Minnesota Playoff Central: 20 Down, 12 to Go

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The Minnesota State Tournament has 32 spots available. Twenty of those spots have been claimed and we have a dozen to go tonight! We recap Thursday and look forward to Friday!</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Playoff Central.</strong>  Quick rundown who is in the state tournament as of right now!</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>AAAA: Wayzata, Park Center, Minnetonka, Cretin Derham Hall, Eagan, Coon Rapids</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>AAA: Chisago Lakes, Alexandria, Orono, Totino-Grace, Minneapolis South, DeLaSalle, Mankato East</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>AA: Lake City, Jackson Country Central, Waseca</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>A: RTR, Goodhue, Mountain Lake Area-Comfrey</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The majority of the big school seeds are set. Lakeville North vs Farmington and Rogers vs STMA will finish off Class AAAA tonight, and Stewartville vs Byron is last in Class AAA. The rest of the nine spots tonight are Class A and Class AA.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>The Big Stage</strong>. There are three spots tonight where you can watch multiple games. They are...</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Mayo Civic Center: The back to back is Stewartville vs Byron and the Lakeville North vs Farmington games. Mayo Civic Center, the mecca of playoff basketball in Minnesota. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>St Cloud State. Albany vs Annandale. This one should be really fun. It's the two seed vs the three seed. It's the last two Class AA state champs going at it. East Central vs Nevis then follows that game. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>St. Thomas Academy. West Lutheran and Heritage Christian play for state first, followed by St. Paul Academy working to end the seven year state run of Minnehaha Academy. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Top Performers</strong>. Performance of the night was [player_tooltip player_id='1579885' first='Nolan' last='Groves'] going head on at BSM with 45 points, 18 rebounds and 6 assists including a buzzer beater. And [player_tooltip player_id='1484016' first='Brady' last='Wooley'] had 17 points, 13 rebounds and 7 assist for Orono as well. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1434055' first='Poet' last='Davis'] scored a team high 20 points leading Minneapolis South back to state for the first time in 32 years! Congrats to Joe Hyser and staff on a great accomplishment. Well earned,</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Coon Rapids gets a team top performer. Their win over Forest Lake means Coon Rapids is back at state for the second time in the program's history and the first time in 41 years! </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Monteff Dixon had 16 leading Cretin-Derham Hall past Tartan 59-45. I would say this is another very impressive team performance. CHD is about a year ahead of when we thought they would be making this top ten, state tournament push. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>DeLaSalle beat Columbia Heights and is headed to state for the 13th straight year. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1284143' first='Isaiah' last='Johnson'] put up 31 points returning Totino-Grace to state. Also grabbed 13 boards, with 5 assists and four blocks.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1288720' first='Patrick' last='Rowe'] had 37 leading Chisago Lakes over Hermantown. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Lake City had four in double figures with [player_tooltip player_id='1284166' first='Keegan' last='Ryan'] having a 17 and 10 double double, and [player_tooltip player_id='1284140' first='Hunter' last='Lorenson'] scoring 17 as well. Nice win over Cannon Falls. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>What about Goodhue! Who would have thought that after losing a big senior class that they would be in the state tournament this year? Great story. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Tip of the Hat to the Career</strong>. This is a little bit different. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>I start with Lester Prairie's [player_tooltip player_id='2093705' first='Alek' last='Hodny'] and [player_tooltip player_id='2093701' first='Connor' last='Radtke']. As a teacher you see kids come and go. But sometimes as a teacher you have students for multiple years and I was lucky enough to teach both of these young men for many years when they were young. There are many, many more people that had bigger impact on the lives of Alek and Connor, and those people (family, friends, neighbors, teammates, teachers) I am sure are very proud of you guys, as I am. Watching the both of you play basketball at the level you have has been one of my favorite moments in covering high school basketball. Rock on guys, you will both do great things. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Also a Bulldog, Trever Schauer. A 6'4 guard that can shoot, create, board in bulk, finish over the top, etc, this is a young man who has a chance to be a great college basketball player somewhere in the five state area. Coaches make sure you have a look!</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Abe Soumis, [player_tooltip player_id='1293966' first='Henry' last='Stang'], [player_tooltip player_id='1288706' first='Jalen' last='Langsy'], [player_tooltip player_id='1284214' first='Tameron' last='Ferguson'], [player_tooltip player_id='1287440' first='Jonathan' last='Mekonnen'], [player_tooltip player_id='1284109' first='Colton' last='Benson'], [player_tooltip player_id='1284201' first='Owen' last='Waldoch'], Zy Stewart, etc, there were a lot of really good players that saw their careers end. Mekonnen, Benson, Waldoch and Langsy know where they are headed. Ferguson is next up to get his spots and I think Soumis and Stang will be really good at the next level. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->