2017-18 Section 3AAA Preview

This is the 17th preview in my 2017-2018 season preview series.  As week 4 of the 6 week preview series moves along, I start my look at the local AAA sections with section 3AAA.  For a list of all the season previews and how they are generated, click here.

Section 3AAA (8 teams)
Defending Champion: St. Thomas Academy

Tournament Schedule:

Quarterfinals: Tuesday, March 6th
Semifinals: Friday, March 9th at Bloomington Jefferson
Finals: Thursday, March 15th at Bloomington Jefferson

New teams in the section

• St. Croix Lutheran (4AA)

Teams that left the section

• Simley (1AAA)

Predicted Seeding

1. St. Thomas Academy
2. St. Croix Lutheran
3. St. Paul Highland Park
4. Bloomington Kennedy
5. Richfield
6. Holy Angels
7. St. Paul Harding
8. South St. Paul

Defending champion St. Thomas Academy returns most of their roster and is the clear favorite.  St. Croix Lutheran joins the section and they stand out as the clear contender to the throne with 2 of their top players returning in Garrett Maag and Jack Kuckhahn.  After that a major drop off.  Highland Park will be noticeably down from their 23 win season a year ago as they lose 2 of their stars.  Kennedy and Richfield are my last 2 picks in the Metro East but should fight for the final home game.  The bottom 3 were 3 of the worst in AAA last year and I don't see that changing.

Note on Simley who moves south to section 1AAA.  Austin is the clear favorite there.  With Byron and Stewartville dropping down to AA, Simley should get a first round game and I'll pick them to advance past it and then go out in the semis.

Sleeper: Richfield. The Spartans made a run to the section final in a weak section last year.  They took St. Thomas Academy right to the wire.  If any team outside the top 2 in this section is going to do that, it'll be Richfield again.  They have a scorer in Devin Wade-Henderson and a couple of other experienced returnees that give them the experience and talent to fit.

Section Winner: St. Thomas Academy.  The Cadets have the experience and 2 talented leaders in Jack Thompson and Sam Vascellaro to lead them back to the state tourney.