Mike Bailey's run at St. Patrick, Lyons' finds its footing and a MSL breakdown

St. Patrick coach Mike Bailey continues to check off the boxes in his long, successful career.

Last season, Bailey reached the IHSA state finals for the first time, finishing third in Class 3A. He had been close before, losing in the supersectional round in 2001, 2015, 2022 and 2024.

Last week, he won his 600th game at St. Patrick — he’s now at 602 — where he has been running the program since 1994. Before taking over for Max Kurland with the Shamrocks, Bailey had short stints at Dundee-Crown and St. Gregory, where he won a combined 96 games.

And now he’s on the verge of joining an exclusive club.

With two more victories — St. Patrick plays home games this week against Loyola, Carmel and Jones — Bailey will become one of only 28 coaches in state history with 700 career wins.

Bailey would be the second coach in the state this season to join the 700 club. Moline’s Sean Taylor won his 700th game Jan. 18.

NFL fans marvel at the fact that the Steelers had only three coaches (Chuck Noll, Bill Cowher and Mike Tomlin) from 1969 to 2025. Amazingly, St. Patrick has had only two since 1959: Kurland from 1959-60 through 1993-94 and Bailey since.

After going 8-18 in his first season, Bailey hasn’t had a losing season since. He has strung together 31 winning seasons in a row.

While the rock-solid consistency of the Shamrocks’ program has been Bailey’s calling card, the
defensive switch in 2019-20 — from man-to-man to the current 1-3-1 zone — has been a boon. St. Patrick is on pace for its fifth season of 23 or more victories since the defensive change. Those seasons include three sectional titles.

Is Lyons ready for a resurgence?

Lyons is unranked and has been forgotten. But might a talented and still-dangerous Lions team be on the verge of putting it together?

Lyons began the season just outside the Super 25. The Lions opened with six victories in a row before losing 71-61 to Neuqua Valley while playing short-handed.

Because of some injuries and puzzling losses, Lyons hit a rough patch and went 5-6 in late December and into January. Now the Lions have reeled off five consecutive victories to improve to 16-6.

The core of 6-5 sophomore Grant Smith (17 points per game), 6-5 junior Nate Woods (10 ppg), senior guard Owen Carroll (eight ppg) and 6-5 junior Timmy Sloan (eight ppg) form a solid nucleus.

Lyons, the preseason favorite in the West Suburban Silver, is still in the picture for the conference title, trailing surprising York by one game. The teams square off Tuesday.

MSL breakdown

The Mid-Suburban League separated the haves from the have-nots when it reconstructed its conference alignment for the 2025-26 school year. There is really no other way to put it.

The showdown Friday in Palatine, where Fremd stunned Palatine at the buzzer with first place on the line in the MSL West, was another example of a significant matchup in the upper division. The top four teams in the MSL West — Fremd, Palatine, Hersey and Rolling Meadows — are an impressive 51-10 outside the conference.

As expected, however, there is a massive discrepancy between the two divisions. The MSL East features only two teams above .500. And while MSL East leader Hoffman Estates is 22-3 and on top of the division, it lost by 26 points in a crossover game against Hersey, the third-place team in the MSL West.