Tom Lilly is a Hall of Famer, but you’ll never hear those words coming out of his mouth.

Lilly’s self-deprecating approach to his life and his coaching precedes him. He’s not exactly from the Hayden Fry school of poor-boying, but Lilly always seems to minimize his accomplishments and maximizes praise for opponents.

The style has served Lilly, and Xavier, very well.

The Saints’ girls basketball team will make another trip to the state tournament this week, facing Ankeny in a first-round game Wednesday afternoon. Despite being one of the smallest schools in enrollment in Class 4A, Xavier is ranked No. 5 and carries an 18-5 record into the state tourney.

When you talk about the great coaches in Metro history, Lilly’s name may not be at the top of the list. This is despite the fact his teams have won 451 games and he has guided 19 straight teams to winning records. Lilly coached at Cedar Rapids Regis before moving to Xavier when it opened in 1998.

Lilly, inducted into the Iowa girls’ basketball coaches Hall of Fame in 2008, has done it with a tried-and-true formula. It includes discipline, teamwork, goal setting and a middle-school feeder program called the Cedar Rapids Bulldogs that Lilly has called “the cornerstone’’ of Xavier’s success.

Xavier never has had a Miss Iowa Basketball and Lilly has had just three first-team all-staters with the Saints. Kristin Jennings (2002-03), Amanda Covington (2003-04) and Maggie O’Connell (2005) were named first-team by either the Iowa Newspaper Association or Des Moines Register.

Consequently, Lilly relies on extraordinary team effort. Frequently his teams are among the state leaders in team defense. The most points scored against Xavier this season has been 56 (Iowa City West and Dubuque Hempstead) and the Saints have held opponents to 40 points or fewer in 13 games.

It would not surprise many if the first-round state matchup with Ankeny would end with a score something like 35-33.

Like many folks at Xavier, Lilly wears a lot of hats. His teaching responsibilities include psychology and fitness/wellness. But in the basketball off-season, Lilly probably can be found around the Xavier campus doing something like directing vehicle traffic in the school parking lot on a football Friday night.

Three state titles and 11 state tournament trips later, Lilly still is hard at it, employing the same approach year after year. The result has been a pretty good body of work.

STRONG HUSKER START – Former Cedar Rapids Washington star Chad Christensen is off to a terrific start for the Nebraska baseball team.

Through six games, Christensen is batting .375 with two homers. An infielder by trade, the junior is being tried this season in the outfield. He played the first three games in right field, the next three back at shortstop.

After dropping a three-game set against Gonzaga, Nebraska won three straight. The Huskers host Iowa in an early April Big Ten series. Christensen was one of three Nebraska players last season to start all 55 games.

Former Xavier prep Jon Keller, a sophomore right-handed pitcher, is 1-0 with a 2.19 ERA in two starts for the Huskers. He has struck out six in a team high 12 1/3 innings.

Christensen's brother, Austin, former all-stater at Kennedy, is a freshman left-handed pitcher, outfielder and first baseman for the Huskers who has not appeared in a game this season.

TURNING THE PAIGE – Marcus Paige, Iowa’s likely Mr. Basketball this season out of Linn-Mar, is regarded as one of the “25 Freshmen of Immediate Impact’’ next college season by Bleacher Report.

Paige, averaging more than 26 points per game this year, is headed for North Carolina. Many believe he will start from the get-go, especially if as many as three or four Tar Heels leave after this year for the NBA draft. That group may include Harrison Barnes, the former No. 1 high school product out of Ames.

One of the top contenders for Mr. Iowa Basketball, Adam Woodbury of Sioux City East, earlier this month became his school’s all-time leading scorer. Despite being double- and triple-teamed, the 7-foot-1 Iowa recruit is averaging 17 points per game.

(Mark Dukes is former sports editor of the Cedar Rapid Gazette. He is co-host of The Gym Class radio show weekdays from 3-4 p.m. on KGYM-AM 1600 and FM-106.3.)