2023-24 State Tournament: Totino-Grace Three-Peats!

Ryan James March 23, 2024 @ 04:15 PM

Mankato East was up for a fight. Brogan Madson Brogan Madson 6'1" | PG Mankato East | 2025 State MN was out to prove that he is the best pure point guard in the junior class and he may have done that. Dwayne Bright was ready to battle and although Carson Schweim Carson Schweim 6'7" | SF Mankato East | 2024 State MN and Ganden Gosch Ganden Gosch 6'5" | SF Mankato East | 2025 State MN struggled to find their touch, both of them battled.

That said, when Isaiah Johnson Isaiah Johnson 6'7" | SF Totino-Grace | 2024 State #135 Nation MN is playing the way he has been, nobody can stop the Eagles. Johnson used his skill, size and athleticism to go at Hopkins, Park Center, at Fridley in the section final, at DeLaSalle on Thursday and today he went at Mankato East, and in all games he gave his team an assortment of awesome.

The Class AAA title game was close until the Eagles sent a lob pass to Johnson from the right wing to the opposite side of the basket and whomever threw the pass, I'm sorry, the amazing finish was the only thing that stuck to memory. Johnson caught the lob with one hand and threw the ball across his body through the rim with the force of an airborne jackhammer. And he did it while jumping over 6'5 Amari Nobles Amari Nobles 6'7" | SF/CG Mankato East | 2026 State MN .

An awesome play. And it seemed to take a lot of fight from the Cougars. Tyler Wagner Tyler Wagner 6'6" | SF Champlin Park | 2025 State #366 Nation MN supported Johnson with big plays and in the end it was a 73-64 win for the Eagles.

The Quote: "we wanted Carson Schweim Carson Schweim 6'7" | SF Mankato East | 2024 State MN to take as many uncomfortable shots as possible and I believe Tian Chatman Tian Chatman 6'5" | CG Totino-Grace | 2026 State MN and Josiah Young did a great job of that (on defense)" - Said Eagles Coach Nick Carroll.

The MVP. This was surely Isaiah Johnson Isaiah Johnson 6'7" | SF Totino-Grace | 2024 State #135 Nation MN (sr). I am not sure the state is fully aware of everything that Isaiah does for TG. He has been the main lead guard often times for the Eagles, their top scorer, rebounder, tops in assists and blocks, and when it comes to jumping passing lanes he does a fantastic job. Tonight Isaiah had 25 points on 11 of 17 shooting with 11 rebounds. Another outstanding performance for the Class AAA MVP.

Top Underclassmen. Dothan Ijadimbola Dothan Ijadimbola 6'6" | SF Totino-Grace | 2026 State MN (soph) and Tian Chatman Tian Chatman 6'5" | CG Totino-Grace | 2026 State MN (soph) of Totino-Grace. The Eagle juniors came up big today. Dothan did not have a great shooting game but he was big on the glass grabbing ten rebounds plus he made three shots and did some good defensive things. Chatman's role was to stop Schweim and he did a fantastic job of limiting good touches for the future Minnesota State player. Chatman scored a couple times too but his role was defense and he did it well.

Two More

Brogan Madson Brogan Madson 6'1" | PG Mankato East | 2025 State MN of Mankato East (jr). When it comes to pure point guards in the junior class I will maintain Brogan is the best. He was able to get past whomever the Eagles put in front of him and some of his finishes over size or before the size could close, were outstanding. His back to back And1 attack finishes brought the Cougars back at one point and Brogan scored an overall 27 points making 9 of 18 shots and 9 of 11 free throws. Pound for pound one of the toughest players in the state.

Tyler Wagner Tyler Wagner 6'6" | SF Champlin Park | 2025 State #366 Nation MN of Totino-Grace (jr). This was a game that the Eagles needed Tyler to score and he came up big. With Watley often dealing with Madson and the Chatman/Young combination having to defend, it was either Ijadimbola or Wagner that needed to come up with a supporting scoring game and Tyler did that. There were two baskets from Tyler that stood out: a power basket around the rim and the step through to get to an angle near the baseline. Both scores were big and counted towards his 17 on 6 of 8 shooting and 3 of 4 foul shooting.