Quietly confident Justus McNair is the Herald-News Boys Basketball Player of the Year

Joliet West boys basketball standout Justus McNair is not much of a talker.

He prefers action over speaking.

“So a lot of people do a lot of verbal talking on the court,” the soft-spoken McNair said. “They talk a lot. But the game doesn’t really back it up. So that’s why I try to stay as humble as possible and let my game do the speaking.”

McNair’s senior season was a lesson to many how an elite player can choose to allow one’s game to speak for oneself. The end product of those efforts earned McNair Herald-News Boys Basketball Player of the Year honors.

McNair averaged 21 points, seven rebounds and four assists per game while shooting 47% from the floor. Those numbers, particularly the scoring, escalated to another level in the postseason, where West’s tournament run ended in the sectional semifinals with a two-point overtime loss to eventual Class 4A state champion Homewood-Flossmoor.

McNair scored 26 points in that game before fouling out. He also pushed the game into overtime, missing a potential tying shot then scrapping for the rebound which, to no one’s surprise, he figured out a way to get into the basket.

It was just one of the many big plays McNair delivered in his senior season, a culmination of all he had learned from yearly battles as an underclassman during daily practices with players such as Jeremy Fears (Michigan State), Jeremiah Fears (Illinois commit) and Toby Onyekonwu (Stonybrook).

“When you look at who he had to play, quote/unquote, behind, he wasn’t actually playing behind them. He was playing with them, and he was learning from them. Because really the only missing piece of Justus’ game or what you would call like his basketball makeup or profile was the consistent confidence and the killer instinct,” Joliet West coach Jeremy Kreiger said. “You could never look at a game that Toby, Jeremiah or Jeremy played and had to figure out who was the alpha? It was always them.

“Justus learned how to be the terminator from them. And then you saw it every game this year he played. He scored in double figures and he had five-plus rebounds. And there was no mistaking that this year when an alpha walked off a floor, H-F included.”

While even McNair admits to occasionally breaking his veil of silence in particularly competitive moments, he’s more than grateful for the opportunities that the Joliet West program has afforded him, a luxury not everyone has.

“It was great. I actually liked it, because you know, playing with such great players like Toby, Jeremiah, Jeremy really helps you learn a lot,” McNair said. “They’re really good, and they’re high Division I, major players. I learned a lot my past few years, my junior, my sophomore year. Just their work ethic. So I feel like it was good to have that experience, and that helped make the transition in my senior year to really take that head role and be the player that I am and help my teammates along the way.”

McNair’s ability to lead and be of value to the Joliet West roster stood out when he suffered an injury in late December. It sidelined him a few games, and upon his return the Tigers had to shake free from their roughest stretch of the season. They dropped five of eight games as their record dropped to an uncharacteristic 12-9. But once McNair got his groove back, it inspired a nine-game winning streak that came to an end with the H-F loss that capped the West season and McNair’s spectacular career at West.

He’ll take those talents to Valparaiso in the fall. Valparaiso head coach Roger Powell Jr. has a pretty good idea of what kind of player he’ll be getting in McNair, as he also is cut from the Joliet West cloth before going on to start for three years at the University of Illinois.

Kreiger is very confident McNair’s style of play will allow him to be an immediate contributor at the next level.

“It’s essentially why he’s going to be the next great player we’ve had in line to go to college and play as a true freshman – because he’s developed so many different prongs to his game,” Kreiger said. “He can step on any college floor right now. And you know, he’s always going to play hard. He’s always going to defend, he’s always going to battle for rebounds and he’s going to be ultra-coachable. In today’s age of college basketball, that’s what coaches are dying for.

“Yes, you love a high-profile player, an ultra-talented player that can go score, but in the day of NIL and people wanting to be essentially professional athletes, you don’t have to worry about that with him. He just wants to play.”