Class AAA Basketball: The Top 5 Biggest Surprises

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>What class AAA basketball teams have been big surprises this year? We look back at the preseason power rankings 1-63 and see who is out-performing! </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Bloomington Kennedy</strong> (11-14). Kennedy was our 6th lowest ranked team meaning we expected about four or five wins and they have earned double figure victories this season. Wins over Columbia Heights, Hastings, Saint Anthony Village and Holy Angels, these are wins we never expected from the Eagles. [player_tooltip player_id='2397796' first='Judah' last='Mitchell'] transferring over from CDH has been huge for Kennedy as the sophomore is averaging 22 points, four assists and five boards a game. Musunguindji Mwenentanda is another sophomore that has come out of nowhere and had a huge year. He's a 6'7 forward averaging a double-double 23 points and ten rebounds a game.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>St. Cloud Tech</strong> (12-12). We had Tech as a bottom 12 team-bottom 20 percent team, and they have surprised as a .500 team this season, and they also have had some players really surprise this year. Six-foot-4 junior [player_tooltip player_id='2569247' first='Jiech' last='Jiech'] is putting up 22.7 points, 6.7 rebounds, 3.6 rebounds and 2.8 steals while shooting 38.4 percent from the arc. Jiech has been a great surprise and junior [player_tooltip player_id='2873622' first='Nick' last='Brakes'] is scoring 13.6 points a contest having a nice season as well. What has really helped Tech is having a nice group of depth to go with their top guys: junior Okilli Galo, senior [player_tooltip player_id='2426834' first='Kyle' last='Kroska'], senior Manbenda James, and senior Moulid Abdi are those names. Krosa and James have good size at 6'6/6'7.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Minneapolis South </strong>(16-7). South is playing for the Twin Cities Title game tonight when they face Edison and if they win, they are in for the first time since 1989. South was a back end top 30 team for us in the preseason but we have seen them ranked for a couple weeks in the Class AAA top ten, and they have a chance to win 20 games this year. [player_tooltip player_id='2435232' first='Jumair' last='Wright'] is having a Class AAA All State season and is surely one of the best sophomores in the state scoring over 22 points a game. [player_tooltip player_id='2409303' first='Ramadan' last='Ibrahim'] is scoring 18 points a contest and the support from [player_tooltip player_id='2409295' first='Ridwan' last='Ibrahim'] and [player_tooltip player_id='3510466' first='Laviance' last='Gales'] scoring 10-11 a game has also been key to this strong Tiger season.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>St. Cloud Apollo </strong>(17-7). We put Apollo at 31 of 63. Right now they are a top ten Class AAA team after they beat Alexandria. Apollo will likely be the two seed in 8AAA as they have lost to Sartell twice but the Eagles have been far, far better than expected. Why? Several surprises have taken place (to people outside the program) and they are 1) [player_tooltip player_id='2569233' first='De'Anthony' last='Sells'] has played like a star in Class AAA at 21.5 points and 9.5 rebounds a game, 2) [player_tooltip player_id='1874917' first='Micah' last='Nwachukwu'] has not only scored 20 a game, he has handled the lead guard spot better than expected, 3) [player_tooltip player_id='2560535' first='Trevor' last='Terfehr'] is scoring over 15 a game as a sophomore and has advanced quicker than expected, 4) Goay Hoth has scored 11 a game giving the team five scoring options.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Grand Rapids</strong> (19-5). Grand Rapids was about right in the middle but they have lost only five games and have pushed their way into the top ten. The Thunderhawks have won 17 of their last 19 games beating Denfeld, Bemidji, and Hibbing along the way. They have since lost to Denfeld and Bemidji in the return games and this week hope to avoid that happening again when they play Hibbing. [player_tooltip player_id='1560804' first='Joey' last='Sutherland'] just had a 41 point game in a running time win over Cloquet. The Hawks have beat struggling teams from Hermantown, Cloquet, North Branch, Chisago Lakes, and Duluth Marshall by big margins, now they have to be able to beat a good team like Hibbing like they did the first time around.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->