Barrington (19-6)

5. St. Viator (14-9)

6. Conant (15-10)

7. Fremd (14-7)

8. Hersey (16-8)

Breaking it down: The debate is this whether Lake Park, Lake Zurich or Palatine –– three teams who have an identical 20-win total –– deserves the No. 1 seed?

With both Lake Park and Lake Zurich having scuffled a bit of late –– Lake Park losing to both Naperville North and Bartlett recently, while Lake Zurich is 3-4 in its last seven games –– Palatine has entered the picture with nine wins in its last 10 games. While Lake Park and Lake Zurich both have 20 wins to keep them in a battle for the top spot, Palatine beat Lake Zurich in January.

Palatine is one of the best-kept secret success stories of the year as the Pirates have quietly put together a solid 20-7 record, which includes recent wins over Fremd and Barrington.

With victories over Fremd and Conant in the past two weeks, Barrington holds on to the No. 4 seed.

St. Viator has played a very strong schedule, but in those tough matchups with Notre Dame, Lake Forest, Fenwick, Lyons Twp., Benet, Hinsdale Central, H-F and Rockford Auburn, the the Lions are 0-8.

Conant has won 11 out of its last 14, but the Cougars did recently lose Chris Dolce for the season with a knee injury. Fremd beat Hersey 47-40 back in December to claim the No. 7 seed.

Eisenhower Sectional

(Records through Sunday, Feb. 15)

1. Simeon (22-2)

2. St. Rita (21-3)

3. Thornwood (17-5)

4. Thornton (18-3)

5. H-F (15-7)

6. Crete-Monee (14-9)

7. T.F. South (15-8)

8. Marist (19-7)

Breaking it down: There isn’t a sectional in the Chicago area with a better potential championship game showdown than right here at Eisenhower. That’s a mighty two at the top with St. Rita and Simeon. Although St. Rita did beat Simeon, the game was played two months ago and a lot has changed with the Wolverines. And St. Rita’s stunning upset loss to Providence on Sunday may cost the Mustangs the top seed.

The 3-4-5 seeds in this sectional are pretty transparent. Thornwood is smoking hot. The Thunderbirds haven’t lost since December, which included a win over Thornton earlier this month to earn the third seed. Thornton and H-F, which is playing its best basketball of the season, fall in line after Thornwood.

Also playing well of late has been T.F. South, which is 15-4 since an 0-4 start to the season. T.F. South has a recent win over T.F. North and beat both Marist and Eisenhower back in December. But T.F. South does have a pair of losses to Southland Conference teams (Rich East and Rich Central), which are teams Crete-Monee has beaten. Thus, Crete-Monee moves up and grabs the No. 6 seed as it has some solid wins on the year, including victories over Bradley-Bourbonnais and Evanston.

Follow Joe Henricksen and the Hoops Report on Twitter @joehoopsreport