Twin Cities Boys Hoops

2009 Best Buy Summer Classic Day 1

2009-07-13T22:20:00.003-05:00

Thoughts from a day of blowouts at the 2009 Best Buy Summer Classic.

Session 1: A talented Old Gold Dream Team defeated MN Static 65-56 in 15U action. Riley Dearring with a very quiet 2nd half. Deonte Blakemore (Washburn) is the other talented player to watch for the Static that stuck out for me in this one.

Session 2: WI Playmakers took MSB out behind the woodshed in 16U. 64-29 the final. Madison Spartans destroyed Wizard's Den 98-51. Pump N Run 16s snuck by MN Heat Black 50-47. Bryan Sprang huge for the Heat with 25 or 27 pts. He hit a big 3 late to cut the PNR lead to 2. Kyle Noreen leads the way with 13 points.

Session 3: Fury Elite takes out Comets-Seevers by 20 again. 68-48 Fury Elite wins. Illinois Warriors 67-39 over MN Heat Elite.

Session 4: TNL takes out TC Elite again. Jay Sewer with 5 in a row to push a 7 point lead to 12 and TNL wins 71-64.

Session 5: Grassroots MN vs Big Game Sports. Rodney Williams, Jordair Jett and a whole boat load of 2009 kids on display here. Many observers stunned that Rodney was playing. Matt Sellers playing here with BGS and not in Milwaukee with Magic Black in a minor surprise. 78-61 Grassroots wins.

Session 6: Heat Elite 16s blowout Big Game Sports 74-43. Comets Elite 15s hold off MN Static 64-49. Comets Elite 16s also win big. Comets 15s hold off Static 64-59.

Session 7: A cobbled together Comets Blue squad (Phil Nowak and Mike Lindsay from Triple Threat, Jordan Reibling from Xplosion as examples) against TNL. 61 all with 4:15 left. Reibling makes 4 clutch FTs down the stretch, including 2 after a 4 pt play cut the lead to 3. Comets Blue wins 75-70. With a forfeit over Illinois Heat, they lead the pool at 2-0 with a chance to sweep with a win tomorrow over TC Elite.

Session 8: Heat Elite took on the Redhawks in 17U action. Great ending to this one. 53 all with 30 seconds left when the Redhawks get called for 5 seconds closely guarded. Billy Chapman steals the inbounds and gets fouled. He makes both FTs with 9.5 seconds left. The Redhawks give 2 fouls as the ball comes up court. Heat ball on the side in the frontcourt with 3 seconds left. Inside to Ryan Duxbury and right back out to a kid I don't know (I know now that it was Tyler Pauley from Osceola, WI) and down the hatch with a left wing triple at the horn for a 56-55 Heat win.

Session 9: We get the out of town teams in. Pump N Run Elite 16s (California) in and they defeated Big Game Sports 76-65 in a game where they were up big. Grassroots Canada big over Comets-Seevers big.

After the games, Magic Johnson spoke to the kids about work ethic and answered questions from the players. The charisma you see on TV really comes through in person.

2009 Best Buy Summer Classic Predictions

2009-07-12T23:17:00.002-05:00

Here are my predictions for the Best Buy Summer Classic at Jefferson, July 13-15.

15U
Pool Winners: MN Pump N Run, Comets Elite (but I want to see Riley Dearring of the Static), MN Suns (who got shafted in Chicago by being a pool winner but playing in the Silver/3rd place bracket), MN Heat Elite and the Iowa Stars.

Brackets: PNR gives themselves the only 1st round bye as everybody is in the championship bracket. I project Comets vs Suns in 1 semifinal with PNR vs Iowa Stars in the other semi. Give me Suns over PNR for the title.

16U
Heat Elite got shafted by being in a pool with the Illinois Warriors. PNR wins pool A. Illinois Warriors take pool B. Madison Spartans by default in pool B. Nimrod Hilliard is fun to watch for that talented squad, but that should have been Heat Elite instead. Pool D, yuck. Illinois Heat by default. Pool E gets Paul Jesperson/Connor Miller and the WI Playmakers by default. Jesperson is great when open but he did very little in April here when the teams beat him up. But he's played well during this open period. Miller is a great shooter too. Comets Elite over Mean Streets in pool F.

Top 2 from each of the 6 pools make the championship bracket with 4 pools getting byes but Playmakers and Comets having to play the playin game. PNR vs loser of Comets/Mean Streets is an interesting quarterfinal. Heat Elite vs Playmakers in a playin game (criminal), but Heat win easily. They played in April and Jesperson was 3-15 with only 9 points. Winner takes out the Illinois Heat to play PNR in the semis. How fun would it be to see Heat vs PNR with the 16U and 17U AAU winners. Illinois Warriors vs Comets Elite in the other semi will be fun as well. Give the Warriors over PNR to win the title.

17U
Tough pool A with the Illinois Warriors (who just blew out PNR in Chicago), Mpls Redhawks and a banged up MN Heat team (Duxbury with a bum ankle and Alex Oman is hurt as well). PNR to win pool B. Grassroots Canada to win a loaded pool C over Fury Elite and Comets-Seevers. California PNR over Grassroots to win pool D. That should be a fun game. TNL sees TC Elite AGAIN. Illinois Heat vs TNL, give me TNL to win the pool. Comets Hanson to win pool F.

Brackets: Fury Elite, TNL, Grassroots and Comets Hanson (over Redhawks) to win the playin games. In the quarters, Ill Warriors over Fury Elite, California PNR over TNL, Grassroots over PNR in my upset, Grassroots Canada over Comets Hanson in the last quarter. Semis. Califormia PNR over Illinois Warriors in a huge semi. Grassroots Canada over Grassroots MN in the other semi in a blowout. California PNR over Grassroots Canada to win it.

Monday Games of Note
9 AM: Old Gold Dream Team vs MN Static in 15U. Riley Dearring, enough said.
10:10 AM: WI Playmakers vs MSB. Playmakers win, but don't be surprised if MSB puts a scare in them.
11:20 AM: Illinois Warriors vs MN Heat Elite. Ahmad Starks is a fun PG to watch for the Warriors and Brandon Spearman is a warrior.
12:30 PM: Either Net Gain vs Iowa Stars in 15U or the 700th matchup this summer of TNL vs TC Elite.
1:40 PM: Grassroots vs Big Game Sports 17U or MN Heat Elite vs MN Prospects in 15U. Prospects are a 14U playing up with a new coach as coach Jerry Robertson is no longer coaching this squad either.
2:50 PM: Comets Elite vs MN Static 15U
4:00 PM: Illinois Heat vs TC Elite. Mike McCall is a fun Chicago player to watch in this one.
5:10 PM: Grassroots Canada opens vs Comets Seevers.
6:20 PM: The only game as California PNR is in town and opens with Big Game Sports.

Bracket play at Chicago Summer Classic

2009-07-11T23:48:00.003-05:00

Heat Elite 17s went 3-0 (all big wins) after going 1-2 in pool play. Of course they are beat up right now and have the Redhawks and Illinois Warriors in their PNR pool. Yikes as they finished today with 5 guys.

Heat Elite 16s lost to All Iowa Attack. Game somehow had 5 refs and was very physical as all play that I saw today and on Thursday, but strangely enough not Friday.

43 Hoops Grant won their pool 3-0 and won their 1st bracket game and was in a tight battle in game 2.

43 Hoops Daniels lost a double OT heartbreaker. 43 Hoops Gameli won their 1st bracket game.

Redhawks had their 1st bracket game in hand from the bit I saw.

Ending match play in Chicago

2009-07-11T14:26:00.002-05:00

Pool play concludes here in Chicago with MN taking over 3 of the 4 courts for the mid-morning session. PNR 16s defeated Playground Elite 16s 65-61. Shelby Moats with 24 points (4-4 3s) and 6 rebounds in arguably his best performance of the spring/summer. That was in front of some interested coaches too. Alex Richter with 17 points. Also of note is the possible return of Jonah Travis for the PNR tourney. Good signs today, tomorrow will tell more. They were 2-1 in the 3 games I know about. Don't know how they did against the Mac Irvin 16s.

PNR 17s lost to the Illinois Warriors 61-48 and the Warriors were up bigger than that. Dyami Starks left the team last night. That also meant they were without Steve Tecker. That PNR team will be a big story of their own tourney. There appears to be some significant chaos in that organization right now. They finish up 1-3 here in Chicago.

43 Hoops Harris took on Rising Stars Gold in the 3rd game. Ohio State commit Lenzelle Smith back with the Rising Stars for this one along with talented teammate Rayvonte Rice. 15-14 Harris in the 1st half before they come across a famous scoring drought. Rising Stars finishes the half on a 15-5 run to lead 29-20 at the break. Rice with 8 in the half. 43 extends the defense to start the 2nd half and they come back. A steal leads to a big Elliot Owusu dunk to cut the lead to 4. Brett Ervin with a layup at 11:15 and 43 is back to even at 35. Ervin with a tip in to tie the game at 50 and then a dunk to tie the game at 52 with 1:35 left. Smith huge in the 2nd half and he counters with a 3 point play with 1:08 left. 55-52 Rising Stars. Vinard Birch with a layup to cut the lead to 1. Smith 1 of 2 FTs with 18.8 left. Out of a timeout, Birch drives and is fouled. He converts both FTs with 6.3 left and we'll go to OT tied at 56. Clay Horne with a tip in with 10.6 left in the 1st OT to tie the game again. To double OT tied at 60. Birch with a couple of nice hoops in the 2nd OT, Smith surprisingly doesn't convert a pair of chances down the stretch and Manani Beavers seals the win with a pair of FTs. 66-62 43 Hoops wins. Brett Ervin with all 12 of his points in the 2nd half. Definitely his best game of this tournament. Birch with 10 huge points. Elliot Owusu continues to impress despite getting ridiculously tough defensive assignments (he had to try and slow down Smith in this one). Smith finishes with 14 of his 21 points in the 2nd half. Rising Stars during the spring was regarded as possibly the best team here in Illinois and they went 0-3 vs Minnesota in their own building. Definitely a different team today vs yesterday as Ben Brust hardly got any touches in this one (yes 43s defense deserves credit for that too)

Crazy day 2 in Chicago

2009-07-10T23:34:00.002-05:00

Wow, what a day here in Chicago. Only disappointment was finding out that I forgot to reference "25 or 6 to 4" when I did my Chicago hits scroll. Yes that song was before my time, but that's a bad omission.

Game 1: MN Heat Elite vs Peoria.
8 AM games really, really need to be outlawed. Heat come back from 7 down at the half and a 3 by Paul Franklin with 9 minutes left gives them the lead. Miles Heller grabs a pair of clutch offensive boards for putbacks along with a pair of Franklin free throws. That appears to ice the game but Peoria throws in a prayer from the top of the key (their key not 3/4 court) to send the game to OT. Heat hangs on to win 57-54.

Game 2: 43 Hoops Harris vs All Iowa Attack Red
All Iowa comes out on fire and they jump out to a 28-13 lead behind hot shooting, especially from Dau Jok. Both teams go scoreless for 4 minutes late in the 2nd half with 43 within 7 points. Star Zach McCabe with 2 late buckets to seal the game and All Iowa wins 57-47. McCabe with 12, 6 and 3. Once again no player in double figures for 43 Hoops. Clay Horne with 9 points to lead the way. Poor job by 43 of getting out to the shooters in this one was the major downfall as All Iowa was hot enough to make them pay.

Game 3: Redhawks hit 9 triples in the 1st half vs Full Package Elite but only lead by 2. They go on a big run to push a close game to 18 points and win easily.

Game 4: 43 Hoops Harris vs Velocity Red
43 out to a quick 7-0 lead and that translates to 30-25 at the half. Jordan Reetz with 11 points in the half so we will have a player in double figures. Velocity comes back to lead 41-39 with 7:43 left as the offense sputters. But Vinard Birch has a pair of hoops in a 7-0 run to put 43 up for good. They win 59-48 to finish the 1st 2 days at 2-1. Reetz was the only guy in double figures as he finished with 23 points.

Game 5: 43 Hoops Carr vs Rising Stars Gold 17s
A loaded Rising Stars Gold team was the 43 16s opponent in this one. PG Ben Brust (Iowa), SG Alex Rossi (California) and Fred Heldring (William and Mary) all on display. 2 other studs (including a Ohio St commit, Lenzelle Smith) not here. A team that during the spring was considered by some to be the best team here (yes that includes Mac Irvin Fire, more on them later).

35-30 Carr at the half and they controlled it. Brust 15 points in the half. Estan Tyler hot for 43 in the early part on the 2nd half and Ross Travis adds his 1st monster slam of the day. The lead extends to 55-41 with just under 10 minutes to play. Rising Stars makes their run and a Brust NBA 3 cuts the 43 Hoops lead to 69-66 with 45.2 to play. After a 5 second call on the inbounds, Brust gets another good look but Jameson Parsons swats it and 43 hangs on for the 74-68 win. Estan Tyler with 19 points to lead the way with the clutch spurt to push the lead out to 14 early in the 2nd half. Jordan Smith with 12 points and held to 1 3 pointer.

Ben Brust was far more athletic than I expected (keep reading, you'll see this later). NBA range too and a lack of conscience to go with it. 28 points with 6 triples. Alex Rossi couldn't make a shot in his own building as he went 3-14 on my sheet for 9 points. A great win for the 16s. I thought Rising Stars should have made a better attempt to exploit their inside advantage in this one. The bigs just didn't get many post looks.

Game 6: Pump N Run 17s vs Mac Irvin Fire 17s
LOADED! Mike Shaw, Wayne Blackshear, Myers Leonard, Tim Hardaway Jr, etc etc. The list goes on and on and on. What a crew. Pump N Run using the 1-2-2 with Alec Brown on top to slow things down. 35-31 MIF at the half. Hardaway with 3 triples for 9 points in the half. MIF extends a 5 point game to 11. Its a 7 point game with 3:43 to go when PNR goes on a 7-0 run. Kevin Noreen with 5 points in the run. Crockett finishes the run with a hoop to tie the game at 57 with 1:25 left. After Blackshear makes 2 FTs, Dyami Starks misses a good look at a step-in 3. He gets another chance late that is not good and Mac Irvin Fire wins 62-57.

Kevin Noreen with 17 points to lead PNR along with 6 rebounds and a couple of blocks. Also worth a mention is Alec Brown. First of all, his dad saved me sheer doom by snagging an errant pass that would have been pure carnage had I had to make a play on it. As to Alec, he looks like a completely different player than in the spring period. Lots of minutes (him and Andre Ingram man the center spot with Brown getting the minutes). He's active and he finished this game with 4 points and 8 rebounds in a respectable performance. Looks far more like the player that many thought he could be for them. Blackshear leads the Fire with 17 points.

Game 7: Pump N Run vs Rising Stars Gold (both 16s)
Not to be confused with other Rising Stars Gold team. This is their 16s. Rising Stars gets out to a 13 point 1st half lead. PNR chips away and cuts the lead to 8 at the half. Alex Richter starts the 2nd half hot and a Jason Perkins 3 point play along with another offensive board for 2 put PNR up 52-45 with 7 minutes left. Game is tied at 56 with 3 minute left. Richter tops off his 13 point 2nd half with a hoop with 40 seconds left and PNR wins 60-56. Richter finishes with 20.

Game 8 (bonus): Last minute of 43 Hoops Carr vs Illinois Wolves 16s
This is the same squad, sans Chasson Randle, that held off the PNR 16s last night. Before I arrive the Wolves have a 18 point lead. Ross Travis with a monster follow dunk over 2 guys during a big recovery. Fast forward to my arrival at the old Chicago Bulls practice facility. 57-54 Wolves with 1 minute left. The entire 43 Hoops organization (Harris team, Daniels team etc) are packed on the Wolves endline and they are off the hook. I'm outside watching thru the glass and its electric and LOUD. Jordan Smith with a huge 3 with 40 seconds left to tie the game. Then he applies some D and Estan Tyler retreives a loose ball and finds Marquel Curtis for a layup for a 59-57 lead with 7 seconds left. The Wolves have 1 last chance that is no good and Carr's group steals one. What a finish.

Game 9: Pump N Run vs Rising Stars Gold (Both 17s)
I caught the start of this one and came back with about 10 minutes left just in time to see Ben Brust posterize Tazz Crockett. WOW! Where did that come from? That starts a 10-0 run for the Gold for a 41-35 Gold lead with 7 minutes left. Brust and Dyami Starks trade points and the PNR deficit is 5 with 4:15 left. Brust misses a front end with 38 seconds left and Alec Brown converts to put PNR up 50-49. Crockett busts out for a layup to end the game for a 52-49 PNR win.

Bonus Game 10: Mac Irvin Fire vs Team Stat
Suppossedly the game of the tournament. Right down to the wire and we end up in overtime. Loose ball and a Mac Irvin Fire player makes a bad foul grabbing a guy on a loose ball and Team Stat wins by 2 in OT. Myers Leonard is a beast with a real mean streak.

Day 1 at the 2009 Chicago Summer Classic

2009-07-09T21:57:00.002-05:00

Day 1 of the Chicago Summer Classic didn't have match play start until 4 PM so a very quiet day. 3 games of note on my schedule but first the best of the rest besides Rick Pitino and Todd Lickliter being here in the hotel.

43 Hoops Daniels gets a 15U win after some recent struggles.

Mpls Redhawks win 70-64, that was a 1 point game in the last minute.

MN Heat Elite lost both games.

Pump N Run 17s gave up a 17-0 run to start the 2nd half after the game was tied at the break. They closed to within 2 with 22 seconds left but couldn't get over the top vs Team Stat. No Austin Rivers or Brandon Knight in that one. They are expected here tomorrow. Andre Ingram added to the PNR roster for this tourney. Mike Rostampour out with mono so he's not here. No Jerry Robertson as he's no longer coaching this group. Since the 16s were also playing, Jerry Noreen had the reins for this one.

Funny sight with All Iowa Attack and top Iowa target Zach McCabe playing Mac Irvin Fire. Iowa coach Lickliter sitting with Ohio State coach Thad Motta. Hey Todd, look at all the players I can get (all of Mac Irvin Fire) that you can't. I'm also an occassional Hawkeye fan and when Zach McCabe is your top target vs the classes that Ohio State is bringing in, that's not good.

Game 1: 43 Hoops vs Illinois Wolves (17s)
43 Hoops with a 12 point 1st half lead that becomes 29-20 at the half. 43 Hoops then sits on 39 for a LONG time in the 2nd half and after a triple with 2:30 left, the Wolves take a 40-39 lead. Tim Lubke counters with a triple to put 43 Hoops back on top with 2:05 left. Jordan Reetz with 4 FTs in the last 35 seconds to ice the victory. 48-44 43 Hoops wins after a buzzer beater 3 by the Wolves. 10 players scored, nobody in double figures for 43 Hoops. Reetz leads the way with 9 points. Ice cold shooting for 43 Hoops as Reetz was 2-8 and Brett Ervin's summer struggles continued as he was 3-9.

Game 2: Pump N Run vs Illinois Wolves (16s)
No Jonah Travis due to a leg injury suffered at a Colorado camp. 5 straight points to end the 1st half gives the Wolves a 27-25 halftime lead. PNR cuts the Wolves lead to 5 with under 5 minutes to play and then they get 3 chances to cut into the lead and turn the ball over 3 times. Wolves hang on 51-45. Chasson Randle 18 points for the Wolves in a nice performance from a top Chicago player. Shelby Moats and Alex Richter with 12 each to lead PNR.

Game 3: 43 Hoops vs Mac Irvin Fire (16s)
Another Chicago star Sam Thompson on display for the Fire. This is fun. 43 Hoops comes out hot as they nail a handful of shots and they're out to a quick lead. They extend a 1 point lead midway through the half to 32-23 at the half. They win easily 56-49. Jameson Parsons with 12 points to lead the way. Jordan Smith with 3 more triples as finishes with 9 points.

Welcome to Chicago

2009-07-08T20:33:00.002-05:00

Welcome to Chicago and the Chicago Summer Classic. Announcement at the gate for the flight here. "The plane outside is 'not good'" WHAT??!!! They moved us across the airport to another plane and gate. Then we find out that the AC on the original plane that came in from Fort Myers, FL was bad. HA.

How crazy is it that on the way to the hotel I run into Magic 16s coach Leon Garvis. Look Away coach. But now that I'm here, I will Stay The Night. After all, this basketball thing is a Hard Habit To Break . Therefore, there will no "Along Comes A Woman" saga to this (while a mistress has advantages, it might upsurp my powers in the Kingdom and that would be no good). Nothing like 6 straight days away from the real life for this basketball life. Love Me Tomorrow co-workers? I can say with One Clear Voice (OK, that's cheating, it was a Peter Cetera solo hit, just seeing if you're paying attention) that they won't! Wait a minute, they could enjoy it. Not worth thinking about.

Enough of the lame Chicago references (no I wasn't the Target Center to see them last Wednesday but I did see them in 1992 in the Old Kingdom also without Cetera). 43 Hoops comes off a big championship in Cincinnati. That event is one of the big Adidas tournaments of the entire season.

Thursday is relatively quiet here at the Chicago Summer Classic. 43 Hoops Harris has a big game with the Illinois Wolves and PNR 17s have Team Stat (more below). Friday is lights out. Net Gain has all 3 of their games (Mac Irvin Fire, Martin Brothers and Team Stat with top 5 2011 kid Austin Rivers, Doc Rivers kid). Pump N Run 17s will be a different look as they take on Mac Irvin Fire and Rising Stars Gold after seeing Team Stat on Thursday. Team Stat takes on Mac Irvin Fire on Friday night to end Friday's match play in a game that tons of fans and coaches alike will be watching.

Saturday finishes up match play and the brackets get underway. MN Heat Elite have picked up Spencer Pankonin and Max Watts from Wear Out The Net which are very nice pickups. Jay Sewer from TNL was playing in Indianapolis with the Fury from what I heard.

Pool Results from Milwaukee and Cincy

2009-07-08T00:03:00.003-05:00

In Cincinnati, 43 Hoops-Harris split their 2 pool games before losing in the 1st round to the Baltimore Assault in an 7 AM game (OK 8 AM eastern time). Quick tourney for them. Chris Carr's 16U club won their pool and then took out a very good Illinois Warriors team tonight to advance to the quarterfinals. Next up is a early morning matchup with KC Pump N Run. Ross Travis vs Christian Kirk is a nice matchup in that one. The 43 Hoops Grant 16s went out in the 1st round of the playoffs after winning 1 pool game (win by forfeit in another). 43 Hoops Daniels is very depleted right now and they went 0-3. 43 Hoops Gameli went 0-2 in pool play with a late night Gold Bracket game not yet posted.

In Milwaukee, the 2nd Howard Pulley 15U group gets the MN Suns in the morning. HP Black on the same side for a possible semifinal matchup. In 16U, a Comets Elite win and a Team MN Elite win would match those 2 teams up in the quarterfinals. Howard Pulley Black lurks on the other side of the bracket and could get the Madison Spartans in the quarters. Marcus Alipate vs Nimrod Hillard in a battle of PGs there. And I have to mention the Bay City vs WI Playmakers game tomorrow afternoon. A nice matchup of Wisconsin teams there and 6'6-6'7 kids who can really play. Bay City is in the same pool in Chicago as the Mpls Stars (former TNL 16U club). HP White and MN Magic are on opposite sides of the Gold bracket.

In 17U, Net Gain could see Howard Pulley in a semifinal. Chanse Creekmur with a big tourney for Net Gain. Howard Pulley may have to get past Vander Blue and Quevyn Winters of the Milwaukee Spartans in the quarters though. The other side has a very familiar quarter with the winner of Team Nebraska and SYF Players taking on Comets-Hanson. All 3 of those teams were at the Sabes Invite. Comets-Seevers gets Playground Elite in the opener of bracket play on the top half of that side. Zach McCabe vs Jordan Dykstra is a battle of western Iowa stars that could happen in the quarters if Comets-Seevers doesn't get through.

Teams and The Czar hit the road for July

2009-07-04T17:21:00.004-05:00

Monday begins the 1st of 2 July periods where the D1 coaches can get out and evaluate (but not talk to) prospects. This period runs from July 6-15 before the coaches get a break before the 2nd period of July 22-31. This first session breaks into 3 available events.

Event 1 (Milwaukee, Indianapolis and Cincinnati)
Milwaukee's Next Level Invitational has Net Gain and a full MN complement of Howard Pulley (Harrison Barnes will probably be at one of the big skills camps that start this recruiting period). The top 2 Comets teams also make the trip. ECI East with Breckenridge star Joe Terfehr is in the same pool with the Comets-Seevers group. Comets-Hanson gets one of Wisconsin's best with the Playground Elite in their pool. Howard Pulley (with Calcaterra and Jacob Thomas) has a tough pool with Meanstreets (who I think are coming to the PNR tourney) and Jordan Dystrka's Martin Brothers squad. Net Gain has to contend with Flavien Davis of the Wisconsin Scholars in their pool and the Iowa Barnstormers. The Barnstormers were final 4 at the PNR tourney in April behind Rasham Suarez (all-tourney). They also have 6'8 Nate Buss who has committed to Northern Iowa since the April tournament.

At the 16U level, Howard Pulley has 2 clubs attending. Their 2nd club has the WI Playmakers and star Paul Jesperson in their pool. MN Magic has a good Bay City Hoops (WI) club and a loaded Iowa Barnstormers team in their pool. MN Comets and Team Minnesota also attending

At the 15U level, the top Howard Pulley club has the Playground Elite and a loaded Martin Brothers team in their pool. MN Suns and the 2nd Howard Pulley team also playing.

Semifinals and Finals are early Thursday which could cause some hassels if anybody makes it that far.

43 Hoops travels to Cincinnati for the Adidas It Takes 5ive Classic. 2 pool games on Monday before bracket play on Tuesday with finals early Wednesday.

In Indianapolis, a big MN group of teams attending. Big Game Sports, Mpls Redhawks, MN Fury (3 teams), Magic Black, MN Select (both), MN Glory, TC Elite and the SW MN Stars.

Period 2 (Chicago, Louisville)
MN Glory and the MN Select teams then continue on to Louisville for the Kentucky Hoopfest.

I'll be in Chicago for the Chicago Summer Classic. A loaded field with all 3 top Iowa programs (Barnstormers, All Iowa Attack and Martin Brothers) coming down from Milwaukee. This event features Pool Play and Match Play (whatever that means). In pool play, MN is well represented with MSB, MN Heat Elite and the Mpls Redhawks. MN Wrath, Mpls Stars (who?), Team MN, MN Heat Elite, 43 Hoops Grant, and Mpls Storm (who?) are in the 16U pools. MN Suns, Net Gain and both 43 Hoops teams represent in 15U.

Match Play should be very interesting. 43 Hoops Carr gets 4 tough games against Mac Irvin Fire, Playground Elite, Rising Stars Gold and the Illinois Wolves-Mullins. 43 Hoops Harris gets another Illinois Wolves squad, All Iowa Attack Red and Velocity Red before they move into the 17U championship bracket. Net Gain gets a different Mac Irvin Fire team, Martin Brothers, Team Stat (LOADED Florida team) all on Friday. The PNR 16s and 17s are here too. The 16s get the same schedule as the 43 Hoops 16s (except its Rising Stars 16s vs 17s), but they don't look they'll get a shot at each other. The PNR 17s get Martin Brothers, Team Stat, Mac Irvin and Rising Stars Gold 17s. A very different format than anything I see during the summer.

The period ends with the Pump N Camp on the 12th and their tournament on the 13-15th which I'll be at. You also have Net Gain and 43 Hoops in Milwaukee for the NY2LA Summer Jam. Howard Pulley will be at the Peach Jam with their top team with the rest of their guys in Kansas.

New Scout 100 also omits Thomas

2009-07-03T15:31:00.003-05:00

Scout.com also kept Jacob Thomas out of their pre-open period top 100 for the class of 2010. (I talk about this more in my previous post about the Rivals rankings, read that here) Here are the notables in the Scout.com list

Harrison Barnes #1
Josh Selby #10
Joe Jackson #17
Vander Blue #47
Tobi Oyedeji #58
Alex Kirk #66
Evan Anderson #70
Trevor Releford #72
Anthony Johnson #97

New Rivals 150 doesn't include Thomas

2009-07-03T15:16:00.002-05:00

Rivals released their going into the open period rankings for the class of 2010. It was widely believed that after ESPN put Jacob Thomas at 75 in their last ranking, that the other services would follow. That's due to the big summer he's had for Howard Pulley. However, that didn't happen with the new Rivals rankings and their 2010 and 2011 rankings both have no Minnesota players (I'll make a prediction that that won't be the case in 2012 or 2013). Here are some kids that have played locally.

Harrison Barnes #2
Josh Selby #7
Joe Jackson #18
Vander Blue #31
Anthony Johnson #88
Brandon Spearman #100
Alex Kirk #106
Tobi Oyedeji #108
Evan Anderson #149
Trevor Releford #150

Add in Flavien Davis at #141 and there's 3 Wisconsin players. Iowa down to 1 player as Jordan Dykstra drops out. Cody Larson has been out of the rankings and doesn't make it in this cut either from South Dakota.

Hanging out at 43 Hoops

2009-07-02T23:18:00.002-05:00

So I spent the night of 6/24 and then Monday night at 43 Hoops watching their college league. Better late than never to note it. On 6/24, the 43 Hoops Harris club easily won their game 75-41 without Vinard Birch or Clay Horne. Chris Carr's 16s took on Concordia and were down 12 early before cutting that lead to 6 at the half (2 of those 6 thanks to an Isaiah Thomas buzzer beater). A big 11-0 runs extends a 7 point Concordia lead to 18 with 14 minutes left in the 22 minute running half. The lead is 22 with 11 minutes left as Concordia shot the lights out from 3. But the 16s made a furious comeback. 13-2 over the next 6:10 cuts the lead to 11 with 4:50 left. Then Jordan Van Eps and Marquel Curtis for 3, Roosevelt Scott with a steal and Thomas Schalk converts 2 FTs after getting 4 shots at the rim. That cuts the lead to 74-69 with 90 seconds left. Maurice Hernandez misses a left corner 3 with 1 minute to play. But a charge and a pair of missed free throws in the last minute mean that the 16s won't score again. Concordia hangs on for a 78-69 win after almost giving up a 22 point lead in the last quarter of the game.

On Monday, I ran into the 2 coolest coaches in the NSIC (why? Because they were the only 2 in the building) watching the 43 Hoops Harris squad against UW-River Falls. 43 up by 11 at the half thanks to some hot shooting from Tim Lubke but they give that lead back by the 14 minute mark of the 2nd half. Brett Ervin with a 3 point play with 48 seconds left to cut the RF lead to 1 and Tim Lubke and RF swap FTs for a 1 point margin with 24 seconds left. River Falls misses a front end with 21 seconds left but 43 turns it over. After a pair of FTs by RF, Tony Gerding gets fouled on a 3 with 2 seconds left but he misses the 1st and makes the 2nd 2 and River Falls leaves with a 53-52 win. The 16s rolled in their game.

On Tuesday I got a chance to see the 16s for a full practice in addition to some bits of the other teams practices. Its always fun to get another perspective on how teams prepare. The continuity of schemes across the different teams is especially interesting consider that the same coach tends to stick with the team from year to year.

Everybody to the Lake?

2009-06-24T16:42:00.003-05:00

John Millea's blog today has all 4 of the remaining Classic Lake schools being assigned to the Lake. Last Monday, each of the schools had an opportunity to present its case for where they wanted to play. Could this be a pre-emptive strike to put 16 in the Lake and then they split into 8 and 8 on the their own? I still don't get why Chaska and Chanhassen want to go to the Missota only to outgrown that league down the road, especially when Chaska has already been there and done that. The NW Suburban and the N Suburban still make no sense with 11 each. Cooper needs to get out out the N Suburban in a bad way.

A reminder that the realignment plans I put together in August 2007 (which I still think make more sense than anything I've heard so far) can be found at these links.

AAAA Realignment here

Remainder of the realignment plan here

Read John Millea's full update here.

2009 Dakota Showcase Predictions

2009-06-23T10:09:00.006-05:00

A look at this weekend's Dakota Showcase as this big events starts the preparation for the July open period.

Pool A
Dakota Schoolers are the class of this pool with Cody Larson, Trevor Gruis and Derek Brown. Joe Terfehr of Breckenridge represents ECI East in the pool. Trevor Osen is the top kid to watch for IBCA Iowa Select I. MN Fury Gold 16s round out the pool with guards Anthony Lee and Terez Van Pelt. I don't see the Schoolers getting much of a challenge.

Pool B
Another weak pool with ECI West, MN Select Kruger and South Dakota Heat II. With that competition and coming off their championship in Mankato, I expect Magic Black to roll through this pool. Doug Sewall came over from TNL to Magic Black and was the tourney MVP in Mankato last week despite being a bloody mess on Saturday. Watch the shooting of Select Kruger's Brodie Raymond in this pool as well. He had 15 triples in 5 games in Mankato last weekend.

Pool C
This might be a better pool. MSB and Fury Gold represent Minnesota. North Dakota Jam Boyz and South Dakota Heat I round out the pool. Despite a depleted roster, MSB won a weak pool in Mankato thanks to the play of Lucas Brown. I'll take MSB to win the pool.

Pool D
Comets-Seevers and MN Select-James top this pool. Jordan Jackson joins Select this week and hopefully Jake Kreuser is healthy for them. Mitchell Kernels and WI Blizzard II make up the bottom of the pool. I look for Scott Nystrom and Martin Wind to be factors for the Comets. Tough pick here but I've picked Ben's team all year. So in the spirit of Chris Berman picking the Bills, I'll take Comets-Seevers to win the pool.

Pool E
MN Xplosion makes another appearance but the team I'm watching here is the Fury Elites.

Pool F
Minnesota Glory is in this pool with Connor Gunderson. Team I'm watching is the Wisconsin Blizzard top team with their 3 guards (Hass, Schalow and Mach) and Scott Carney up front. This time it is their real top team coming, not the Blizzard I team that was in Mankato last weekend. (read a preview of them here) A major threat to win the whole thing.

Pool G
ECI Minnesota here but the top Comets team of Josh Hanson is here and has to be the pick to win the pool. Will Shaun Condon be with the Comets or at Tubby's team camp with his MACCRAY teammates?

Pool H
Finally, we have the SW MN Stars playing at "home" (a few Sioux Falls Christian kids play for them). Alegent Crusaders come up from Omaha and I see them as the other threat in the pool. But after a runner up finish last weekend in Mankato, I'll take the home team to come out of this pool.

Championship Bracket Predictions (8 pool winners play for the big prize)
Dakota Schoolers over Magic Black
Comets-Seevers over MSB
WI Blizzard over MN Fury Elite (top quarterfinal game)
Comets-Hanson over SW MN Stars

Dakota Schoolers over Comets-Seevers
Comets-Hanson over WI Blizzard (another game that I think will be outstanding)

Comets-Hanson over Dakota Schoolers for the championship but it pains me to pick against the Schoolers on home turf.

Breakdown Summer Showcase Thoughts

2009-06-22T20:29:00.003-05:00

My thoughts from Sunday at Minnetonka for the Breakdown Summer Showcase

Blue Pool A
Big Lake wins the pool with wins over GFW and Austin. Austin without Connor Gunderson despite Glory's 1st round playoff lost in Mankato. GFW with 5 points in the 1st 25 minutes of that game vs Big Lake. 38-22 final in an ugly one. 6'8 Center Tyler Hansen for Big Lake is an interesting player. Lanky athlete and can shoot a little. He played well.

Blue Pool B
Loaded pool here. Delano with Darius Clare and Mike Yahnke held off New London-Spicer who had Jayme Moten and Erik Tengwall 57-55. NLS then had too much inside for MACCRAY in a 69-53 win. Seth Hinrichs with 11 in the 2nd half but Shaun Condon only 3 FTs and 2 FG attempts. Condon finishes with 15. Hinrichs in a tough spot having the game of a perimeter player but having to defend the top post player. MACCRAY held off Delano in the last pool game 55-51. MACCRAY up 27-24 at half behind 16 points from their star Shaun Condon. In the 2nd half, when Delano would get close, Condon would make a play. He finishes with 28 in the win. Mike Yahnke with 15 points for Delano. So that means all 3 teams finish 1-1. Delano and NLS finish with the same points allowed so despite a head-head win, we go to the coin flip which Delano thankfully wins.

Delano couldn't generate any offense in the championship game vs Big Lake and the Hornets get the surprise championship.

Red Pool A
Apollo with all 3 of their stars from the class of 2011 on hand but it didn't matter vs a loaded Hopkins squad. Hopkins wins 72-49. Zach Stahl really made a case for that 5th spot with his play in this one. Only Riley Dearring missing, but Marvin Singleton, Siyani Chambers, DJ Peterson and Joe Coleman all on hand for the Royals. Cameron Selmer was the only kid from Mankato who made the trip back.

Champlin Park shorthanded as Kyle Zimmerman and Jasper Duberry weren't available. But they gave Hopkins all they wanted. CP had a late lead thanks to a Josh Pella steal and layup but a Hopkins 3 and a Dillon Hager miss allows Hopkins to survive 44-40.

Red Pool B
Sibley rolled through Pool B despite not having Jake Kreuser and Jimmy Ryan (2 key components of next year's team). Interesting that Kreuser didn't play on Sunday in Mankato with what appears to be a bum knee.

Red Championship (Hopkins vs Sibley)
This one had some intensity to it. Interesting to hear Hopkins talk smack about Jordan Jackson transferring to Sibley. I found the irony rather humorous. Then the game was chippy at times too as there was some chirping going on. 26-20 Hopkins at the half with Mike Rostampour scoring 8 points and Jordan Jackson with 6 points on 2 circus field goals. Sibley comes out with 9 in a row to start the 2nd half before a DJ Peterson 3 breaks the run. Rostampour on the bench to end the run as he has 4 fouls. But he returns with 9:30 left in a surprise move. 33-31 Hopkins with 8:30 to play. Siyani Chambers runs out for a pair of layins to push the lead to 6 with 4:20 left. Marvin Singleton with a 3 point play and then Chambers for 3 for a 12 point lead with 2:45 left to conclude a 10-0 run. But DJ Peterson misses a front end with 32.7 seconds left and Chambers misses another front end at 20.5 and Sibley is only down 2 with a chance to tie. But they turn it over with 12.1 to go. Chambers seals the 49-45 Hopkins win with 2 FTs. Mike Rostampour with 17 and 10 as Hopkins had trouble with him inside. Jordan Jackson with 10 points but his shot selection more than once left something to be desired. Jackson is still adjusting to the new style, but coach Dasovich is going to have to determine if he's a 1 or a 2 next season. He's a scorer in a PG body but his athleticism is a major plus. DJ Peterson with 15 points, Siyani Chambers with 12. Marvin Singleton did see plenty of perimeter touches during the day, but he's the guy who's going to have to be an interior presence for them in 09-10.

Mankato Day 2 Results

2009-06-20T23:36:00.002-05:00

I made the trip to Mankato to see for myself what the Mr Basketball MN Showcase had on display. Last night the coaches were out in force, but a very very quiet day in terms of coaches sightings on Saturday (weak schedule didn't help).

Game 1: MN Glory was down 15-4 early to IBCA Iowa Select I as they couldn't buy a shot from anywhere. IBCA star Trevor Osen in foul trouble which limited his 1st half minutes. Glory's Connor Gunderson took advantage of their open-post motion with numerous curl cuts into the lane for easy hoops and then knocked down 3 triples in the 2nd half on his way to 24 points in a 60-51 Glory win.

Game 2: TC Elite vs Mitchell Kernels. TC Elite sleepwalks early but manages to take a 37-24 halftime lead. Mitchell closes to 58-54 with 5:32 remaining but Aaron McCrossan knocks down a pair of his 6 triples in the game and adds on a pair of assists as TC Elite opens the shooting gallery down the stretch. Jordan Gieske doing a nice job of running and working to get easy buckets. TC Elite wins 78-59.

Game 4: MN Select James vs WI Blizzard II. Jake Kreuser with a bunch of touches for Select in this one. Blizzard take a 26-25 lead to half and then open the lead up to 8 early in the 2nd half before Select comes back for a 50-47 win. Tyler Firme's 12 points leads the way and I like his game. Jake Kreuser with 8 points (3-9 FG), 8 rebounds and 2 blocks on my sheet.

Game 4: TNL out of gate quick vs the SW MN Stars 7-0 despite 0-6 shooting from their big 3 of Duberry, Knopke and Sewer. TNL gets 8 in a row including a pair of Duberry triples for a 29-21 lead only to give up the next 9. SW goes to the half up 34-33. 42 all inside of 12 minutes when TNL goes on a 17-4 run to take a 59-46 lead with 6:25 left. The lead gets out to 16 before SW makes a furious late comeback. A steal for 2 cuts the lead to 5 with 2:05 left, then a 3 pt play cuts the lead to 3 at the 1:15 mark and a triple with 55 seconds left cuts the TNL lead to 76-75. TNL misses a front end with 28.8 left and survives a wide open look at the tying 3 withi 18 seconds left. TNL wins 82-80. Jay Sewer leads the way with 23 points (5 triples) on 8-16 shooting. Jasper Duberry with 4 triples as he went 7-12 for 18 points. Devon Knopke struggled with his shot going 2-8 (missed 1st 6) but he went 11-14 from the charity stripe and I had him for 7 rebounds and 3 assists with 15 points.

Game 5: MSB blows out Magic Red 79-59. Richfield's Ben Webster with 19 points for Magic Red. Lucas Brown with 21 points after a cold shooting start as he continues to impress here for MSB. MSB missing key components Zach Vraa, Troy Klingsporn and Andy Jirik.

Game 6: Best thing I can say about the 73-36 WI Blizzard I win over IBCA Iowa Select II squad is to acknowledge the IBCA guard who had the Kurt Rambis glasses going. That was a quality visual. Adam Haidman with 8 triples and 26 points for the victors in the top scoring performance of the tourney to date.

Game 7: Magic Black vs MN Select Kruger. Magic Black out to a 7-0 lead but the Heat are pesky and won't go away. Doug Sewall now with the Magic (was with TNL) gets a nasty gash above his right eye and we've got copious amounts of blood visible. CLEANUP ON COURT 1 PLEASE! But he's tough and comes back with a big patch in the 2nd half. Though I wish he would have had the Cameron Rundles playoff headwrap of a few years ago vs Henry with the single dried trickle of blood down his cheek. Anyway, North (St. Paul's) Nathan Schouvieller takes the extra step and gets called for it but the hammer throwdown came out of nowhere. Surprisingly athleticism there. Jeff Fallat with a putback with 2:07 remaining to give Magic a 52-49 lead. Brodie Raymond with a clutch triple with 29 seconds left to push Select into a 54 all tie. Jalen Williiams hesitates and misses an open 3 and Jeff Fallat fouls on the rebound with 6 seconds left Raymond makes the 1st FT. Magic requests a timeout after possession of the 2nd free throw. 2nd free throw is up and off the rim, mad scramble, ball is loose. Wait. There's the whistle and Magic gets the timeout down 1 with 4.9 left. Good break for the Magic. Jalen Williams goes full court but its not good at the horn and Select Kruger wins 55-54. Jalen Williams perimeter skills were more than expected and he leads the way with 16 points. Raymond with 3 more triples and 15 points as he continues his solid play in his backyard.

Game 8: Heat Select struggled though the 1st 3/4 of the game vs the Western Iowa Knickerbockers. But they make a run and win 69-61. David Mooers comes up big with 19 points for the winners. Nathan Kuck only 7 points as I had him 3-12 shooting, just one of those days. He's been Heat Select's top player all summer. Elijah Sabah quiet with 6 points on 3-5 shooting.

Game 9: IBCA Iowa Select I vs Mitchell Kernels. Game appears meaningless but it has impact on the next game. A Kernels win means Glory and TC Elite play head up for 1 and 2 in the pool. An IBCA win means a TC Elite win forces a 3 way tie. 1st place determined by point differential. Then 2nd place determined by head-head result of the remaining 2 teams. Glory at +29, TC Elite at +16, IBCA at -6. Long story short IBCA blows a 12 point 2nd half lead but comes back to hold off Mitchell 61-54. That means going into game 10 below. TC Elite not only needs to win, but they need to win by 7 or more to win the pool. 6 or less would put them in the 2nd place head-head tiebreaker with IBCA which IBCA won yesterday by 3 and therefore TC Elite would be 3rd and not play in the championship bracket.

Game 10: TC Elite vs Glory. Remember TC Elite needs a win by 7+. Glory out to a 28-16 lead with 5:18 left in the 1st half. Josh Pratt back with a pair of triples to cut the lead to 3 2 minutes later (9-0 run). But Glory makes clutch shots and they lead 36-29 at the half. TC Elite to the bonus and within 2 with 8:23 left when they miss the front end of the bonus that would tie the game. Glory's Nate Miller counters with back to back triples and the Glory lead is 57-49 with 7 minutes left. Pratt with a steal for 2 but then he misses the front end with 3:41 left and TC Elite down 63-58. David Gschneider with a hoop and 2 FTs and after we get the scoreboard straightened out, we're tied at 63 with 1:30 to play. Aaron McCrossan's 3 at 1:15 counters a Miller layin and now TC Elite leads 66-65, but remember they need a 7 point win so now the foul game starts. Glory misses 3 front ends (we're only shooting 1+1 in this tourney, no double bonus) but TC Elite can't convert. After 2 Justin Bosman FTs with 18.8 left, Pratt nails a triple with 4.5 to go to tie the game and send us to a 2 minute overtime. New life for TC Elite? No. Glory wins 79-75. Josh Pratt and Connor Gunderson lead their teams with 22 points each. Pratt hot from deep as he had 5 triples.

Game 11: TNL vs MN Select James. Interesting contrast of Select and Jake Kreuser vs the helter skelter style of TNL. Sam Onsomu (I think a mini Bryce Webster when I see him) is a nice piece inside along with Tyler Firme. He's got a big frame and works hard inside. Offense hard to come by in this one as TNL wins easily 65-42. Onsomu leads Select with 10 points. Jake Kreuser 9 points on 3-6 shooting with 5 rebounds and 2 blocks. Biggest shock though is how easy TNL won despite the woeful shooting of their guards. Jay Sewer 15 points on 6-15 shooting. Devon Knopke cold again as I had him 2-11 shooting. Nice game of 14 points and aggressiveness at Kreuser from Kyle Zimmerman.

MN Glory, MSB, Magic Black and TNL win the 4 pools.

Mankato Day 1 Results

2009-06-19T20:13:00.011-05:00

Final results from the first day of the inaugural Mister Basketball Minnesota Showcase in Mankato.

Game 1) Magic Red vs WI Blizzard I. 77-41 Blizzard win. Sam Koslowski (17.3 for Menasha St. Mary Central last year ) with 19 points for the Blizzard. I wish this was the top Blizzard team, but this is their 3rd or 4th team. WI Blizzard II is a group of 16s.
Game 2) Lucas Brown's 25 was the top scoring performance of the day. In MSB’s 61-49 win over IBCA Iowa Select II.
Game 3) MN Select-Kruger over Western Iowa Knickerbockers 60-36 (no 6'8 Patrick Kurth or Tim Olejniczak for WIK).
Game 4) Magic Black over Heat Select 67-56. 3 guys in dbl figures for each team. Magic’s Jeff Fallat with 14 to lead all scorers. Doug Sewall with Magic Black and not TNL. Elijah Sabah 11 with a pair of triples for Heat Select.
Game 5) IBCA Iowa Select I 58-55 over TC Elite. Edina's Stephen Asp with 24 in a losing effort. Josh Pratt held to 6 points.
Game 6) MN Glory 61-36 over Mitchell Kernels. Nate Miller 19 points for the Glory. Connor Gunderson 10 points.
Game 7) SW MN Stars 65-35 over Select-James in a result that surprised me most from this day because of the margin. Jake Kreuser does lead all scorers with 13 points.
Game 8) TNL 66-47 over WI Blizzard II (16s). Devon Knopke 18 points.
Game 9) IBCA Iowa Select II 71-51 over Magic Red.
Game 10) MSB over WI Blizzard I 62-59. Kennedy's Ryan Vikesland with 12 points. 5'8 Nick Whalen with 3 triples and a game high 22 points for the Blizzard. Appears that there was no Zach Vraa for MSB. Drat I want to see him play.
Game 11) Magic Black over Western Iowa Knickerbockers 77-44. Jalen Williams with 16 points to lead 4 players in double figures for Magic Black. Nice to see big Matt Sellers get 13 points. He's done double-duty all summer and many will say he should have played more (at any level) for DLS last year.
Game 12) Heat Select def Select-Kruger 68-65. Nathan Kuck leads Heat Select in scoring again in this one as he had 20. St. Peter's Brodie Raymond with 5 triples and 24 points for Select-Kruger.

Pools A and D (MN Glory, TC Elite, MN Select-James and TNL) all play twice on Saturday. Magic Black and MSB will play their final pool games with a chance to sweep their pools. MN Select-James will likely need 2 wins to finish in the top half of their pool and make the championship bracket. But without the injured Alex Koch (dislocated ankle suffered last weekend at Hamline), a major perimeter threat is lost. I'm rooting for the TC Elite vs Glory game to determine who wins the pool or who advances.

Stillwater blasts the alma mater

2009-06-19T18:11:00.003-05:00

Stillwater opens up tourney play in La Crosse with a 76-41 win over my alma mater La Crosse Central. Coach Randy Jordan has his guys going on full cylinders it looks like. Stillwater plays Central archrival La Crosse Logan in their final pool game later in the weekend. Let's hope that score is just as bad. :) At least that game isn't at The Swamp. Logan's fieldhouse is my least favorite basketball facility on the planet. So much for my beloved Red Raiders.

Chaska and Shakopee are also in La Crosse. One of Shakopee trio of 2011 kids, Ethan Petrill is out with a injured ankle. Pump N Run will need him to give Aaron Ziman some minutes of rest during July.

Teams back to the road this weekend

2009-06-17T13:07:00.005-05:00

A busy weekend for kids with the Badger camp in Madison, Mr. Basketball MN Showcase in Mankato and the Dakota Showcase up in Wahpeton, ND/Breckenridge, MN. Not to mention a Breakdown HS tourney at Minnetonka. (Czar's Note 6/17/09: Chaska, Stillwater and Shakopee will be in The Old Kingdom for a HS tourney in La Crosse, including games at my alma mater. Hopefully Stillwater will go easy on Central but make up for it against Logan. 6 games for each of those teams with 3 on Friday and Saturday before bracket play on Sunday)

Dakota Showcase (schedule here)
MN Triple Threat makes the trip north and they get Trevor Gruis and the Dakota Schoolers in their pool. Bad break there in the draw. MN Glory 16s are also there. In the 15s, visions of the MN Select Classic appear. MN Southside, Comets Elites, Dakota Schoolers 14s and 15s along with Martin Brothers (1 of the top programs in Iowa) are all in the 15U bracket. If this is the Martin Brothers team I expect you're looking at possibly Marcus Paige (though he may in Madison with his Linn-Mar teammates), Mike Gesell and Adam Woodbury (top Iowa kids in 2012) all appearing. Should be a terrific 15U bracket. Southside vs Comets 3 PM Saturday as they have split their last 2 meetings if I recall correctly. Martin Brothers vs Southside at 6:30 PM Saturday.

Mr. Basketball MN Showcase (schedule here)
One of easiest setups for fans like me since its 1 court only for the 1st 2 days. Tough with the Sunday night final though. MN Glory and TC Elite should be interesting in Pool A (7:30 PM Saturday). Connor Gunderson vs Josh Pratt in a nice perimeter matchup in that game will be fun to watch. Pool B has the Wisconsin Blizzard top team which I think is a favorite here (read a preview of them here). Trevor Hass should be fun to watch for them as he leads their terrific group of guards. But MSB is also in Pool B and gets their shot at the Blizzard at 7:30 on Friday night. Let's hope I finally get to see Zach Vraa play for them. Magic Black highlights pool C but the Western Iowa Knickerbockers have 6'8 Patrick Kurth in the middle to deal with. Not to mention Tim Olejniczak who was the top small school scorer in Iowa last year at 24 pts per game. Minnesota Select's 2nd team (Kruger?) with St. Peter's Brodie Raymond and MN Heat Select with Elijah Sabah are also in the pool. TNL Express and MN Select I (James I'm assuming) are the tops of Pool D and play at 8:40 Saturday night in my most anticipated game of the day. This MN Select squad will look very different than what I saw at the MN Select Tournament. Alex Koch and Jake Kreuser are now on board (though Kreuser could be with Sibley this weekend). Looks like they may also have the 18 and 7 that Matt Baldwin averaged at East Grand Forks. Sami Onsomu and Jesse Briggity DNP as well in May when I saw them. They're a big wildcard in this tourney.

The Czar's Pool Winners: Glory, Blizzard I, W. Iowa Knickerbockers, MN Select I

Breakdown Tourney (schedule here)
6 teams in the Red bracket with 3 nice teams Apollo, Champlin Park and Faribault in 1 pool. Sibley headlines the other pool with Northfield and Owatonna. Sibley to win their pool, especially if Mike Rostampour and/or Jake Kreuser play for them. They steamrolled last weekend at Hamline. The other pool is tougher. What will Champlin Park have with TNL playing in Mankato? Hopefully Mike Emge is playing for Faribault as he's a heck of a shooter.

The Blue bracket is Big Lake, GFW and Austin (Connor Gunderson appearance?) on 1 side with Delano, New London-Spicer and MACCRAY on the other. If all players show up, you'd have nice kids in Mike Yahnke (Delano), Jayme Moten and Eric Tengwall (NLS), Seth Hinrichs and Shawn Condon (MACCRAY). MACCRAY coming off winning the event last weekend at SW MN State.

Josh Pratt Profile

2009-06-16T13:25:00.004-05:00

I had a chance last weekend to get in touch with St. Anthony's Josh Pratt and his summer coach Bryan Schnettler of TC Elite. They were kind enough to answer a few questions for me about Josh's season with St. Anthony, his experiences this summer (including comments about the big buzzer beater vs the Pump N Run 16s at the Comets Shootout), what he working on and who may interested in Josh at the next level.

Minnesota Preps subscribers can read the article here.

Pool Play at MN HS Hoops Classic

2009-06-13T19:49:00.002-05:00

So I made my way to "The Birthplace of Intercollegiate Basketball" for the MN HS Hoops Classic. A nice field with Osseo, Forest Lake, Henry Sibley, Spring Lake Park and Minnehaha among those participating.

Osseo vs Forest Lake highlighted the 1st session. Aaron Anderson arriving at the half for Osseo after the morning's ACTs. Forest Lake uses a 9-2 run to end the 1st half for a 7 point half time lead and they win 77-64. Forest Lake's open-post motion offense in mid-season form getting them great looks. Osseo with no answers on the defensive end.

Minnehaha vs Sibley for the highlight of the 2nd session. No Taylor Hanson in this one for Minnehaha which is never a good sign when you're up against Mike Rostampour and Jake Kreuser. Jordan Jackson also getting action with his new teammates (Como Park transfer). That's a big get for Sibley especially if Jackson can reign in some of the habits he had at Como. Rostampour had to have 20 and 10 in this one. Not much from Parker Hines for Minnehaha and Sibley goes on to an easy 64-36 win.

Osseo against St. Anthony in game 3 of the day. St. Anthony bombing away from deep to keep the game tied at 14 in the 1st half. Osseo extends to 37-28 at the break. Josh Pratt with a big 3 at the 11 minute mark of the 2nd half for a 48-47 St. Anthony lead. But Osseo is too much. A 13-3 run for Osseo gives them the lead for good. Osseo goes on to a 81-68 win.

Session 4 had Sibley with another big win 66-33 over Farmington.

My last session had Spring Lake Park vs St. Louis Park. Full house rosters for each team though not having Derek Dahl for Spring Lake Park was a big loss. Alex Koch leading the way despite some forced shots. The Orioles get a 12 point lead in the 1st half and never look back. 72-61 St. Louis Park wins. Aaron Ziman is the 1 player who doesn't play 1000 miles per hour for them though he has the ability. He's key to getting them in their sets. Elijah Sabah again showing a developed perimeter game. Nice to see Sean Scott getting some time with them as well.

Mike Rostampour easily the player of the day. Absolutely dominant in the paint and he even got in a couple of passing lanes to take passes the other way in the Farmington game.

Apple Valley announces new head coach

2009-06-10T12:34:00.000-05:00

Assistant Zach Goring takes over at Apple Valley for Mike Fritze. Here's the press release.

AV GRADUATE ZACH GORING SELECTED TO LEAD THE EAGLES.

Apple Valley, June 10, 2009: Apple Valley High School is pleased
to announce that Zach Goring has been hired as the head boys basketball coach.
He replaces Mike Fritze, who resigned the position in April.

Goring is a 7-year assistant coach for AVHS Boys’ Basketball. He is a 1995
graduate of AVHS and is the school’s all time leader in assists. He also holds
records for assists in a season and assists in a game. Goring was a 3-year letter
winner in basketball. During his junior and senior seasons, his teams won two
Lake Conference titles and he was named to the All-Conference team both
seasons. He was also a two-year letterman in baseball.

After graduation from Apple Valley, Goring attended St. Olaf College in
Northfield for one year before transferring to St. Cloud State University.
During Goring’s senior year, he helped lead the Huskies to the NCAA Division
II National Basketball Tournament.

After his graduation from college, he served as an assistant coach at St. Cloud
State University. During Goring's time as an assistant coach at AVHS, he has
been a part of two state tournament teams in 2007 (3rd place) and 2009. The
2007 team also won the conference title.

Thoughts from the latest MSHSL meeting

2009-06-09T20:59:00.003-05:00

Some interesting developments from this week's MSHSL meeting.

1) Teams will be limited to a total of 3 scrimmages/jamborees.

I like a limit, but I don't know that it was ever really an issue. This has more practical impact than our next item.

2) Teams may not travel outside of neighboring states/provinces (thank you Manitoba) unless its a round trip of less than 600 miles.

This is totally ridiculous on a couple of accounts. First, how much is this actually happening and how much of an "advantage" is it. Second, most of those trips are funded by the event being attended (e.g the Hopkins trip to NY this year) or by fundraisers by the team (e.g baseball trips over spring break). I much prefer Wisconsin's solution of saying you can play 22 games if they're all in Wisconsin or neighboring states, otherwise you only get 20. Admittedly Wisconsin had Milwaukee schools going to Chicago and outstate all the time so they felt a pressing need for change. Maybe there's something to a pre-emptive strike. But if a tournament is paying Hopkins to come play, I want to see our Minnesota team to be able to go and showcase our talent.

3) From John Millea's post tonight, a 7 person committee will meet next Monday to start the process of placing the 4 remaining Classic Lake schools in leagues. Other than that, just a rehash of the expected. 2 to the Lake, 2 to the NW Suburban, appeals, complaints etc. Then the real fun begins with the Lake Conference finally seeing they're in this whether they want to be or not. Millea has predicted for a while that Chaska and Chanhassen would move to the Missota which would bring that league to 9 teams (remember Hutchinson is leaving for the Wright County). You'd end up with 13 in the NW Suburban so something would have to happen there. As much as I think Armstrong should have joined the North Suburban to be with Cooper and set that league at 12 teams, you know they won't be leaving after all the trouble they went through to get in that league.

2009 AAU District Championships Thoughts

2009-06-07T19:16:00.003-05:00

My thoughts on vomit, horse racing hats, officiating, defensive struggles and whatever else of note from this weekend's AAU District Championships.

15U
I start the weekend by seeing Tommy McDermott take the tip for 43 Hoops Daniels in the 8-9 game. vs 43 Hoops Gameli My kind of tip with a guard taking it. A pair of Kevin Jensen layups start a run that puts Daniels over the top 53-44. No real surprises in any of the bracket games. Suns came from 10 down vs Daniels in the quarters and won by 19 with a big 3rd quarter (21-2 run). Howard Pulley White took out Daniels last week and took out Pump N Run this week for bragging rights. Comets Elite took out Magic Elite and Southside defeated Heat Elite. Darian Pittman with 24 points (18 FTs) for the Suns as they defeated Pulley in the semis 72-61. Pulley with a pair of runs in that one but couldn't get over the top. That game took forever with all the whistle. Interesting that after a comment of mine to the assigning official about 1 of the refs, he jumped in at half and made it a 3 man crew. Joey King with 23 for Southside as they defeated a very game Comets team 68-60 in the other semi. That game was tied inside of 3 minutes to play. Southside defeated the Suns 49-46 in a war for the 15U title. Nice double teams from the Suns to try and keep King in check. We even had a fan (youngster I believe) leave some of the their lunch in the stands the hard way during the title game. What is that smell? Ewwwwwww, that's vomit. That set of bleachers is toast.

Pump N Run did get their shot at 43 Hoops (finally these teams play again at some level) in the consolation bracket instead of the winners bracket. PNR up 13 late in the 3rd quarter but 43 Hoops doesn't go away. Cortez Tillman goes up and comes down awkwardly on his left wrist late and has to leave. Kevin Jensen makes a pair of FTs to cut the lead to 3 with 1:34 left. But PNR gets 8 in a row thanks to a pair of 3 point plays and PNR wins 60-49.

16U
The biggest shocker of the weekend for me had to be the Comets Elites (yes I picked them to win it) losing not once but twice on Saturday. Going out 61-53 to the Magic Elites isn't that big a deal, but the upstart MSB squad also beat the Comets Elites on Saturday. Remember that MSB gave Pump N Run all they wanted during bracket play at the Pump N Run tournament. I get Team Minnesota losing to the Wrath in the semifinals correct for a clean upper half of the draw. Wrath really handled Wear Out The Net from start to finish and I didn't expect that. Heat Elite took it to Magic Elite in the other semi 42-26. Heat Elite defeat the Wrath 44-39 in another major defensive struggle for the 16U D1 title. The Wrath are like a python in that they just squeeze the life out of you. Jack Klukas is known, but also keep the name Conner Nord in mind from Eden Prairie. Nice presence inside for The Wrath. Heat's end game execution wasn't ideal, but they managed to survive. MSB also took out WOTN on Sunday. SW MN Heat did make the 16U-D2 title game.

17U
MSB wins the D2 bracket 40-36 over Fury Gold in another defensive struggle. Jalen Jaspers with Magic Black again this weekeend but I was surprised Fury Gold took them out by 24 in the semis. Now to the real fun, 17U-D1

Triple Threat took out TC Elite 65-43 in a major suprise in margin in the 8-9 game. 17-10 TC Elite after 1 quarter but they gave up a 26-3 run over about 1 quarter of play and were down 18 after 3. In the quarters, TNL needed OT vs Heat Elite before winning 79-74. Comets Seevers after beating Heat Select got down 30 to Fury Elite. But they cut the lead to 12 before bowing out 68-54. Comets Hanson defeated Triple Threat. Pump N Run 16s took out the Redhawks 58-56 in the last quarterfinal. PNR wins the 1st 2 quarters 13-12 for a 2 point halftime lead. Taylor Hanson 2 fouls in the 1st quarter cut his minutes and nothing from Parker Hines. The Redhawks go small and use a 2-3 zone nicely to end the 3rd quarter and a Taylor Hanson 3 gives them a 1 point lead going to the final stanza. Tied with 2:14 left and then Hanson fouls out. Jonah Travis with 3 of 4 FTs and a pair of dunks after that. Hines keeping the Redhawks close but his 3 at the horn only cuts the margin. PNR wins 58-56. Travis leads the way with 13 points. Parker Hines held to 9.

Fury and TNL close at the half of their semifinal, but Fury opens it up in the 2nd half and wins 68-55. Comets Hanson vs Pump N Run in the other semifinal. 1st 5 points of the game to PNR but a 9-2 Hanson run looks like it has them going. Jonah Travis with a reverse layin and PNR using some 2-3 which is contrary to the 1-2-2 they show. 15-14 PNR after 1. To the 2nd quarter and Travis has a monster 2 handed follow dunk, Jason Perkins with a straight away triple and Eric Robertson with a big triple. PNR 29-18 at the 1:40 mark for a 14-4 run in the quarter. The PNR lead is 7 at the half. The Comets make a run in the 3rd with a Taylor Filipek 3 point and a pair of triples from sniper Scott Willenbring. That cuts the PNR lead to 38-34 going to the 4th and it almost feels like PNR is just hanging on. But Alex Richter is back in to start the final quarter after his usual end of quarter bench rotation and he gets 5 in a row to push the lead right back to 8. Dan Kornbaum keeps the Comets close with a 3 point play at 4:13. 45-42 PNR leads. Perkins with another huge bomb inside of 3 minutes and the lead is 8. Kyle Noreen with a breakaway dunk and Richter with a layup to cap. PNR wins 58-49. Richter with 16 and Travis with 12.

PNR vs Fury Elite in the championship game. Yuriy Maleshenko with a pair of quick triples for the Fury, but PNR wins the rest of the quarter 13-6. Jack Wittenborg concludes a 6-0 Fury run with his 2nd post up against Aaron Ziman for a 16-13 Fury lead early in the 2nd quarter. 26-24 PNR at the half. LeDarian Horton with a nice 3rd quarter but neither team can gain a major advantage on the scoreboard. 36-34 PNR going to the final quarter. Aaron Ziman picks up his 4th foul seconds into the quarter and the problem that is Dajon Newell just became more so. Then again maybe not as nobody can seem to score. Jonah Travis with a great skip pass out of a post double team and Alex Kreuser nails a triple with 3:45 left for a 41-38 lead. Newell slips a screen and finishes. Richter counters on the other end. A missed 1 and 1 by Fury with 1:31 left is painful but PNR doesn't convert and Fury has the ball with 58 seconds left down 43-40. Newell with a jumper to cut the lead to 1 with 45 seconds left. After a Perkins FT, Wittenborg misses a good look at a 3. Ziman makes 2 FTs to clinch the win. PNR 16s win the 17U state title 47-42. Congrats to coach Miller on his 1st state title. Jonah Travis with 12 in the win for the only player in double figures.

Biggest story of the weekend is PNR's physical play. Normally its the older team having the advantage in pushing the younger team around. Not so in this instance. PNR was too physical for the Redhawks and beat up the Comets. And they were plenty tough in the war against a very rough and tough Fury team. The Comets had no answer for Alex Richter on the wing in the semifinal game and Jonah Travis was a beast in the championship game. In the 3 games against very solid MN 17s, PNR gave up 56, 49 and 42 points. Then they made big shots on the offensive end with the Perkins/Robertson/Kreuser triples in addition to plays from Richter or Travis.

A couple of nice posters handed out by the Comets Seevers squad during the weekend. Andrew Good handed out one with a 2 handed mash in the game vs Heat Select. Luke Januschka with a 1 handed breakout poster in the consolation game against Triple Threat.

And finally, long time readers may remember that Friday night at this event last year we had a lady decked out in full Kentucky Derby regalia (fantastic hat included). Well, this year didn't disappoint. We had both days of a lady wearing a nice purple fedora like hat with a "flower" on it (lack of better term) and matching outfit. It didn't meet last year's standard, but still high quality fashion that my simple mind found amusing in this setting.

2009 AAU District Championship 17U Predictions

2009-06-05T08:56:00.001-05:00

To the fun, here's my thoughts on each bracket

17U-D1
Give me Comets-Seevers over Heat Select in the 7-10 game. The 8-9 game is the "We get no respect game" for the honor of playing the top seeded Comets-Hanson team. I'll take TC Elite but I won't be surprised if Triple Threat wins.

In the quarters, Comets Hanson takes out the 8-9 winner and Fury Elite takes out the 7-10 winner (Fury handled the Comets-Seevers club surprisingly easily last Saturday).

Most likely upset is in the 3-6 game with TNL vs Heat Elite. I like TNL here but a big game from Ryan Duxbury in the post would make this one very interesting. As always pace is huge here. A fast pace favors TNL, slow pace should allow Duxbury touches and favor the Heat.

The 4-5 game with the Pump N Run 16s vs Mpls Redhawks should be dynamite. PNR defeated the Redhawks at the Comets tourney. PNR without Eric Robertson in that one and I think the Redhawks were shorthanded. PNR has enough big bodies to defend Taylor Hanson. I look for Kyle Noreen to get the main task of defending Parker Hines. The Redhawks will run and PNR's size can cause them problems in transition defense. Keep an eye on that as well. Interesting that the 43 Hoops 16U-Carr team beat the Redhawks by 3 in the MN Select tourney championship game. Would the score of this game mean anything to those of us who do polls?

Semifinals: I'll take Comets Elite-Hanson and Fury Elite. I think those 2 teams have separated themselves from the rest of the pack.

Championship: Should be a classic. Will Mike Johnson get more time in an effort to better defend Dajon Newell or do they throw a group of guys like Tengwall and Riewer at him? I think the Comets matchup well in this one with a guy like Alex Hanks to guard LeDarian Horton and/or Danny Geiger. Bucholz and Kornbaum matchup against Casey and Wensmann. Taylor Filipek vs Yuriy Maleshenko would be fun to see. I'll take the Comets to win.

17U-D2
Give me Magic Blue over Old Skool and Glory over River City in the playin games.
Quarters: MSB over Magic Blue, Comets North over Comets Blue (northern bragging rights), Fury Gold over WOTN, Magic Black over Glory in an interesting game.
Semis: Magic Black over Fury Gold, MSB over Comets North
Championship: Magic Black over MSB