NHR Playoff Central: Monday
NHR Playoff Central. The state tournament pairings have been released, the tournament starts Wednesday for Class AAAA, AAA, and AA teams and Thursday for Class A teams, and this is our last Playoff Central article. It was such a fun playoff year so we needed to go out with one more article.
Friday night thoughts:
- St. Clair beating Cleveland reminds me of a conversation in the Lester Prairie hallways at the start of the year! Told you boys the St. Clair squad had what it took!
- This crew of kids from Minneapolis North have had huge expectations for several years, nice to see them get their state tournament trip this year.
- Red Lake is a basketball monster that people should respect more than they do. Beat Cole Dahl and Northern Freeze by 21 on Friday and are headed back to state again.
- DGF had some dreadful years recently, they have put things back together and beat Perham. Nice to see the program fight back to where it is.
- Esko is at it again. Playing physical, methodical, tough guy hoops on both ends. Allowed C-I only 25 points for their fourth straight trip to state.
- Trenton Krueger and Ade Murkey are leaders. The two of them have led the Crusaders back to state and all year have done amazing things with class. Good kids, better leaders of their school.
Ticket Punched. Mountain Iron-Buhl beat North Woods 78-66 and secured their spot in the state tournament on Saturday night. Was happy for this crew as they have been working for this moment with Archie Winans and Jaylon Holmes leading the way since they were young and now they have the medals and the trip to state to show for it the rest of their lives.
The Big Stage. Now the big stage is the Target Center and Williams Arena. They will take the show over providing the state’s most high profile basketball venues for four days this week. Can’t wait to be there every step of the way.
Upset City. Friday night the closest thing to an upset was Lake Park-Audubon beating Battle Lake but if you have been following NHR this winter and especially during NHR Playoff Central you already know that this really wasn’t much of an upset.
Tip of Hat to the Career. Michael Hurt. Michael will be a Gopher, he is one of the favorites to bring home the Mr. Basketball trophy, and he gave Rochester JM four great years and he did it was class. Michael always plays hard, he has one of the highest court IQs in the state, and he does some of everything which is why his numbers were so high in so many categories all year long.