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Relatively speaking, Peoria is the top high school basketball town in Illinois. Aw, the heck with relativity -- the record books say it is the best, regardless of having about three million fewer people than a burg to the northeast, Chicago.

Courtesy of Manual High School

Dick Van Scyoc helped put Manual High School on the basketball map.

While Chicago might have the edge in kids who played at the highest levels, Peoria owns the team achievement categories -- and we're not talking about back in the day, when set shots and scores of 24-20 were the norm.

Peoria's Manual High owns an IHSA-record five overall titles -- one in 1930 and four in the 1990s, when it ruled the large-school division, Class AA. Manual also is tops in Class AA Sweet 16 appearances and Elite Eight berths and is tied for Class AA title-game appearances with crosstown Peoria High.

The Rams have won the most Class AA trophies (fourth place and up) and the most Class AA tournament games. Retired coach Dick Van Scyoc, one of the state's winningest coaches, led the Rams to 826 wins, the last of them for the 1994 Class AA title. After his retirement following the '93-94 season, his top assistant, Wayne McClain, guided the Rams to championships the next three years.

"I didn't want to leave the cupboard bare," Van Scyoc said. "I wasn't in it for the records."

The pantry was well-stocked, arguably better than in any of the 28 years Van Scyoc was Manual's head coach. For all those wins, the most recognizable players he taught were Bobby Humbles, Curtis Stuckey, David Booth, Howard Nathan and Brandon Hughes. Sergio McClain and Frank Williams, consecutive Illinois Mr. Basketballs and leaders of the next three titles, were just coming up as Van Scyoc stepped down.

David Booth starred at DePaul, played in the NBA and is a scout for the Memphis Grizzlies. After Williams and McClain helped the University of Illinois to the 2001 NCAA Elite Eight, Williams played in the NBA and overseas. Hughes played in Europe as well. The only other native Peoria standouts in the past 20 years are A.J. Guyton, who starred at Indiana; Shaun Livingston, who jumped from Peoria Central to the NBA in 2004; and Marcus Griffin, who played with McClain and Williams at Manual and Illinois, and was a McDonald's All-American along with Williams.

"It was the program; it was the system," current Manual coach Derrick Booth, David's brother and also a Manual alum (Class of '91). "The expectation for Manual basketball is to win, regardless of who's on the roster."

Julie Hammond

Derrick Booth has instilled the same values he learned as a player in his current Manual players.

Booth, whose squad is top-ranked in Class 2A (this is the first year of a four-class system), said one of the keys to Manual's success is its community -- it takes a village to raise a program. Manual territory produced high school teams with chemistry, if not elite talent.

"That goes along with coming from the same neighborhood," Booth said. "Just within the south side of Peoria was a hotbed; all those kids were from a few blocks. Most Manual teams got better in the summer. It was all day long."

There were Parker Center pickup games in the morning, Manual's open gym in the afternoon, Boys' and Girls' Club leagues at night. When the school-age kids thought they invented the game, alumni would drop in, staying in shape for their college season. Nathan, Booth and Stuckey were regulars, and the games attracted out-of-town talent like East St. Louis Lincoln standout LaPhonso Ellis, a future NBA first-round pick.

Bradley University's presence plays no small part of the mix that makes Peoria a hoops haven. But the high school level is plenty exciting. Van Scyoc's 1972 team lost in the Class AA semifinals to the Thornridge Falcons, whose Quinn Buckner went on to become just the third player to win a championship at every level (prep, NCAA, Olympic, NBA). In 1988, Manual lost to East St. Louis Lincoln's Ellis and Cuonzo Martin, who's currently the head coach at Missouri State after being a longtime assistant at Purdue. The next year, Lincoln ended Peoria High's undefeated season with a triple-overtime Class AA title win.

In 1991, Manual lost the title match to Proviso East's "Three Amigos" team. Led by Sherell Ford, Donnie Boyce and future NBA great Michael Finley, the Pirates won 68-61.

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AP Photo/IHS

Manual celebrated a string of state championships in the 1990s.

"I felt pretty bad about that," Van Scyoc said, "and then I see Finley pulling down millions of dollars, and I didn't feel so bad."

Through it all, Van Scyoc favored up-tempo play, pressure and man-to-man defense. He gave a lot of responsibility to his assistants, making the switch to McClain seamless. Booth said not much has changed.

"Ninety-five percent of what I do is what we did when I was there," Booth said. "The mentality is understanding it's hard work, even in April, June and July. It's pressure, it's defense, it's character on and off the floor."

Peoria has also been the home of the IHSA boys' Elite Eight since 1996, after decades in Champaign on the court of the University of Illinois' Assembly Hall. Since the move, there has been a festival of hoops surrounding the tournament, called the "March Madness Experience" -- all-ages clinics by IHSA greats, tests of skill and games fill an adjoining exhibition center.

Given Peoria's prominence, it seems a perfect place for the past, present and future of Illinois high school hoops.

Booth is asked how Peoria basketball compares to Chicago's version in representing one of the country's finest high school basketball states.

"It's the best," he said. "Coach Van always said, 'You judge the state by your state champion.'"

Joe Bush is a freelance writer in Illinois.