Teams to watch after MSHSL announces section realignment
The Minnesota State High School League announced its competitive section assignments for the 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons Saturday. Without getting into every detail on the developments, the landscape of high school basketball changed thanks to several high-quality teams moving either up or down a class or into a new section.
Here are a few of the teams to watch in new sections:
Minneapolis North
The Polars didn’t get to move up to Class AAA like their head coach Larry McKenzie would’ve liked, but they’ll at least get a little stiffer competition — theoretically — with a move up to Class AA. The Polars have as much talent as any team in Class AA (excluding Minnehaha) and look like an odd’s on favorite to advance to the state tournament from Section 5AA though Brooklyn Center should be a contender in that section as well.
If this affects anything, it’s the rest of the Class A field. While every team was playing for second place the last two years, the Class A field looks a lot more open now. With Minneapolis North opting up and Goodhue, Central MN Christian, Red Lake and Lake Park-Audubon all graduating large senior classes, the Class A State Tournament field could feature a lot of new faces a year from now.
Delano
Delano’s 2017-18 season outlook changed dramatically as the Tigers were moved from Section 6AAA to 5AAA. The Tigers look like a top 5-10 team heading into next year but in the logjam that is Section 6, they would’ve likely wound up as a No. 3 seed behind Orono and DeLaSalle. The move to Section 5 means the top competition will be Monticello, a team that was supposed to be on the best in AAA this past year but ended up losing to Big Lake in the section semis.
That changes things for the rest of the teams in Section 5 as well. Monticello looked like a potential favorite to get back to the state tournament after a down year in 2016-17 and with Matt Todd still around for another year, the Magic should certainly be in the mix.
Annandale/St. Cloud Cathedral
“Way too early” preseason rankings for the 2017-18 season will be coming out in the coming days and in Class AA, St. Cloud Cathedral and Annandale are both top-10 teams and had the sections stayed the way they were, the third and fourth-place finishers at state would’ve been heavy favorites to get back to the tournament again.
That can’t happen now as the Cardinals moved into Section 6AA, joining the Crusaders. SCC knocked off undefeated Melrose in the section final this spring in what was a state tournament caliber atmosphere. It’s a long way away, but an Annandale-Cathedral section final in 2018 could be excellent.
Byron
This is a sneaky one in that the Bears won’t enter next year on the radar when it comes to state title contenders or even state tournament favorites but the Bears moving from Class AAA down to AA ensures that Section 1AA will once again be one of the best in the state.
Lake City and Caledonia both look like top-five teams in Class AA next year and with an excellent junior class of Mike Coble, Bjorn Knutson and Kaden Koski, the Bears could make for an intriguing postseason dark horse.