QUINCY – The courting of Quincy High School freshman Khloe Nicholson by high-major women’s college basketball programs continues.
The 6-foot-1 guard has announced in recent days on X, formerly known as Twitter, she has been offered by Illinois of the Big 10 and by three Southeastern Conference schools – Missouri, Arkansas and Alabama.
Prep Girls Hoops lists Nicholson as the top-rated high school player in Illinois for the Class of 2028.
She told the Illini Inquirer she was caught off-guard by a recent phone call from Illinois coach Shauna Green.
“She was just like I need to stay here, it’s close to home and they’d love to have me,” Nicholson said. “… It means a lot. I mean, just being from Illinois and being close to home and my family being able to watch. It means a lot.”
Other Division I schools to have already made offers to Nicholson are Iowa State, Michigan State, Purdue, Kansas and Nebraska.
Nicholson averaged 8.6 points, 5.5 rebounds, 4 assists and 2.4 steals per game last season for Quincy, which finished with a 20-11 record after being eliminated in the regional finals by Alton. The Redbirds went on to place third in the Class 4A state tournament.
Grandson of legendary Galesburg coach expected to get job
Another Thiel will be walking the sideline for the Galesburg High School boys basketball program next season.
Taylor Thiel, a starter on the school’s 1998 state runner-up team and the grandson of legendary Silver Streaks coach John Thiel, is expected to become the school’s next coach on Monday, May 12.
He will replace Chad Thompson, who stepped down in March after posting a 55-74 record in four seasons. Galesburg went 11-22 last season. It was the third consecutive year it lost 20 or more games.
Taylor Thiel currently is a senior market sales agent at Homeward, a private equity real estate company, and lives in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. He played college basketball at Iowa State and Monmouth College and has coached basketball and baseball for the past 12 years in Texas, primarily on the AAU/Select circuit.
John Thiel, who retired in 1973 and passed away in 1988, won 398 games and guided Galesburg to one third-place finish and two second-place finishes in the single-class state tournament from 1955-73.
Schwagmeyer-Belger starts to replenish QU roster
New Quincy University women’s basketball coach Ali Schwagmeyer-Belger is beginning to restock a roster gutted by graduation and transfers by receiving commitments from three area players.
Katey Flynn, a 5-foot-10 guard who prepped at Brown County, announced on X that she has committed to the Hawks after one season at Maryville University.
She started all 30 games and averaged 19.8 points as a freshman at John Wood Community College but appeared in only 14 games and played just 71 minutes for Maryville, which used a late season push to reach the Great Lakes Valley Conference tournament championship game, where it fell to QU.
Central-Southeastern guard Karly Peters, who originally committed to JWCC, also announced on X she is changing course and following Schwagmeyer-Belger to QU.
Peters averaged 13 points per game while dishing out 4.6 assists and shooting better than 35 percent from 3-point range as a high school senior to earn a spot on the Muddy River Sports All-Area team. She reached 1,000 career points in the sectional championship game against Pleasant Plains.
It was a logical move since Peters has been training since the seventh grade with Schwagmeyer-Belger – also a Central High School product – and her husband, Courtney Belger. During Peters’ freshman and sophomore years, she also played for the 25 Eight Mentality AAU team coached by the couple.
Reagan Reed also had originally committed to John Wood but is following Schwagmeyer-Belger to QU. Reed is the all-time scoring leader in Illini West basketball history, and she ranks fourth all-time in rebounds, steals and assists. Reed is a two-time Illinois Basketball Coaches Association All-State third-team selection and a three-time all-conference selection.
QU is losing four seniors – Cymirah Williams, Taya Stevenson, Karstyn Stratton and Janiece Dawson – and graduate transfers Nicole McDermott and Taylor Haase from a team that went 25-8 and won its first GLVC tournament title in 20 years to advance to the NCAA Division II tournament.
Shooting guard Mariann Blass (Truman State), point guard Mikayla Huffine (Valparaiso) and reserve forward Ashlynn Arnsman (Ottawa, Kan., University) also transferred in the wake of the departure of second-year coach Courtney Boyd. Boyd is now the head coach at Valparaiso.
McCulla, Illinois state men’s golf team in NCAA Regional this week
The Illinois State men’s golf team will compete in the NCAA Division I Urbana Regional May 12-14. The tournament is being hosted by the University of Illinois and will be played on its Atkins Golf Club Course.
Joining the 136th-ranked Redbirds in the 13-team field are Oklahoma State (ranked second nationally), North Carolina (10), Illinois (14), Texas Tech (23), Long Beach State (26), UNLV (35), Houston (38), Marquette (47), Troy (51), Pacific (60), NC State (64), and Wright State (163).
The NCAA regional appearance is the fifth all-time for ISU and first since 2022. The Redbirds qualified by coming back from a one-stroke deficit entering the final round to win the Missouri Valley Conference title by three strokes.
ISU is led by Illinois transfer TJ Barger, who averages 72.9 strokes per round. Quincy Notre Dame product Alex McCulla (73.1), Will Troy (74.1) and Pietro Pontiggia (74.6) round out the top four.
Barger and McCulla were both named to the All-Missouri Valley Conference team.
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