Tip Off Classic: Main Court Predictions
Who wins? Who losses? Why? Our predictions finish off a week long previewing of this year’s Breakdown Tip Off Classic. MAIN COURT Minnetonka vs North St. Paul (9:30am). Tough game to pick. Tonka has played a couple good teams very…
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Minnetonka vs North St. Paul (9:30am). Tough game to pick. Tonka has played a couple good teams very tough early in the year (AV and Chaska). North St. Paul is coming off a loss. Very close call, could go either way but we say Polars by a score.
Spring Grove vs Browerville (11:00am). A game like this reminds a person how good all the match-ups are, how do you pick between these teams? I think Spring Grove has more top options but Bryce Irsfeld is best in show. I pick Spring Grove by a free throw.
Minneapolis North vs Minneahaha Academy (12:45pm). The loss of JaVonni Bickham means that Minneahaha gets pretty small against a North team that is now pretty big up front. Jalen Suggs plays big but Polar veterans get it done and win by eight.
Robbinsdale Armstrong vs Tartan (2:15pm). The Falcons gave DeLaSalle a run last night and likely will push at Tartan too. I don’t believe Tartan will be able to slow down Race Thompson but I think the Titan balance wins out for a six point win.
Rochester JM vs Hopkins (3:45pm). After watching JM last week against Champlin Park I don’t know that they are ready for this type of challenge early in the year. Hopkins wins big.
Lakeville North vs Cretin-Derham Hall (5:30pm). These are two of the teams that I looked at when ranking Class AAAA in preseason and thought “how do you separate”. At this moment I still don’t know quite exactly how to pick between them. CDH looks deeper with talent, North is more experienced and has several back from the state championship game team. The Daniel Oturo vs Nathan Reuvers match-up will have the attention of all. I’ll go with experienced North by 3 or 4.
Maple Grove vs DeLaSalle (7:00pm). My first thought is that the Islanders have played three games and Maple Grove one coming in. But both have so many guys back I’m not sure that makes much of a difference. The game depends on what the support around Brad Davison can do and how many good percentage looks he will get. I give the edge to Coach Thorson for a four point win.
Apple Valley vs Champlin Park (8:30pm). Selecting winners here is so hard. Champlin Park is my pick as I believe they are the state favorite but I don’t see teams going undefeated this year so there will be losses. My concern for AV is I don’t know that they three wings will be able to get the double figures they need against this Rebel team so I saw CP by a score.