1978 PROVISO WEST HOLIDAY TOURNAMENT:
A COLLEGE RECRUITER'S GOLDMINE

The Proviso West Holiday Tournament has had a storied past with its chapters of high school folklore, professional basketball players and state championship teams.  However, forgotten in the mix could be the 1978 Christmas Classic which produced a record 18 players who later went on to play Division I basketball.  No other annual edition of the Proviso West event ever had so many scholarship players.  Here is a review of those 18 players from the Proviso West Holiday Tournament Class of 1978.
 

Player High School College
Joe Bresnahan Fenwick Creighton
Tyrone Brewer Saint Joseph Illinois State
Kevin Conrad Benet Academy Dayton
Tom Franz New Trier Davidson
Teddy Grubbs Martin Luther King DePaul
Michael Jenkins Westinghouse Northwestern
Don Klusendorf Lyons Township Illinois
Mike Lang Benet Academy Penn State
Ike Person Barrington Michigan
Mike Pijanowski Elgin Larkin Northern Iowa
Bernard Randolph Westinghouse DePaul
Glenn Rivers Proviso East Marquette
Larry Roby Westinghouse Bradley
Lonzell Simmons Martin Luther King Iowa State
Isiah Thomas Saint Joseph Indiana
John Tomlinson Barrington Dayton
Leon Van Hook Morgan Park Drake
Ken Williams Saint Joseph Kansas State

 

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