Steve Tucker's preps notebook

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Fab four

Only four area products are listed as starters on the nation’s top 20 college basketball teams according to Sports Illustrated — Sherron Collins (Crane), Kansas; Jerome Randle (Hales), California; Jon Scheyer (Glenbrook North), Duke; and Evan Turner (St. Joseph), Ohio State.

Prater nominated

Proviso West receiver Kyle Prater has been nominated for the U.S. Army Player of the Year award, which goes to the nation’s top high school football player. The winner will be announced at the U.S. Army All-American Bowl in San Antonio on Jan. 9.

Quote of the week

Sun-Times Player of the Year Matt Perez of Maine South on his running style: ‘‘With the tools I have, I’m not a one-dimensional runner, not just a power runner or a speed back. I’m unpredictable. If they look for me to run over them, I put a juke move on them. I keep people off balance. They aren’t sure what I’m going to do. I don’t like to run out-of-bounds. Nothing works better than putting your shoulder down and running someone over.’’

Title search

Five of the 16 qualifiers for the state football finals this weekend are seeking their first title — Marist, Cary-Grove, Unity, Morrison and Lexington. Joliet Catholic has won 13 titles, Providence nine, Wheaton Warrenville South five, Geneseo four, and Maine South and Stillman Valley three.

In the cards

Because of crowd noise in recent games, Marist coach Pat Dunne and his staff have resorted to flash cards to communicate offensive signals to their players on the field. Dunne has used the system the last two playoff games and will do it again in Saturday’s Class 8A final against Maine South at Memorial Stadium in Champaign.

‘‘It isn’t rocket science — just a different way of communicating,’’ Dunne said. ‘‘We aren’t concerned about someone stealing our signs because we have so many plays. It’s easy for what we are trying to do.’’ Three people manipulate the cards — assistant coaches Jim Looney and Bill Dunne, the coach’s brother, and sophomore quarterback Ryan Meyer.