Thoughts for the State Tournament

My thoughts on the state tourney

Class A:
I look for Ellsworth to get thru on the bottom half. The big story there is Cody Schilling breaking the all-time state scoring record on Thursday afternoon vs GHEC at Mariucci. The top half is tough as that 1st round matchup between Bertha-Hewitt and Cass Lake-Bena is a monster game. I think MTS gets thru their quarterfinal and if they would play Cass Lake-Bena, hire a couple of extra scoreboard operators and have a couple of extra clocks on hand. I'll take Ellsworth to win it all.

Class AA:
I've read a lot about Rockford and while I didn't see them this year, I did see them last year with basically the same team. I'm hard pressed to believe that St. Bernard's isn't the same thing, only better. The Bulldogs aren't big, but they're very athletic and play bigger than their size and they have a star in Jordair Jett. Not to mention, they're a buzzsaw right now with blowouts of Concordia and Breck in the 4AA tournament. An SB or La Crescent vs Crosby-Ironton semifinal is terrific, but so is a Montevideo or Maple River vs New London-Spicer game. Should be a really good AA tourney.

Class AAA:
I don't like the quarterfinals here. I think BSM, STA and Willmar all roll. While STMA vs Henry is interesting on paper, an athletic group of guards from Richfield handled STMA in January. Henry could win in a rout or both teams could put up 90 in this one. For history sake I will be at Mariucci on Wednesday night covering the STA and Willmar games. BSM in the semis could have their hands full with Henry. STA vs Willmar is a real nice matchup. That leaves us with the potential BSM vs STA rematch. BSM is just too much right now, I'll take them to take what they missed out on last year.

Class AAAA:

In the quarters, you've got Tarell Clark vs Rodney Williams which is really fun. Sibley got a really tough draw as they have to deal with Jordan Hicks and Lucas Kuipers of Mayo. I would have liked to see Osseo get thru for a possible rematch with Sibley. Osseo won that game at home on a buzzer beater by Carrington Tankson. Sibley is playing too well right now to pick against them in their half. St. Cloud Tech and Minnetonka should be a high scoring semi after both teams roll in the quarters. So I see a rematch of Dec 18th with Minnetonka playing Sibley for the state title. Sibley was missing a couple of important pieces for that game and still only lost by 4. Sibley still the only MN team to stay within 6 points of Tonka besides Hopkins. I said Tonka was the #1 team at the start of the year and I think they have too many weapons, so I'll take them to win it. But Sibley will make a really good game of it and I wouldn't be surprised if Sibley won.