Breakdown State Tournament: Class AA
The Breakdown State Tournament showed off why Minnesota loves Class AA basketball and that’s because there is talent, great coaching, and a load of teams that can bring home the gold. This weekend Perham was the best of the best.…
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Continue ReadingThe Breakdown State Tournament showed off why Minnesota loves Class AA basketball and that’s because there is talent, great coaching, and a load of teams that can bring home the gold. This weekend Perham was the best of the best.
- At one point the Jordan vs Minnehaha Academy and Caledonia vs Perham games were one score contests with two minutes to go and it was clear to all in the gym why Class AA is such a darling to Minnesota High School basketball. The talent on the floor was much higher than people perceive Class AA to have, the coaching and team play is high level, and there is great balance throughout the class.
- Why did Perham win Class AA last weekend? They have the best combination of coaching, hard working team play, depth, size, and talent throughout the line-up among those at the event on Sunday. Six-foot-5/6-foot-6 Aaron Solberg is an agile 2017 who gets better every game, Reid Moser is a dependable backcourt player, Jenson Beachy is one of Minnesota’s top 2019 players overall right now, 2018 big man Logan Richler has the biggest arms and strongest chest in Minnesota high school basketball, and another top player Dart Montella wasn’t even there, and the next Cresap scored a dozen in the title game. Moser and Beachly often controlled pace of play both scoring in key times and handling possessions likes veterans.
- Speaking of not there, JaVonni Bickham wasn’t at the games for Minnehaha Academy and that’s a high number double-double not present. Therefore you still have to put the Redhawks as the preseason favorite based on talent. Jose Williamson did an outstanding job up front in Bickham’s stead as a worker. We’ve always been big fans of Jose at PHD because of the effort he puts forth regularly.
- The way Jalen Suggs took over the game against Esko was memorable. The Redhawks let a double figure lead fall away with several rocky second half possessions but then Suggs took over with two pull-up treys, and two scores splitting ball screens all over six possessions (ten points on those four shots). In the final minute Suggs had a block, a steal, and one of the craziest tap-over assists off a pass you will ever see to Kaden Johnson who made an acrobatic off-balance shot that turned out to be the game winner. In the semi-final Suggs had some clutch late baskets as well before the Hawks dropped the game to Jordan.
- Adam Trapp scored six times against Minnehaha Academy and most of them were lefty touch scores off the glass. When the 7-foot-2 Trapp received a good pass from his teammates and he was on balance, Minnehaha Academy couldn’t stop him. When Adam has his balance he’s too big to deal with so he can easily turn and finish off the glass. Stronger players push him off balance but if Adam gets core strength he will be so hard to stop. And there was one point when I was watching a second half of one of his games where Adam swatted five shots in about a dozen minutes of game play. Guys simply don’t go near the rim when he’s playing. Not for shots, not even for offensive boards.
- Esko will also be very good again. They have disciplined, skilled, tough three-sport kids that listen to their coach and by mid-January they are dominating teams with 35 second possessions that turn into easy baskets and then they swarm teams defensively. Ryan Pantsar showed his perimeter stroke knocking out four threes in a game over the weekend. Pantsar is joined by Trapp, Bryce Bottila, Isaak Blue, and Quinn Fischer as experienced returning players that have the ability to make a run this year.
- Jimmy Vollbrecht was not just the 20 point/10 rebound guy he usually is, Jimmy V was a clutch player who down the stretch of the semi-final had the game winning defensive play forcing a jumpball call and then he made a game winning free throw. Big weekend for Jimmy and his team. Vollbrecht had 31 points in the semi-final including a couple treys and once he caught and got to his pivot it was over, Jordan was scoring. Also liked the way Cody Anton played and contributed without needing to score. And the defensive effort from Eric Tiedman at times was top notch.
- Owen King. When we redo the 2018 rankings the first thing we will do is move him higher so we can feel better about ourselves. There is some Nate Wolters to him in the way he competes, in the way he wants the ball late, and the way he approaches things. We aren’t saying Owen will be Nate as King is not as big as Wolters (and some other things of course) but there are some similarities we’ve seen and imagine that, offer number one for him at the D1 level was SDSU.
- Trae Berhow Final Six, Two Wins. No the Royals did not beat Perham like they wanted to but they did bounce back and get on the winning side of things after falling to the event champ. Berhow did his thing and this was around the time last week where Berhow released a final six of Pepperdine, St. Joseph’s, Northern Illinois, Boston U, Pacific, and Drake.
- St Charles. They don’t have Justin Ruhberg right now so Minnesota’s chance to see him play this spring and summer as well as his chance to grow as a prospect and play with all his teams, it’s gone because of a knee injury that we wish him the best with as he recovers.