By the time those holiday tournaments across the state tip off, there has been ample time to smooth out the wrinkles and work out the kinks. Crowds fill the gyms, the stakes are raised, pressure moments crop up and the brand of basketball at Christmas time evolves into something different than in the weeks leading up to it.
Here’s a look back at the 91st Pontiac Holiday Tournament.
Biggest story: Robert Smith says goodbye with a title
The relationship between Simeon and Pontiac has been well documented. So it was only fitting that coach Robert Smith, the key figure in keeping Simeon at Pontiac all these years, even through the Derrick Rose and Jabari Parker days, was given a warm and thankful sendoff from the Pontiac faithful.
More importantly for Smith, his Wolverines continue to impress and look like the No. 1 team in the state. Jalen Griffith remains a calming influence with the ball in his hands, while Miles and Wesley Rubin continue provide a presence at both ends of the floor, and Sam Lewis, the Oak Park transfer, is settling in nicely and becoming more and more impactful.
Simeon took care of business and won yet another Pontiac title in Smith’s final year on the bench.
Biggest surprise: Pontiac advances to quarterfinals
This won’t resonate much with the majority of Chicago area high school basketball fans, especially ones not connected to the Pontiac Holiday Tournament whatsoever. But Pontiac winning a game in its own tournament, particularly in a winner’s bracket game, is a big deal. Plain and simple: it’s extremely rare.
Pontiac knocked off West Aurora 60-55 on the opening night before getting throttled by both Simeon and New Trier. But that first-round win was a feel-good story for the fans of Pontiac and something those players will remember forever.
The win over West Aurora was the first time Pontiac advanced on in the championship bracket since 2006.
Simeon’s Robert Smith acknowledges the crowd after the Wolverines defeated Benet to win the Pontiac Holiday Tournament.
Player of the tournament: Benet’s Brayden Fagbemi
There were bigger names and higher profile players in this tournament — even on his own Benet team — than Fagbemi. But there wasn’t a player who grabbed the attention of fans or who meant more to his team’s success than this steady, ready-for-the-moment point guard.
While Fagbemi was featured as one of the City/Suburban Hoops Report’s projected “breakout players” in the preseason, no one knew the Johns Hopkins recruit. He was a little-used point guard off the bench a year ago. But he blossomed in the offseason and was brilliant in Pontiac.
Fagbemi went for 15 points, seven assists and seven rebounds in the opening win over Oak Park. He handled the relentless pressure and traps thrown his way against Bloom and Joliet West, turning the ball over just four times while playing all 32 minutes in each game. Along with teammate Niko Abusara, he spearheaded the comeback against Simeon before the Redwings fell in the title game.
Fagbemi was as poised as they come against relentless pressure, a true floor general. He handed out 20 assists while averaging 12 points and a four-to-one assist-to-turnover ratio.
Best prospect: Joliet West’s Jeremiah Fears
From an evaluation standpoint, there just wasn’t a better college prospect in the gym at Pontiac than the sophomore from Joliet West. He made sophomore mistakes. He still has to mature physically and learn how to pick his moments.
But Fears, the younger brother of star Jeremy Fears, Jr., the Michigan State recruit, has an easy, natural smoothness that screams next level. When you add in his shooting capabilities — Fears was 9 of 17 from beyond the arc — you have a young offensive force who you wonder just how high of a level he will go over the next two seasons.
What we learned
? When Kaiden Space is healthy — the senior guard is currently out with an injury — there are four signed Division I prospects in Simeon’s starting five. But the uncommitted starter, point guard Jalen Griffith, is proving to be the key cog in Robert Smith’s No. 1 ranked team. Griffith, who was named the A.C. Williamson Award winner for his play, leadership and sportsmanship, was instrumental in delivering in key moments.
Griffith led Simeon in scoring with 15 points a game while playing with remarkable efficiency. These numbers are eye-opening when you consider Griffith is a 5-9 point guard: 16 of 24 (67%) from inside the arc and 8 of 12 (67%) from beyond.
? They didn’t reach the semifinals or finish in the top four. But the team that’s better than I thought it would be after watching them play at Pontiac is Bloom. Coach Dante Maddox has so much rangy size and length to be disruptive with, and that starts with the backcourt of Raeshom Harris and Jordan Brown.
Bloom, which won three games and finished fifth at Pontiac, has lost to three teams this season ranked in the top 10 and who are a combined 46-4 on the season. And they lost to those three teams — Benet, Hillcrest and Brother Rice — by a combined 13 points.
? New Trier continues to be a resilient, physical team that’s going to be an awfully tough out come state tournament time. That grit starts with senior Jake Feigen, a known shooter who averaged 22 points in four games at Pontiac.
? Will three straight wins and a consolation championship pump some life into an Oak Park team that came into Pontiac reeling?
The Huskies had lost four straight. But after falling to Benet for its fifth-straight loss in the first round, Oak Park went on to beat Plainfield North, Peoria Manual and West Aurora in succession to leave Pontiac on a positive note.
? The Pontiac Tournament, by all accounts, is the measuring stick for holiday tournaments across the state. This year’s tournament didn’t disappoint. But it had less depth than previous years.
Parting shot
The Robert Smith sendoff wasn’t the only one at Pontiac. The tournament also said farewell to longtime tournament manager Jim Drengwitz, who has led this tournament for the past 23 years.
Although always behind the scenes, Drengwitz has been an instrumental part of what has continued to make Pontiac a special place to be for three days each December. He’s been such an omnipresent voice for such a long time at Pontiac that he will undoubtedly be missed. He’s built relationships and organized in a way that has kept this the very best holiday tournament in the state.
