Rochester Rotary Tournament Preview

The Rochester Rotary Tournament is always one of the must-see holiday tournaments as it draws not only many of the top teams from southeast Minnesota, but also a fair share of high-quality metro talent as well. This year is no different as each of the four four-team brackets is stacked nicely with talent. Here are some things to watch from each bracket: Bracket 1: Rochester Mayo, Plainview-Elgin-Millville, Holmen, Robbinsdale Cooper This bracket is set up to give us a Rochester Mayo vs. Robbinsdale Cooper final on Friday and if that’s the case, the guard matchup between the Madsens (Gabe and Mason) and the Jalens (Justice and Miller) would be one to watch. Mayo’s responded nicely from that drubbing it took against Minnetonka in Hopkins while Cooper is 2-2. Plainview-Elgin-Millville has run into some tough times in the last few weeks, taking losses to top-notch teams in the southeast region including Rushford-Peterson, St. Charles and Lake City. The Bulldogs have talented guys including senior big man Griffin Doughty, Joe Irish and Blake Herber that are certainly worth watching and good enough to make that bracket interesting. Bracket 2: Rochester Lourdes, Caledonia, Northfield, St. Croix Prep I tend to think this has a chance to be the most competitive field in the tournament as all four teams have a lot of talent and are off to good starts on the season. Caledonia versus St. Croix Prep has a chance to be a better game than one would think given the talent and experience of the Lions. St. Croix Prep is young but has a really good crop of guards led by junior Daniel McCarrell and sophomore Addison Metcalf. That team can really score. Caledonia’s certainly got good guards too as Noah King and Eli King are capable of putting up 20 points each while Riley Gavin and Casey Storlie are solid contributors as well. Northfield is 3-2 on the season and has the talent and experience to contend for a top-four spot in the Big 9. Mason Zick is one of the best players in southern Minnesota, Hunter Stanchina’s been a solid contributor on both ends of the floor for three years and the Raiders always have good athletes all over the floor. Rochester Lourdes is 4-2 on the season with the talent capable of contending in the Hiawatha Valley League. Matthew Hayford is one of the best guards in the HVL and junior big man Colin Meade can more than hold his own against a talented Northfield frontline. Bracket 3: Rochester John Marshall, Woodbury, Lake City, Mahtomedi This bracket certainly has a chance to be really interesting as it is set up for Rochester JM to meet up with Mahtomedi in the final. That first game between Lake City and Mahtomedi might be the best first round game of the tournament on paper as the Tigers are a top-five type of team in Class AA while Mahtomedi is a top-five team in Class AAA. Lake City’s ability to shoot the 3-ball gives it a chance in any game and Nate Heise and Reid Gastner certainly won’t be intimidated by the athletes at the Zephyr’s disposal. J’Vonne Hadley is one of the players to watch in the entire tournament as he’s an elite talent in the 2020 class and Zac Centers is a really talented senior guard. Rochester John Marshall has gotten off to a bad start so far this season with a number of losses in the Big 9 but the Rockets obviously have the requisite talent to win a bunch of games. Matthew Hurt has a lot on his plate early in the season but as some of the complementary guys like Montrae Hiatt and Lincoln Meister round into form, the team should pick up some more wins. Nobody is averaging more than 8.5 points per game at this point after Hurt’s 37-plus though. That has to change fast. Woodbury could be a team the Rockets get right against as the Royals are just 1-7 to start the season. After graduating so many key guys from the last couple seasons, there is a lot of inexperience on the floor for them right now. Sophomores Mac Lockner and Bradley Cimperman are both averaging better than 12 points per game. Bracket 4: Rochester Century, Byron, Hutchinson, Columbia Heights This bracket doesn’t have the kind of name power the other brackets seem to but there are certainly some teams worth checking out as Columbia Heights and Rochester Century both have the potential for strong winters. Jack Fisher from Century is one of the best players in the Big 9 and has a chance to be among the conference’s top scorers. The Cougars will play Byron, a team in rebuild after graduating a big group of seniors from the previous season. The Bears have gotten off to a slow start at 2-5 but they’ve been competitive. Columbia Heights is 2-3 on the year with losses to three solid Class AAA teams. The Hylanders aren’t having any trouble putting up points but their defense has been leaky to start the year. Freshman forward Muja Burton is a guy to watch as is senior forward Jarvis Wright. They’ll get Hutchinson, which is off to a 4-3 start on the season behind a very good duo in Russell Corrigan and Seth Grob.