Team dinners at Connor Kimme’s house for the Kaneland boys basketball team aren’t just about the food.

They’re about the barn.

Kyle Kimme, Connor’s father, started building the barn from the ground up in 2022. Far from a traditional barn, it houses a regulation basketball half-court. Perfect for one of the best offensive teams in the state.

The Knights are heading to the Class 3A State Tournament, taking their 35-0 record and high-powered offense with them, the only undefeated team in any of the four classes.

“Huge shoutout to my dad. He would devote time to me in the barn and we’d get around 500 shots a day in the barn trying to get prepared for this season,” Kimme said. “Even now, I’ll have the guys over to shoot before games to shoot around and get us all ready. It’s been huge.”

The Knights open the tournament at 10 a.m. Friday against Deerfield (24-11) at the State Farm Center in Champaign.

Kimme is averaging 10.9 points per game, third on the team in scoring behind Marshawn Cocroft (20.3) and Jeffrey Hassan (12.1). Kimme, a senior guard, is knocking down 52% of his 3-pointers this year.

Jalen Carter is shooting 3s at a 34% clip and Cocroft is 41% from long range.

Cocroft said the team takes offense seriously, and the barn is a big part of that.

“We go there a lot,” Cocroft said. “When we have our team dinners, we’re not supposed to be in there shooting, but we’ll still go in there and shoot. That’s just how much we care about this. We know how important it is.”

Kyle Kimme said the team last gathered at the barn before the Knights’ 70-52 regional title win over Burlington Central.

The barn became a team staple last summer, Cocroft said.

“We’d practice in the morning and then he’d just hit us up,” Cocroft said. “’Hey, the barn’s open later on. We can just come in and shoot.’ Then the team would just come in and shoot. It’s just really cool he has that.”

Kaneland is averaging 68.8 points per game. The Knights scored 72 points or more in nine of their first 10 games, averaging over 70 points per game most of the regular season.

But the postseason has been different. Kaneland opened with a 76-50 win against Prairie Ridge, then reached state with a 49-47 win against Morton. Their scoring declined in every playoff game.

The defense has been strong all year for Kaneland. The Knights have surrendered more than 50 points in a game seven times, only one of those coming in the postseason.

Kaneland has scored 70 or more points 22 times. The most the Knights have given up was in a 73-68 overtime win against Sycamore.

“I’m probably most proud of these guys cause we can win games a lot of different ways,” coach Ernie Colombe said. “We can win games holding people to 40, we can win games scoring 80. That’s unique in high school basketball and that’s because of these guys.”

Colombe said he doesn’t think the scoring dropoff is because of tougher postseason competition.

“I keep hearing better teams. I think we played good teams all year,” Colombe said. “We’re in the Interstate 8 and we’re going to the Final Four. So I think the Interstate 8 is good, I think Sycamore is good, I think L-P is good. We beat teams that won their conference. None of that hurt us getting here so far. We beat whoever’s on our schedule so far and our goal is to win again.”

Colombe said every game is different, and what makes his team special is the way they can adapt, whether it’s winning 49-47 or 73-68.

Hassan said teams are more motivated in the postseason, and opponents are giving the Knights their best effort.

“I think it gets tougher because no one wants to lose in the playoffs,” Hassan said. “It’s win or go home. I think every team is trying to obviously not let us score.”