Classic Suburban Conference Preview

Overview:
In past years the Classic Suburban has been one of the best conferences around and this year it won't disappoint. At the top you have 2 heavyweights in St. Thomas Academy and Henry Sibley. Tartan returns a pair of very good guards, Richfield returns a bunch of guards from last year's team and Hill-Murray returns 6-8 Peter McKeown for new coach Dick Ghizoni.

Team Previews:
Defending 3A state champion St. Thomas Academy returns big man Alex Schneider, sharpshooter Mike Fitzgerald and pesky Fritz Valdvogel. The losses of Nate Burr and Jared Gray will hurt on the defensive end, but this team will still be solid defensively and shoot lights out from 3.

Henry Sibley returns 4 noteworthy players from last year including Chris Halvorsen, PG Peter Leslie, Noah Kaiser and soph big 6-11 Jake Krueser. Look for Litchfield transfer 6-6 Jr Mike Bruesewitz to make a big impact for them by giving them interior toughness.

Tartan returns guards Sam Ryan and Mark Sonnen. Sonnen is a D1 prospect who can really fill it up. Ryan has been a 4 year starter on varsity at the point but he broke an ankle during the football season which could be a major factor.

Richfield returns a bunch of guards from last year's team but loses star Santino Clay. Can they make outside shots on offense and will they be able to rebound and stop people on the defensive end with their lack of size. They'll be small and quick. Jim Dimick's teams are usually sound defensively but last year's roster couldn't stop people. Look for a bunch of high scoring games against them this year.

Hill-Murray returns 6-8 Peter McKeown who I think is the best big man in the league (apologies to Alex Schneider at STA and Jake Krueser at Sibley). With Troy Larson returning and new coach Dick Ghizoni, I think they could make a run at a top half finish in the league.

Simley loses star big man John Hutchins so I expect them to rebuild around a couple of returning starters.

North, Mahtomedi and South St. Paul will also be looking up at the rest of the league.

Synopsis:
Conference Champion: St. Thomas Academy
Teams you must see: St. Thomas Academy, Henry Sibley
Other teams to watch: Tartan
Surprise Team: Hill-Murray
Team you don't want to see: South St. Paul.

Games that will determine the conference title

• STA at Sibley Fri Jan 25th
• STA at Tartan Fri Feb 22nd
• Sibley at STA Tues Feb 26th
• Sibley at Tartan Fri Mar 7th

Noteworthy Non-Conference games

• Sibley at Osseo Tues Dec 11th
• Duluth East at Tartan Fri Dec 14th
• Sibley at Marshall Sat Dec 15th (Breakdown Tip-off Classic)
• Duluth East at STA Tues Dec 18th
• Minnetonka at Sibley Tues Dec 18th
• Sibley at Hopkins Fri Dec 21st
• Cretin-Derham Hall at STA Fri Dec 21st
• Rochester Mayo at Tartan Fri Dec 21st
• STA vs Washburn Th Dec 27th at Hamline (1st round Joe Hutton tournament)
• STA vs Hopkins (projected) Sat Dec 29th at Hamline (Joe Hutton title game)
• Eden Prairie vs Sibley (projected) Sat Dec 29th at Bethel (Bethel tournament title game)
• Tartan at Verona, WI Sat Jan 26th (Border Battle)
• Stillwater at Sibley, Sat Jan 26th or Mon Jan 28th
• St. Thomas Academy at De La Salle Fri Mar 7th

Upcoming Updates

Coming soon to a blog near you:

• Conference previews including teams you want to see and teams you don't want to see. I expect to include players to watch and surprises to be watch for.
  
• Games you don't want to miss.
  

Minnesota-Scores has moved and RPI vs QRF

For those of you who used Minnesota-Scores.com, it is now at Minnesota-Scores.net. It has all the same stuff, just a different address. This is my site of choice when I want to look up schedules, conference standings, scores etc since MaxPreps is so ungodly slow and most of the time I don't need player stats.

Its a simple site to follow and navigate and their QRF ranking is as good a tool as you'll find for comparing teams that don't play each other. It's a mini-Sagarin ranking for lack of better comparison. Simple RPI is nice, but it leaves out a couple of interesting factors that the QRF does have.

1) Margin of Victory. This is relevant to a point as a 30 pt win isn't really any different than a 50 pt win. RPI doesn't use it at all.
2) Class of the team you played. In many cases, getting a W over a 3A team says much more than a win over a 1A team. RPI doesn't take this into account. But if you St. Bernard's last year and you played a high level schedule, it can also artifically inflate your QRF. Let's face it, you shouldn't get extra credit for beating someone like a St. Paul Arlington or Mound-Westonka. Granted you will take the hit in the opponents win portion of the calculation.

Note that the RPI does take into account the winning % of the opponents opponents (basically did all the teams you beat, beat good teams or bad teams). QRF doesn't address this.

Neither system takes out of state games into account which is a shame. A game like DLS vs Whitefish Bay Dominican of Milwaukee should count as it will pit 2 of the top teams in 3A in their respective states.

Definition of the QRF can be found here.

Transfer rule working

Based on numbers from the star trib, it looks like the new transfer rule is working. 143 legit transfers, 119 transferred late. Since a percentage of those transferred to beat the new rule, the real test comes next year. Once the AJ Barker's of the world (MPA to DLS to play PG) are no longer counted, let's see what these numbers are and get the number from before this year (bad work star trib) to see the real impact.

Andrew Brommer Recruiting

The Star Tribune reported this week that Andrew Brommer has scholarship offers from the following schools.

Long Beach State (Dan Monson, who had him committed to the U when he was still here)
SMU (former gopher asst on that staff)
Colorado St
Valpo (him and Arden Skogland of Hopkins fame, I weigh more than the 2 of them combined)

He also has lots of other schools coming in this week. I'm surprised he's gotten this much interest after a poor season last year. I saw him get dominated by Elliot Post of Burnsville last year. What will happen at the D1 level? I know the Lake Conference is brutal, but if Brommer is as talented as everybody says, how does his team go 9-17 last year and they were 4-22 the year before that (though he may have had injury problems that year). And of those 9 wins, only 3 were worth noting (Eden Prairie by 2, Eastview by 5 at home and a 8 pt win at Kennedy in OT).

The Lake Conference will be down this year, so if they don't finish in the top half of the league with at least an overall .500 record that will a major disappointment. He's a project who needs to put on weight and get tougher physically and mentally. But if Les Jespen can eventually play center for a decent Iowa team, I suppose he can succeed somewhere.

Single Game Rivalries

So you have your basic conference rivalries, but what about the non-conference rivalries that only get played once a year. Here are some of those games

Armstrong vs Cooper. District rivals and former conference foes, fun game
Minnetonka vs Eden Prairie, great in football or basketball.
Richfield vs Holy Angels, bragging rights in Richfield on the line.
Cretin-Derham Hall vs St. Thomas Academy. Too bad this went away in football, but still a good basketball game.
Mahtomedi vs White Bear Lake, bragging rights in the NE metro, but these teams don't have much on the basketball side.

Season Preview: Section Winner Predictions for 4A

Last but not least, here are my predictions for the 6 metro area sections in 4A.

Section 2: Eden Prairie has to be the happiest team around after finally getting away from Hopkins and Minnetonka and all the heartbreaking losses the last few years. With Shakopee losing Eric Carlson and Bloomington Jefferson losing Cole Aldrich, EP is the class of this section. Jefferson might still make some noise with Moses Alipate, but EP's Ethan Wragge will finally lead them to state.

Section 3: This is the most wide open section in the metro. Apple Valley and Lakeville S lose most everything. Park is dangerous with Jake Lindstrom back and Rosemount has Andrew Brommer returning in the middle. I'll take Burnsville here, but I wouldn't be surprised to see Eastview make some noise.

Section 4: This is a tough section. Cretin-Derham Hall has a bunch of people back, but they were disappointing last year. Henry Sibley will get better as Jake Kreuser continues to improve and they have plenty of people back. Stillwater will be a tough out with Joel Armstrong in the middle. Ditto for Tartan with their backcourt of Sam Ryan and Marc Sonnen. St. Paul Central could be a tough out as the 5 seed as they have a bunch of people back and they are tall and athletic. We'll see if they learned from their 1-13 non-conference record last year. I'm picking CDH to come out of this section with a tough win over Sibley.

Section 5: 3 teams in here to watch. Mounds View, Osseo and Cooper. Mounds View has everybody back including Mike Schramm and Ziggy Kauls knows how to coach. Osseo has Carrington Tankson and Zach Peterson back and Tim Theisen knows how to coach too. Rodney Williams Jr is a monster for Cooper and they bring in Mpls North transfer Joe Bright so they'll have a couple of very good wing players, but the loss of Dennis Williamson is huge. In addition, they have to find somebody to play the point. This section final is a must see whoever it is among these 3 teams. Give me Mounds View over Osseo.

Section 6: Minnetonka and Hopkins. Need I say more. These are the top 2 teams in the state, write down their 2 regular season meetings and this section final as game you absolutely must see. With Minnetonka getting De La Salle transfer Sedrick McBounds, that puts the final piece in place with their entire team returning. Minneapolis North is probably the 3rd most talented team in this section, but that's mainly because Armstrong and Wayzata lost everything to graduation. Give me Tonka over Hopkins as seniors beat juniors to move on to state.

Section 7: Blaine has been down in recent years and Andover has been the class of this section. I think they'll contend again, but I'll take Duluth East and star sophomore Dyami Starks to move on to state.

Season Preview: Section Winner Predictions for 3A

Here are my predictions for sections winners in 3A

Section 1: This really isn't a metro section, but since the hands down winner is St. Thomas Academy, I had to mention it.

Section 3: Nothing special in this section, Minneapolis Henry is the easy pick here. Spring Lake Park is traditionally good and Totino-Grace will be OK, but Henry is far and away the best team.

Section 4: This section is bad. I'm picking Johnson to beat Como Park to move on. With new coach Dick Ghizoni and a star big guy in Peter McKeown, Hill-Murray could surprise here.

Section 6: This section is as tough a section as I've seen, absolutely brutal. Benilde-St. Margaret's is the team to beat here with Jordan Taylor and Armond Battle. However, De La Salle and Washburn return just about everybody from very successful teams last year so watch them. Especially Royce White and all the guards that De La Salle returns. Holy Angels and Waconia can make noise here too. Orono loses Jon Leuer and has a new coach, but they'll be respectable. The 4 vs 5 game in this section will be a great game. Last year this game was Orono at De La Salle which DLS won on a last second layup.

Season Preview: Section Winner Predictions for 1A and 2A

Here are my predictions for section winners in the metro area sections

1A - Section 4 is the only metro section. This section is abysmal. In the west sub-section, you have Maranatha by default. Heritage might make a little noise there with Stu Herman, but MCA is an easy pick here until beaten.

In the east sub-section, you have the metro lakes schools and a few leftovers. Oh Day Aki vs St. Agnes is my prediction for a quality sub-section final. MCA has been the class team of this sub-section for years, but I'm going out on a limb. Give me St. Agnes going to state over MCA due to a stellar performance by Jordair Jett.

2A - Again Section 4 is the only metro section. In the west sub-section, you have the defending state champions Holy Family and the addition of 2 minneapolis schools, Edison and Roosevelt. This sub-section is terrible, give me Holy Family to defeat Breck by default as the other 6 teams in here aren't any good. Breck is still better than the other 6 teams even after losing Marcus Hill.

The east sub-section is much more difficult. St. Bernard's moves back up to 2A and with Mpls North transfer John Bright, they could make a little noise. St. Croix Lutheran returns Chris Breuer from their section final team of a year ago so they may pull an upset. Minnehaha over Concordia (Roseville) is my selection here as Minnehaha returns their top 8 kids including junior Taylor Sparkman. Junior Zach Towle returns at the point for Concordia and he's one of the most exciting players to watch in the metro. My section pick is Minnehaha over Holy Family in a rematch of a Dec 21st game to move on to state.

Rest of the Conference Realignment

Here's the realignment for classes 3A and down.

3A

The North Suburban picks up the left overs of the old Classic Suburban
Spring Lake Park
Totino-Grace
Fridley
Columbia Heights
North Branch
Chisago Lakes
Hill-Murray
Mahtomedi

Absolutely loaded for football

The Missota gets the short end of the stick as its the leftovers
Hutchinson
Holy Angels
Red Wing
S. St. Paul
Benilde-St. Margaret's
St. Louis Park
Northfield
New Prague

I hate Hutchinson in this league and Red Wing had nowhere else to go. BSM and AHA would be fun games. St. Louis Park might be too big for this league. Still loaded for football.

In 2A, the Tri-Metro stays the same, except the 3 smallest schools move down to 1A conferences.

Blake
Breck
De La Salle
Minnehaha
Brooklyn Center
Concordia (Roseville)
St. Croix Lutheran
St. Paul Academy
St. Anthony

De La Salle fits well here size wise, but I wouldn't mind seeing them in the Minneapolis City to balance this league and that league at 8 teams.

Where are the rest of the Tri-Metro teams? They move down to 1A leagues, an east/west split of the MCAA.

New Life
CHOF
St. Bernard's
St. Agnes
Mounds Park
Trinity
Bethany
Concordia (Bloomington)

Good basketball here with Bethany/Trinity/New Life and St. Bernard's

In the west half we have
Rivers Christian
Meadow Creek Christian
Maranatha Christian Academy
West Lutheran
Heritage Christian
Providence Academy
Southwest Christian
PACT
Spectrum

For football these would combine for 1 league as most of these schools co-op with a big school co-op with each other or don't play. In basketball, they'd be separate. CHOF, PACT and Spectrum are de facto MCAA basketball members anyway since they play just about everybody in the league for non-conference games so add them in and play a real home and home schedule on each side.

I didn't deal with the issue of Lester Prairie/Holy Trinity. They would move west somewhere, just like I should have done with Hutchinson

4A Conference Realignment

As promised here is my proposal for realigning the metro conferences. Main factors.

1) Size, none of this 3A school playing a 1A nonsense (that's you Tri-Metro).
2) Rivalries, existing rivalries need to be kept.

So here we go

Split the Northwest Suburban into these 2 leagues

Andover
Anoka
Coon Rapids
Blaine
Cambridge-Isanti
St. Francis
Elk River

Maple Grove
Osseo
Park Center
Champlin Park
Armstrong
Cooper
Wayzata

Gotta have Armstrong/Cooper and maybe Cambridge-Isanti vs St. Francis could be something in addition to the Andover/Anoka rivalry.

Stillwater
Forest Lake
Roseville
Centennial
Mounds View
Irondale
North (St. Paul)
White Bear Lake

I'd like to see each pair of teams here become rivalries. Stillwater/FL, Roseville/Centennial and especially the last 2 including Mounds View/Irondale. Irondale/Centennial might evolve too.

The Suburban East stays largely the same

Tartan
Woodbury
Park
Hastings
Cretin-Derham Hall
Henry Sibley
St. Thomas Academy
Simley

Existing rivalries + the addition of Sibley/STA.

Split the Lake Conference and add in the suburban Missota schools that have outgrown that league

Burnsville
Prior Lake
Eagan
Rosemount
Lakeville N
Lakeville S
Apple Valley
Eastview
Farmington

We stay south of the Minnesota River for these schools to add Prior Lake and Farmington while keeping the Apple Valley and Lakeville rivalries.

For the rest of the lake we have the following
Hopkins
Minnetonka
Eden Prairie
Chaska
Shakopee
Jefferson
Kennedy
Richfield
Edina

Hopkins, Minnetonka, EP for basketball, OUCH! And I didn't even mention the other tough hoops teams in the league. Minnetonka/EP in football is huge We keep Kennedy/Jefferson and add Richfield/Edina and Shakopee/Chaska which should be nice rivalries. I wanted Hopkins to play with their other Classic Lake rivals (Armstrong et al) so that we'd have 8 teams in both instead of 7 and 9, but the Hopkins/EP/Minnetonka rivalries were too much to pass up.

Due to rivalries and tradition, the St. Paul City and Minneapolis City do not change, but I was tempted. Roseville and/or CDH in the St. Paul City were considered.

Restore the Catholic Spirit

The Catholic Spirit Christmas tournament is always one of the top events of all the local holiday tournaments. In the past few years, its gotten away from its private school roots. So here's my proposal for restoring it.

East Division
De La Salle
Hill-Murray
Totino-Grace
Cretin-Derham Hall

West Division
Holy Angels
Benilde-St. Margaret's
Breck
St. Thomas Academy

I would almost take these 8 teams and make them a conference, but Cretin is too big for any of them and Breck isn't big enough.

New coaches on the north side

I find it interesting that both Minneapolis North and Minneapolis Patrick Henry are looking for head coaches now. Brett McNeal at North looked really disinterested last year and in the last couple of years they haven't done nearly the amount of run and jump that I saw previously. Like all the standout city teams, they depended on their defense due to the mickey mouse offense they ran (see also Johnson, for the St. Paul equivalent). When was the last time North actually won a big game excluding the rivalry game against Henry. North plays a tough schedule, but look at their record over the last couple years against the premier teams on their schedule, not good. A team that had PJ Hill (going to Ohio St) and Romain Martin (Ohio Valley frosh of the year last year) should have been much better than it was.

But at least North tried to run something that looked like offense. Henry is still the class of the Minneapolis City, but I hope they get somebody in there who actually knows an X from an O. I once saw the Henry JV team inbound the ball and not touch it with no pressure with under 30 seconds to go and a 1 pt lead in a game. But at least we didn't have listen to Larry McKenzie yank guys and scream at them for the most minor of mistakes.

All that being said, there's a lot to be said for relating to players and I think McNeal did that well at North. It will be interesting to see what the schools do for new coaches. North gets the advantage of not having game 1 until after Christmas, but they also are in tough section 6AAAA with Hopkins and Minnetonka

Look for these posts before the season

No I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, but the summer is a quiet time. Before the season starts, look for my posts on the following.

Conference previews for all of the metro conferences (except the Metro Lakes, because quite frankly, who cares).

Schedule analysis including games you won't to miss.

My preseason predictions for the metro sections

My conference realignment plan for the metro area.

And as a potential bonus, while I'm realigning the metro, I might just realign the sections too.

Why gopher hoops isn't hopeless.

Dan Monson did wonders for running this program into the ground. But Minnesota isn't as bad a job as you might think. Here's why

1) After Detroit and Chicago, what's the next best recruiting area in the Big Ten. I would contend its the MSP area. Are there enough good players here? Ask Northern Iowa and Bradley about that since they raid this area. Ask Bo Ryan and Tom Crean if local kids are good enough to play big time D1 ball. Even NDSU steals players from here.

2) Williams Arena, do I need to say more.

3) With Iowa, Northwestern and Wisconsin as recruiting opposition, where would you rather go to school and play? I think the metro could be a big advantage there.

Minnesota Conference Websites

• Arrowhead
• Big 9
• Big South
• Camden
• Central Lakes
• Central Minnesota
• Eastern Minnesota Athletic
• Gopher
• Granite Ridge
• Great River
• Heart O'Lakes
• Hiawatha Valley League
• Independent Metro Athletic
• Iron Range
• Lake
• Lake Superior
• Little Eight
• Metro East
• Metro West
• Minneapolis City
• Minnesota Classic Athletic Association
• Mississippi 8
• Northern Lakes
• North Star (can use Region 8 MN site)
• Northland
• Northwest
• Northwest Suburban
• Park Region
• Pine to Prairie
• Polar League
• Prairie
• Red Rock
• St. Paul City
• Skyline
• South Central (new 24-25)
• South Suburban
• Southeast
• Suburban East
• Three Rivers
• Tomahawk
• Tri-Metro
• Valley
• West Central
• Wright County

Abbreviations Key

Abbreviations by Conference. Note that the most schools that start with a city name followed by a school name usually are referred to by school portion of the name only. Ex: Armstrong and Cooper for the Robbinsdale schools, Kennedy and Jefferson for the Bloomington schools and of course all of the St. Paul and Minneapolis schools. North = Minneapolis North, NSP or North (St. Paul) is used to reference the other North high school.

Classic Suburban

• Henry Sibley ->Sibley
• Hill-Murray -> HM
• North (St. Paul) -> NSP
• St. Thomas Academy -> STA
• South St. Paul -> SSP

Lake

• Apple Valley -> AV
• Eastview -> EV
• Eden Prairie -> EP

MCAA

• Concordia (Bloomington) -> C-Bl
• Lester Prairie/Holy Trinity -> LP/HT
• Maranatha Christian Academy -> MCA
• Meadow Creek Christian Academy -> MCCA
• New Life Academy -> NLA
• Southwest Christian -> SWC
• West Lutheran -> WL

Missota

• Academy of Holy Angels-> AHA

North Suburban

• Benilde St. Margaret's -> BSM
• Columbia Heights -> CH
• Totino-Grace -> TG

Northwest Suburban

• Maple Grove -> MG
• Park Center -> PC

Suburban East

• Cretin-Derham Hall -> CDH
• Forest Lake -> FL
  
• Mounds View -> MV
• White Bear Lake -> WBL

Tri-Metro

• Brooklyn Center -> BC
• Concordia (Roseville) -> Concordia
• DeLaSalle -> DLS
• Mounds Park Academy -> MPA
• St. Bernard's -> SB
• St. Croix Lutheran -> SCL
• St. Paul Academy -> SPA

Others

• Christ's Household of Faith -> CHOF
• St. Michael-Albertville -> STMA

The Czar's Basketball Library

Here's a list of basketball materials that are in The Czar's basketball library.

Videos

• Steve Alford, How to Run The 2-Out 3-In Motion Offense
• Dana Altman, The Complete Guide to the High Post Offense vs. Any Defense
• Eddie Andrist, Run and Jump Press "Where Fatigue is the Name of the Game"
• Eddie Andrist, Run and Jump Pressure The Press Stress Continues
• Jamie Angeli, Back Door Buckets
• Dave Arseneault, Forcing Tempo: The Grinnell Offensive System
• Dave Arseneault, Forcing Tempo: The Grinnell Defensive System
• Ganon Baker, Ball Skills for Post Players
• Ganon Baker & Boo Williams, Grassroots Basketball Series (5 video series)
  
• Ganon Baker, The Big Fella - Post Skill Workouts!
  
• Dick Bennett, The Mover-Blocker Offense
• Dick Bennett, The "Pack-Line" Pressure Defense
  
• Jack Bennett, Championship "Gap" Man-to-Man and Sliding Zone Defense
• Jack Bennett, Championship Zone Motion Offense
• Jim Boeheim's Complete Guide to the 2-3 Match-Up Zone Defense
  
• Bruce Brown, Basic Eight Defensive Drill
• Hubie Brown, How to Win with Less Talent
• Hubie Brown, The Secrets of Winning Basketball-Volume I
• Hubie Brown, The Secrets of Winning Basketball-Volume II
• Hubie Brown, Special Situations Part I & II
  
• Pete Carril, The Princeton Offense (4 video series)
• Mike Divilbiss, The Buzz
• Billy Donovan, Mastering the Full-Court Match-Up Press
• Kevin Eastman, Development for Inside and Perimeter Players
• Kevin Eastman, Chair Drills: Shooting Workout for Inside Players
• Kevin Eastman, Chair Drills: Shooting Workout for Perimeter Players
  
• Paul Hewitt, The Point Zone Defense
• Tom Izzo, Dominating Rebounding & Man-to Man Defensive Drills
• Steve Klaas, 1-3-1 Zone Defense: The Complete Package Basics and Traps & Adjustments (2 video set)
• Tod Kowalczyk, 1-4 Zone Offense
• Jim Larranaga, The 3-2 Disrupting Camouflage Defense "Philosophy & Practice Planning-The George Mason Way"
• Mike Lee, 25 Killer Scoring Moves
• Mike Lee, Secrets of Unstoppable Guard Play
  
• Pete Newell, Big Man Moves and Skill Development
• Tom Nordland, Swish 2
• Gregg Popovich, My Favorite Drills and the Motion Offense
  
• Dave Robbins, The Circle Defense
• Flip Saunders, Match-Up Zone Defense and Special Drills Part I & II
• Bill Self, High/Low Motion Offense
• Stu Vetter, The Fast Break and Secondary Break
• Herb Welling, The Dribble Motion Offense
• Herb Welling, Building the Dribble Motion Offense
• Herb Welling, "Must Have" Dribble Motion Offense Adjustments
• Roy Williams, Tar Heel Offense & Transition Drills
• Jay Wright, 28 Competitive Drills for Shooting and Footwork
  
• Jay Wright, Attacking Footwork Drills for Perimeter Players
• Jay Wright, The Inside and Outside Game

Books

• Jamie Angeli, Primary/Secondary Break Pass Option Offensive Attack System
• Dave Arseneault, The Running Game
• Don Casey and Ralph Pim, Own the Zone
• Mark Dudzik and Katie Roberts Dynamite Drills
• Bob Kloppenburg, SOS Pressure Defense (4th Edition)
• Jim Larranaga, Coaching Basketball's Scramble Defense
• Al McGuire, Humpty-Dumpty Offense
• Al McGuire, Mosquito Defenses
• Lason Perkins, The Set Play
• Michael Podell, Perfect Practice Drills
• Dean Smith, Basketball Multiple Offense and Defense
• Stan Watts, Developing an Offensive Attack in Basketball
• Fran Webster, Basketball's Amoeba Defense
• Tex Winter, The Triple-Post Offense (Sideline Triangle)

Winning Hoops Coaching Reports

• Backdoor Offense
• Buzzer Beaters
• Ferocious Full-Court Presses
• Lock Down Defenses Part 1
• Lock Down Defenses Part 2
• Out-Of-Bounds Strategies
• Pressure Beaters
• Scouting the Opposition
• Stoppers! Time-Tested Defensive Drills
• Swarm Defense
• Zone Busters

Contact The Czar

You too can contribute to this blog and there are many ways to do so. Here are just a couple of examples

• If you saw a game and want people to know about it, write up a report on the game and email it to me. If I like what you wrote, I'll post it giving you credit for it. While I do reserve the right to edit the post for clarity, my intent is to leave the spirit of your text intact. Click here to see an example. My goal will be to post as many of these as possible, but I make no promises.
  
  
• Is there an event that people don't know enough about that you'd like to make known (ex: a team camp, scrimmage, showcase event like the East Metro Showcase)? Email me about it and I'll gladly try to spread the word.

And of course, if you enjoy reading this, spread the word to others who may also enjoy it.

Questions, comments, suggestions, corrections, broken links, news items, events to cover or anything else? They are always welcome. You can click here to contact me.

Editorial Policy

As the blog title states, I focus almost all of my attention on the Minneapolis/St. Paul high school boys basketball scene. That includes anything from regular high school games to spring/summer AAU games that include local players. It also includes recruiting info, interviews, rankings, coaching changes etc. I do make a trip back to Wisconsin each season to see at least one game, but I try to do that outside of the local boys season. For the top Wisconsin players and teams, I may comment on them here especially if there's a local connection. I will go watch the local high school girls play when the boys aren't playing, but I won't write much about it.

I cover the following Twin Cities sections

• 2AAAA, 3AAAA, 4AAAA, 5AAAA, 6AAAA, 7AAAA
• 3AAA, 4AAA, 6AAA
• 4AA
• 4A

I cover the following conferences (102 teams + metro area independents)

• Classic Lake
• Classic Suburban
• Lake
• Minneapolis City
• MCAA
• Missota
• North Suburban
• Northwest Suburban
• St. Paul City
• Suburban East
• Tri-Metro
• Metro area independents like CHOF, Minnesota Transitions, Spectrum etc

Writing Schedule
From mid-September until the start of the season I follow the multitude of fall leagues in the metro.

I do section and conference previews in late October and early November leading up to the start of practice around Thanksgiving.

During the season my week looks something like this.

Game coverage every Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and most Mondays and Wednesdays (when there are games). Saturday usually will have 2 or 3 games that I cover. My posts usually are done late night on game days. I do lots of abbreviating because writing is painful. If any of the abbreviations are unclear, check out the abbreviations key. I go to all of these games as a fan first and a writer second. That means I keep all of my own statistics and notes by hand as I sit with the fans and cheer like anyone else.

Sundays are a recovery and catchup day. I write my weekly column for MinnesotaPreps.com and update my season totals with all of the different sights, sounds and tastes from the week.

As the regular season ends, I preview the sections and give predictions as I try to keep up round by round.

I also cover the spring/summer AAU scene by attending the local events and tracking some of the teams and players as they travel around the country. This may even include a road trip or 2 as I covered our local travel teams in Denver and Chicago in 2009.