2024-25 Season In A Nutshell

The Czar's 2024-2025 Season Preview series concludes with the traditional Season In A Nutshell preview.  Its a higher level season overview for the casual fans who don't eat, sleep and breathe hoops like I do.  Its who and what you need to see and when and where to see it.  If you missed any of the conferences or the 154 teams covered in this preview series, the full list can be found here.

New Coaches

• Belle Plaine - Brady Wohler
• Big Lake - Lance Pettis
• Blaine - Bernie Ward
• Bloomington Kennedy - Troy Bell
• Columbia Heights - Dedrick Jenkins
• Delano - Bridge Tusler
• Holy Angels - Jimmy Mireri
• Hutchinson - Randy Starke
• Jordan - Yuriy Malashenko
• Minneapolis Edison - Frank Webster
• Minneapolis North - Ahmil Jihad
• Minnehaha Academy - Jadee Jones
• Mounds Park Academy - Brendan Connolly
• North Branch - Trevor Walton
• Park of Cottage Grove - Isaiah Walfred
  
• Prior Lake - Brian Jungwirth
• Rosemount - Quincy Caldwell
  
• St. Francis - Robbie Whitney
• St. Paul Academy - Ramon Bender (1 yr interim)
• St. Paul City -TBA
• St. Paul Highland Park - Zach Towle
• St. Paul Washington - Chris McCray
• Simley - Willie Braziel
• Two Rivers - Isaiah Robinson

10 Notable Local Events

• Tipoff Classic (Breakdown) - Dec 7th (Hopkins)
• Southside Showcase I - Dec 7th (Minnehaha)
• Big Stage (Breakdown)- Dec 14th (Totino-Grace) 
  
• Southside Showcase II - Dec 14th (Benilde-St. Margaret's)
• Hutton Winter Classic - Dec 20-21 (Hamline)
• CSP Holiday Classic - Dec 27-28 (Concordia-St. Paul)
• Southside Super Showcase - Jan 11th (Minnehaha)
  
• Dream Classic - Jan 20th (Minneapolis Roosevelt) 
• The Collision (Breakdown)- Jan 25th (Cretin-Derham Hall)
  
• Community Clash (Breakdown)- Feb 1st (STMA, Becker and Delano)

10 Non-Conference Games to Watch (single game events only)

• Hopkins at Orono - Nov 27th
• Wayzata at Orono - Dec 5th
• Benilde-St. Margaret's at Breck - Dec 10th
• Totino-Grace at Farmington - Dec 10th
• Breck at Wayzata - Dec 19th
• Benilde-St. Margaret's at De La Salle - Dec 20th
• Wayzata at Shakopee - Dec 31st
• Totino-Grace at Cretin-Derham Hall - Jan 3rd
• De La Salle at Cretin-Derham Hall - Feb 15th
• East Ridge at Wayzata - Feb 19th

10 Conference Games to Watch

• Mound-Westonka at SW Christian - Jan 30th
  
• Park Center at Totino-Grace - Feb 3rd
• De La Salle at Richfield - Feb 4th 
• Maranatha at St. Croix Lutheran - Feb 4th
  
• East Ridge at Cretin-Derham Hall - Feb 7th
• Farmington at Shakopee - Feb 7th
  
• Wayzata at Hopkins - Feb 13th
• Blake at Breck - Feb 21st
• MCAA Crossover championship - Feb 22nd (Site TBA)
  
• Benilde-St. Margaret's at Orono - Feb 25th

10 Impact Transfers

• Tommy Ahneman - North Dakota to Cretin-Derham Hall
• Nolen Anderson - Eden Prairie to Wayzata
• Nigel Caldwell - Columbia Heights to Park Center
• Abu Keita - Benilde-St. Margaret's to Park Center
• Tyrel Pride - Tartan to St. Paul Johnson
• Tanner Rose - Benilde-St. Margaret's to St. Louis Park
• Ty Schlagel - Eden Prairie to Cretin-Derham Hall
• TJ Stuttley - Onalaska (WI)/Link Academy (MO) to Benilde-St. Margaret's
• Tyler Wagner - Totino-Grace to Champlin Park
• Daniel Zoa - Legacy Christian to Totino-Grace

10 Upperclassmen to Watch

• Tommy Ahneman - Cretin-Derham Hall (Notre Dame commit)
• CJ Armstrong - Richfield (Augustana commit)
  
• Nolan Groves - Orono (Yale commit)
  
• Dothan Ijadimbola - Totino-Grace 
• Jayden Moore - Hopkins
• JoJo Mitchell - Cretin-Derham Hall
  
• Cedric Tomes - East Ridge
  
• Tyler Wagner - Champlin Park
  
• Christian Wiggins - Wayzata
  
• Jalen Wilson - Benilde-St. Margaret's (Northern Iowa commit)
  

10 Underclassmen to Watch

• Baboucarr Ann - Maple Grove
• Vincent Cronin - Edina
• Tyler Forrest - Chaska
  
• Malachi Hill - Totino-Grace
• Mustafa Mohamed - South St. Paul
  
• Ty Schlagel - Cretin-Derham Hall 
• Kwa Silikpoh - Champlin Park
• Jack Thelen - St. Michael-Albertville
  
• Jaeden Udean - De La Salle
  
• Daniel Zoa - Totino-Grace
  

10 Local Teams to Watch

• Benilde-St. Margaret's
  
• Breck
• Cretin-Derham Hall
  
• East Ridge
• Hopkins
• Orono
  
• Park Center
  
• Shakopee
  
• Totino-Grace
  
• Wayzata

Active Streaks of 20 Games Or More In Conference Play
Tons of streaks for wins and losses were broken last season That included long winning streaks from Minneapolis North and Minnehaha.  Hill-Murray and Minneapolis Roosevelt snapped long losing streaks.

• Nova Classical Academy - 57 losses
• 0-57 all-time in 5 years of Skyline play
• 28 home losses. Last home win was 2/19/19 vs International School in TCAC play.
  
• 31 road losses.  Last road win was 1/25/19 at International School in TCAC play.
  
• Mounds Park Academy - 47 losses 
  
• 25 home losses -  Last home win was 2/9/18 vs St. Paul Academy
• 77 road losses including their years in the Tri-Metro.  Last road win was 2/1/08 at St. Paul Academy.
• 0-41 road record all-time in 10 years of IMAC play.
• St. Paul Washington - 24 losses
• Last win was 3/4/22 at St. Paul Humboldt

Section Winners

I gave thoughts on 16 conferences plus independents.  I'll match that here with predictions for the winners of 15 metro area sections.  That includes the 6 local A, AA and AAA sections and all 8 AAAA sections.

4A: Heritage with everyone back has to be the pick to repeat.  Sleeper pick here is Trinity with lots of their roster coming back.  The youth at Liberty Classical could also make a run.

4AA: St. Croix Lutheran was a 22 win team last year and returns most of the roster so they get my pick here.  Minnehaha has long ruled this section and still has enough to advance.  

5AA: Breck is once again my pick but its no cakewalk.  Southwest Christian and Blake are very dangerous with a ton coming back.  Minneapolis North is always a difficult opponent in this section.  Hiawatha with Kam Solomon could be a sleeper threat.

3AAA: This section had Minneapolis South as a great city story last year.  I'm going to pick a repeat this season but from St. Paul.  Give me Harding to learn from last year's first round upset and advance.
4AAA: De La Salle moves on again from this section.  Johnson is the main threat here.

5AAA: Totino-Grace continues their run without a ton of resistance.

6AAA: I'm going to pick Benilde-St. Margaret's to finally get it done in this super tough section.  Orono is the other major threat here.  Richfield, Mound-Westonka and Delano are no picnic here either.
1AAAA: Farmington is my pick to make a repeat trip.  Behind them its very wide open. Rochester John Marshall is the best option outside of the South Suburban in this group.

2AAAA: Shakopee loses their top guy but is still a heavy favorite with a deep lineup.  This normal section of death is way down this year.  Minnetonka, Chanhassen and Eden Prairie with heavy losses.  But a Isa El-Amin, Riley Johnson or Max Lorenson could decide to go for 45 and pull an upset.  Chaska could be a surprise here with their experience.

3AAAA: No star players or teams in the weakest AAAA section.  Like last year where 4-22 Eastview made a run to the final, chaos is likely again.  I'll take Apple Valley here to build on last season.

4AAAA: Cretin-Derham Hall is the favorite here with a loaded and deep lineup.  But East Ridge and Tartan are really good too and have the ability to knock them off.  The front line size for CDH is the major difference here.

5AAAA:  Park Center is my pick here.   Maple Grove and Champlin Park will look to make noise here too.

6AAAA: Wayzata moves on again after losing last year's state AAAA title game.  Hopkins is the usual opponent here to get out of section and with everybody back will be a very tough out.

7AAAA: This section I see coming down to a battle of rivals between Andover and Anoka.  Both have deep, talented and experienced guard play that will translate well to tourney time.  I took Anoka in my NW Suburban picks so I'll take them to win a 3rd meeting and advance to state.

8AAAA: Sauk Rapids-Rice is the favorite here with most of an 18 win roster coming back.  St. Michael-Albertville and Buffalo are the other contenders here. The tough Lake Conference schedule will be a major benefit for both of those teams prepping for tourney time.

Season Thoughts

Let's begin with the state tourney outlook. . I love the class AAA bracket this season.  Orono or Benilde-St. Margaret's out of section 6, Mankato East out of section 2, Totino-Grace out of section 5 and Alexandria out of section 8 makes for a potentially loaded final 4 at state.  So a TG 4 peat is going to be well-earned.  At the top of class AAAA, the discussion begins with Wayzata and Cretin-Derham Hall.  Hopkins and Shakopee both return a ton as well.  Breck is a favorite again in class AA.  Heritage looks to expand on last year's trip in the class A bracket.

The Mr Basketball race has 3 names that stick out to me to start the season. Chase Thompson at Alexandria, Tommy Ahneman at Cretin-Derham Hall (Notre Dame commit) and Nolan Groves at Orono.  Ahneman is on such a loaded CDH roster that it could hurt his cause.  CJ Armstrong is going to put up huge numbers for Richfield that will be hard to overlook.  Brogan Madson at Mankato East is going to show up on lists as well.  He also gets the benefit of folks looking for a non-metro vote.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the NFHS point of emphasis on flopping.  The infamous Tyus Jones head snap is specifically called out in this.  While in theory this is a good thing, in practice I'm wondering how much we'll actually see.  Also on the list is the new emphasis for making sure to give the ball to an official immediately.  None of this random throw up shots after the whistle stuff.  Also a good thing.  Penalty is a Delay of Game.  We also have the new uniform restriction where the numbers can't be the same color as the uniform.  This was long overdue and I'm all for it.  Those jerseys made games really hard to follow.

The time is now.  Go #ShockTheCzar.