Coach Sly: Heckuva race shaping up in UEC River

Congrats to the Geneva girls basketball team on winning the UEC RIver, but you gotta say, that was not much of a conference race.

Geneva was head-and-shoulders better than the rest of the conference, so there wasn't much suspense. Fortunately, it looks like things are going to be a lot different on the guys' side these next coupla weeks.

Looking like a sweet little three-team race is brewing between Geneva, St. Charles North and Elgin, with St. Charles East not down for the count quite yet but maybe needing to run the table.

North went 3-0 this week including that big W at Elgin. Give the North Stars oodles of credit for playing their way into the hunt when it didn't seem like they were contending material going into the new year.

Geneva has one loss in the conference, North and Elgin have two each. The best part of it all, North and Geneva still square off two times in these last few weeks of the season. Those should be lots of fun, especially since those teams weren't exactly lovey-dovey last year, far as Sly recalls.

With Geneva's second ballgame against Elgin not on tap until late February, you figure the Vikings are in great position to at least be in it all the way to the wire, unless the Viking ship goes off course in a hurry.

If you're going to tell Sly to get his blue tail off the fence and make a call, the prediction would still be Elgin, even with the Maroons behind Geneva at the moment.

Still think Elgin is the best team in the conference, especially when they get back to full strength. But the Maroons winning the conference is by no means the lock some might have thought it'd be a few weeks back.

Give the Vikes and the Stars plenty of credit for spicing this sucker up for the long-haul.