MSL to NBA: Palatine's McKenna Part of March Madness Spotlight as Oregon Assistant Coach
Fremd's Tharp Part of Billy McKinney's Big Day at Northwestern; Another Perfect Finish for Hersey Grad Fahey; WSC/MSL Boys Basketball Challenge Returns for 2025
Kevin McKenna’s name returned to local prominence in the last couple of weeks when his Palatine boys basketball record for career points was broken by Connor May.
On Saturday night, McKenna helped return Oregon basketball to national prominence as it won the final PAC-12 conference tournament title and earned an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. McKenna is in his 14th year as an Oregon assistant to Dana Altman as its director of player development and they also spent nine years working together at Creighton.
And McKenna is hoping the Ducks can go on a run similar to the Pirates’ recent postseason trip to finish fourth in the state in Class 4A. Oregon got the 11th seed in the West Region and faces No. 6 South Carolina in its first-round game at 3 p.m. Thursday on TNT. If Oregon wins McKenna could face his old school in a potential second-round game against third-seed Creighton.
“We wanna be like @palatinebball!! Pretty fun year for Ducks and Pirates!!” McKenna posted on Twitter/X on Sunday morning. “Great to be a part of both programs! I know Coach (Ed) Molitor is loving the hoops success of our programs! Thank you!! Go Ducks/Pirates!!”
It’s the latest chapter of success for McKenna as a “basketball lifer” - with a little baseball thrown in - that started when he starred at Palatine in the mid-1970s. McKenna went to Creighton and is in the school’s hall of fame as the only player in Missouri Valley Conference history to win MVC regular-season and tournament, NBA and Continental Basketball Association (CBA) titles. He was drafted in the fourth round of the 1981 NBA draft by the Los Angeles Lakers and spent the first of his six NBA seasons with them when they won the league title.
And his post-playing career included coaching in the CBA, which was a prominent minor league for years, and two successful tenures as a head coach at Nebraska Omaha and Indiana State.
The 6-foot-5 McKenna was promoted to Palatine’s varsity as a sophomore in 1974-75 and as a junior he led the Mid-Suburban League in scoring at 25.6 points a game and rebounding at 11.2 a game. He was on the Daily Herald All-Area team with Buffalo Grove’s Brian Allsmiller, who held the MSL career scoring record until it was broken by Lakers second-year player Max Christie of Rolling Meadows.
The big change for McKenna came his senior year when Molitor brought his motion offense to the Northwest Suburbs from Marist on Chicago’s South Side. McKenna averaged 22.2 ppg and 10.7 rpg and raised his field goal percentage 25 points to 60.6 as the Pirates rebounded from a 3-11 start to win a regional title and finish 13-14.
He was part of the All-Area team captained by Allsmiller and his 1,576 career points broke the school record set in the early 1960s by Ron Kozlicki (1,562), who starred at Northwestern and played for a season with the Indiana Pacers in the American Basketball Association (ABA). A 42-point game late in the season against Fremd broke Kozlicki’s single-game school mark of 41.
But McKenna did more than just score points with his coach on offense.
“Kevin’s just a top-notch kid, a class person and as coachable a player as I’ve had the fortune to be involved with,” Molitor told the Daily Herald during McKenna’s senior year. “He’s also the hardest-working kid we have and his versatility on the court never ceases to amaze me.
“Kevin did everything we asked of him this year. He can score, rebound, give up the ball, play defense - it was a pleasure coaching him.”
McKenna found out how much one year with Molitor prepared him to play a major role as a true freshman at Creighton in 1977-78. McKenna was fourth on the team in scoring at 8.7 points as the Blue Jays won the Missouri Valley Conference tournament title and earned an NCAA tournament bid.
That set up a memorable matchup between two MSL legends as Creighton and McKenna faced DePaul and 6-11 Hersey grad Dave Corzine, who played 13 years in the NBA. McKenna finished with 18 points on 8-for-9 shooting and 6 assists but Corzine (19 points, 11 rebounds) led a comeback from a 20-point first-half deficit for an 80-78 victory. You can see most of the game in the link below to the YouTube video - McKenna is No. 30 and Corzine is No. 40.
“I respect the heck out of coach Molitor,” McKenna told me before Molitor’s retirement in 2008. “I think coach Molitor is a coach in the truest sense of the word.
“As I got to college I realized the things he taught me defensively helped allow me to start four years at Creighton and not have to wait to play. I wasn’t really known as a great defender at the pro level. But those things he taught me allowed me to attempt to do those things.”
McKenna was second-team all-MVC as a junior and senior with Creighton and once again in the NCAA tourney he scored 18 points in a tough 59-57 first-round loss to St. Joseph in 1981. He averaged 13.3 points in his college career.
His next stop was the Lakers where he played 36 games with Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as Pat Riley took over the team early in the season and led them to an NBA title. McKenna averaged 5.4 points in 243 NBA games with stops in Indiana, New Jersey and Washington. From there it was coaching for McKenna and since he joined Altman on the West Coast, Oregon has gone to the Sweet 16 five times with trips to the Final Four in 2017 and Elite Eight in 2016.
May, who finished his Palatine career with 1,614 points and is headed to Division III power Washington University in St. Louis, and McKenna also had the similarity of being multi-sport athletes. May was poised for a big senior season in football when he broke his wrist while catching a touchdown pass in the first game of the season.
McKenna was a standout pitcher who was honorable mention all-area as a senior as he finished second in the MSL in ERA (1.39) and strikeouts (61). He was the MVP of the old Hal Sprehe Game in 1977, an all-star showcase for the MSL’s seniors, as he threw 3 no-hit innings with 7 strikeouts and 2 walks. He also pitched for Creighton and as a junior went 1-2 with a 1.53 ERA in 7 appearances.
Mo Tharp Enjoys McKinney’s Memorable Northwestern Moment
Retired Fremd basketball coach Mo Tharp was one of the special guests when Northwestern honored legendary guard Billy McKinney by retiring his jersey number 30 during its game with Iowa on March 2 at Welsh-Ryan Arena in Evanston.
Tharp’s first two seasons as head coach at Zion-Benton (1971-73) were McKinney’s last two as a high school player and included the school’s first regional title his senior year. McKinney averaged 18.6 points a game in four varsity seasons at Northwestern and averaged 8 points a game in seven NBA seasons with the Kansas City Kings, Utah Jazz, Denver Nuggets, San Diego Clippers and Chicago Bulls.
Tharp starred at Zion and was 72-29 in four seasons at his alma mater. His final team there went 22-4 and won the North Suburban Conference title before he came to Fremd in 1975. Another of Tharp’s stars was Brian Colbert, who played at Wisconsin and coached Waukegan teams that lost in Class AA supersectionals in 2004 to Hoffman Estates and 2005 to Glenbrook North.
“The whole atmosphere and support for kids wasn’t the same after Mo left,” Colbert told me before Tharp retired in 2002. “People at Zion didn’t appreciate the kind of players Billy and I were and the kind of coach he was.”
McKinney clearly did as Tharp was on the court for the ceremony where the banner with his retired number was raised to the Welsh-Ryan roof. You can see Tharp congratulating McKinney at the end of the clip below from the Big Ten Network Twitter/X page.
McKinney, who is now the mayor of Zion and a color commentator of Northwestern games on WGN radio, was the school’s first athlete to have his jersey retired. McKinney also played baseball for the Wildcats.
Another Perfect Finish for Mary Kate Fahey
Hersey grad Mary Kate Fahey is no stranger to basketball perfection. The junior guard helped New York University finish 31-0 and win its second NCAA Division III title as she averaged 3.6 points and 10 minutes a game and made 25 3-pointers at a 40 percent success rate.
Fahey capped four years as Hersey’s starting point guard in 2021 as the Huskies went 16-0, won the MId-Suburban League and finished with the state’s No. 1 ranking. The COVID-abbreviated season did not have an IHSA postseason. Fahey was named Cook County captain of the Daily Herald’s All-Area team.
Expanded WSC/MSL Challenge Returns for Second Year
It was announced on Twitter/X there will be a second annual WSC/MSL Challenge between boys basketball teams from the West Suburban Conference and Mid-Suburban League. The event will be expanded to 22 teams and will be hosted by Buffalo Grove on Jan. 3-4, 2025. Updated information on times and matchups is expected to be available in April.
The first WSC/MSL Challenge saw the MSL go 5-3 on Jan. 6 at Addison Trail. Conant, Rolling Meadows, Hoffman Estates, Wheeling and Buffalo Grove were the MSL winners and Leyden, Glenbard West and Downers Grove North were the WSC winners.
Harrisburg’s Thompson Sets Baseball Coaching Record
Harrisburg’s Jay Thompson set an IHSA record for baseball coaching victories at one school when he got his 894th win on March 12 against Vienna. Thompson passed Chatham Glenwood’s Pat Moomey (893).
Schaumburg was part of Thompson’s biggest win when it fell to Harrisburg 3-2 in 8 innings in the Class AA state championship game in 1989. Thompson graduated from Harrisburg, which is 22 miles east of Marion in southern Illinois, in 1977.
Haha! Yeah, his stride took him half way to home plate! I was fortunate to have some success against Kevin though, as I was a leadoff “punch and Judy” hitter, poking balls into right field. Ah the memories!
Yeah, Kevin really “brought it!” Funny story about the team handball!