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Simeon senior guard Kendrick Nunn may not be the savior of the Illinois basketball program, but he may just attract that player.

Nunn, who committed to the Illini on Saturday, certainly has basketball gifts. He can shoot. He can defend. He’ll play hard. He’ll do what is asked of him.

Whether he’s a future all-American or has the NBA in his future, that’s difficult to say now. He’s a 6-foot-2 shooting guard who is ranked No. 56 in the country and is the 17th best shooting guard by ESPN and is ranked as high as 36th and low as 60th by other national recruiting sites. Within Illinois, City/Suburban Hoops Report recruiting analyst Joe Henricksen ranks Nunn behind Simeon teammate Jabari Parker, the nation’s No. 1 player, and Belleville East’s Malcolm Hill, another Illinois recruit.

Nunn’s value to Illinois goes well beyond that, though.

For one, he’s the first Chicago recruit for Illinois first-year coach John Groce. It doesn’t hurt that Nunn is also from the state’s premier program. Secondly, Nunn is the type of player who seems to fit into any system and tends to be on winning teams. Simeon and the U17 USA national team can attest to that. Finally, others players appear to like him as a person and teammate.

All of those reasons add up to Nunn possibly being the most important Illini recruit in the past decade.

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CHICAGO -- Simeon Career Academy forward Jabari Parker, the nation's No. 1-ranked senior, has added Connecticut to the list of schools he's considering, his father said on Thursday.

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According to Sonny Parker, father of ESPN 100 No. 1 recruit Jabari Parker, the in-home visits for Jabari are going well with some elite programs coming in this week.

On Tuesday, North Carolina's Roy Williams is in the Windy City. Coach Williams has many accomplishments to discuss, but expect one topic of discussion to be how the Heels are planning to showcase Parker in the Carolina fast break.

Thursday, Michigan State's Tom Izzo will be in the Parker home. Coach Izzo will talk style of play and how the Spartans have been a mainstay in the Final Four. Don't be surprised if they also discuss a player by the name of Earvin "Magic" Johnson. That just might come up.

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Florida coach Billy Donovan met with Chicago Simeon's Jabari Parker on Tuesday, and DePaul's Oliver Purnell was scheduled to meet Wednesday with the nation's top-ranked senior.

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CHICAGO -- The Illinois High School Association’s board of directors decided Monday not to grant a waiver request by the Chicago Public Schools to allow their teams to participate in athletic contests during the ongoing teachers’ strike.

The IHSA’s by-laws do not permit schools to participate in interscholastic contests during teacher strikes. Schools can hold practices if their local school boards allow them.

The Chicago Teachers Union began their strike on Monday, forcing the closure of all the city’s public schools.

“It was the conclusion of the board that granting such a request extended beyond its authority,” IHSA executive director Marty Hickman said in a statement. “The IHSA’s by-laws are developed by and voted into practice by its member school principals, and, after some meaningful discussion, the board ultimately felt respecting the guidelines put in place by our member schools was the only option available in this situation, and any change to the by-laws would need to be facilitated through the IHSA legislative process.

“While IHSA by-law 2.140 prohibits schools that are on strike from participating in interscholastic contests, it does establish conditions under which school boards can approve practice sessions for a school that is on strike, should those local school boards wish to do so.”

The decision by Chicago teachers to strike affects a bevy of recruits because college coaches won’t be in the Windy City watching open gyms during the strike.

“You have to adjust,” DePaul assistant coach Billy Garrett said. “We had a strike plan and a non-strike plan. Oliver Purnell is thorough. It’s really hard for the kids but we planned for both. It’s those mid-major kids that it affects the most; a kid that you’re trying to make decisions on in terms of whether or not he’s good enough.”

If the strike lingers, it doesn’t mean much for Jabari Parker (Chicago/Simeon), the No. 1 overall player in the 2013 class. However, for senior Jaylon Tate (Chicago/Simeon), the timing is not good.

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Proviso East senior guard Sterling Brown has set up official visits to Memphis, Miami and Missouri, his father said on Friday.

Brown, a 6-foot-4 guard, will visit Missouri on Oct. 12, Miami on Oct. 19 and Memphis on Oct. 26, according to his father Chris Brown. Chris said his son was considering all three schools along with many others, including Colorado, DePaul, Illinois, Michigan State, Northwestern and Oregon State.

“He’s still wide open,” Chris said. “His radar is still open.”

Brown’s older brother Shannon Brown starred at Michigan State, and Spartans coach Tom Izzo has been recruiting Sterling. Chris believed Michigan State would offer Sterling next week when the Spartans visit Proviso East.

“It’s not about what school Shannon went to,” Chris said. “It’s about what schools are recruiting Sterling. Michigan State has shown interest in him.”

Shannon recently said he didn’t care where Sterling ended up.

“I’m just letting Sterling do him,” Shannon said last month. “I’m letting Sterling make his own decisions. Let him go out there and play his game the way he wants. If he wants my opinion on something, I’ll definitely give it to him. I want to see him want to go to a school he wants to go play at.”

Chris said he was hopeful Brown would commit and sign with a school in November.

Brown averaged 13 points and nine rebounds last season. In a state championship loss to Simeon and its star Jabari Parker, Brown scored a game-high 25 points on 10-of-18 shooting, hit two 3-pointers, grabbed five rebounds and had one steal and one assist.

Illinois High School Association executive director Marty Hickman announced Friday the IHSA has received a request from the Chicago Public Schools for their athletic teams to be allowed to continue playing if there is a teachers’ strike.

The IHSA’s by-laws do not permit schools to participate in interscholastic contests during teacher strikes. Schools are allowed to hold practices.

Hickman said the IHSA would review the waiver request at its regularly-scheduled meeting on Sept. 10.
On Thursday, the Chicago Teachers Union set a strike date of Sept. 10. The union is in contract negotiations with the Chicago Public Schools.

An IHSA spokesperson said he did not believe such a waiver has ever been granted before in the IHSA’s history.

Former Kansas guard Milton Doyle committed to Loyola on Wednesday.

Doyle originally committed to Florida International while at Marshall High School in Chicago. He was allowed out of his letter of intent when Isiah Thomas was fired. He later committed to Kansas and was enrolled there until recently. He played with the Jayhawks during their recent trip to Europe.

Doyle, a freshman guard, chose the Ramblers over Green Bay. Doyle will enroll into Loyola in the fall semester and will likely have to sit out this season per NCAA transfer rules.

“I’m just happy to move forward,” Doyle’s mother Lisa Green said. “Just happy he still had the opportunities he had. We were just trying to make sure it was really, really something that was right for him.

“The No. 1 thing is it’s close to home. The name Loyola is of course a prestigious school in Chicago. He’s able to be at a good school, be close to home and do what he likes to do.”

Doyle, a 6-4 guard, averaged 19 points, seven rebounds and five assists while playing in the Chicago Public League his senior season. He was selected to the ESPNChicago.com all-area team.

Loyola assistant coach Armon Gates was the lead recruiter on Doyle.

The Ramblers were 7-23 overall and 1-17 in the Horizon last season.

Joliet Catholic senior running back and USC recruit Ty Isaac suffered a shoulder injury in his season-opening game Friday and will have a MRI taken next week, his father said on Saturday.

Isaac, who was the 2011 ESPNChicago.com Offensive Player of the Year, suffered the injury to his right shoulder when he was tackled into the turf against Providence on Friday. He had rushed for 66 yards and one touchdown on seven carries when he departed the game in the first quarter.

“The good news is he doesn’t have any fractures,” his father Tyrone Isaac said on Saturday morning. “We don’t know the extent of the tissue damage yet. We’ll have a MRI on Monday. Other than that, he’s in a bit of pain.

“(The doctor) said it look good, and it could be as minor as a deep bruise. I’m hoping and praying for the best and keep the season rocking and rolling.”

Isaac is ranked No. 68 overall and the No. 7 running back in the Class of 2013 by ESPN. He committed to USC in May.

Isaac rushed for 2,629 yards and 41 touchdowns on 203 carries and caught 16 passes for 369 yards and six touchdowns during his junior season. He rushed for a state-record 515 yards and six touchdowns in a 70-45 loss to Montini in the Class 5A state championship.

Leo High School president Dan McGrath accused defending Illinois Class 4A boys basketball state champions Simeon Career Academy of recruiting two of its student-athletes.

Their parents and Simeon coach Robert Smith denied the allegation.

Seniors Russell Woods and Sean Moore Jr. attended Leo and played for its varsity basketball team for three years. The two students’ parents recently requested their transcripts from Leo, a private school, and enrolled them into Simeon, a public school. The two schools are both on Chicago’s South Side and are about a mile apart.

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Simeon senior guard Kendrick Nunn, an ESPN 100 recruit, has set up dates for his five official visits, his father said on Tuesday.

Nunn released a list of five schools he was considering on Aug. 3 and will visit all of those schools in September and October. He will visit Illinois from Sept. 14-16, Memphis from Sept. 21-23, UCLA from Sept. 28-30, Ohio State from Oct. 5-7 and Marquette from Oct. 12-14, according to Melvin Nunn.

Nunn, a 6-foot-2 shooting guard, is ranked No. 54 in the ESPN 100. He's considered the state of Illinois' second-best senior behind his high school teammate Jabari Parker, who is the nation's top-ranked player.

Nunn averaged 15 points for Simeon last season and helped it to its third consecutive state championship. He also helped Team USA win gold in the FIBA U17 World Championship this summer.

Three yards and a ... shoestring tackle.

Could that be the Big Ten's new motto? It's become the motto for nearly all of college football over the past decade with the advent of the spread offense.

Rich Rodriguez tried it at Michigan. Urban Meyer is bringing his to Ohio State. Penn State had its "HD Offense."

The Big Ten is no longer just a three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust league. But it is nothing new for some of the high schools in the Midwest.

Rocky Pentello has been coaching at Westerville South in Ohio since 1991. He estimates his team has been running the spread offense for close to 15 years now. While Ohio and the Midwest are known for producing linemen, not every program is blessed with the horses up front year after year. Pentello and his staff began incorporating the shotgun-based spread to even the playing field.

Pentello implemented zone-blocking schemes for his offensive line, which, in its simplest terms, is predicated on blocking an area instead of just a man.

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The 2013 class is one of the strongest in Illinois in recent memory. There are 12 prospects rated as four-star recruits from the state in 2013, which matches combined total from 2011 and 2012.

Although the top two spots in Illinois are occupied by skill positions players -- WR Laquon Treadwell (Crete, Ill./Crete-Monee) and RB Ty Isaac (Joliet, Ill./Joliet Catholic) -- six of the top 10 players in the state can be found along the lines. That isn't much of a surprise, as the Midwest is known for producing big boys.

Five offensive tackles are found among the top 10 players in Illinois, and another offensive lineman -- guard Kyle Bosch (Wheaton, Ill./St. Francis) -- comes in at No. 6. Overall, the top part of the state's 2013 class is heavy on offense as 12 of the top 14 prospects could all play on that side of the ball.

Two Big Ten teams without much success recently are hoping they found their quarterbacks of the future from the state.

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Basketball was Phoenix Suns guard Shannon Brown's ticket out of the streets.

Brown, a six-year NBA veteran, is now hoping to provide others their ticket out. He will be raising money for The Shannon Brown Foundation, which provides college scholarships to high school students, while hosting the inaugural Wood-Star Music Festival at Union Park in Chicago from Friday to Sunday.

The fest will include an R&B music lineup of Robin Thicke, Monica, Estelle, Dawn Richard and Fantasia, a celebrity basketball game and an old-school hip-hop lineup with Doug E. Fresh, Slick Rick, Rakim, MC Lyte and Naughty By Nature.

“It hurts me every time I hear about (the shootings in Chicago),” said Brown, who is from Maywood, Ill., and attended Proviso East High School. “That’s one of the reasons I want to bring something positive to the city. It affects me. It’s the same thing I’m from. Same streets I walked. Same people I come connected with. It definitely needs to stop. The scholarships are a way of getting out.”

Brown assembled the music lineup with his wife and R&B artist Monica, and their hope is to have the fest become an annual one and grow with time.

“If you’re going to do it, make it the biggest thing possible,” Brown said. “That’s what we’re trying to do. A whole bunch of great artists like my wife, old-school rap, everybody loves that. Coming where I’m from, sports and music are the two things that everyone wants to do in life. Hopefully, it gets to a Lollapalooza status.

“I’m definitely excited. It’s definitely surreal. It’s probably going to hit me real big when I see it.”

More information about the festival can be found at www.woodstarmusicalfestival.com.