Recap of Sunday action 2.9.2025
D1 HIGH FIVE
Paige Bueckers, UConn, Hopkins 20
Adalia McKenzie, Illinois, Park Center 18
Amaya Battle, Minnesota, Hopkins 16
Sophie Hart, Minnesota, Farmington 14
Olivia Olson, Michigan, Benilde-St. Margaret’s 14
Totals: 82
Four of the five were Miss Basketball: The first three were in order—Bueckers ’20; McKenzie ’21; Battle ’22; Hart disrupted the flow; and then Olson ’24. Tessa Johnson was the winner in ’23 and she was in action Sunday, but only scored 7 in a loss for South Carolina.
IS GBB MORE COMPETITIVE NOW?
I examined the first Friday scores from 2025 and from 2011 (the first year for the StarTribune Hub). I was specifically looking at the margins—-are they closer, further apart. This is what I discovered. The BOLD means that score is higher. 2025 has 14 high marks to only three for 2011. Scoring is up across all classes and for both winners and losers in 2025. The average score is up about five points. Winners are up about six; losers up 3.5 points. But margins have also increased by about three. This has been my suspicion throughout the year. What surprised me was that 2011 actually had two more 30+ games that day while the five or less point margins remained the same at 22. And that was despite the fact that 2011 had five one-point games to one this year. But the average spread has jumped 2.6 points.
RANKED RESULTS FEB 7 2025 FEB 4 2011
Winner High 102 Eastview 97 St. Croix Lutheran
Winner Low 39 Maranatha Christian 25 Bethany Academy
Loser High 74 Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s 73 LeSueur-Henderson
Loser Low 9 Apple Valley,Cristo Rey Jesuit 13 Academy for Sciences & Ag
Biggest Margin 93 Eastview v Apple Valley 65 Dawson-Boyd v ECHO
Smallest Margin 1 White Bear Lake v Woodbury 1 five games
Most Combined: 159 Triton v Hayfield 162 St. Croix Lutheran v Visitation
Least combined: 60 Trinity v Cristo Rey Jesuit 49 Bethany Academy v Mounds Park
Margins 30 or more 29 31
Margins 5 or less 22 22
Average 55.80 50.95
Winner Average 66.28 60.12
Loser Average 45.33 41.79
Average margin 20.95 18.33
Average combined: 111.61 101.91
AAAA Ave 57.44 54.48
AAA Ave 57.94 51.66
AA Ave 54.30 52.19
A Ave 55.89 47.89
Another ratio to look at is the margins of 70s—-
Margins 2025 2011
70+ 3 0
60+ 4 1
50+ 5 4
40+ 16 11
Here is where the 40+ games are interesting…..in 2025 four involved AAAA teams; five involved AAA. In 2011 the eleven games 40+ involved six A; four AA. Not one AAAA or AAA made the list. The first AAA team making the list in 2011 was 38; the first AAAA was 37. Both involved games against smaller classes.
The gaps between haves and have nots has crept up to the top. This is not a good trend. The responsibility for creating competitive games is on the team that is not producing. They need to invest resources, time, access among other factors to close that competitive gap. Does anyone have the willingness to accomplish this? There are stakeholders that could be reluctant to improve the situation.
Clearly scoring is better. But it is at the high end of the spectrum. Nine points for 36 minutes?
DAY AHEAD
There are 72 games to open the week. Five ranked A teams are in action, the busiest of any class. Some Lake squads are in business today.
RANKED V RANKED
#8AAAA St. Michael-Albertville v #3AAAA Eden Prairie
OTHER RANKED
AAAA: #5 Wayzata
AAA: #9 Byron
AA: #2 Crosby-Ironton
A: #2 Mountain Iron-Buhl; #4 Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s; #6 Kittson County Central; #7 Central MN Christian; #10 Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa