Minnesota Playoff Central: 3 Teams to make State Tournament debut

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Playoff Central</strong>.  We know who is at state, what were the droughts and what are the streaks? We give them to you now!</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Class AAAA</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Lakeville South. First time qualifying for state since 2020, first time playing at state since 2011. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Chaska. First time at state in nine years. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Apple Valley. Back to back state trips.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Tartan. First time at state in 12 seasons (2014).</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Maple Grove. Back to back trips.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Wayzata. 6th straight trip to state.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Blaine. First time at state in ten years (2016).</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Alexandria. 6th straight trip to state.Alexandria. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Class AAA</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Northfield. First trip to state in NINETY-FOUR years (1932).</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Mankato East. 5th straight trip to state.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Minneapolis South. Second trip to state in three seasons. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>DeLaSalle. 15th straight trip to state.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Totino-Grace. 5th straight trip to state.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Richfield. First trip to state in five years (2021).</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Grand Rapids. First time at state in nine years (2017).</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Sartell. First trip to state in 13 seasons (2013). Second time ever. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Class AA</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Goodhue. Third straight trip to state.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Waseca. Third straight trip to state.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Jackson County Central. Second trip to state in three seasons. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Minnehaha Academy. Tenth straight trip to state.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Blake. First qualification for state in six years, first time playing at state in 13 years. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Albany. Fourth trip to state in four seasons. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Pequot Lakes. 5th straight state tournament appearance. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Perham. First time to state in four seasons (2022). </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Class A</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Southland. FIRST TRIP TO STATE EVER!</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton. First trip to state in 18 years!</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Hills-Beaver Creek. FIRST TRIP TO STATE EVER!</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Liberty Classical. FIRST TRIP TO STATE EVER!</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Upsala. First time at state in 13 years (2013). </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Henning. Back to back trips to state. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Cherry. 5th straight trip to the state tournament. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Red Lake County. Back to back trips to state. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>The Big Stage</strong>. We know the teams, we know that tomorrow afternoon the seeds will be announced and the schedule will be set. The State Tournament isn't until next week but we are fast approaching the greatest time as a high school basketball fan. We will preview the state tournament every day up until tip off in several ways. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Upset City</strong>.  Not many in section championship games. Not many at all. In fact, 24 of the 32 state tournament spots were taken by one seeds which has to be the most I can recall in a long time. In fact, the Class AAA State Tournament is ALL one seeds. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>All of that said, Blake is the Cinderella of the state tournament. They are a nine seed that had to win FIVE games to get to state. This was a 14-12 regular season team that is now a 19 win team after beating Eagle Ridge, Watertown-Mayer, Holy Family, Minneapolis North and Maranatha to get to state. Freshman [player_tooltip player_id='2838884' first='Trameill' last='White'] scored 20 points to lead the Bears to state. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Top Performances</strong>. [player_tooltip player_id='1560827' first='Kale' last='Misegades'] led Henning past Park Christian with 39 points on 11 of 19 shooting and made all 16 free throw attempts. Kale also grabbed 11 rebounds. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2842383' first='Sam' last='Rupnow'] scored 22 points leading Liberty Classical to state with a 15 point win over Heritage Christian. It was the third win over Heritage Christian this season. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2126118' first='Tyler' last='Forrest'] put up 21 points, ten rebounds and four assists in Chaska's win over Prior Lake.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>With [player_tooltip player_id='2126467' first='Baboucarr' last='Ann'] sick, [player_tooltip player_id='1560739' first='Max' last='Iversen'] had 28 points and [player_tooltip player_id='2126108' first='Jack' last='Thelen'] scored 21 leading Maple Grove over Osseo 73-61. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2434181' first='Nathan' last='Rustad'] scored 23 points in the Perham win over Staples-Motley. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Tip of the Hat to the Career</strong>. [player_tooltip player_id='1550877' first='Jayden' last='Moore']. The all time leader in assists in Minnesota. The point guard that has been talked about since grade school and the future playmaker of North Dakota. Moore is one of ten Mr. Basketball finalists and his team ran into Wayzata in the section playoffs so they are done but this was the end of one of the great point guard careers in Minnesota. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Five of the ten Mr. Basketball finalists will be at state and that is [player_tooltip player_id='1560740' first='Dothan' last='Ijadimbola'], [player_tooltip player_id='1560867' first='Christian' last='Wiggins'], [player_tooltip player_id='1560778' first='Nolen' last='Anderson'], [player_tooltip player_id='1560827' first='Kale' last='Misegades'], and [player_tooltip player_id='2121332' first='Deron' last='Russell'].</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->