MSL Basketball: Boys Coaching History
Boys Coaches With 200 or More Wins at a MSL School or Schools; Widlowski Third to Reach 400
NOTE: Updated as of December 8, 2024.
Bob Widlowski's reactions to getting his 400th career victory were not surprising.
Beyond some handclapping as time ran out Friday night, it would have been tough to tell from Widlowski’s typical stoic expression if Hersey had won or lost as he met Prospect’s Brad Rathe for the postgame handshake at Jean Walker Field House.
The Huskies used an 18-0 finish in the final 5:10 of the Mid-Suburban East opener to win 51-36. Widlowski’s initial response to joining Conant’s Tom McCormack and Fremd’s Mo Tharp as the only boys basketball coaches to win 400 games at an MSL school or schools was expected.
“It’s their night,” Widlowski said of the players he’s only been working with for about half a year since he retired from teaching at Fremd.
Widlowski won 395 games from 2002-2024 at Fremd. As an aside, thanks to retired Fremd soccer coach Gerardo Pagnani for keeping me honest and pointing out that would have been a lot of wins from 2022-24 as I had in my story for Saturday’s Daily Herald.
But milestones and anniversaries are always a great time to reflect on those who were instrumental in getting there and Widlowski, whose dad Chuck was a football coach at Forest View, did exactly that.
Two of them sadly passed away within a few months of each other in 2017 at age 68 in longtime District 211 athletic director and administrator Don Crandall and Fremd assistant and Schaumburg and St. Viator head coach Ron Cregier, who was tragically killed in a car accident in central Illinois after visiting family.
He mentioned his other assistants at Fremd in Mike Brown, who is now in charge of the program, Jason Hogrefe and Brian Smith. He’s thrilled to have former Hoffman Estates head coach Luke Yanule as his lead assistant at Hersey.
There was “the guy who gave me a chance” in longtime Fremd athletic director Jack Drollinger, who hired Widlowski after Tharp retired after a 27-year tenure in 2002.
“He’s done everything he needed to do to earn a shot at the position,” Drollinger said after he was hired in late April 2002. “He works extremely hard and he gets along very well with the kids and the coaching staff. I think he’s a good fit for what we’ve got going here and I’m looking at the whole athletic program when I say that.”
And the 1986 Palatine graduate said he had “some excellent mentors” in head coach Ed Molitor, assistant and future Schaumburg head coach Bob Williams and Tharp to give him the tools he needed to succeed.
“It’s a personal thing but there are a lot of people involved,” Widlowski said. “It takes a lot of people to scout and develop a program and I’m very thankful to all the people who helped me get here.”
Here’s a look at the boys basketball coaches who have won at least 200 games at a Mid-Suburban League school or schools. The win totals are from a combination of records by Keith Reinhard and myself at the Daily Herald, information from coaches and the IHSA website.
1. Tom McCormack (Conant) - 552
Tom McCormack was a perfect example of it’s not how you start but how you finish and patience as he inherited a massive reclamation project when he arrived from Immaculate Conception in 1985. Conant had won 11 games in the previous five years and in his first two years went 0-24 and 2-24. The program took off from there as “Mac” finished with 552 victories at the school and had only one losing season in his final 28 when he retired after the 2016-17 season.
The 1993-94 Class AA Elite Eight team led by D-I standouts Rick Kaye (Eastern Illinois) and Corey Brown (New Orleans) is arguably the most exciting team in MSL history. He also had teams that could grind opponents into submission and nearly sent the state championship trophies at Schaumburg (2001) and Glenbrook North (2005) elsewhere with sectional upset bids where they had excellent final shots to win in regulation.
The 2007 team with Geoff McCammon reached the supersectional and had a memorable regular-season win over Gene Pingatore’s St. Joseph team with future 10-year NBA vet Evan Turner and Illinois point guard Demetri McCamey. His final team in 2017 with Ryan “Big Country” Davis and Jimmy Sotos went 27-5 with 3 losses, including a sectional-final buzzerbeater, to Fremd. McCormack also co-wrote a book on building a basketball program, “Victory Is In The Details,” with longtime coaching friend Tom Anstett, and returned to IC as an assistant after he retired at Conant.
Conant (32 years, 1985-2017)
552-339 (.620)
1 AA Elite Eight Appearance
3 Sectional Titles
13 Regional Titles
8 MSL Division Titles
5 MSL Titles
12 20-win seasons
33 years overall
575-346 (23-7 at Immaculate Conception, 1984-85)
2. Mo Tharp (Fremd) - 406
Mo Tharp left Zion-Benton, where he starred as a player and had tremendous success as a coach, to take over a struggling 9-year-old Fremd program in 1975. The program started rolling in the mid-1980s with consistent postseason success and that led to the ultimate breakthrough for the MSL with a Class AA fourth-place finish in 1993.
Tharp had more talented teams with D-I standouts like Todd Leslie and Jason Joseph but the final step to Champaign had been blocked by Rich Central and future NBA standout Kendall Gill and three times by East Aurora. But the 1993 team, led by three-sport star Keith Lozowski, Steve McGrath, Mike Mangan, Matt Panzino, Dan Laya, Chris Loughlin and Andre Anthony, upset MSL champion Palatine in 2 OTs in the sectional semifinal. Loughlin’s shooting sparked a miraculous 25-point supersectional comeback over Naperville Central and future NBA veteran Anthony Parker.
In Champaign, Lozowski tipped in the quarterfinal winner at the buzzer against Bradley-Bourbonnais and they just missed playing for a state title with a 2-point semifinal loss to Rockford Guilford. They took fourth after falling to Danville and future NBA player Keon Clark in the third-place game. That capped an 8-year stretch with 5 trips to supersectionals and 7 regional titles. His 1997-98 teams led by Eddie Hebert went 48-9 and won MSL and regional titles.
Fremd (27 years, 1975-2002)
406-327 (.554)
1 AA Elite Eight Appearance (Fourth Place)
5 Sectional Titles
10 Regional Titles
6 MSL Division Titles
3 MSL Titles
8 20-win seasons
31 years overall
478-356 (72-29 at Zion-Benton, 1971-75)
3. Bob Widlowski (Fremd/Hersey) - 400
Bob Widlowski was only the third head coach in Fremd history when he took over in 2002 and he continued the stablity and success of the program after Mo Tharp won 406 games in 27 years. Widlowski followed up with 395 victories in 22 seasons before he retired from the school as a teacher.
Not only is Widlowski the only MSL boys coach to have an unbeaten full regular season, he did it twice, in 2014 when the Riley Glassmann-led Vikings lost in the sectional final to Stevenson and Jalen Brunson and in 2017 when they won their first 30 games behind Kyle Sliwa, Luke Schoffstall, Brian Dompke and Shaan Patel and finished fourth in Class 4A.
Widlowski’s “retirement” from coaching was short and he got to stay in the MSL when he took the Hersey job that was open in the spring of 2024. A 51-36 win over Prospect on Dec. 6 gave him his 400th victory.
Fremd/Hersey (23 years, 2002-current)
400-207 (.659)
1 4A Final Four Appearance (Fourth Place)
1 Sectional Titles
8 Regional Titles
x MSL Division Titles
4 MSL Titles
6 20-win seasons
1 30-win season
4. Ed Molitor (Palatine) - 397
Ed Molitor left Marist after seven successful years and a 26-win season to take over a Palatine program mired in a 13-year slump of losing seasons in 1976. His first Pirates’ team, led by future NBA player and college coach Kevin McKenna, bought into his approach and nearly made the sectional finals and his third team won 20 games.
Sticky man-to-man defense, attention to fundamental details and offensive discipline and patience were hallmarks of Molitor’s Pirates from 1976-2008. Molitor’s 1981 and 1982 teams came agonizingly close to getting to Champaign - falling to teams with multiple D-I players in supersectionals by 1 point to Antioch and 2 points in overtime to St. Joseph. His 1993 team led by Marc Boone won the program’s first MSL title and first conference crown in 30 years.
Palatine (32 years, 1976-2008)
397-455 (.466)
2 Sectional Titles
6 Regional Titles
3 MSL Division Titles
1 MSL Title
4 20-win seasons
39 years overall
504-530 (107-75 at Marist, 1970-76)
5. George Zigman (Arlington/Hersey) - 352
George Zigman’s MSL success was forged in the basketball hotbed of Taylorville, about 27 miles southeast of Springfield, as he played for the school’s 1950 state tournament team. He worked his way north through two years as a head coach at Delavan (41-18 from 1959-61) in Central Illinois and as a sophomore coach and AD at Glenbard East to take over the Arlington program in 1968-69.
Zigman won 263 games with the Cardinals - while missing the 1975-76 season for health reasons - and gave the school a big finish before it closed in 1984. The Class AA Elite Eight Trip in 1982 was only the second in MSL history as they won a school-record 25 games behind Larry Tellschow, Ted Wolfe and Chris Berg. They returned to the supersectional the next year and closed the program with three straight MSL North titles.
Zigman’s first Hersey team in 1985 made it to Champaign with dynamic point guard Brian Gregory and his final team in 1990 lost in the supersectional to Rolling Meadows and the dynamic Mike Lipnisky. Zigman passed away tragically from complications after heart surgery on August 17, 1991.
Arlington (15 years, 1968-75 and 1976-84)
263-122 (.683)
Hersey (6 years, 1984-90)
89-73 (.549)
Overall MSL (21 years)
352-195 (.643)
2 AA Elite Eight Appearances
4 Sectional Titles
10 Regional Titles
9 MSL Division Titles
2 MSL Titles
7 20-win seasons
23 years overall
393-213 (41-18 at Delavan, 1959-61)
6. Bob Williams (Schaumburg) - 347
Bob Williams’ 2001 Schaumburg team pulled off arguably the MSL’s greatest moment in all sports when Mark Pancratz, Tony Young and Scott Zoellick led a deep, disciplined and talented team past top-ranked Thornwood and future 7-foot NBA veteran Eddy Curry for the Class AA state title. It is still the league’s only boys basketball team to reach the championship game as they finished 29-3, won a third consecutive MSL title and were in the midst of a run of five division titles in a row.
Two years earlier the Saxons led by Antoine McDaniel came home with a fourth-place trophy and they might have made it back to Peoria the next year if not for an incredible second-half sectional final performance by New Trier’s Matt Lottich. They also reached the Elite Eight again in 2006 with Jake Pancratz and Grant Monroe. Their only losing seasons in Williams’ tenure were his first two after assisting Ed Molitor at Palatine and the Saxons would take their tough man-to-man defense and anywhere against anybody in the state. Stints as a head coach at Niles West, Benedictine Military School in Georgia and Horizon in Scottsdale, Arizona have Williams at nearly 500 career victories.
Schaumburg (18 years, 1991-2009)
347-155 (.691)
1 AA State Championship (2001)
1 AA Fourth Place Finish (1999)
3 AA Elite Eight Appearances
3 Sectional Titles
9 Regional Titles
8 MSL Division Titles
4 MSL Titles
7 20-win seasons
7. Kevin Katovich (Rolling Meadows) - 346
Playing for Tom McCormack at Conant and working for Glen Elms at Prospect gave Kevin Katovich a solid foundation for a head coaching career that started in 2002 at Meadows. The last few years have seen Katovich’s program take off with the school’s first 20-win season in nearly 30 years in 2019-20 and matching the school record with 28 wins and the claiming the first regional title in two decades last year.
The 15-0 MSL champs of 2020-21, led by future NBA players Max and Cam Christie, will always be a “what might have been” in a COVID-shortened season with no IHSA postseason. After the graduation of Max Christie, the MSL’s all-time scoring leader, Cam led the Mustangs to 28- and 27-win seasons and their first regional titles since 2001. The 28 wins tied a school record. They won a fourth consecutive MSL East title in 2024.
Rolling Meadows (23 years, 2002-current)
346-270 (.562)
2 Regional Titles
6 MSL Division Titles
1 MSL Title
4 20-win seasons
8. Bill Wandro (Hoffman Estates) - 337
Bill Wandro was a big part of the MSL’s Golden Age of boys basketball with nine teams making trips to the state finals between 1990 and 2006. Wandro was an assistant to Mo Tharp at Fremd before taking over at Hoffman in 1991. He led the program to unprecedented heights and two trips to Peoria during a tenure that lasted until 2011.
His two Class AA Elite Eight teams were a testament to adjusting to his talent. The 1996 team relied on point guard Marty Manning pounding the ball inside to 6-7 Nick Abruzzo, 6-5 Steve Gorman and 6-4 Mark Ganek to finish 27-3. In 2004, it was a smaller, perimeter-oriented team led by dynamic point guard Jonny Reibel, Bryan Mead and Branden Jung that became the first in MSL history to win 30 games in a season. Both teams were a possession or two from playing for a trophy on Saturday.
Hoffman Estates (20 years, 1991-2011)
337-226 (.599)
2 AA Elite Eight Appearances
2 Sectional Titles
8 Regional Titles
3 MSL Division Titles
2 MSL Titles
1 30-Win Season
4 20-win seasons
9. Glen Elms (Forest View/Prospect) - 314
Glen Elms matched wits and dry wit with the best of them and his matchup zone gave opponents fits during his 23 years as a head coach at Forest View and Prospect. Elms was never afraid to speak his mind and didn’t sugarcoat his own team’s shortcomings.
Elms won 4 regional titles and 141 games in the final 9 years Forest View was open before moving over to Prospect from 1986-2000. His 1990-91 team led by Jack Ecker and Keith Dunn took the Knights to their only supersectional appearance. His 1980-81 team at Forest View led by three-sport star Mike Matella was the school’s best as it went 22-5, unbeaten in MSL South play and reached the sectional semifinals.
The popular “Elmo,” who also coached volleyball at Prospect, passed away in 2008 from pancreatic cancer.
Prospect (14 years, 1986-2000)
173-194 (.471)
Forest View (9 years, 1977-86)
141-92 (.605)
MSL Overall (23 years)
314-286 (.523)
1 Sectional Title
4 Regional Titles
4 MSL Division Titles
1 20-win season
10. Steve Messer (Elk Grove/Hersey) 292
Steve Messer played for two of Hersey’s most successful coaches in Don Rowley and George Zigman and was a reserve on the 1985 Class AA Elite Eight team. Messer followed in their footsteps and after serving as an assistant for Doug Millstone at Buffalo Grove he took over at Elk Grove in 1998.
Messer’s 2002 team led by Terry Evans, George Cotseones, Mike Madden and Scott Scholten came back to stun defending state champion Schaumburg for Elk Grove’s only MSL title and finished with the second-most wins in school history at 22-7. The 2005 team almost won another MSL crown before falling to Conant in overtime.
When Rowley retired at Hersey, Messer moved over to his alma mater and his first team led by Luke Fabrizius reached a sectional final. He has been an assistant coach at Lake Park since his tenure ended at Hersey in 2018.
Hersey (11 years, 2007-18)
152-158 (.490)
Elk Grove (9 years, 1998-2007)
140-123 (.532)
MSL Overall (20 years)
292-281 (.510)
1 Regional Title
3 MSL Division Titles
1 MSL Title
1 20-win season
11. Don Rowley (Hersey) 287
Don Rowley had been part of the Hersey program since the school opened until his retirement in 2007. His first team in 1983-84 struggled when star guard Brian Gregory broke his leg but his return sparked a run to the sectional finals where the Huskies lost to eventual Class AA runnerup Evanston and future NBA player Everette Stephens. After Arlington closed in 1984, George Zigman came over as head coach and Rowley was his assistant until 1990.
Rowley’s second team as head coach was the first in school history to win an MSL title. His 1995 team led by Paul Wolf, Michael White, Brad Bowsher, Chris Nowinski and Steve Nelson won another MSL title, a school-record 26 games and made the program’s third AA Elite Eight trip, where it lost to a Peoria Manual team headed to the second of four consecutive titles. His 2006 team led by Sean Dwyer and Luke Fabrizius won a third MSL crown and his final team finished 22-6. Rowley continued coaching as an assistant at Wheeling, Lake Zurich and Hersey.
Hersey (18 years, 1984-85; 1990-2007)
287-204 (.585)
1 AA Elite Eight Appearance (1995)
1 Sectional Titles
2 Regional Titles
8 MSL Division Titles
3 MSL Titles
3 20-win seasons
12. Bryan Tucker (Barrington) 285
The success Bryan Tucker had at Marian Catholic and Loyola continued at Barrington as he led the program to its biggest achievements. The best was in 2022 when Will Grudzinski, Daniel Hong and Nate Boldt led the Broncos to their first state trophy as they beat Bolingbrook for third place in the Class 4A state tournament. That was after they gave Whitney Young all it could handle in the semifinal, won a school-record 29 games and the program’s third MSL title.
Tucker’s 2015 team with D-I big man Rapolas Ivanauskas ended a 36-year MSL title drought for the Broncos. That came after his only losing season at the school with success based on a disciplined offense that works at any speed and tough man-to-man defense that can be incorporated into the (very) occasional zone. He picked up his 500th career victory overall early in the 2023-24 season.
Barrington (16 years, 2009-current)
285-142 (.668)
1 4A Third Place Finish (2022)
1 Sectional Title
5 Regional Titles
6 MSL Division Titles
2 MSL Titles
6 20-win seasons
29 years overall
520-268 (71-60 at Marian Catholic, 1996-2001; 164-66 at Loyola, 2001-09)
13. Eric Millstone (Palatine) 241
Coaching was in Eric Millstone’s blood as his dad Doug was a softball coach with Ken Grams at Elk Grove and the head basketball coach at Buffalo Grove from 1990-2000. Eric Millstone also was an assistant for two longtime Palatine legends in Ed Molitor in basketball and Jim Koller in baseball before taking over the basketball program in 2008.
Millstone would lead the Pirates to unprecedented success in 2023 and 2024 with back-to-back MSL and regional titles and 20-win seasons. His son Sam was one of the standouts in 2023 and the 2024 team led by career scoring leader Connor May, Tommy Elter, Tony Balanganayi, Carter Monroe and Darrin Dick won a school-record 28 games, upset Warren in the 4A supersectional and finished fourth in the state tournament in Champaign.
Palatine (17 years, 2008-current)
241-234 (.507)
1 4A Fourth Place Finish (2024)
1 Sectional Titles
2 Regional Titles
3 MSL Division Titles
2 MSL Titles
3 20-win seasons
14. John Camardella (Prospect) 229
John Camardella immediately turned Prospect into the beasts of the MSL East by winning division titles in his first four seasons and two MSL titles in that stretch with players like Joe LaTulip and Kevin Reed in 2009 and Mike LaTulip and Terry Redding in 2011. They added a MSL-record ninth title game victory in 2018 behind guard David Swedura to cap a two -year stretch where the Knights were 45-12.
Even when the Knights seemed to be underdogs they typically played up to the level of competition under Camardella and had a pair of double-OT losses in title games against Schaumburg in 2013 and Fremd in 2019. The Hersey grad’s final full regular season saw them shut down Buffalo Grove and high-scoring Kam Craft in a regional-final upset in 2020. He stepped down after the COVID-shortened 2021 season to take a teaching sabbatical at Harvard but ultimately returned as an assistant to Brad Rathe.
Prospect (14 years, 2007-21)
229-149 (.606)
2 Regional Titles
10 MSL Division Titles
3 MSL Titles
3 20-win seasons
15. Ryan O’Connor (Buffalo Grove) 207
The starter for Rolling Meadows’ 1989 MSL champs didn’t have to wait long for his chance to become a head coach in 2000 at Buffalo Grove after Doug Millstone retired. O’Connor brought a motion offense and man-to-man defense and his third team led by John Clancy emerged from a three-way tie for the MSL East title to reach the league title game.
The best was yet to come for O’Connor and the Bison as his teams with dynamic players like Ryan O’Gara and point guard Brian DeSimone would lead the way to a school-record four consecutive 20-win seasons (2005-08) with three regional titles in succession and back-to-back MSL title game trips. O’Connor was still relatively young when he opted to step down as head coach in 2013 to spend more time with his three young kids.
Buffalo Grove (13 years, 2000-13)
207-151 (.578)
3 Regional Titles
5 MSL Division Titles
4 20-win seasons
16. Paul Grady (Buffalo Grove) 206
Paul Grady went 3-19 in Buffalo Grove’s first varsity season with no seniors in 1973-74 but didn’t have another losing season in a tenure that ended when he announced his retirement in September 1984. The good news when Grady started was Brian Allsmiller was a freshman he became the MSL’s career scoring leader, until it was broken by Rolling Meadows’ Max Christie. Allsmiller led the Bison to a pair of MSL titles and a school-record 27-2 finish in 1976-77.
His 1978 team with future MLB all-star Mike Marshall became the first in MSL history to win three consecutive league titles. Paul Heesch would lead the way to a fourth MSL crown in 1981. The perennial sectional qualifier finally broke through to a supersectional in 1984 behind the tandem of Brian Coderre and Paul Petersen. They gave unbeaten Evanston future NBA guard Everette Stephens all they could handle before falling 71-67 in Grady’s final game.
Grady spent a year at Arlington and a year at Forest View before going to Wheeling when it opened in 1964 to work as an assistant for Mike Owens and Ted Ecker. Grady passed away in 2022 at 82.