By Alan Liang
Gargoyle staff reporter
Posted Monday, Feb. 5, 2007, The OG, boys basketball & sports

IF YOU HAVE ever been to a Uni boys varsity basketball game, you probably already know Mike Renner as the player who's hitting all those shots, or as the “go-to” guy.

If you're an alum, you might know Mike as “Al and Andy's little brother.”

Now, after Friday's night's 58-55 victory over Normal Calvary Baptist, you'll know him as only the third Uni male player to have scored 1,000 points in his career, and the first to have done so as a junior.

But what's the story behind this spectacular athlete?

THE NUMBERS

Mike Renner was the MVP of his seventh-grade team at Mahomet-Seymour Junior High School and the leading scorer of his subbie team. [Note: The name of Mike's school when he was in seventh grade has been corrected since this article was originally published. See comments below.]

Bypassing the JV, he has been on the varsity since he was a freshman, when he averaged 6.4 points per game coming off the bench. In fact, he was an all-conference honorable mention that season in the East Central Illinois Conference.

Mike Renner is on pace to break brother Al's
career-point record next January. (Gargoyle
photo) (click to enlarge)

He began starting for the Illineks as a sophomore and led the team with a 15.3 point average. Mike was one of only two sophomores to be named to last year's ECIC all-conference squad.

This season he again leads the team, averaging 17.0 points after Friday's game, in which he scored 13 to give him 1,001 for his career.

That puts him behind only 1963 alum Doug Brown (1,113) and Mike's brother Al (1,372) on the Uni boys career-scoring list.

Sophia Neely, the 1986 graduate who went on to star at Dartmouth, holds Uni's overall career record with 1,967 points. Three other Uni girls have reached 1,000 points: Amanda Smeltzer, 1993-97; Lis Pollock, 1995-99; and Molly Smith, 2001-05.

Mike is already ahead of Al's scoring pace. Al, who graduated in 2006, scored his 1,000th point in the first game of his senior year. His little brother managed the same feat with three regular-season games to spare in his junior campaign.

In fact, Al realized soon after he broke Uni's career record on Dec. 16, 2005, against Oakwood, that he wouldn't be on top for long.

“I was happy [when I broke the record] because I'd … always looked at that and sort of made it my goal,” Al told the Gargoyle's Annie Fehrenbacher last year. “But I was also kind of thinking, because I was looking over at Mike … that in two years I'm probably not gonna have that record anymore.”

If he maintains a 17-point average, Mike will need just 22 more games in which to become Uni's all-time points leader — which means Al will lose his title of scoring king sometime in the middle of next January.

Mike is currently ninth in the Uni record books for single-season points with 429, which he scored last year. Already he has 392 this season. Depending on how many postseason games Uni plays, Mike later this month could break Tim Monahan's single-season record of 482 set in 1994-95.

Fittingly, Mike achieved his 1,000-point milestone on a 3-point shot. That basket gave him 49 treys for the year, an average of 2.1 per game.

This offensive juggernaut is also tied for 15th in the Illinois High School Association record books for most points in a half (27).

But Mike does more than just score. Playing both forward and guard, he is second on the team this year in rebounding (5.2 per game) and assists (2.6).

He is first in steals with 60 after Friday's game. His average of 2.6 ranks 10th in the area, according to The News-Gazette's prep statistics.

THE BROTHERHOOD

Mike began playing basketball in the first grade when he had enough muscle to make shots. He played the game with his brothers, Andy, who graduated from Uni in 2005, and Al.

But Mike didn't take basketball very seriously until he made a traveling team with his fifth-grade friends. Before seventh grade started, he trained extensively on his own to make the Mahomet team. As the third Renner to enter Uni, Mike decided to continue playing basketball throughout high school.

Andy and Al, who currently attend Notre Dame, greatly influenced Mike's performance as a basketball player.

“They really got me into the game, and they're the reason I got to the point I'm at,” he says.

Mike remembers playing against his brothers in their family's driveway, an experience that made him step up his game.

“It also made me … play with an ‘I don't want to lose' attitude because when I was playing against Al or Andy, it was about pride,” he recalls.

Mike says it's hard to live up to the Renner name. During their fabled Uni careers, Andy and Al were outstanding three-sport athletes in soccer, basketball, and baseball.

However, the pressure also serves as motivation for Mike.

“You'll get the haters who say, ‘Your brother would have done that right,' and it's tough, but then it makes you have the need to prove [those people] wrong and get bragging rights in the household,” he says.

Mike's hunger to prove himself dates back to his early years at Uni.

“I remember an upperclassman asked me if I was going to be good at basketball,” he says. “I replied, ‘Yeah, I think so,' and then he said, ‘Well, not as good as Al though, right?' And I just laughed, but that's when I knew I had to prove people wrong.”

STEPPING OUT OF THE SHADOWS

Head coach Joel Beesley says Mike's greatest strengths are his experience and his aggressiveness.

“He has the ability to predict what opponents will do … and he has a high confidence level,” says Beesley, who coached Andy and Al throughout their varsity basketball careers.

Now that he has reached 1,000 points faster than any other Illinek, what goals remain for Mike?

He wants to win regional and sectional titles for starters. He also wants to win 24 games in a season (to tie with the record-holding 1943-44 team), to be in the IHSA dunk contest finals, to score 40 points in one game, to break the Uni career- and season-scoring records, and to score 2,000 points.

While some of these goals may appear a bit of a stretch, quite a few of them are well within his reach, especially the career- and season-scoring records.

Despite the possibilities, Renner isn't caught up in the numbers.

“I know the career-scoring record would be a source of bragging rights in the household, but it really isn't that big of a goal for me,” he says. “If I get it, it will only be a testament to the fact that I could stay healthy for four years and improve my game.”

It's not an accident that Mike mentions injuries. Early in the 2004 soccer season, Andy injured his ACL and was sidelined for most of the fall and winter of his senior year, preventing the three Renners from playing an entire season together on the court.

A SUCCESSFUL JUNIOR YEAR

Mike began the 2006-07 school year on the soccer field sharing goalkeeping duties with fellow junior Isaac Radnitzer. They combined to shut out opponents an amazing eight times, including four in a row from Aug. 29 to Sept. 7 and three shutouts in four games from Oct. 5 to 16.

The soccer team went on to do great things, setting a school record with a mark of 17-4-1 and coming within one game of reaching the eight-team Class A state tournament.

But going into the basketball season, fans wondered whether the team could overcome the loss of the most successful class in Uni basketball history — brother Al's Class of 2006. That stellar group of athletes won a school-record 45 games in two years (23-5 in 2004-05, 22-6 in 2005-06) and a record 60 games over three seasons.

With a varsity lineup heavy in players from Mike's junior class, the Illineks are now 12-12 overall and 8-1 in the ECIC. They are just three games away from winning Uni's third straight ECIC title.

The Illineks have an excellent chance to win 15 regular-season games. As for the postseason, who knows how far they can go? They are seeded No. 8 in the 12-team Tolono Unity subsectional A, but depending on their bracket they could go deep into the playoffs. In any event, a winning season seems all but assured at this point — which wasn't the case earlier in the year.

According to Renner, the Illineks are even more competitive than their record might indicate.

“This season has been just a few plays or breaks from a true success,” the team captain says. “I can name at least six or seven games that could have just as easily gone the other way, but we fell short due to execution.”

BASEBALL, ANYONE?

Once basketball season is over, Mike will have to contend with an unexpected void in his athletic schedule: Uni's baseball team is no more. The school eliminated the program over the summer due to an insufficient number of players as well as inadequate practice and playing facilities.

Mike really enjoys playing baseball — he says it's his favorite sport. He does a bit of everything on the diamond: He's a catcher, pitcher, and outfielder.

“I'd say I have my best chance of playing baseball at the next level,” he says. “It's what I really love to do.”

Although he was upset about the end of Uni's baseball program, Mike concedes the competition wasn't that great, since Uni's varsity often played other teams' JV squads.

Renner says he still wants to play baseball in college, although Uni's decision to disband the team might make it more difficult for him.

“It has probably hurt my chances with some schools,” he says, “because they ask for summer and spring stats, and not having any stats for a varsity season just looks bad on a form.”

The schools Renner is looking at for baseball include Illinois, Harvard, and Georgia Tech. Renner hopes to play Division I baseball and to make his way up through the minor leagues into the majors.

“[It] would be optimal if I could double up with basketball,” he says.

In the spring, Mike will work on his own or with a trainer on pitching and hitting.

“I'm going to have to work out in batting cages as well to try and get my timing down for the summer season,” he says.

Mike will play with Champaign's Legion baseball program over the summer, which travels throughout the Midwest for tournaments and doubleheaders.

OTHER INTERESTS

Besides sports, Mike enjoys playing Xbox 360 (his favorite game being “Fight Night Round 3”), watching TV, and hanging out with friends.

Academically, Mike is very talented in mathematics. He won Parkland medallions last year with Jacob Olshansky in a sophomore-freshman two-person team event in the Illinois Council of Teachers of Mathematics regional competition. His favorite subjects in school are yearbook and physics.

But back to basketball.

Mike believes this year's team may have a chance to accomplish something big in the IHSA Class A tournament, which begins Feb. 19.

“Teams can't sleep on us in the postseason,” he says, “because we've played more close games then anyone in our regional and have been making huge strides lately.”

But no matter how the team fares in its remaining games, Illinek fans can be certain of one thing: When they watch Mike Renner play, they are seeing school history in the making.

MIKE RENNER'S UNI HOOPS CAREER AT A GLANCE

• Freshman year: 180 points, 6.4 pts per game, 85 rebounds, 34 steals, 29 assists, 23-5 team record, ECIC champs (12-0)
• Sophomore year: 429 points, 15.3 pts per game, 125 rebounds, 61 steals, 48 assists, 22-6 team record, ECIC champs (11-1)
• Junior year: 392 points, 17.0 pts per game, 120 rebounds, 60 steals, 60 assists, 12-12 team record, ECIC leader (8-1)
• Note: Mike has played in 23 of Uni's 24 contests this year. He missed the season opener because of an injury.

RELATED

• Gargoyle sports feature: Brothers in arms: Looking back at the three Renners
• Gargoyle Q&A with Al & Mike Renner: Brotherly love & basketball
• Gargoyle article: dEnd of a brief era: No more baseball for Uni
• Gargoyle article: Renner scores 1,000th career point as Uni notches 12th win