MN GBB: 2021 Seeding the State #9

Bubbles Pop

We are back apparently with some seeding. From deep inside– my sources say that the seeds will be one to four with the match ups to be determined, not by blind draw, but by calculated distance from potential quarterfinal site. Besides this pairing issue the change is no five seed. Let us say Cook County (Grand Marais) is involved in the state tournament in Class A and they are NOT seeded. They would NOT go south to play Hills-Beaver Creek or Spring Grove (provided they were ranked). Cook County would play the closest seeded team at a northern location. I selected the teams above for example since they are in the far corners of the state.

This format is not ideal, but avoids a #1 vs #2 ranked team in the quarters. Thank goodness.

As for the bubbles, I am speaking of teams that exclusively played teams in their own conference. How tough of competition is that? The consensus best conference is the Lake and they were not in the bubble. They crossed over and that conference held up well outside of the Lake with a combined 26-6 and many of those wins were against top rated AAA teams. Some victories were in the running time neighborhood (against the AAAA victims). Therefore, a team with 7 losses may not be as feeble as some think. Conferences in the bubble include the Northwest Suburban, South Suburban, Suburban East, and St. Paul City. It will be interesting to see which bubbles pop.

Another interesting item to monitor is the virus and which schools will be waylaid due to quarantine regulations. That is why the 2021 season (notice NOT the 2020-21 season) will have a giant asterisk next to it.

I suppose we should be grateful we are at this point at any rate. Once upon a time it looked like there the whole year would have to be shelved. Hooray for small victories.

AAAA

1 Hopkins (6)

2 Farmington (1)

3 Chaska (2)

4 Stillwater (4)

5 Centennial (5)

6 Elk River (8)

7 Rosemount (3)

8 Forest Lake (7)

AAA

1 Hill-Murray (4)

2 Becker (5)

3 Holy Angels (6)

4 Marshall (2)

5 St. Paul Como Park (3)

6 Alexandria (8)

7 Red Wing (1)

8 Grand Rapids (7)

AA

1 New London-Spicer (3)

2 Fergus Falls (8)

3 Providence (5)

4 Stewartville (1)

5 Minnehaha (4)

6 Albany (6)

7 Duluth Marshall (7)

8 Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial (2)

A

1 Minneota (3)

2 Henning (6)

3 Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s (2)

4 Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa (5)

5 Mayer Lutheran (4)

6 Mountain Iron-Buhl (7)

7 Blooming Prairie (1)

8 Cass Lake-Bena (8)

UNDEFEATED 15

We are now down to a dozen with a trio falling by the wayside.

Dropping out was Elk River in AAAA, Becker in AAA (who faced a stiff diet of Minnetonka, Holy Angels and Hopkins this week), and Fosston in A.

Will any of these teams be undefeated on April 10? I can see one (Hopkins). The outside possibility is A. AAA and AA will have a team with a nick in their record.

AAAA: 4 (Chaska, Farmington, Hopkins, Stillwater)

AAA: 2 (Marshall, St. Paul Como Park)

AA: 2 (New London-Spicer, Stewartville)

A: 4 (Hancock, Houston, Minneota, Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s)

D2C

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