This morning the Lady Potters ate breakfast.

Then they ate some more.

“I got two plates, one in each hand, and they both were full,” said Olivia Remmert, a freshman new to the Potters’ let’s-win-State-again thing.

At 7:45 a.m. the team gathered at the farm home of Todd and Linda Bisping, parents of the Potters’ all-time leading scorer (Brooke, class of ‘09) and all-time leading rebounder (Brandi, today named an Associated Press first-team all-stater).

“Mrs. Bisping is such a good cook,” Remmert said, and what she said next caused me to gain five pounds even before she finished her cataloguing of good-cookery: “Biscuits with gravy, sausage, eggs, fruit, chocolate-chip pancakes, chocolate-chip scones . . .”

Properly stuffed, the Potters then did . . ..

A short practice in the Potterdome . . . a “Parade of Champions” behind the school’s roof-rattling drum corps past hundreds of cheering students in the hallways . . . (A note here: the school’s 500 tickets are sold out, but tickets will be available at the arena. The school will provide four 60-seat buses for students) . . . and then the team embarked for Illinois State University’s Redbird Arena where they worked out briefly and attended to media obligations – such as answering a videographer’s question, “What’s the most embarrassing thing that happened to you this season?”

Jacey Wharram’s answer, with a blush: “I wore my shorts backwards one game and didn’t know it until halftime.”

At 11 o’clock tomorrow, the Potters, 32-2 for the season, play Chicago Simeon, 23-6, in a semifinal of the Class 3A tournament. Win that one, and win again Saturday afternoon, the Potters will have won the 3A championship three straight times. Only one other school in 40 years of Illinois girls basketball has done that. (Lombard Montini, 2010-11-12. More history: Morton is the only small-town public school ever to win the 3A title once, let alone twice.)

If we know Simeon at all, it’s because the Chicagoans were gawdawful in losing to Morton in the Potters’ 2014 Thanksgiving tournament, 72-40. They are better now, of course, though what I’ve seen on video and what I saw in their workout today gives me reason to believe the Potters should be favored tomorrow. A victory will send Morton the championship game against the Chicago Marshall-Rochester winner. That’s likely to be Marshall. It’s Chicago’s best 3A team, an eight-time state champion undefeated in 32 games this season. Morton’s coach, Bob Becker, has said, “They’re the real deal.”

At Redbird today, the Potters worked out just enough to stay loose. Everyone was having fun, even working around the third annual Redbird “Horse” 3-point shooting duel that pitted Becker against assistant coach Brooke Bisping. Each had won once. Becker won this time, the dagger delivered from 35 feet.

As to the Potters’ mood with a three-peat there for the taking, I asked some players for one word . . .

Jacey Wharram: “Pumped.”

Olivia Remmert: “Determined.”

Josi Becker: “Excited.”

Tenley Dowell: “Awesome.”

Kassidy Shurman: “Ecstatic.”

Caylie Jones: “Exhilarated.”
Brandi Bisping: “Ready.”