2019-20 Section 1AAAA Preview

This is the 20th preview in my 2019-2020 season preview series.  Now we begin our look at all of the class AAAA sections going in numerical order.  We'll do the 1st half of class AAAA this week and finish up with the last 4 sections next week.  For a list of all the season previews and how they are generated, click here.

Section 1AAAA (8 teams)
Defending Champion: Lakeville North (state runner-up)

Tournament Schedule:
Quarterfinals: Tuesday, March 3rd
Semifinals: Saturday, March 7th at High Seed
Finals: Friday, March 13th at Rochester Civic Arena

Predicted Seeding

1. Rochester Mayo 
2. Lakeville South
3. Rochester Century
4. New Prague
5. Northfield
6. Owatonna
7. Farmington
8. Rochester John Marshall

In a great bit of irony, its only after the Hurt brothers at Rochester John Marshall both graduate that the sections are updated so that Lakeville North moves out.  So after 8 consecutive section titles (the last 7 over John Marshall), there will be a new section champion this year.  The last time Lakeville North lost a section 1AAAA game was ... March 7th, 2007 46-43 at Lakeville South.  Its a trick question since Lakeville North was in section 3AAAA for the 4 years before this last 8 year run. 

A couple of favorites at the top lead the section with quality in the middle.  Rochester Mayo returns 3 junior guards, a potential sleeper in Riek Riek and oh by the way the Cincinnati committed, do everything, Madsen twins.  Lakeville South will be battle tested in the South Suburban and they have a nice trio that could lead them to state.  Then a very interesting group of 3 teams in the middle.  Rochester Century finished 1 game behind Northfield last season at 12-10 in the Big 9 but beat them twice last year.  Plus Century returns just about everybody including their top 5 scorers.  Northfield and New Prague have to replace big and talented front lines but have quality guard play coming back in Kip Schetnan (Northfield) and Parker Johnson (New Prague).  Northfield also has a new coach.  Rochester John Marshall and Owatonna each have major pieces to replace but they do have a center to build around in soph Evan Dushek (Owatonna) and senior Lincoln Meister (JM).  There wasn't a ton else besides Meister to go with Matt Hurt last year so I see a big dropoff from JM.  Farmington will battle these 2 to stay out of the 8 seed.

Sleeper: New Prague.  Despite the losses up front, they have an experienced backcourt and are very disciplined defensively.

Section Winner: Rochester Mayo. The Madsen twins lead a group that fill up the stat sheet in a hurry so that makes them very dangerous on any given night. Granted they will need to figure out the defensive end of the floor if they want to be a serious state contender.  That was a major weakness last year.  In this section, that weakness won't be enough to hold them back and they'll advance.