The Sun-Times’ high school basketball Mount Rushmore project highlights the sport’s biggest names and greatest stars.
With the prep career as the criteria’s centerpiece — with a sprinkling of post-high school success and overall stature used as a separator — we’ve created a Mount Rushmore for 10 geographical regions throughout the Chicago area.
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When you’re researching the basketball history of this geographical region, you’re taking a deep dive into the schools of two long-standing conferences. Yes, there’s a smattering of other schools, but the Central Suburban League and Mid-Suburban League are at the heart of this area.
Evanston and New Trier immediately come to mind. These two CSL schools on the North Shore form one of the true long-lasting rivalries in the state and boast a whole bunch of history.
But the lone player from either school who truly made a strong push and you can make an argument for is Evanston’s Everette Stephens from the 1980s. Stephens was the one player on the cusp of bumping off one of the four.
With Stephens just on the outside looking in, the four selections from four time periods fell into place easily, including three of the four who remain prominent in today’s basketball world.
Max Christie, Rolling Meadows
Unfortunately, few saw the best high school version of Christie. A global pandemic shortchanged his high school career, limiting the amount of games he played and the opportunity to see him.
During Christie’s senior year, fresh off averaging 20-plus points in his previous three high school seasons, Rolling Meadows was relegated to playing only northwest suburban teams in an abbreviated season because of COVID-19. The Mustangs went 15-0 as he was named the Sun-Times and City/Suburban Hoops Report Player of the Year, the first Mid-Suburban League player to win either award.
Christie’s impact was immediate. As a freshman, he grabbed everyone’s attention, becoming a much-talked-about star attraction. He averaged 20 points and nine rebounds that first season.
The scoring prowess continued throughout his high school career. Christie never let up, averaging 25.5 points as a sophomore and 25 as a junior. He scored 51 points in a game.
A top-20 player nationally and consensus five-star recruit, Christie was named a McDonald’s All-American.
He spent only one season at Michigan State before being drafted by the Lakers. He was traded in February to the Mavericks as part of the Luka Doncic-Anthony Davis blockbuster deal.
Only 22, Christie enjoyed his best season in the NBA in 2024-25.
Chris Collins, Glenbrook North
Collins moved to Northbrook in the seventh grade when his dad, Doug Collins, was named the coach of the Bulls. Chris soon made a name for himself as one of the state’s bigger stars in the early 1990s.
He was a prolific scorer who averaged 30 points as a junior.
A huge senior season in which he averaged 31.2 points, 4.8 assists and 3.7 steals while shooting 47 percent from three-point range netted him Mr. Basketball and Sun-Times Player of the Year awards. He also was named to the 1992 McDonald’s All-America team.
Fans across the state were looking forward to seeing Collins in the Elite Eight in Champaign, but Glenbrook North lost to Stevenson 75-73 in triple overtime in the supersectional despite his 40 points.
Collins was team MVP while playing at Duke in college and has been the coach at Northwestern for 12 years. He has led NU to NCAA Tournament appearances in 2017, 2023 and 2024.
Dave Corzine, Hersey
This is a local star through and through, starting with his high school days at Hersey, continuing with an outstanding career at DePaul and ultimately playing seven years with the Bulls.
Corzine, who was an All-American at DePaul, where his No. 40 is retired, was one of the original stars in the Mid-Suburban League.
As a sophomore, he set an MSL championship-game record with 45 points.
Corzine spearheaded a surprise Hersey run to the Elite Eight in 1974, when they nearly upset Audie Matthews and Bloom.
In two state tournament games, the all-stater had 38 points and 23 rebounds. It was the first time a Mid-Suburban League team qualified for the state finals.
Jon Scheyer, Glenbrook North
You wonder if any current Duke player has any idea how big a thing their coach was back in high school.
Scheyer was an iconic prep star. Fans will still tell Scheyer stories and talk of his exploits in leading Glenbrook North to prominence.
He was on the short list of candidates for the Chicago area’s overall Mount Rushmore.
It didn’t matter whom Scheyer was playing with or whom he was playing against, by the time he was a junior and senior, there was a sense of invincibility when he was on the floor. There was certainly a rare aura surrounding him as a teenage star.
That’s when you know you’re watching one of the all-time greats.
Scheyer’s numerical dominance is so profound that people have forgotten or stopped thinking about it. But let’s refresh.
The 6-5 guard was one of the most prolific scorers the state has ever seen. He’s the fourth-leading scorer in Illinois history with 3,034 points.
Scheyer never played with any high-profile players around him yet led Glenbrook North to a third-place finish in 2003 as a freshman and to a 2005 state title as a junior.
During that title run, Scheyer provided one of the many signature moments of his career — a 48-point outburst in a supersectional victory over Waukegan.
While averaging 32 points as a senior, an epic game in a Proviso West Holiday Tournament game in December drew national attention.
He scored an incredible 21 points in the closing 75 seconds on his way to an exhilarating 52-point performance.
At Duke, Scheyer is the only player in program history to have at least 2,000 points, 500 rebounds, 400 assists, 250 three-pointers and 200 steals in his career while winning 80% of his games.
This past spring, he led Duke to a Final Four appearance in his third season as head coach.
The all-time top 40, by area
