MN GBB: Sunday action 2.9.2025; High Five; The Day Ahead; and is GBB Competitive?

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

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.