Class AA Tournament Takeaways
High School hoops in Minnesota ended Saturday night with three new state champions. The one repeat was at the Class AA level as Minnehaha Academy won yet another state championship – its third in as many years. Here are five…
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Continue ReadingHigh School hoops in Minnesota ended Saturday night with three new state champions. The one repeat was at the Class AA level as Minnehaha Academy won yet another state championship – its third in as many years.
Here are five takeaways from the state tournament
Minnehaha was good enough to win a state title at any level
The Redhawks mostly cruised through the postseason on their way to a third-straight championship. The question wasn’t ‘will Minnehaha win another state title?’ but rather ‘can anybody keep the game close with Minnehaha?’ and the answer was mostly No.
Minneapolis North has the athletes to hang with the Redhawks, but the Polars didn’t have the kind of size or skill to compete. Lake City might have had more skilled kids, but it’s another level of athleticism. The same could be said for Perham. The same could be said for Breck and any other team that would’ve dreamed of challenging the Redhawks for a state championship.
With word that Minnehaha is going to opt up to the Class AAA level, the AA world opens up a little bit. Because the Redhawks were clearly far and away better than any other team at that level. Could they have won a title at AAA? DeLaSalle certainly has the market cornered on winning titles at that level but I’m sure if those two teams played a seven-game series, it would go six or seven games and most would be really compelling. Minnehaha beat DeLaSalle earlier in the season. Minnehaha isn’t leaps and bounds better than most of the teams in Class AAAA, but the Redhawks’ only two losses on the year were to Hopkins – the state champion – and they beat teams like Eden Prairie and Champlin Park this year. They might not have won the Class AAAA state title, but there’s no doubt in my mind that they had the requisite talent to do so.
Minneapolis North lost its best player to transfer and still finished as a state runner-up
The Polars didn’t get to the state tournament a year ago but might’ve had the juice to compete with Minnehaha had they not been upset by Brooklyn Center. They graduated two of their best players from that team and lost Tre Holloman – who would’ve been their best player easily – to transfer and still finished the year as the state runner up. Talk about impressive. The Polars aren’t going to win pretty, but their style has proven to be extremely effective against small-school competition. I would’ve loved to see Holloman on this North team because his personality on the court is all the way Minneapolis North. In all likelihood, they would’ve still lost to Minnehaha. But what that program has in terms of talent and development is definitely impressive. It seems like no matter who they lose, they still pump out good athletes who play their tails off. And they win a ton of games because of it.
Lake City and Melrose ended the year with wins
Two of the consistently good programs in small-school Minnesota, Lake City and Melrose haven’t been to the state tournament a ton in recent years despite incredible sustained excellence. Both teams had strong showings last weekend though, winning two games. Lake City beat Melrose in the first game before losing to Minnehaha and ended things with a third-place finish, beating Perham. Melrose came back with wins over St. Peter and Esko to take home the consolation finish.
Perham finally got back to state
The Yellowjackets have been on the state doorstep for a few years now and come up short despite losing an average of one time per year in the regular season. They were undefeated last year before losing to Breckenridge in the section final. They returned a number of key guys from that team and lost just one time in the regular season. The Yellowjackets were dominant throughout conference play and their only three losses were to the top three teams in Class AA. It’s been a heck of a run for Jenson Beachy, Josh Jeziorski, Carter Cresap and the rest of that senior group.
Preview for next year?
Only two of the eight teams from this year’s state tournament were return teams from the previous season. Lake City and Minneapolis North were state tournament teams – in AA and A – the year before but the only teams that made it last year were Minnehaha and Esko.
How many of these teams should be back next year?
I’m going to assume Minnehaha opts up to Class AAA which takes the Redhawks out of this particular field. Lake City should be the favorite in Section 1 with Nate Heise, Reid Gastner and a good core back, though that region is always a bear. Minneapolis North should get all the benefit of the doubt to be good even if the Polars are graduating some really key guys. They should bring back Davon Townley and Willie Wilson though which is a great start. St. Peter figures to be among the favorites in Section 2 again with Wyatt Olson inside. Redwood Valley and Esko both lose some key guys but Esko has at least proven it’s got a lot of talent in its pipeline and should be considered a contender until proven otherwise. Melrose is losing a big chunk of its core. So is Perham, though the Jackets have some really solid guys still in the fold and the program always seems to have talent coming through the ranks.