More festivities and mega-events. Fourteen more games down with 24 different teams now off the list.

REAR VIEW MIRROR

There were 14 games again this week, but thankfully, spread out over six days, not jammed in at the end like last week. That is why this week’s edition is coming out relatively on time on Sunday. We again had a mega-event in week 2. This time it was the Breakdown Tip Off at Hopkins over the course of Friday and Saturday. I took advantage of seeing the east court since many of the Friday and Saturday games on the feature court had teams I already charted. I doubled up on two teams on Friday (compared to a potential three) and two on Saturday (compared to seven). In fact my decision to see Rosemount Thursday was because I knew Saturday I was on the east court while they were feature court.

I only duplicated four teams for the week. Going forward this week I expect zero duplications. Another benefit of the seven Saturday games was the fact that smaller class schools came to call at Hopkins. I got to chart five different sections in AA, four in AAA & A. I saved gas money as well. The teams on the feature court are close by and I expect to get to those schools before the holidays are upon us.

As for the shot clock I attended one game this week where the clock was not in operation due to mechanical failure. How noticeable was it? Late in the second half I wondered how much time was left on the shot clock. It was not on. The shot clock was not an issue as both teams looked to play at the prescribed pace.

TOUCHES PER TURNOVER

One of my favorite stats is touches per turnover. The more touches you have per turnover, I feel, the better the team is in execution, and decision making. A lot also depends on the defensive effort the opponent is putting forth. Last week the average was 19.66 touches per turnover. I was always looking for 30+ in this category. Four times this week a team surpassed that total with Rosemount coming in with a week’s best 46.4 touches per turnover in the win over Woodbury. The worst was Columbia Heights’ 5.6 touches per turnover in the loss to Minneapolis Henry. The Patriots utilized their defensive pressure full court.

Here is the turnover matrix.

touches	W	L
Over 40	1	0
39-30	3	0
29-20	4	4
19-10	6	8
9-0	0	2
Touch differential
29-20	3	0
19-10	4	0
9-5	2	1
4-0	3	1

 

Getting to the 30s does not necessarily mean you are guaranteed victory. A team still needs to put the ball through the rim, but they probably are not watching the backsides of opponents racing down to the other end of the court to score three offensive players to one defender….or worse odds. The turnover differential is also an important factor. Over ten seems to be a good divider. The team with the better turnover differential lost twice last week with Rochester Century holding a 5.2 advantage over Champlin Park and BLHS losing out to Mountain Iron-Buhl with a 2.05 advantage.

As for individuals, Cierra Kortan of Sauk Centre led the way with 111 touches and one turnover. The Mainstreeters lost to Crosby-Ironton however.

But maybe the better stat is touches per distribution. The lower the number the better. Korton was 3/11 in her set-up passes to teammates. To put it another way 3 assists in 111 touches would be 37 touches per assist. In that category the best this week was Annika Southworth of St. Peter with 7.375. Her touches per turnover was 29.5. The week before Emma Millerbernd of Providence was at 5.56 touches per distribution on nine distributions in only 50 touches. Her touches per turnover was 16.73. One needs to examine all facets.

PP100S

Every week we examine the ups and downs of the teams pp100s. Using last week as a measuring stick with the same number of games we find the average dropped noticeably to 76.78 from 80.18 last week. The drop did not happen to the winners who had 93.06 this week (93.24 last week). The losers did not keep up their bargain with the mark plummeting to 60.49 from 67.12. The average gap differential in games was deeper this week at 32.56 thanks to two running time games. One game had a margin that was less than ten points—and that came in the Class A showdown where Hancock, the 2022 state champ, knock #1 Goodhue off their perch. The margin there was 6.3 pp100.

There were five centurions for the week, one less than a week before. The team with the best pp100 for the week was Rosemount with a 138.1, which is also the best for the young season. At halftime in the win over Woodbury on Thursday they were even better at 151. They continued their hot shooting with an overtime win on Saturday against perennial Lake power Wayzata, the only team from that conference to lose on the feature court on Saturday. Rosemount is not unblemished, however. They lost to Eden Prairie earlier in the week. Even then the Irish racked up 67 points in the loss. In the win over the Royals on Thursday they had eleven 3s. Oddly enough three centurions were in AA, but their combined class pp100 was the lowest at 73.34. AAAA was the best again at 82.33 followed by AAA with 76.03; and then A at 74.7 with AA trailing at 73.34.

If you measure the “best” game of the week with the losing team’s pp100 then it would be Crosby-Ironton’s win over Sauk Centre. The Mainstreeters had the best losing team’s pp100 at 83.3. That was better than five teams that won this week by the way.

So, of the mega events which had the best pp100s? First place goes to the Thanksgiving Friday event at St. Thomas Academy with an 83.32; second goes to Saturday’s Breakdown event at Hopkins with 80.25; and third belongs to Hamline’s Saturday event with 79.81.

31 CLUB

The 31 Club membership only added 19 players in week two, down four from the 23 in week one. Four of those were in the 41 Club, three more made it to the 51 Club and two zoomed out to the 61 Club. Sophomore Tori Oehrlein of Crosby-Ironton topped all lists with 68 in the win over Sauk Centre. Junior Addi Mack of Minnehaha joined her with a 63. Mack also made the 31 Club last week. So did Sophomore Morgan Staloch of Jordan. She made the 51 Club this week on the nose in the win over Visitation.

By graduating class there were ten seniors, five juniors, three sophs and one freshman in the 31 Club. AAA & AA players led the list with seven each. Three AAAA players and two A players rounded out the totals.

14 31 Clubbers were winners in week two with five players whose teams fell short. Again we had five teams that doubled up on 31 Clubbers: Delano, Jordan, Minneapolis Henry, Minnehaha (again) and St. Paul Highland Park. For the second week in a row Minnehaha had a double with Angel Hill joining Mack.

Twelve players made a rush for the 31 Club on Saturday in the Hopkins Breakdown. That still doesn’t top the 14 found last Friday at the St. Thomas Thanksgiving event.

MILESTONES

I was not in the house for any of the milestones this week. Isabel Larson of Pequot Lakes and Alexis Thomas of Maple River reached 1000 points on Tuesday. Hadley Thul of Alexandria and Daviney Dreckman of New Ulm both joined that club on Thursday.

TOP OF THE LIST

Here is how many of the top teams in each section I have charted so far. At some point the AA and A may have more sections (north / south or east/west). Right now, all sections are lumped together. It won’t be that way in March in the smaller sections.

AAAA: .625 5/8

AAA: .375 3/8

AA: .375 3/8

A: .000 0/8

UNBEATEN

Once a class gets to ten teams or less, I will list the schools still unblemished. Look for AAAA and AAA to start to be listed next Sunday. The smaller classes may take a few weeks to get to the ten threshold.

AAAA: 14

AAA: 18

AA: 31

A: 42

STREAKING

Como Park is alone in front in AAA now with four wins after sharing it with two other schools last week. That is the only change.

AAAA: 12 St. Michael-Albertville
AAA: 4 St. Paul Como Park
AA: 32 Providence
A: 4 Sleepy Eye

ROAD AHEAD

The mega-events (for the time being) are off the calendar. By mega I mean six or more straight games. Saturday has multiple games from a variety of different venues and projects. The Lake Superior conference has their showcase event next Saturday in Cloquet with a total of four games. As for the rest of the week, I intend to see four teams I missed on the Saturday feature court at Hopkins. I still will go for the long-distance schools that will be close by (an hour away for me). Sixty minutes beats four hours travel any time (I am looking at you Bemidji). I am earmarking undefeated teams at the bigger classes on the other days. That means my options on Tuesday and Friday could change. Wednesday is the least popular day of the week with limited options. The next lowest day is surprisingly Saturday. Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday bring a cornucopia of options.

SEEDING THE STATE

Changes at the top in two classes.

AAAA

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

AAA

1. Benilde-St. Margaret’s (6)
2. DeLaSalle (4)
3. Alexandria (8)
4. Peter (2)
5. Totino-Grace (5)
6. Stewartville (1)
7. Grand Rapids (7)
8. Paul Como Park (3)

AA

1. Providence (5)
2. Albany (6)
3. Minnehaha (4)
4. Crosby-Ironton (7)
5. Dover-Eyota (1)
6. Perham (8)s
7. Fairmont (3)
8. NRHEG (2)

A

1. Mountain Iron-Buhl (7)
2. Hancock (6)
3. Hayfield (1)
4. Sleepy Eye (2)
5. Fosston (8)
6. Nevis (5)
7. Mayer Lutheran (4)
8. Minneota (3)