- Cloquet vs Pelican Rapids
- Osseo vs Sioux Falls Roosevelt (SD)
- Cooper vs Eden Prairie
- Sibley vs Madison Memorial (WI)
- Hopkins vs Lake Geneva Badger (WI)
- St. Cloud Tech vs Manitowoc Roncalli (WI)
This year's Hopkins team is the best Minnesota team to come along in a long time (I think its better than the Kris Humphries, Mitch Henke team). Not to mention this is Minnesota's showcase event. Therefore, I'm disappointed that their game isn't the biggest in the history of the Shootout (e.g the game vs a Top 5 USA Today team that was mentioned right after last year's event). Forrest Larson is a wonderful coach (he's won a state title) and author of the terrific Take It To The Rim video series, but Badger, although they have a great name, isn't one of Wisconsin's elite teams. Milwaukee Vincent wasn't an option since they play Hopkins at the East Metro Showcase in January, but I wish they could have brought in powerhouse Wauwatosa East or someone of that nature or had Madison Memorial play Hopkins instead of Sibley (with all apologies to coach Dasovich and his team). Oshkosh West would have been a great game for Sibley too as they have a couple of good young big guys that would be worth showcasing (David Anderson and David Condon).
Good work by the committee getting the top 4 Minnesota teams and the top 5 MN players (per Rivals). Don't overlook that Cloquet vs Pelican Rapids game, that should be terrific. Sioux Falls Roosevelt's Cody Larson vs Chad Calcaterra in a battle of 2010 bigs would have been fun too. Manitowoc Roncalli (who will also be here for the Border Battle) vs Pelican Rapids would also have been a great pairing at the AA level. Interesting to see St. Cloud Tech and Hopkins in the building together as they will play each other 48 hours after the Shootout (Czar's Note 12/17/08, that Tech at Hopkins game has since been cancelled).
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ReplyDeleteI'm actually pretty disappointed by the pairings for this Shootout. They did a nice job of bringing in top Minnesota teams, but where are the national teams we've become used to!? I liked the idea of bringing in teams from all over the country. What happened to that idea? Why are Minnesota teams playing each other in this event? Why bring in 3 Wisconsin teams? The Breakdown already does the Border Battle thing. I think 1 or 2 is fine, but every "outstate" team coming from Wisconsin? Why?
ReplyDeleteI meant 3 of the 4 outstate teams...could it also be possible that the people that run the TWolves Shootout couldn't/wouldn't pony up the money to bring in the top teams from around the nation and settled for teams that were close?
ReplyDeletei heard that because of the legal issues that came last year with that one out of state team, brining top notch teams was out of the pic this year. thats very unfortunate as they brought in some great teams the last couple years!
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