D1 HIGH FIVE
There were 28 teams in action on Saturday.
*Alayna Contreras, Middle Tennessee, Hopkins 31-W
*Avery Koenen, North Dakota State, Montevideo 31-W
*Ivane Tensaie, UTEP, Concordia Roseville 26-L
*Madison Mathiowetz, South Dakota State, Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s 23-W
*Jada Hood, St. Thomas MN, Roseville 17-L
Totals: 128 points, 3-2
Contreras & Koenen set a new personal bests.
Two players each were AAAA and AA based, one A.
All five made state. Contreras was a state champion.
D2
There were six teams in action on Saturday.
Karley Motschenbacher, West Texas A&M, Park Christian 11-W
Lexi Hanna, UM St. Louis, Maple Grove 6-L
Jordyn Schmittdiel, Northern Michigan, White Bear Lake 2-L
Totals: 19 points, 1-2
Two were AAAA based, one A.
Hanna and Schmittdiel made the state tournament.
D3
There were 9 teams in action on Saturday.
Grace Knupp, UW LaCrosse, East Ridge 17-W
Elly Schmitz, Bethel MN, Hermantown 16-W
Bri Simpson, UChicago, Marshall 16-W
Malia Nelson, UW LaCrosse, Dover-Eyota 15-W
Colette Duininck, Bethel MN, Central MN Christian 11-W
Totals: 75 points, 5-0
There were two AAA based players, one each from AAAA, AA, and A.
Schmitz, and Simpson made the state tournament.
THE WEEK THAT WAS
SOLOISTS
The last undefeated team exited the stage on Tuesday with Menahga’s loss to DGF in the 8AA semis. That means some teams might be able to finish with one loss for the year. Is it likely?
One loss teams (& who they lost to)
AAAA: 1 Rochester Mayo (Eastview)
AAA: 1 Stewartville (Lakeville South)
AA: 1 New London-Spicer (Sauk Centre)
A: 3 Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s (Central MN Christian), Mountain Iron-Buhl (Rock Ridge), Kelliher/Northome (Mountain Iron-Buhl)
Class A has the best shot with three possibilities finishing on top of the mountain with one loss.
Teams with the most losses in the state tournament.
AAAA: 8 Blaine
AAA: 12 Totino-Grace
AA: 11 Minnehaha
A: 6 Braham
STREAKING
There is a new leader in AA—but only single digit.
AAAA: 26 Rochester Mayo
AAA: 26 Stewartville
AA: 8 Sauk Centre
A: 22 Kelliher/Northome
We may (probably will) see four new leaders next Sunday morning.
PROLIFIC OFFENSE
a list of high scoring offenses (and below that stingy defenses)
What was interesting about last week was three of the leaders increased their average (again). Yes it was small but up is up.
AAAA 81.4 Rochester Mayo down 1.1
AAA 84.8 Hill-Murray down 0.3
AA 95.4 Providence up 0.4
A: 87.8 Kelliher/Northome up 0.6
All four teams here are playing.
AIR TIGHT DEFENSE
AAAA 42.9 Rochester Mayo up 0.2
AAA 40.0 Northfield up 1.0
AA 32.9 High School Recording Arts down 0.9
A 30.2 Metro School College Prep up 2.5
Only one team is still alive. Let me repeat—-scoring is the separator. There is no such thing as good defense, only bad offense. There is such a thing as bad defense.
The thing is now possession counts in each game are going down. Possessions are longer. So we are dealing with two tracks here….
#1 opponents with better ball handling leads to fewer turnovers (and hence points off turnovers)
#2 defenses do not allow as many easy points and that leads to increased touches per possession. Do teams get the shots they want, where they want, and when they want?
String theory is important here. Can a team score three straight possessions (or more). Can a team stop a team from scoring three straight possessions. The teams that win titles can.
And speaking of Theorems—-Glaeser’s theorem states: “in order for a team to win a tournament they need to survive their bad half.” No team will be flawless for an entire 18 minute segment. It is vital to limit those down times and to seize opportunity when it happens to your opponent.
QUEST FOR…
QRF
The additions will have to wait until the tournament with five more to checkoff.
Biggest fish not seen? Still Minneapolis North at #46. That won’t budge. Polars are allegedly better than state tournament teams Rochester Lourdes, Perham, Rock Ridge, Mayer Lutheran, NRHEG, Sauk Centre, Hillcrest Lutheran, SESM, Willmar, & Kelliher/Northome. I tend to think not.
10: 10/10—-1.000
25: 25/25—1.000
50: 49/50—.980
75: 68/75—.907
100: 81/100—.810
125: 89/125—.712
150: 92/150—.613
175: 95/175—.543
200: 95/200—.475
TOP 10S
No movement this week. Three to be added this week.
AAAA: 10/10-1.000
AAA: 10/10-1.000
AA: 9/11 .818
A: 7/11-.636
Overall, it is 36/42 or .857
STATE ENTRANTS
Willmar threw off AAA. Five to go. Will be finished on Thursday.
AAAA: 8/8-1.000
AAA: 7/8-1.000
AA: 6/8 .750
A: 6/8 .750
Grand totals: 27/32 .844
STATE TOURNAMENT FACTS SEEDS:
This is Hopkins 13th time they have been the 1 seed in the AAAA tournament. The next best is Providence with 5, Mountain Iron-Buhl with 4 and Stewartville making their first time as #1. Last year they were the 8 seed.
This is the 19th year AAAA & AAA have been seeded, in some form or another. This is the twelfth time AA & A have been seeded.
| CLASS | YEARS | #1 | % | #2 | #3 | #4 | #5 | Un |
| AAAA | 18 | 12 | .667 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| AAA | 18 | 7 | .389 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| AA | 11 | 9 | .818 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| A | 11 | 6 | .545 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Not a good thing to be tagged with the #1 seed in AAA. Only a 39% chance of finishing on top. AA is the closest to a slam dunk with 82% chance of championship.
Benilde-St. Margaret’s have won two AAA titles as the #2 seed.
Only four seeds lower than #3 have won the tournament. The last coming last year with West Central the #4 seed in A.
Can all four classes have their #1s win it all? Only happened in 2018 with Eastview; Cooper, Sauk Centre & Lyle-Pacelli
QUESTION OF THE DAY.
Twelve private schools are in the tournament this year with four each in AAA, AA and A (There are no AAAA privates). In 1997 it was just two, 2007 four, 2017 six.
Today’s question has three parts:
#1 What section has the longest string of private school entrants?
#2 What year did the last public school win that section?
#3 What was the name of the public school?