“Elite” teams/players on display in Chicago Saturday

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CHICAGO – A plethora of potential McDonald’s All-Americans – in each of the of four classes – are expected to be on display during the seven-game, Chicago Elite Classic Saturday at the University of Illinois-Chicago Pavilion.

Eight squads from Illinois, three from California and one a piece from Memphis, Nevada and Washington, DC are scheduled to participate.

The games are split into two sessions, the first beginning at 10 a.m. (CT) with Oak Park (IL) Fenwick facing Normal (IL) University, followed at 11:30 by Chicago St. Rita and Washington, DC Gonzaga; at 1 p.m. by Etiwanda (CA) and Chicago Heights Marian Catholic; and at 2:30 by Redondo Beach (CA) Redondo Union and Lisle (IL) Benet Academy.

Session 2 begin at 6 p.m. with Chicago Simeon facing Memphis Hamilton, followed by Chicago Curie and Las Vegas Bishop Gorman at 7:30 and Chicago Whitney Young and Bellflower (CA) St. John Bosco at 9 o’clock.

The potential is there for some scintillating individual matchups, guards Jordan McLaughlin (a USC signee) of Etiwanda and Kentucky-bound Tyler Ulis of Marian Catholic; Kansas-bound Cliff Alexander and either of the Gorman juniors Stephen Zimmerman and Chase Jeter; and Duke-bound Jahlil Okafor – the No. 1 center in the Class of 2014 – vs. 6-8 St. John Bosco freshman Billy Preston.

Based upon his ejection (for two technical fouls) in Sunday’s win over St. Rita, the Illinois High School Association ruled that he would have to sit out the team’s “next regularly scheduled game”, which was a contest in Kentucky.

Earlier it appeared as if that Curie would not be taking the trip to Kentucky for its game Friday night because of the potential for poor weather – meaning Alexander would not have been allowed to play against Gorman Saturday night.

But late Thursday the Chicago Tribune reported that Curie was making the trip to Kentucky after all and that Alexander would serve the suspension by not playing in that contest.

Check my twitter account — @FrankieBur – for updates during each game Saturday, as well as this website for a complete late Saturday night/early Sunday morning rundown on the entire event.