Week 2 Review
- Upset alerts sent out with 4 results that caught my eye. Minneapolis South pulling off 2 of those with wins over Benilde-St. Margaret's and St. Francis. Highland Park getting the best of Hill-Murray on Tuesday was an eye opener. I'll see South and Highland Park battle on Wednesday. Then Jason Gumm beats the buzzer on Saturday to give Burnsville the win over #4AAAA Eden Prairie.
- We've seen some crazy scoring numbers to start the season. Gary Trent 43.5 PPG in 2 games for Apple Valley. Apple Valley offense averaging over 100 a night in 2 games. Zach Knollenberg 36 PPG in 2 Spectrum wins. Nate Reuvers 29.5 PPG in 2 Lakeville North wins. Junior Stone with 44 in Richfield's opening win over Harding.
- How about the holiday weekend for Osseo as they go up to Duluth and curbstomp both Duluth East and #6AAA Hermantown by 45+.
- Solid week for Waconia as they take care of Prior Lake and a quality road win at Superior, WI.
- Chisago Lakes with a quality win over Mahtomedi (who was ranked before that loss) and they played Orono to a 2 point loss in the Monticello tourney.
Its the first full week of games on the schedule. This is what catches my attention.
- #2AA Minnehaha at #3AA St. Croix Lutheran on Tuesday night (mother nature permitting). This is a huge matchup in section 4AA. It also begins a nightmare stretch of the schedule for St. Croix Lutheran. #2AA Minnehaha, at St. Thomas Academy, Roosevelt (showcase), at #1A North, at #6AA SPA, #4AA Braham (tip off classic), Waseca. All in the 3 weeks before Christmas, yikes. Ade Lamu and Trenton Krueger provide a strong test for Minnehaha's JaVonni Bickham inside. But the bevy of perimeter guys for Minnehaha will be a challenge for Crusader guards Aage Rovney and Venkate Valluri.
- Thursday has a couple of out-state games of note. #7AA Esko at #6AAA Hermantown and #6A Rushford-Peterson at Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau (WI). G-E-T ranked #4 in the preseason division 3 poll in Wisconsin.
- #6AAAA Champlin Park at Armstrong on Friday. Hope to see a McKinley Wright vs Jubie Alade matchup there. Theo John vs Race Thompson inside is a battle of 2 very good young big men. The rest of the rosters are largely inexperienced at the varsity level.
- The Southside Showcase kicks off Saturday at 12:30 at MTS with 5 games. #5A MTS vs Superior, WI is the opener and a good challenge for the hosting Wolves. UMD commit Brandon Myer vs Isaiah Wade is a fun matchup there. Then Washburn vs Minnehaha and Roosevelt vs St. Croix Lutheran in the 4-7 PM window is a pair of entertaining games.
- The Girls Breakdown Tip-Off Classic features 4 boys games on Saturday. They are all on the main court starting at 2:15 PM.
- Minnetonka takes on Madison East in the 1st boys game. Deang Deang leads the #6 Division 1 preseason Purgolders. He is the 9th ranked senior in Wisconsin. Madison East appeared in the Wisconsin state tournament last season.
- Milwaukee Washington takes on #1AAA De La Salle. Washington is #3 in the preseason Division 2 rankings. Washington features Illinois commit Te'jon Lucas (#2 ranked senior in WI) at the point guard spot. If you can't see Washington on Saturday, they play at #4AAA Johnson on Friday night.
- Then the big showdown between #1AAAA Apple Valley and powerhouse Iowa City West. West features Iowa commit Connor McCaffrey and UNI commit Tanner Lohaus just to name a couple in the stacked lineup.
- State qualifier Des Moines Hoover and guard Chris King take on #2AAAA Hopkins in the late game. The Hopkins girls will play before that game.
- A couple of important Saturday games will be outside of those 2 events. #8AAA Waconia visits Benilde-St. Margaret's in an important section 6AAA matchup. #4AAA Johnson visits Cretin-Derham Hall in a matchup of the 2 teams that have dominated St. Paul City basketball over the last 25 years. 1 of those teams has shared or won the league title outright in 23 of the last 25 years.
- One other Saturday game that catches my eye is North St. Paul at Woodbury. Almost everybody in the east metro was decimated by graduation. These 2 teams on the other hand have a bunch of young kids returning from teams that struggled last year. This game is a benchmark for who is further ahead in making the next step in section 4AAAA.
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