Michael O’Brien’s high school basketball notebook

Oswego East’s Bryce Shoto (2) goes hard to the basket around West Aurora’s Terrence Smith (24). (Allen Cunningham/For the Sun-Times)

The Southwest Prairie doesn’t jump to anyone’s mind when the topic of best basketball conferences comes up.

And it shouldn’t, but it is impossible to ignore that the conference is on the rise. Joliet West and the Fears brothers are already making waves, Oswego East has been producing good teams and steady flow of D1 players for years, West Aurora and Romeoville have exciting young teams and Yorkville’s 6-9 Jason Jakstys is an intriguing prospect.