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)
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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)
- 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
- 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
4AAA: De La Salle moves on again from this section. Johnson is the main threat here.
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.
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.