DuPage County high school basketball is simply the west

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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The history and list of all-time greats in high school basketball from west suburban DuPage County is shorter than those of other geographical areas. But the players at the top were transcendent in their own right.

Three led their high schools to a level that never had been reached, and all four were named the City/Suburban Hoops Report’s Player of the Year in their senior seasons.

Drew Crawford, Naperville Central

Crawford’s rise was a slow and patient one.

Being the son of longtime NBA official Danny Crawford, he was afforded the opportunity to be exposed to the highest level of basketball at an early age. But it took time for the majority of fans, media and recruiting pundits to figure out the 6-5 guard was destined to become a high-major college basketball recruit.

Crawford always was known as a stat-sheet-stuffing player, but he also was an extremely unselfish one. He constantly looked to get others involved and made it a priority to make teammates better, often sacrificing his own individual numbers.

After averaging 17 points, six rebounds and four assists as a junior, Crawford upped those numbers to 24 points, nine rebounds and four assists as a senior. In that final season, he led the Redhawks to a school-record 27 victories and an appearance in the sectional-title game.

He was the 2009 City/Suburban Hoops Report’s Player of the Year, was named to multiple all-state teams and finished his career as the all-time leading scorer in school history with more than 1,500 points.

When he got to college, Crawford made his presence felt immediately at Northwestern as the Big Ten’s Freshman of the Year. He wrapped up his NU career as a two-time All-Big Ten selection and 1,920 career points. He then set out on a long overseas career.

Braden Huff, Glenbard West

Of the 40 players on the Chicago area’s Mount Rushmore of high school basketball, Huff is the most recent.

Huff swept all the major awards as a senior — Sun-Times Player of the Year, the City/Suburban Hoops Report’s Player of the Year and Mr. Basketball — while leading Glenbard West to an absolutely dominating 2021-22 season.

But he was also one of the more underrated local players on the national scene. The national evaluators completely missed the boat when it came to Huff.

Thanks in large part to Huff’s prowess, the Hilltoppers finished an impressive 37-1 and claimed a Class 4A state championship. Along the way they throttled virtually everyone they faced, including regular-season victories against Young and Simeon. Glenbard West walloped Bolingbrook by 30 points in the state semifinals, then beat Young again for the state title.

The lone loss came to Bronny James and Sierra Canyon in overtime in front of a sold-out crowd at Wintrust Arena.

Huff’s Hilltoppers became a sensation locally during the course of that season. The skilled big man put up rock-solid numbers, but he was always at his best when it mattered most.

While underrated nationally overall, he wasn’t overlooked by college coaches who coveted his rare skills for a 6-11 player. The top-ranked player in the state in the Class of 2022 chose Gonzaga, where he still plays.

Pierre Pierce, Westmont

Pierce’s numbers are staggering. He is among the top 10 scorers in state history with 2,931 points.

The 2000-01 season was memorable, thanks to the exploits of Pierce and the scoring rampage he went on throughout the season and postseason.

Pierce averaged 35.1 points during the regular season and had nine games of 40-plus points. He scored a head-turning 52 in a victory against Lemont.

The high-scoring 6-4 guard turned it up another notch in March. He pumped in a record-breaking 159 points in four state-tournament games. That included a show he put on that is still talked about today, when he erupted for 41, 42 and 48 points in the three games played in Champaign.

Westmont went 28-5 and finished fourth in the state in Class A.

Pierce’s story took an ugly turn once he began playing at Iowa. He was convicted of several crimes, including charges of sexual assault, and was sentenced to two years in prison in 2005.

Brian Wardle, Hinsdale Central

The hard-nosed, rugged Wardle took the western suburbs by storm during the course of his junior and senior seasons in 1996 and 1997. The 6-5 do-it-all player put Hinsdale Central on his back and carried it to the best two seasons in school history, both of which ended in defeat in the state quarterfinals.

The Red Devils went a combined 55-7 in those two seasons, with Wardle putting up back-to-back all-state campaigns.

Wardle was the 1997 City/Suburban Hoops Report’s Player of the Year after averaging 21.6 points, 11.6 rebounds and 3.4 assists. As a junior, he led the Red Devils with 18.4 points, 6.5 rebounds and 3.9 assists. He finished his high school career with 1,632 points and 668 rebounds.

Wardle went on to play collegiately at Marquette and has been a highly successful college coach for the last 15 years. While coaching at Bradley, Wardle has led a program that twice has qualified for the NCAA Tournament and most recently has averaged 25 victories in the last three seasons, all of which resulted in NIT appearances.