Weekly 360 Windmill - Christmas Edition

Its the Weekly 360 Windmill where I take a look at the week ahead and a look back at the week that was.  Its a short holiday week, so this will be brief.  We'll have a full look at holiday tournaments next week.  Short week for me with only 1 local game as I return to The Old Kingdom for the week.  I may even give myself the gift of visiting my alma mater to see Wisconsin commit Kobe King play.

Week 5 Review

• How about the strength of the NW Suburban.  They have 4 teams in the AAAA poll this week with Armstrong jumping into the 10 spot.  Totino-Grace jumped into the AAA poll this week as well.  Only 1 team in the west is under 500 and that's Irondale at 4-5.
• Crazy Tuesday in the Minneapolis City with Washburn losing to Southwest and Henry knocked off by South.  Henry rebounded by knocking off Southwest on Friday to take 2nd place alone.
• Benilde-St. Margaret's controlled the 1st half but then was outscored by 25 in the 2nd half at Cooper on Thursday.  Big night for both Newbern brothers to put Cooper over the top.  A loss at De La Salle on Wednesday would put them at an unexpected 5-5.
• Sibley gets a rivalry win at St. Thomas Academy on Friday.  The Cadets have now lost 5 in a row with 3 of those against ranked teams and CDH comes in on Tuesday.
• We knew Maranatha would be down but 0-6 is a major surprise.  They have a chance at win #1 on Monday vs Edison.
• Hill-Murray beats South St. Paul on Friday to get their 1st win of the year after opening 0-6.
• Minneapolis North suffers their 1st loss of the season over the weekend.  No shame in losing to an Auburn commit from the defending Georgia 6A runner up.  The Polars now enter a stretch where they'll play 7 ranked teams before the end of January.

Christmas Look Ahead

• Holiday basketball is back at The Birthplace of Intercollegiate Basketball.  Monday and Tuesday sees the Hutton Winter Classic at Hamline.  Their tournament in past years was one of the must see tournaments.  Hopkins and Chaska had some real classics here in the early 2000s.  This year they bring in North St. Paul, Breck, #6AA St. Paul Academy and #10AAA Minneapolis Henry for 2 nights of games.
• The other notable Monday game is #9A Heritage at Cristo Rey.  Big seeding game for Cristo Rey.  
• Tuesday is Merry Christmas to all of us with a very good schedule.
• #1AAAA Hopkins at #4AAAA Champlin Park is the game of the week.
• Lakeville North at Eden Prairie in a battle of teams that many thought were in that next top tier of AAAA at the start of the year.  Don't think anyone would have expected both to not be in the poll at this point.
• Duluth East at Cambridge-Isanti is a son returns home to play dad matchup with 7AAAA implications to boot.  I remember seeing Duluth East coach Rhett McDonald playing for his dad Mike at Cambridge-Isanti in the old Hamline tourney.  They upset a top ranked Hopkins team without Dan VanderVieren back then.  The loser of this one has to make Christmas dinner.
• #7AAA Waseca visits #2AA St. Croix Lutheran to end a brutal 3 week stretch for the Crusaders.  Nick Dufault will have to have another big night if Waseca wants to pull out a win.
• Previously ranked Mahtomedi at #9AAA Totino-Grace
• Previously ranked Hermantown at #4AAA Orono
• Wednesday is the big rivalry game between Benilde-St. Margaret's and #1AAA De La Salle on the island.  Could see this one again in the loaded 6AAA playoffs  6AAA right now has 4 ranked teams plus Delano and Benilde-St. Margaret's.