2011 Fall Ball Kickoff

This weekend begins the 10 week fall hoops season for 2011.  The best group of teams during the early period is at Lakeville South with 2 Prior Lake teams playing as MN Bandits, Apple Valley and Lakeville North.  All of those teams expect to make noise in the South Suburban.  Add in Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau (that's G-E-T, as in GET High, stay off of drugs kids) with quality guard Riley Bambenek who just committed to Winona State this week and the MBA squad led by Kebu Johnson and Mike Fernando and you have a strong field.

The Minnehaha section features DeLaSalle and Duluth East.  Duluth East will be without Johnny Woodard thanks to his spring shoulder injury.  East PG Taylor Stafford stormed on to the scene with his play during this league last year.  A young Breck squad and Henry Sibley's 2 teams are 2 others to keep an eye on.  I expect a young Hill-Murray group and no Dave Simmet due to football.

Rice Lake and Gopher commit Wally Ellenson play Sunday afternoon in the Magic league at Jefferson vs Eden Prairie and Eagan.  They played in the league last year with all 3 Ellensons and dad coaching.  When they played BSM last year in this league it was an epic game with Wally and Sanjay Lumpkin both going off for 30+ in the 1st half and Wally had 50 in another game just before that last season.  MN Fury has put together 2 15/16u teams for the JV division of that league.  One of the state's top frosh prospects, Sam Neumann of CDH, will play with 1 of those squads.  Their games this week are at Jefferson on Saturday afternoon.

MYAS rounds out the Sunday schedule with 3 varsity locations in week 1 and 4 in week 2.  I'm not expecting much out of that league unless White Bear Lake shows up with a full group which I don't see happening.

Week 1 Schedule

Saturday MBA League
Lakeville South
G-E-T/Elk Mound vs. Apple Valley 11:00 AM CT 1
Apple Valley vs. MBA 12:00 PM CT 2
G-E-T/Elk Mound vs. Lakeville North 1:00 PM CT 1
Lakeville North vs. MBA 2:00 PM CT 2
G-E-T/Elk Mound vs. MBA 3:00 PM CT 1

Minnehaha Academy
DeLaSalle vs. MPLS Henry 10:00 AM CT 1
Hill-Murray vs. Duluth East 10:00 AM CT 2
DelaSalle vs. Hill-Murray 12:00 PM CT 1
MPLS Henry vs. Duluth East 12:00 PM CT 2
Minnehaha vs. Henry Sibley Red 2:00 PM CT 1
Breck vs. St. Agnes 3:00 PM CT 1
Minnehaha vs. Posse 3:00 PM CT 2
Henry Sibley Red vs. Breck 4:00 PM CT 1
Henry Sibley White vs. St. Agnes 4:00 PM CT 2
Henry Sibley White vs. Posse 5:00 PM CT 1

Sunday MYAS League
10:00 AM      Forest Lake Varsity            Chippewa Valley Hoops            Forest Lake HS - 1
10:00 AM     Centennial Cougars         East Ridge             Forest Lake HS - 2
10:00 AM     Blaine Bengals 11         MN Heat Varsity Vang         Forest Lake HS - 3
10:00 AM     MN Heat Varsity Lesewski     White Bear Orange         Forest Lake HS - 4
11:00 AM     Forest Lake Varsity         East Ridge             Forest Lake HS - 1
11:00 AM     Centennial Cougars         Chippewa Valley Hoops         Forest Lake HS - 2
12:00 PM     Blaine Bengals 11         MN Heat Varsity Lesewski     Forest Lake HS - 1
12:00 PM     MN Heat Varsity Vang         White Bear Orange         Forest Lake HS - 2
12:30 PM     EPPSA VARSITY         Wisconsin Showtime 17U     Concordia University - 1
1:00 PM     MN Heat Select         Spartan         Spring Lake Park HS - 3
1:00 PM     MG Crimson         Zimmerman Thunder     Spring Lake Park HS - 4
1:00 PM     Wayzata Blues         Willmar         Spring Lake Park HS - 5
2:30 PM     Mounds Park Academy     Wisconsin Showtime 17U     Concordia University - 1
3:00 PM     MN Heat Select         Wayzata Blues         Spring Lake Park HS - 3
3:00 PM     MG Crimson         Spartan         Spring Lake Park HS - 5
3:00 PM     Willmar         Zimmerman Thunder     Spring Lake Park HS - 4
3:30 PM     EPPSA VARSITY         Mounds Park Academy     Concordia University - 1

Sunday at Jefferson
Rice Lake vs Eden Prairie 2 PM
Rice Lake vs Eagan 3 PM