Roiling waters, new gyms, long streaks, and raining 3s highlighted the week.

Away from my site, but making big waves, was the situation at Minnetonka. The turmoil in a coaching change and inter-team dynamics will be felt for some time. Every team has problems. No team has clear sailing. The grass is NOT necessarily greener on the other side of the fence. There are a LOT of stakeholders in a team these days, even outside actors. It is how you deal with those problems that can help steer the ship through choppy waters. Social media does not help in these situations. They fan the flames. That is why my tweets are boring. Just the game scores and the link to the weekly article.

I finally made it up to Bemidji for a game. My schedule on Sunday did not follow through the rest of the week. I altered it on Tuesday and that opened the window for Bemidji on Thursday. I have now been to all the AAAA gyms in the state. Bemidji has a four sided court with banners that remind me of Brainerd. They have a top down seating arrangement. That wasn’t my only new gym. Detroit Lakes, which had a nice facility previously, recently opened their new facility (January 4). They too have four sided seating plus a four sided video scoreboard above center court plus a mega screen at one end of the court. Their seating is from the ground up. The Lakers have definitely set the standard there. It will be used for postseason action. I am still waiting to get to Perham.

Mahtomedi, the team I am coaching, had two games this week, and both times they topped the century mark. The Zephyrs had the best pp100 of the week at 132.4 on Friday against Hastings. Why? Because they made 11 3s—-in the first half, a total of 17 for the game. When you shoot good, you look good. At half the pp100 was a stratospheric 155.6. The bench was even better at 177.8. PL & LS and Bemidji and Moorhead both had 17 3s in their contests.

MONDAY: HAYFIELD 78, ALDEN-CONGER/GLENVILLE-EMMONS 34

Sometimes the calendar forces you to see games that will not be compelling. Perhaps going to the Gopher title game Saturday would have produced a better game, but I needed Saturday for Pequot Lakes. #3A Hayfield had no issues with ACGE on Monday as was expected. A trio of Vikings reached double figures led by recent 1000 point addition Sophomore guard Kristen Watson with 25. As a team Hayfield shot 58%.

The interesting feature of this game was they used a shot clock. I can count on one hand (or two fingers) how many times games have had the option to use the shot clock. The first year the window was open it was used when Marshall visited DeLaSalle. This marks number two. The clock never was a factor with a delay of game, but Hayfield, when they had their reserves in, did come close to a violation, but instead scored with less than a second to go on the shot clock. That was the biggest drama in this game.

TUESDAY: PRIOR LAKE 68, LAKEVILLE SOUTH 59

This was my audible game. I was due to see LS on Thursday, but with Bemidji popping into the 100 and my team having no gym time available (and no practice as a result) made the three and a half hour trip north possible Thursday. That meant I got to see LS in a competitive match up in the South Suburban.

The Cougars struck first grabbing a 6-0 on two consecutive 3s. A third 3 made it 9-3. It was PL’s turn to crank up the 3s and they nailed three in four possessions on an 11-0 run to take the lead at 14-9. The Lakers stretched the margin to ten, but LS closed the gap to five at half (34-29). The hosts scored the first six points of the second half and LS was forced to play catch up the rest of the way. The lead got as large as 16.

This also happened to be the “best” game of the week if you measure the losing team’s pp100. The Cougars checked in with 81.9. LS would have won the game Thursday with the same pp100. PL made 53% of their 3s (nine total). PL won the battle of the boards 49-36.

THURSDAY: MOORHEAD 52, BEMIDJI 51

This game became a to-do on Monday as I explained above. These two northern independents were fighting for a better seed in the upcoming 8AAAA tournament. After the contest a slight advantage to the Spuds. Once again, the 3s were plentiful with nine for the visitors and eight for the host Jacks. But it was inside with the physical play that Moorhead had the upper hand. The Spuds shot 41%, nine better than Bemidji with Rosie Anderson leading all scorers with 18 on 9/14 shooting inside. The battle of the boards was dominated by Moorhead 47-24. Despite the emphasis inside Moorhead only attempted four free throws all night. Bemidji had 14.

This was the only one possession game of the week. In that regard, this was the “best” game of the week.

SATURDAY: PEQUOT LAKES 59, DETROIT LAKES 48

This game was moved from a four o’clock start to two because the wrestling meet scheduled for Friday had to be moved due to the ground blizzard on Friday. This was a Mid-State Conference match up and just like we opened the week with a streaking team (Hayfield 27 wins in a row) we closed with another streaking team Pequot Lakes now at 18 in a row.

The Lakers have built a palace. This was my second new gym of the week. What also was new was the number of players that fouled out—for the home team. The Lakers had three players pick up five with one more on the verge at four. That paid off huge dividends for the Patriots at the line—-a whopping 26 made free throws opposed to only two for the hosts. And DL had a chance with an intentional foul too. Leading the way for PL was Lauren Schultz with a game high 19 points including 7/9 at the line. Those fouls torpedoed the comebacks in the game. DL trailed by over 10, cut it to three (41-38) with six minutes left, but the visitors outscored the hosts 18-10 down the stretch with seven of their twelve possessions ending on trips to the line.

SECTION 8AAAA & SOUTH SUBURBAN COMPLETE

This week completed the third AAAA section and the third conference this season. Section 8AAAA has quietly put together a strong field. Now they have nine since Tech and Apollo merged to form the Crush in St. Cloud. It also means 8AAA is down to six teams. Joining the party also this year is Bemidji and Sartell. Exiting to 5AAAA is Maple Grove. 2AAAA has grabbed most of the spotlight this year in the race for the roughest, toughest section—as it should. Every team is above .500 with an overall winning percentage of .699. 8AAAA has four teams below .500, but some just game or two under. Their overall winning percentage is .587. 2AAAA has better offensive production at 62.58, 7.3 better than 8AAAA. The margins also favor 2AAAA at 10.64. 8AAAA has a smaller window at 2.21.

SOUTH SUBURBAN

With Lakeville South completed that means the South Suburban conference is completed. There has definitely been a drop in production from recent years in this conference. Traditional powers Eastview and Farmington have been on the low end this year. One of my mantras is “there is no such thing as good defense, only bad offense.” (I DO believe there is such a thing as bad defense). Comparing the offensive production of the Lake (the best conference) to the SSC you see a drop of a whopping 15.4 points per game (64.4 to 49.0). Numbers of players have fallen also in the SSC. Having said all this, that does NOT mean the top teams are irrelevant. It does mean the strength of the conference is compromised. Last year Rosemount finished second in the state. Rosemount and Lakeville North have great shots to get to state. Shakopee should not be underestimated, but 2AAAA has land mines everywhere. The Lake could send a potential three teams too to state, but section 2AAAA again is going to be a war.

Both these conferences are ahead of the third completed conference—-the Metro East. As a AAA conference or hybrid AAAA/AAA they are bringing up the rear. The MEC actually scores better than the SSC with 52.1 ppg, but eliminating Mahtomedi the ppg drops quickly to 49.9. The pp100s are lower in the MEC compared to the other two. The Lake has four teams hovering near or above 100. That is the true mark of excellence. Even the lower end teams indicate this. Edina is at 85.5 pp100, Apple Valley is at 56.1, Tartan (who I saw this week) is at 40.6. What do the last two teams have in common? A heavy reliance on junior high players.

31 CLUB

Week 12 had six entries. This week was even thinner with three entries—two of which came on Monday with both coming from Hayfield. The leader this week was Kristen Watson, sophomore guard of Hayfield who made the 41 Club with a 42 including 25 points and 11 d stops. The best pp100 of the trio belonged to Ally Schultz of Lakeville South with a 133.3. No additions after Tuesday—-four days of silence.

STREAKING

No changes. I checked off two of these teams this week. Becker has the best chance of keeping their streak alive until the end. Two teams probably are going to the state tournament. Two will have royal battles to get there.

AAAA: 19 Rogers
AAA: 14 Becker
AA: 18 Pequot Lakes
A: 27 Hayfield

UNDEFEATED

No changes. Alone on top of the mountain is Hayfield.

AAAA: none
AAA: none
AA: none
A: Hayfield

RANKED

Top three unchanged—although there was a flip in the top 10 in AA, added Pequot Lakes, but Montevideo moved out.  Class A is now up to a whopping 30%. If the weather cooperates this week more will be sliced away at class A.

AAAA 100%
AAA 100%
AA 90%
A 30%

QRF

Four off the top 100 list last week in four games. Ten teams left with four weeks left (three being tournaments). Actually, tournaments begin this week. Teams are rising, some falling. Not enough calendar dates. Remote outside chance to get to 100. Top 75 is now the priority. Only two left there. Already the potential calendar dates for the section weeks are filling up. Now the biggest fish left is #65 Visitation.

1-10 100%
1-25 100%
1-50 100%
1-75 97.33%
1-100 90%
1-125 78.4%

SEEDING THE STATE

Sometimes the distance between #1 and #2 is inches, sometimes miles apart. Sometimes the distance between #1 and #8 is miles, sometimes inches. AAA is the inches. Remember Willmar beat Becker earlier in the season at Becker. AA looks to be a private affair. Hyphens rule in A.

AAAA

1. Hopkins (6)
2. Eden Prairie (2)
3. Michael-Albertville (8)
4. Maple Grove (5)
5. Rosemount (3)
6. Stillwater (4)
7. Lakeville North (1)
8. Centennial (7)

AAA

1. Becker (5)
2. Paul Como Park (3)
3. Holy Angels (6)
4. Totino-Grace (4)
5. Grand Rapids (7)
6. Mankato East (2)
7. Austin (1)
8. Willmar (8)

AA

1. Providence (5)
2. Minnehaha (4)
3. Fergus Falls (8)
4. Albany (6)
5. Rochester Lourdes (1)
6. New London-Spicer (3)
7. Pequot Lakes (7)
8. Glencoe-Silver Lake (2)

A

1. Mountain Iron-Buhl (7)
2. Mayer Lutheran (2)
3. Hayfield (1)
4. Hancock (6)
5. Tracy-Milroy-Balaton (3)
6. Cass Lake-Bena (8)
7. Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa (5)
8. New Life Academy (4)