And so it begins.

The clock has started ticking on the 2023-24 season. The shot clock is now found its way to the high school level. We will examine the impact of that development. The sections have had their two year reshuffle with schools moving up a class, down a class, and some shifting sections within the class. That impact will be examined.

First off —-this is the first year in the past nine years that I will not be coaching a team. I left Mahtomedi after three years.

That frees me up to see whoever, whenever, wherever I want. The expectations are I could get to 200 teams. That may be a stretch, but I already have 28 teams off the list. Maybe I better back track with a real score of 25. Three of those teams live in other states. I think seeing all the AAAA teams will be doable, maybe even close to January 1.

Second—all this could be derailed if my health decides to flare up. Saturday was doubtful on Friday night, but when I woke up Saturday I seemed to be right where I needed to be.

Third—the other wildcard would be the weather. I am not in love with driving on ice/snow and will opt for sitting by the fire instead driving 10 mph and visiting ditches.

Fourth—usually this weekly review is on Sunday. Due to the volume of games and other obligations this is being published later (Tuesday) than usual.

REAR VIEW MIRROR

Here is what happened last week—Week #1. I charted 14 games starting with the season opener at Duluth East with visiting Princeton on Thanksgiving Eve (Wednesday). Then it was the Thanksgiving weekend events with six games at St. Thomas on Friday and seven at Hamline on Saturday. Friday’s opener had Mahtomedi, my last coaching assignment. For the first time in at least three years I made my way to Hamline on Saturday.

POSSESSIONS & FT

Here is the comparison for the first week this year under the shot clock along with last year with no clock: The possession count is up this year slightly to 72.43 from 70.25 (increase of 2.18). The thinking was that free throws would decrease because teams would no longer hold the ball and wait to be fouled leading to an endless free throw parade. But last year there were fewer free throws (in the first week) to the tune of 16.86. This year there was 18.79, an increase of 1.93. But wait…. There was one massive outlier in the games this week. Bloomington Kennedy attempted 50 free throws in the loss to St. Louis Park. That is a whopping 20 more attempts than the second-place finisher. Last year’s top mark the first week was 30, which again would be second place this year. Eliminating the Kennedy outlier the ft attempts drop to 17.63, which is still higher than last year. Obviously, these free throws, even in the Kennedy game, did not occur in the last three minutes of the game. So teams may be more aggressive defensively now realizing they only have to play defense 35 seconds. Passive defenses do not foul. It is also true that passive offenses do not get fouled. Maybe offenses are more assertive to the rim. More remains to be seen as the year ticks away.

PP100S

With 14 games over the course of three days last week the average for the pp100 was 80.18. Winners notched 93.24 while losers checked in at 67.12, a gap of 26.12. The competitive games (gap of ten) were only four in number. The best game by far was the Providence v Dowling Catholic contest on Friday with a differential of 1.2 pp100. The widest chasm was Princeton’s win over host Duluth East to open the 2023-24 season on Wednesday at 74.2. Now for the odd thing—the lower the class the better the pp100s. This obviously is because of the smaller sample size in the smaller classes. The 2s led the way at 88.03, but only three schools were charted. The 3s were next at 83.78, with six schools. The 4s trail severely at 76.66 with a sweet 16 teams. But three of those teams were under 50 pp100s. If we just took the top 3 teams in each class, then the 4s rightly claim the top spot at 107.43, the 3s at 96.27, and then the 2s at 88.03. We can make the stats dance anyway we want.

There were six teams making the century mark. Centurions broke down 2-2-1 per class with one from Iowa. The best belonged to Minnetonka with a 122.2 pp100 in their win over Lakeville South. The best game, as already stated, was Providence and Dowling. Dowling Catholic had the best pp100 for a team that lost with a 107.0.

So what event had better teams? Overall the Friday St. Thomas venue checked in at 83.32 slightly better than the Hamline venue at 79.81.

31 CLUB

For those unfamiliar with the 31 Club—to gain entrance into the club a player needs a score of 31 combined with points, defensive stops, and distributions (a more liberal interpretation of assists). Think of it as a triple double, or in the case of bigger players 15/15 since they usually aren’t the focal point for distributing the ball.

23 joined the Club in the first weekend. Of the 23, eight made the 41 Club. Of those eight, two made the even more exclusive 51 Club. Those two were Maddyn Greenway of Providence with a week’s best 56 and Journey Houston of Davenport North four off at 52. Greenway, a sophomore, has historically been in the 50s so as consistent as usual. Houston is a junior, plays with All Iowa Attack during the club season and has verballed Iowa.

The breakdown of the 23 had five seniors, ten juniors, seven sophs and one frosh. Of the classes the soph class had the best average at 40.43.

Winners had 13, losers had 10.

Five schools had dual 31 Clubbers—they included Anoka, Davenport North, Dowling Catholic, Minnehaha and Providence. Oddly three of those schools were not victorious. Two of those schools were south of the border (both of which lost); two of those schools are IMAC rivals (both of which won).

Which event had more 31 Clubbers? It easily goes to Friday’s Thanksgiving Tip Off at St. Thomas 14-9. And that event only had six games to the seven Saturday at Hamline.

MILESTONES

It was a busy week for adding names to the 1000-point club. I was there for all three (right now that are known) for milestoners. Liv McGill of Hopkins (and prior to that Park Center) got her 1000^th Friday at the 8:44 mark in the first half in the win over Davenport North. Marisa Frost of Centennial reached the 1000 point mark at the 16:22 mark in the second half in the loss to White Bear Lake. Both players are seniors. Crashing the senior party was junior Aaliyah Crump of Minnetonka (and prior to that Hopkins) with 1000 points with a 3 with 47.6 seconds left in the first half in the victory over Lakeville South.

ROAD AHEAD

Another weekend of a mega-event. Hopkins will be the epicenter of the basketball universe on Friday and Saturday as the Breakdown holds their tip-off classic. There will be three games on each court Friday, eight on the main court Saturday with seven others on the “East” court. Prior to that there will be games on the first four days of the week. Some of the familiar teams from last weekend will be back in action again there.

STREAKING

Already two classes have new leaders as defending state champs took an L the first week. Providence leads the way right now with 31 straight wins.

AAAA: 9 St. Michael-Albertville
AAA: 2 Stewartville, Grand Rapids, Totino-Grace, St. Paul Como Park
AA: 31 Providence
A: 2 Sleepy Eye

SEEDING THE STATE

The first seeds reflect the opening weekend. This is expected state tournament field seeded. DO NOT tell me team X is better than team Y when Team X is not in that section. Team X better be the best team in the section. So, the eight are all from different sections. The first number is the rank or projected state tournament seed, the bracket number is their assigned section.

AAAA

1. Minnetonka (2)
2. Lakeville North (1)
3. Michael-Albertville (8)
4. Hopkins (6)
5. Maple Grove (5)
6. Roseville (4)
7. Andover (7)
8. Rosemount (3)

AAA

1. Alexandria (8)
2. Benilde-St. Margaret’s (6)
3. Hill-Murray (4)
4. Stewartville (1)
5. Totino-Grace (5)
6. Peter (2)
7. Cretin-Derham Hall (3)
8. Grand Rapids (7)

AA

1. Providence (5)
2. Albany (6)
3. Duluth Marshall (7)
4. Minnehaha (4)
5. Perham (8)
6. Rochester Lourdes (1)
7. New London-Spicer (3)
8. Glencoe-Silver Lake (2)

A

1. Goodhue (1)
2. Mountain Iron-Buhl (7)
3. Hancock (6)
4. Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart (2)
5. Kelliher-Northome (8)
6. Walker-Hackensack-Akeley (5)
7. Mayer Lutheran (4)
8. Minneota (3)