MORRIS – Joe Blumberg was a little apprehensive when the 36th Morris Shootout began Tuesday.

For starters, it was only the second time in the last four years the event had been held. In 2020, it was canceled due to COVID-19. Last summer, the humid conditions made the floors in both the main gym and the fieldhouse too slippery to play on safely.

Upgrades were made to the ventilation systems in both the gym and fieldhouse, and coupled with weather that was not so humid and several well-placed floor fans, the floor conditions were not an issue.

“There’s 36 years of history and tradition at this event, and we want teams to come be a part of that.”

—  Joe Blumberg, Morris boys basketball coach

What Blumberg was concerned about, though, was the fact the tournament added a couple of new rules. Instead of playing 20-minute halves, the games were played with four 10-minute quarters, allowing for a break between each one. It was also done in order to enforce a new rule passed by the National Federation of High Schools.

According to the Shootout rules, “The NFHS changed Rule 4-8-1, eliminating the one-and-one scenario and set new foul limits each quarter. Teams will now reach the bonus when their opponent commits five fouls in each quarter and team fouls will reset at the end of each quarter.”

Despite everyone adjusting to the new rule, there were very few late starts over the two days.

“The latest any game started was four minutes late,” Blumberg said. “And that was because the game before it went into overtime, not because of the new rules.

“I was a little worried about that, to be honest, the new rule, and going to quarters instead of halves with that extra break in between. But Illinois has adopted the NFHS rule, and we are going to have to play with it in the season, so we figured why not get used to it now? Summer is when you prepare for the upcoming season.

“I have to hand it to our officials for doing a great job of keeping the games running smoothly and on schedule. This might have actually been the smoothest the tournament has gone in my time here.”

Of the 32 teams in this year’s tournament, the Herald-News area was represented by Plainfield North, Plainfield South, Joliet Central, Minooka, Bolingbrook and, of course, the hosts.

Blumberg pointed out that Jim Knauf of Ottawa, who makes the officiating assignments for the Interstate 8 Conference, was in charge of assigning and organizing the officials for the event, and that he did an excellent job.

Blumberg also said the event could not have run as smoothly as it did without a lot of help behind the scenes.

“I have to thank the kids in our program and their parents for all the help they gave us,” he said. “The players worked the scoreboards and clocks, the parents volunteered their time to take tickets or be in the concession stand or hospitality room. A special thanks goes out to coach Mike Muntz. He isn’t a part of the basketball program anymore, but he stepped up and was here both days from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m. doing whatever we needed him to do.

“I can’t thank the city of Morris enough. They are always our biggest donor, and this doesn’t come off without their help. Also, I want to thank Maria’s and Corleone’s for donating the food for the concession stand and hospitality room.”

While there was plenty of talent on display over the course of the two days, Blumberg would like to see it increase.

“I am sure with the COVID year and then not having it last year because of the floor, we probably lost some teams that would normally come here,” Blumberg said. “Also, we fall between the two ‘live’ periods where colleges can come see kids, so some teams and kids sit this tournament out.

“We have thrown out the idea of maybe not playing so many games in the hopes of bringing some of the elite 4A programs back, but nothing’s set in stone right now.

“The draw for us has to be the city of Morris. It’s such a nice place for the people from other towns to come and visit, and we want to show them a lot of hospitality. There’s 36 years of history and tradition at this event, and we want teams to come be a part of that.”