Section 6AA Preview
Playoffs?!? The playoffs are right around the corner. With small-school section tournaments set to begin next week, it’s time to turn our attention to the postseason. See Previous Section Previews Here Class A Section 1AA Section 2AA Section 3AA Section…
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Continue ReadingPlayoffs?!? The playoffs are right around the corner. With small-school section tournaments set to begin next week, it’s time to turn our attention to the postseason.
See Previous Section Previews Here
Here’s what you need to know about Section 6AA
Section 6 has been among the toughest in Class AA for a few years now and it looks no different this year. With six teams recording at least 15 wins, there is bound to be a high level of competition early and often throughout the tournament.
Favorite: Melrose
The Dutchmen are hitting their stride here in the last month and change and they look like the team to beat. They combine efficient offense with elite-level defense.
Preston Keveney has developed into a go-to scorer on the perimeter and Rowan Nelson is an experienced wing scorer and can score effectively in complementary fashion. The Dutchmen always seem to execute extremely well on the offensive end and even though they’ve been playing without arguably their best player for about a month, they are still a force to be reckoned with.
Contenders: St. Cloud Cathedral, Albany
St. Cloud Cathedral’s won the section each of the last two years and while those Crusader teams were built to beat teams up on the inside, this one has the guard play that generally wins games in postseason play. Jackson Jangula and Nick Schaefer have been awesome, combining to average better than 37 points per game on the season. Andrew Weisser and Jacob Stolzenberg provide secondary scoring and terrific perimeter shooting.
Albany has the best defense in the section and wins games by executing on the offensive end, grinding teams down on the defensive end. They’ve got four solid, veteran players in Isaac Nett, Jordan Schiffler, Andrew Hahn and Nolan Reuter and they’ve got the style of play to go a long way in the postseason.
In the Mix: Spectrum, Pine City
Spectrum’s won more than 20 games on the year and while the Sting haven’t been tested a ton throughout the year, they’ve got a dynamic trio that can take over a game on any given occasion. Matt Kruse leads the way, averaging 19.7 points per game. He’s joined on the perimeter by Cole Elrod and Max Lawrence who average 18.7 and 15.4 points per game respectively.
Pine City is always dangerous because of its pace and ability to score. Seth Logan and Nick Hansmann are the two go-to scorers. Jake Adams is a solid senior guard as well.
Watch Out For: Foley, Eden Valley-Watkins, Maple Lake, Kimball
This entire crop of teams had moderately high expectations (for one reason or another) coming into the year and to this point, been middling. But there’s talent on all of them and because of that, they can be dangerous.
Eden Valley-Watkins is hanging around .500 but the Eagles play excellent defense and have one of the best big men in the section in Justin Streit. He’s a potential double-double guy inside and his athleticism inside is hard to contend with.
Kimball hasn’t had the season it was expecting but given how much the Cubs lost from last year, there were bound to be struggles. One guy who hasn’t struggled has been senior guard Drew Gustafsson, who is averaging nearly 20 points per game while supplying terrific perimeter defense. He’s good enough to put the team on his back and win a game.
Foley’s struggled against the upper-echelon teams in the section but the Falcons have done well against the middle tier of the section.
Maple Lake has hung around .500 pretty much all season but the Irish have Mitch Hoistad who is averaging nearly 27 points per game. If they can get someone to relieve some of the pressure on him, this is a team that can scare anybody.