Week 3 of the Minnesota High School season saw somewhat a return to normalcy. One game per day ruled until Saturday when another explosion of contests ruled the roost. It was my first real serious dip into AA. With the Big South Showcase I was able to knock off my first conference (or in my estimation two conferences). With the southern exposure the numbers dropped across the board (more below).

What isn’t normal is the delay in this posting.  Due to medical and car appointments yesterday this was slow in getting out.

I still was focused on crossing off as many AAAA teams as possible (except for Saturday). Due to the calendar this year it seems the AAAA teams will be hard to capture despite only 62 total. As of Sunday I have already seen 40% of the teams in AAAA, 27% of AAA teams. With Christmas and New Year’s falling in the middle of the week this year it takes four days off the grid.

SEEDING THE STATE

Is the QRF on drugs? How can Hopkins be #3 in their rankings in AAAA? Four of their opponents have been ranked in the top 10 at one point. Five of the six have winning records. With the Royals power schedule, the formula for tabulating the rankings are in serious need of a tweak.

AAAA

1 Hopkins #6

2 Farmington #1

3 Park Center #5

4 Stillwater #4

5 St. Michael-Albertville #8

6 Rosemount #3

7 Shakopee #2

8 Andover #7

AAA

1 DeLaSalle #4

2 Becker #5

3 Holy Angels #6

4 Austin #1

5 Waconia #2

3 Simley #3

7 Alexandria #8

8 North Branch #7

AA

1 Rochester Lourdes #1

2 Sauk Centre #6

3 Proctor #7

4 Fergus Falls #8

5 Minnehaha #4

6 New London-Spicer #3

7 Waseca #2

8 Rockford #5

A

1 Minneota #3

2 Cromwell-Wright #7

3 Mayer Lutheran #4

4 Henning #6

5 Walker-Hackensack-Akeley #5

6 BOLD #2

7 Grand Meadow #1

8 Badger-Greenbush-Middle River #8

BY THE NUMBERS

The third week saw another drop in the pp100, down almost seven points from the Thanksgiving week. There were five fewer games (due to the lack of the multiple Friday events last week). One explanation for the pp100 drop was the diet of AA teams on Saturday at the Big South Showcase. Every team in the conference was represented—top to bottom. With the wide net cast there will be highs and lows. AA did show up with the lowest totals at 67.5, not too far off AAA. AAAA still has the “best” basketball when “best” is defined as skilled pp100—usually involving better ball handling, decision making, and better shooting skills.

Type	W	L	PP100
Overall	12	12	75.27
W	12	0	89.15
L	0	12	61.34
Monday	1	1	91.54
Tuesday	1	1	87.02
Wednesday	1	1	71.63
Thursday	1	1	78.07
Friday	1	1	95.40
Saturday	7	7	68.80
AAAA	4	3	89.57
AAAA-Stillwater	2	3	78.57
AAA	2	2	71.89
AA	5	7	67.50
A	1	0	82.47
Suburban East	2	2	91.8
Big South West	5	2	74.77
Big South East	1	5	58.50

Week 1 88.4

Week 2 82.1

Week 3 75.27

SUPERLATIVES

The best pp100 116.7 with Stillwater over Park-Cottage Grove on Tuesday. The Ponies added another 100+ on Friday over Woodbury.

Best D PP100 38.5 with Pipestone and Waseca holding St. James and Redwood Valley to lows on Saturday.

Best pp100 losing team: 84.6 by Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial in the first game of the week in the  loss on the road to Medford.

31 CLUB

With the decline in games it should come to no surprise that the 31 Club saw a drop in numbers. It was not drastic with a decline of two.

Top score went to Sadie Voss of Jackson County Central (2022) with a 43. What is impressive about that total is that Voss did it with limited minutes due to the JCC style. Voss only played in 12 minutes of action. If Voss would have played the full 36 minutes her 31 Club score would have ballooned to a century club member at 110.

Southwest Minnesota Christian and Stillwater had the most 31 Clubbers this week with three each. Alexis Pratt of Stillwater made the list twice this week and has four entries in six games. Four games this week failed to produce one 31 Clubber.

31 CLUB	18
41 CLUB	1
GRAD CLASS 2020	8
2021	5
2022	3
2023	2
HS CLASS AAAA	7
AAA	1
AA	7
A	1

WEEK 1: 26

WEEK 2: 20

WEEK 3: 18