2019-20 Week That Was: Week 0 & Seeding the State

2019-20 THE WEEK THAT WAS: WEEK 0

After a couple of years hiatus due to my course work in my master’s program, I will be back with the Week That Was, a recap of the action the past seven days. This will be an unvarnished look back at what I saw over the course of the week, the trends, and action without the over salivated hype. As Joe Friday of Dragnet fame once said, “Just the facts, ma’am.” The benefit of these clear-eyed observations is the historical context and nuances with having been part of the scene the last 36 years. Even though I have finished the master’s, I will still be a restricted free agent. By that I mean I will be able to get out periodically. I still have Stillwater coaching obligations and that means there will be no out & abouts when the Ponies are playing. My radius of games on the off days will be constrained by the ability to leave Stillwater to reach a game site by starting time, usually 7 p.m. That means northwest and southwest Minnesota teams will be forced to Saturday slots for the most part. Many times, that means that I won’t be able to break free until the post season. The hope, as always, will be to see the top 100 teams (according to QRF) and each and every one of the AAAA teams. Last year check and nope. This year, due to realignment by the MSHSL, I catch a break: there are fewer AAAA teams. Only 62 will be needed to fulfill that requirement. That is how many I saw last year, just missing out on 64 thanks to the horrible weather and postponements that threw a wrench in my plans. Two quotes apply here: “the best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men…..” from the Robert Burns poem “To a Mouse,” and “Man proposes, God disposes,” from Thomas à Kempis back in the middle ages.

Since this is week zero in Minnesota, all that happened this week is the start of official practice which got underway on Monday. Some scrimmages took place on Saturday. The upcoming week will see games take place in Wisconsin and Minnesota. The biggest event of the upcoming week will be the Breakdown event at Hopkins, which jumps the Thanksgiving events. The Breakdown will be held two days on Friday and Saturday. A grand total of 21 contests await.

THE ROAD AHEAD

Tuesday action tips off in Wisconsin. Minnesota’s first games of the season starts on Thursday. The big event this year is the Breakdown Hopkins event which is now across two days on two courts. It jumps the gun ahead of the traditional Thanksgiving events because Thanksgiving itself is the latest it can possibly be on the calendar. It will reach the same date (Nov. 28) again in 2024. For those wondering, the earliest possible Thanksgiving date is November 22.

Looking all the way to the month of March the crowns should still fit for the Royals of Hopkins and the Islanders of DeLaSalle. Hopkins is chasing the consecutive win mark in AAAA set by Lakeville. The Royals need to get by 40. AA should have a new titlist. If Minneota can manage it, they could be a double double-double double. They already have the volleyball portion locked in with back to back titles in 2018 & this year. Getting the basketball half would make them unique in the history of Minnesota high school athletics.

Look for some long standing drought busters this year—just like baseball’s Washington Nationals making the world series for DC’s first showing since 1933 and first title (and only) since 1924. Farmington never ever has been to the girls state basketball tournament.

There are seven more nevers in AAAA include Lakeville South, Rochester Century; Chanhassen; Eagan; Park-Cottage Grove; East Ridge, Minneapolis Southwest. If you notice from this list five are schools that have been formed since 1974. PCG and Southwest are in the same Farmington boat—–for the moment. With Lakeville North vacating for section AAA this is a distinct possibility.

The AAAA sections where all teams have made the tourney are 5, 7 & 8.

Conversely, a string maybe interrupted: Eastview has been to eight straight tournaments. With Lakeville North moving in, and Rosemount (and perhaps Burnsville) on the rise, Lightning might not strike nine times in a row.

I am sure we will see our quotas of milestones, record breaking performances, injuries, and comebacks. I am sure we will see the total pp100 in the neighborhood of 80 pp100.

SEEDING THE STATE

Here we go with the crystal ball focused on March. Some teams WILL NOT be mentioned because they live in a section that has a higher ranked team. Wayzata (a consensus number two) will not be named because Hopkins (a defending undefeated champ and consensus number one) has that position right  now.

AAAA

1 Hopkins #6

2 Farmington #1

3 Park Center #5

4 St. Michael-Albertville #8

5 Lakeville North #3

6 Stillwater #4

7 Eden Prairie #2

8 Forest Lake #7

AAA

1 DeLaSalle #4

2 Becker #5

3 Simley #3

4 Holy Angels #6

5 Waconia #2

6 Austin #1

7 Alexandria #8

8 Grand Rapids #7

AA

1 Sauk Centre #6

2 Rochester Lourdes #1

3 Fergus Falls #8

4 Proctor #7

5 New London-Spicer #3

6 Minnehaha #4

7 Waseca #2

8 Providence #5

A

1 Minneota #3

2 Mountain Iron-Buhl #7

3 Heritage Christian #4

4 BOLD #2

5 Henning #6

6 Walker-Hackensack-Akeley #5

7 Grand Meadow #1

8 Red Lake #8

I will identify top weekly performers, from what I chart, after each week.

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