Three Up, Three Down: Class AAAA
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What teams have played even better than expected? Who is off to a slower start than expected? It’s the return of Three Up, Three Down! Three Up Woodbury (4-1). The Royals have won four of five games and they’ve…
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Continue ReadingWhat teams have played even better than expected? Who is off to a slower start than expected? It’s the return of Three Up, Three Down!
Three Up
Woodbury (4-1). The Royals have won four of five games and they’ve done it by going 4-0 in games that we expected to be relatively 50-50 contests. Defensively they’ve held teams to 58 points a game, Blake Rorher is stepping into the main scoring role well at 21 points a game, and we’ve seen the emergence of 6’4 junior Cayden Narum who has been an excellent second option.
Spring Lake Park (4-0). Defense Defense Defense and more Defense. Based on what we saw from the Panthers this summer (and how well they played last year as a team although they did lose many seniors) we expected Spring Lake Park to be good. Top 20 in Class AAAA good. But their defense has resulted in a top ten spot. The Panthers beat ranked Mounds View 66-40 and they crushed 7AAAA favorite Andover 75-45! I’ll say it again, Logan Kinsey Logan Kinsey 6'6" | PF Spring Lake Park | 2022 State MN is a division one talent and maybe has a professional future plus Payton Thomsen Payton Thomsen 6'2" | PG Spring Lake Park | 2022 State MN continues to emerge.
St. Louis Park (3-2). The Orioles are 3-2 and to be honest I don’t believe many thought they would win three games all year. Even more impressive, they beat Washburn, knocked off Boden Kapke Boden Kapke 6'11" | C Holy Family | 2023 State #153 Nation MN and Holy Family, and after years of watching Minnehaha Academy win titles and play on ESPN, the Orioles beat the Redhawks in overtime. They also gave Mound-Westonka a hell of a game. Will Dvorak leads a completely balanced senior group.
Three Down
Chaska (1-5). To be fair, Chaska has played a beast of a schedule while getting a new backcourt their first action, and they’ve been right there: an overtime loss to Eastview, a two score loss to Lakeville North, a two score loss to Edina. Brady Nicholson Brady Nicholson 6'9" | C Chaska | 2022 State MN is giving them 24 a game as well! But right now they just don’t have the guard experience to get them over the edge against the schedule they are facing and its about to get tougher (Shakopee, Edina, EP in the holiday event followed by Cooper). That said they are still a Metro West contender.
St. Paul Central (1-5). The Minutemen scheduled a really tough start to the season (vs Park of CG, vs River Falls, vs St. Croix Prep, vs Simley, vs Buffalo, vs Apollo, vs Minneapolis South, vs Mound-Westonka, vs St. Paul Johnson, vs Armstrong) and honestly a 2-8/3-7 start was likely expected considering how they match-up size wise. But don’t count this group out as they will be battle tested when they get into their league schedule.
Waconia (2-4). The Cats are undergoing some changes so a slow start shouldn’t be a surprise, but with the talent they have I didn’t see an 18 point loss to Jordan or a loss to Becker coming. The next six game stretch has at least four winnable games if not five and with the solid talent on this team, I expect to see them back over .500 soon.