The Czar's AAU Coverage and Season Totals

And so the Czar's 2007-2008 season ends. Record numbers for me this season across the board and what fun it was. Both as a fan and this labor of love. At risk of haters ripping me for saying it again, thank you all for reading.

But I'm not totally done. After all, before going into hibernation for the offseason, I have a whole bunch of splinters to get out of my backside. This week I'll be doing a 07-08 season in review post so look for that and I still have to do the final QRF evaluation. I'll also chime in as news items come up. I'll start back up with full regular season 08-09 coverage in October when I start my section and conference previews leading into the season. Also, from time to time over the spring and summer, I'll be going back thru game tapes that I have from the season as voted on by you the loyal readers to help us all get thru the withdrawal of having no basketball.

Things will quiet down here somewhat as there won't be any early week activity, but I will be attempting to do some AAU coverage over the summer. That's a much tougher thing, especially since I'm not at all familiar with the local AAU scene and the fact that no one seems to have programs at these things. I know right now of 3 events I'll be interested in, the MN Magic Event at the end of April, the Howard Pulley Sabes Invite the 2nd weekend of May and the 43 Hoops Twin Cities Summer Classic after the 4th of July. If you have suggestions for events or information on an event you'd like me to cover, please feel free to email me about it. I'm looking forward to seeing what the local AAU scene is like and seeing kids develop during the off-season against different competition. We'll see how it goes, but I hope to have some interesting stuff to post here during the AAU season.

One of the things I get asked often when I'm out and about doing this is how many games and teams I've seen, how many places I've been, etc etc so a couple of years ago I decided to track it. A game counts as seen if I pay for it or see at least half of the game time go off the clock. So without further delay, the Czar presents...

The Czar's 2007-2008 totals (complete version)

137 total games in person split as follows

• 109 Minnesota
• 93 Boys
• 16 Girls
• 28 Wisconsin
• 24 Boys
• 4 Girls

157 teams split as follows

• 114 Minnesota
• 91 Boys
• All 5 Classic Lake teams
• Top 4 Classic Suburban teams
• 7 of the top 8 Lake teams
• 4 of top 5 and bottom 4 teams in the MCAA
• 6 Minneapolis City teams
• 4 Missota teams
  
• 7 North Suburban teams
• 4 Northwest Suburban teams
• 5 St. Paul City teams
• 6 Suburban East teams
• 11 Tri-Metro teams
• 67% of the 11 local conferences that I pay attention to (which ironically is exactly 100 teams)
  
• 7 metro "independents" (CHOF, MTS, PACT, Spectrum, Ascension, Minnetonka Christian, Oh Day Aki)
• 4 Mississippi 8 teams
• 1 Minnesota River team
  
• 9 Other MN teams, non-metro (e.g Rocori, BOLD etc)
  
• 23 Girls
• 37 Wisconsin
• 29 Boys
• 8 Girls
• Other States
  
• 5 Boys
• 1 Girls

53 buildings, 12 that I had never been to before
2 Genders

• 55 JV games
• 21 Bands
• 95 National Anthems
• 49 Hot Dogs
• 18 slices of pizza
• 4 buzzer beaters
• 6, the maximum number of times I saw any 1 team in person (MTS, DLS and BSM)
• 18, most games in 1 building (Al McGuire Center in Milwaukee)
• 9 games at the Target Center, 7 at DLS
• 1 kid climbing a backboard
• 1 broken shot clock
• 1 game with a shot clock

Drinks (size not included)

• 36 Pepsi
• 12 Coke
• 20 Fruit Punch Gatorade
• 13 Fruit Punch Powerade
• 17 Other

1960 ounces of beverages consumed assuming 20 oz per drink
Seeing the dentist in the offseason: Priceless