Long post… from High Fives to Point Parades to what happened yesterday at the Breakdown Tip Off including some keen insights (including rants) plus the traditional Sunday Seeding the State.

HIGH FIVE SATURDAY 11.23.2024

Lilly Meister, Indiana, Rochester JM 20

Anna Olson, Vermont, Monticello 18

Alyssa Ustby, North Carolina, Rochester Lourdes 12

Paige Meyer, South Dakota State, Albany 7

Jayda Johnston, Eastern Illinois, Roseville 6

Total: 63

Second straight day for Olson making the list. Four of the five non-metro players.

POINT PARADE SATURDAY 11.23.2024

Cut off is 25.

AAAA

34 Lyric Singleton, Park Center v Fridley

29 Amisha Ramlall, Rosemount v St. Michael-Albertville

28 Cail Jahnke, St. Michael-Albertville v Rosemount

26 Lanelle Wright, Minnetonka v Benilde-St. Margaret’s

AAA

37 Aubrey Cochran, Fridley v Park Center

AA

39 Maddyn Greenway, Providence 39 v Maple Grove

32 Adi Mack, Minnehaha v Orono

A

46 Morgan Mathiowetz, Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s v BOLD

Paraders were 5-3 on the day. Mathiowetz outscored 18 teams yesterday including two winners.

MILESTONES

Sophie Hawkinson of Wayzata reached the 1000 point mark in the win over Eastview.

ABOUT LAST NIGHT

It was a long and exhausting day hacking away at the laptop covering eight games on the feature court at the Breakdown Tip Off at Southwest Christian in Chaska. The quick turnaround went smoothly from what I could gather. The Stars have added to their facility and it was the first time I have seen it up close. The seating was less than Hopkins, but that made for a more intimate and more compelling atmosphere. There were some common themes for the day and we came full circle with the first and last game of the day nearly completing the circle with similar scores.

Theme one: offenses are still in the learning process (I hope). They are not at midseason form. Of the 20 teams charted only three made the century mark (pp100) or better led by Eden Prairie at 115.3. On the low end was Harding at 33.8. The average for the week was a substandard 77.4. Four “winners” were under that mark. The highest losing mark was DeLaSalle in the loss to EP with a 97.2 putting them tied four fourth overall. The sample sizes are small so only the AAAA and AAA levels will be noted here and the AAAA wins this easily 82.59 to 70.06. The on-floor talent is deeper in the bigger schools. Wayzata had the biggest pp100 differential in their win over Eastview with a 47.7. The “best” game with the deficit gap was the last game of the day with Hopkins squeaking out a 3.7 differential pp100 over a resilient Lakeville North.

My mantra is there is no such thing as good defense….only bad offense. Maybe that is because this is the first games out of the gate. Maybe it is because some new additions are not familiar with the “way we do things” around here. Maybe it is because some former fourth options or third options have to step up and others have to fill in the gaps below. Maybe it is because players are not aware. See below for more rantings.

Theme two: comebacks. Alex, EP, STMA, Providence and Hopkins all had to rally to gain their wins. Alex not only had to climb out of an 11 point hole in the second half, they had to do it on a few hours of sleep. The night before the #2AAA Cardinals traveled to Marshall and lost in a grudge match of the volleyball title match held two Saturday’s ago. After that game was over it was back home and then up again for the over two hour ride to SWC. Alex was helped by the fact that Stewartville’s Jayci Rath fouled out with 13:43 left in the game and the Tigers leading by eight,. Rath added three fouls on three consecutive defensive possessions.

EP hit two consecutive 3s to inch forward of DLS and then hung on for their win. The deficit at the time was two points with over twelve left. Rosemount led STMA 53-45 with 10:45 left in the game. Then fouls piled up for the Ramlall sisters. The Irish started three and none of them were on the floor at the end of the game with two fouling out and one leaving with what appeared to be a lower limb injury. Still Rosemount led 72-71 and had the ball with 46.3 left. Cail Jahnke scored on two straight possessions including a theft lay up. The Knights outscored the Irish 7-0 in that stretch. The Lions roared back over Maple Grove with a 82-75 victory….more on that below. It took a while for the Skippers to warm up with BSM in a match up with the last two big school state champs. BSM led 13-9 in the first half. The Red Knights gave hope to their faithful with a ten point deficit with 2:50 left in the game narrowing down to four points with 1:30 left before Minnetonka closed the door. LN almost pulled off a stunner with the #1AAAA Royals. The Panthers faced the unrelenting heat of the Hopkins defense and led 40-39 with under two minutes left. A key offensive rebound by Hopkins’ Lauren Hillsheim with about 20 seconds left allowed Tatum Woodson to nail two insurance free throws and a 43-40 lead. LN had a chance to cut that margin and did at the line with one free throw with 7.5 seconds left.

Theme three: ball handling/decision making/ mega bounces. This drove me nuts. Too much bouncing. Perhaps there should be a new rule saying “if you bounce more than three (I am being extremely generous here…my preference would be two) it results in a turnover. This would be in the offensive half court. Some point guards (if that is the term we are using) relied on the bounce to the MAX. It was a crutch. If you can’t get to the rim in three bounces from the arc you aren’t the player I want. Too many players when confronting pressure automatically turn/spin. And they get away with it! It isn’t because they are lightning quick, it is because other defenders are asleep at the switch. Mega dribbles (10 bounces or more) kill the offense. Maybe it is because the rest of the team stands and watches the chosen one put on a dribbling clinic. I had to endure watching one game where the point guard on eight straight (EIGHT count them EIGHT) came down and went about her business without any other player touching or glimpsing the ball. All eight were megas. Only once was there a score. Translated a pp100 of 25.0. That team might as well have had folding chairs for the other four players. It is a quick way to have the others lose interest in that game. Maybe this player doesn’t trust her teammates. Maybe this player is unaware of who is open. Maybe she is working behind the scenes to force me to buy more five-hour energy to keep me awake during this snoozefest of an offensive display.

Theme four: sisters. It was all in the family with HM’s Wilsons; Stewartville’s Shindelars; Rosemount’s Ramlalls; MG’s Hannas.  The Ramlalls all were effective with pp100s over 100. The problem for the Irish was at the end they were spectators on the bench with fouls or an unfortunate injury. Also we should add family tradition. LN has another Wilson patrolling the post.

Theme five: the Great Lake. The Lake Conference is the best league in the state. Despite the near-death experience of Hopkins the LC was a collective 5-0 on the main court Saturday with margins of 17. The pp100 was a stellar 90—–and that is WITH the abysmal 60.6 produced by Hopkins. The South Suburban, probably the second-best conference right now, was 0-3. Now if you add in future member Maple Grove the numbers drop to 5-1. But the pp100s would actually rise.

The LC is also drawing talent from other parts of the state. Liv Bell left Winona for the Royals and Jazmin Daing said goodbye to Roch JM for Tonka. Both start now and will be forces for their teams. Another Minnetonka addition was Ari Peterson leaving one state champ (Providence) for another. She too will be a force to reckon with.

GAME 1 #6AAA Hill-Murray 44, Becker 41

GAME 2 #2AAA Alexandria 54, #3AAA Stewartville 49

GAME 3 Wayzata 64, Eastview 33

GAME 4 #5AAAA Eden Prairie 83, #4AAA DeLaSalle 70

GAME 5 #4AAAA St. Michael-Albertville 76, #9AAAA Rosemount 72

GAME 6 #1AA Providence 82, #3AAAA Maple Grove 75

GAME 7 #2AAAA Minnetonka 60, #1AAA Benilde-St. Margaret’s 54

GAME 8 #1AAAA Hopkins 43, #6AAAA Lakeville North 41

OTHER GAMES OF NOTE

Six of these games were at the Breakdown event on court two. They are marked with an *.

AAAA

#8AAAA Prior Lake 55, Rochester Mayo 52*

AA

Orono 71, #2AA Minnehaha 67*

#3AA Crosby-Ironton 62 #8AA Jordan 52*

#4AA Duluth Marshall 73, Albany 26*

Caledonia 67, #6AA Rochester Lourdes 48

#7AA Sauk Centre 80, St. Clair 36*

A

#1A Goodhue 68, #7A Breckenridge 50*

Proctor 63, #2A Mountain Iron-Buhl 40

#8A Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s 85, BOLD 55

31 CLUB AND PLAYER OF THE WEEK

There were 15 players that made the 31 Club. To make it on this list a player needs to total 31 points and d stops and distributions (a more liberal interpretation of an assist). Think of it as a triple double kjasr-style. Of the 31 seven made it to the next level—the 41 Club. Of that limited group two made it to the 51 Club. Maddyn Greenway of Providence topped all with 60, one shy of the stratospheric 61 Club. Joining her in the 51 Club was Rae Ehrman of Eden Prairie with a 52.

Back when I started covering the action back in 2005 I had a weekly award for the Player of the Week. To make that list a player needed to pile up some numbers (so 15 did that) but it was not all quant. They needed quality as well. That meant the player needed a pp100 of 100 or better PLUS a floor percentage of .500 or better. No exceptions. Using the pp100 cut off the numbers drop to only six. The range of the 14? From a sky high 181 (Ehrman) to only 42.3 (nameless). Yikes. Of those six the floor percentage eliminated two more. Unforgiving. That leaves these four eligible in order of viewing: (31/pp100/floor%)

Eva Litecky, Totino Grace v St. Croix Lutheran 44/177.8/.722

Rae Ehrman, Eden Prairie v DeLaSalle 52 / 181.0 / .762

Abby Hoselton, St. Michael-Albertville v Rosemount 36 / 109.5 / .571

Maddyn Greenway, Providence v Maple Grove 60 / 114.7 / .500

Greenway gets the Trench Player of the Week honor helping the Lions recover from a 64-55 deficit with 6:30 left in the game. The Lions roared with a 27-11 finish. In that crunch time Greenway had 19 of her day’s high 39 points including two d rebounds, and two assists. She was gold behind the arc going 4/4. So in the last 15 Providence possessions she finished with 11 possessions meaning her pp100 was 172.7 pp100 with a floor % of .727.

Greenway has always been sort of a Tasmanian Devil on the floor. Defensively she reads the game like a defensive back and gets interceptions on dead ball situations frequently and easily. She has always had the ability to knife to the rim. Now with the bomb threat defenses have to pick their poison—-either take away the 3 or watch her blow by you.

SEEDING THE STATE

There are some tweaks but all is the same at the top of each poll. Some schools have made a jump despite losing: Lakeville North and DeLaSalle.

AAAA

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

AAA

1. Benilde-St. Margaret’s (6)
2. DeLaSalle (4)
3. Marshall (2)
4. Alexandria (8)
5. Stewartville (1)
6. Totino-Grace (5)
7. Rock Ridge (7)
8. Two Rivers (3)

AA

1. Providence (5)
2. Crosby-Ironton (7)
3. Minnehaha (4)
4. New London-Spicer (3)
5. Sauk Centre (6)
6. Caledonia (1)
7. Barnesville (8)
8. Glencoe-Silver Lake (2)

A

1. Goodhue (1)
2. Mayer Lutheran (2)
3. Cass Lake-Bena (8)
4. Walker-Hackensack-Akeley (5)
5. Breckenridge (6)
6. Mountain Iron-Buhl (7)
7. Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s (2)
8. Central MN Christian (3)