As basketball season gets underway, so too does the preparation for the Thanksgiving tournament. Held this year at Fenton High School in Bensenville, the Grens will get to play against out-of-conference teams to prepare even more for the start of conference play.

Although the first game is not even two weeks after the end of try-outs, head coach Anthony Furman believes his team is looking ready for the tournament.

“I’m happy with what they’ve retained in terms of some of our offensive and defensive concepts,” Furman said. “I think we’re playing real hard and we’re learning to continue to play together, so I think things are going pretty good so far.”

Assistant coach Dan Saken also believes the team will be ready on game day.

“We’re looking good,” Saken said. “We have a lot of parts that we’re excited about, where we can have a lot of creative lineups and we’re not relying on any one guy. We can play really well as a team.”

The players also think that they are ready to play. “In practice we’re playing competitively, and I think if we take that competitiveness to the court, we should be good,” junior Eric Pillath said.

The Grens’ first game in the tournament will be against Lake Park, who managed to narrowly beat EG in last years’ tournament. The coaches know what Lake Park basketball brings to the table, but are glad that Lake Park is the first team they play.

“Lake Park is a very tough team,” said Saken. “They play hard, they’re disciplined in what they do, so it’s a really good test for us.”

Furman shares Saken’s view about their first tournament rival. “They are always ready to go, they play hard, so they’re a good first test,” Furman said.

Although the tournament does not count towards their record, the team won’t go into it thinking it means nothing. The team still wants to be successful in the tournament. The first game tips off Monday at 5:30 p.m. at Fenton High School.

“We need to limit turnovers, share the ball on offense, stay in front on defense, and rebound,” said Furman. “If we do those four things it’ll put us in a position to do well.”