Preparing for Princeton: DGN’s Stanton has cousin to thank for hoops success

By Jeff Vorva

A little tough-love type of bullying between cousins helped kickstart Jack Stanton’s career.

The Downers Grove North grad, who is heading to Princeton to study and play basketball, remembers how his athletic career all got started. His cousin, Hugh Lang, roughly introduced Stanton to the sport. Lang is two years older than Stanton.

“My kindergarten year, my cousin, who lives right across the street from me, invited me over,” Stanton said. “I wasn’t really into sports then, but he loved basketball. He basically bullied me into playing basketball all day. I would get beat up by him all day. Finally, I got a little bit better, and I would get closer and closer to beating him, and I fell in love with it.”

Stanton can now laugh about his cousin “picking on the little guy,” but Stanton stayed with it. “I tried to quit, but he wouldn’t let me,” Stanton said.

And that’s a good thing.

The 6-foot-2 guard leaves North as a much-decorated athlete who was not only an outside threat shooting 3-pointers, he would also get down and dirty and stick his nose inside to try to pick up some layups. In the past two seasons, the Trojans combined for 63 wins and finished fourth in the state in Class 4A in 2023.

Trojans coach Jim Thomas enjoyed watching Stanton’s progression over the years.“He’s very intelligent in all walks of life,” Thomas said of Stanton. “He’s very smart. One of his superpowers is that he’s really cerebral in his approach to everything that he does. When he was a sophomore and averaging seven points a game, it was ‘all right, what do I need to add during the offseason to get myself to the next level?’

“I would say that over the course of those three years, he really took it upon himself to grow better in the weight room, to be better with nutrition and time management – he’s really smart about doing all of that stuff. It was no surprise to me, when you look back on it, to see where he got to because of how he went about his business every day.”

Speaking of time management, Stanton was good at multitasking. He conducted an interview with Downers Grove Magazine while lifting weights. He apologized for sounding out of breath, but he’s been known to take the breath away of fans, coaches, and teammates – especially on March 6, 2023.

That’s when he hit five 3-pointers and scored 19 points in an electrifying 67-47 victory over heavily favored Chicago power Kenwood at the UIC Supersectional. Some of the Chicago Bulls were present in the crowd to watch Kenwood but instead watched Stanton help send the Trojans to the state semifinals for the first time in school history.

“He was in such great rhythm; it gave so much confidence to the rest of the team,” Thomas said. “They just fed off of that. His coming out the way he did on both ends of the floor really set the tone with how we were able to play. Our kids had never been down state, so it’s one of those situations where your best player is putting the team on his shoulders and taking you down. It was a fun run.”

Stanton is hoping for more fun at Princeton. He said he had approximately 20 offers but after talking with coaches and visiting the campus, he was sold on Princeton.

“I fell in love immediately,” Stanton said. “The campus is beautiful, and I met all of the guys. The coaches really want to coach us.”

Stanton plans to major in economics and minor in finance. And he has a chance to play the sport he loves for four more years.

“I love basketball because I feel like every single game is different,” Stanton said. “You never see the same play over and over again. You might see similar plays, but everything is different. I also like the preparation for every game. You have to be prepared. If you are not prepared, you get caught. It keeps you on your toes and makes sure you’re on your stuff all the time.”