Gene Pingatore has won more games than any other high school basketball coach in Illinois history during 40-plus seasons at St. Joseph High School. Alumni of the Westchester school include NBA great Isiah Thomas, “Hoop Dreams” star William Gates and more than two dozen Division I college players. You would think he had just about seen, heard and done it all in basketball, but Pingatore experienced another first this week: junior guards Demetri McCamey of Illinois and Evan Turner of Ohio State, both 2007 St. Joe’s grads, shared the Big Ten Player of the Week award.
“Unbelievable,” Pingatore said. “Pretty amazing.”
La Tonya Sadler, the Big Ten media relations director for basketball, couldn’t confirm whether two players from the same high school sharing the award was a first for the conference. “We don’t keep track of these things, unfortunately,” she said. “But it’s sort of neat.”
Turner averaged 29.5 points, 8.5 rebounds and 5.5 assists in Ohio State’s wins over Penn State and Iowa. He is a strong contender for Big Ten player of the Year with season averages of 19.2 points, 9.3 rebounds and 5.7 assists. McCamey averaged 18.5 points and 9 assists in wins over Iowa and Michigan State, then kept it going with a game-high 27points as the Illini surprised Wisconsin in Madison on Tuesday.
So how does a team with two future major college stars in its lineup not win a state championship? By running into a team with a future NBA star at the supersectional level in 2007.
“Simeon and Derrick Rose got us in the supersectional,” Pingatore said. “If the brackets had been different, we might have seen them downstate, but they had a little too much for us.”
This season, Pingatore’s Chargers are 16-5 and ranked No. 9 in the Chicago Tribune’s area poll, by the way.
