Three Up, Three Down: Class AAAA

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Who is playing at a high level and deserves some chatter? We dive in.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Three Up</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Rogers (9-1). </strong> Rogers is a top ten scoring team in Class AAAA basketball. [player_tooltip player_id='1734188' first='Blake' last='Dalluge'] is scoring 19 a game leading the way followed by 14 a game by senior Jaxson Fuller and 12 a game from senior Adam Brogerg. The secret of this team is experience and depth as they also get between eight and ten a game from senior Christian Wagner and juniors [player_tooltip player_id='2423583' first='Treyvon' last='Mix'] and [player_tooltip player_id='1574224' first='Colton' last='Kazmierkoski']. They opened the season with a nice win over Brainerd and had a good win over Fargo South over the holiday break. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Now to the elephant in the room.... are we talking about a top ten team here? I don't know that we have proof of that yet. Rogers lost to tenth ranked Buffalo by 22 points. And the eight Minnesota teams they have beaten have a combined record of 26-40. I like the wins over STMA and Anoka but I still think they need to do more than that to be a top ten team. The hard part is their next nine opponents are a combined 32-49 with only one team (Coon Rapids) having a winning record. If they take care of business along that road I can see them being a top ten team eventually but it will take some time. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Apple Valley (5-3)</strong>. I believe we had Apple Valley ranked last in our final power rankings. And here they are winners of five of their first eight games. Have they proved everybody wrong? To get the next five wins is a long, long road of South Suburban opponents. However, the Eagles are winning with defense. They have allowed only 54.9 points a game which is the BEST total in Class AAAA hoops. And wins over St. Paul Central, Coon Rapids (who is 6-3) and Jordan are quite solid. Camare Young, Nati Tizazu and [player_tooltip player_id='2271330' first='Trey' last='Parker'] are leading the way. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Can they get another five wins? They would be a favorite in a handful games and with that defense they will pull some upsets. If they get to ten wins it will be a job well done. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Owatonna (6-2)</strong>. The Huskies have surprised. Six-foot-2 senior guard [player_tooltip player_id='1931515' first='Rielly' last='Kleeberger'] has improved from scoring seven points a game to scoring 20 a night! Senior guard Nathan Theis has vastly improved from last year. This is a deeper team than most expected. The Huskies have five wins over teams you would expect them to beat but also a nice win over Century. They did lose to Blaine (Blaine's second win) and Mankato West and both games were quite close. Owatonna is a team that I could see win 18 or 19 games. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Three Down</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>We are going to look at this a bit differently, more in the stats point of view:</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Three Lowest Records: White Bear Lake (0-8), Eastview (1-6), New Prague (2-8)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Three Lowest Scoring Teams: Burnsville (50), White Bear Lake (51.5), New Prague (51.8)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Three Defenses Allowing the Most: Blaine (85), Eden Prairie (80.6), Coon Rapids (79.8)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->