Ten Best: STA vs Richfield
Jason Birr led the Cadets to win number four as St. Thomas Academy works to find some consistency within all areas of the program. They’ve taken quality steps. My first entrance into the “Vincent J Flynn Hall” was a quality…
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Continue ReadingJason Birr led the Cadets to win number four as St. Thomas Academy works to find some consistency within all areas of the program. They’ve taken quality steps.
My first entrance into the “Vincent J Flynn Hall” was a quality one because I was walking through the doors of the building named after my favorite author. I looked left and saw Coach Birr running through a shoot-a-round with his team in the practice facility portion. I enjoyed some time to look through the entrance way and all the trophies and memorabilia. Then I entered a new St. Thomas gym for the first time, a gym that has seat backs!
A+ in my opinion. And on the court? The first half wasn’t pretty for the Cadets and the most memorable part was Coach Birr putting in his junior varsity because the varsity wasn’t performing up to standards. The halftime speech was part two of the attention getting as the Cadets turned a six point deficit into a six point victory.
MVP: Jack Thompson. This was a game that really alerted NHR to what Jack Thompson can do. He’s a sophomore with a lot of juice. His ability to separate and burst into space is not common in high school basketball and definitely separates him because he shows fantastic body control. Scored a game high 17 points and ten of those were in the first half.
Best Offensive Performance: Sam Schlepper/George Stewart/Louis Baillon. All three of these players went into the half with their teammates down six points and with two scores each. And all three of them left the game scored four or more times in the second half and were a key part to the Academy 41 second half points and 72-66 victory.
Best Defensive Performance: Eddie Perry. The head band is what I recall. The head band putting in significant effort on both ends. The guy that Coach Birr depended on for energy and he was a .part of Antonio Maddox scoring just once. Eddie is also a guy that was recently featured here in the Star Tribune and I will let you read that as the story will alert you to what he is doing. http://www.mnbasketballhub.com/news_article/show/736278?referrer_id=198777
Best Guy Off the Bench: Louis Baillon. A senior forward we alerted to earlier that brought energy off the bench first and later brought scoring in the second. Showed a three point touch to remember.
Best Under the Radar Performance: Jakob Cunningham. A 6-foot-4 senior off the bench that we saw in the fall and thought looked pretty good. Came off the Richfield bench to score nine including six in the first half.
Best Underclassmen: Thompson. The STA senior is a guy I have on my radar to watch closer the rest of the winter and into the spring AAU season. Thompson has the skills and separation playmaking ability that could result in a college scholarship future potentially.
Best Story to watch Moving Forward: What will become of the Cadets? What I first thought of this weekend watching Birr coach his Cadets was “accountability”. In the first half he benched his starters, then benched his reserves in favor of the JV. At halftime they were down six and then beat Richfield by six. A year ago they won 9 games. Looking over their schedule plus thinking about what they’ve done I would say this is a team that will enter the playoffs at 16-10 or 17-9. That would be a heck of a year for Coach Birr in his first season as head coach.
Best Aspect of the Environment: The new gym! I honestly don’t recall how new the facility is but it was my first time there and I really like what they have done at the school. Love the size, the seatbacks, the lobby, and the practice gym/alternate gym.
Best Prospect: Thompson. We’ve went into Jack in great detail but one more time I need to point out that I think he is very talented.
Other: Jabari Attim/Devin Wade-Henderson. Atim is a 6-foot-1 senior guard, Wade-Henderson a 6-foot-3 forward. Both showed some range, Atim scored a team high 17 points as he was the only reason the game stayed at close as it was. Wade-Henderson is an interesting athlete. There is some potential there for a local D3 juco to work with as he’s a decent athlete that rebounded well, hit a three, moves well both laterally and with his quick bounce.