INDIANAPOLIS – One by one, college coaches filed into the sweltering gym on the campus of Whitney Young Magnet High School, dressed in their polos and windbreakers and sporting their school logos, all craning their necks to get a glimpse of one of the best boys’ basketball players to come out of Chicago in years.
It was impossible to miss the 6-foot-11 frame of Jahlil Okafor, casually throwing down those dunks in the warmup line.
It was much easier to miss Lucas Williamson, his freshman teammate.
A few years later, Okafor has gone from can’t-miss prospect to one-and-done star at Duke to the riches of the NBA, while Williamson has become one of the darlings of this year’s NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament. The slender guard with the big game has become the do-everything star for Loyola University Chicago, which is once again making an inspired run through March.
That Williamson ended up at Loyola and the Ramblers are in the Sweet 16 is evidence of what some coaches have predicted for years: A once-yawning talent gap between haves and have-nots in the world of college hoops has narrowed to nothing.