Showcasing Minneapolis

What a weekend for basketball locally.  4 Minneapolis teams in 24 hours represented in my travels. From improvement in the city to Tyler Johnson Day to the Clash of Champions it was a great weekend to be in Minneapolis for hoops.  Here are some sights and sounds.

Friday: Southwest 56 New Prague 47
We begin Friday night in the SW corner of the city with the Lakers taking on New Prague.  Offense was a struggle early on for both sides but a breakout of offense takes Southwest to a 21-19 halftime lead.  Southwest expands their lead with a 10-0 run early in the 2nd half.  Parker Johnson's seems some shots finally start to fall on the outside for New Prague.  Thomas Eckstein working on the glass inside.  New Prague within 4 with 6 minutes left.  Hakeem Ford converts a turnover into 2 free throws and adds a dunk.  That along with a couple of buckets from Cam Holter closes it out.  Parker Johnson 21 points despite a cold 1st half.  Thomas Eckstein adds 15.  Hakeem Ford with 14 of his 18 in the second half for Southwest.  Very good night for the sophomore forward.  Cam Holter and Christo Polydorou each add 15.  Southwest much improved and with a lineup starting 3 sophomores.

Saturday Game 1: South 68 Highland Park 62 OT
Due to a short window between this game and game 2 of the day, I didn't get to see all of this one.  Kills me to leave a 1 point game with 3:45 left in regulation.  A very productive day for a couple of Highland Park juniors.  Joe Conzet was very active and every bouncing ball seemed to find him as he finished with 19 points.  Nico Peterson very productive bench minutes in the middle.  He blocked shots and finished plays to the tune of 18 points.  PG Jaylen Blakley 12 points leading the South offense.  He gives the Tigers an option to create off the bounce.  Sam Bradley with 3 triples and 11 points.

Saturday Game 2: #6 D4 Milwaukee Academy of Science 73 #6AA North 64
To Minneapolis North for the late afternoon session.  Its not just alumni day at North.  Its also Tyler Johnson Day in the city with mayor Jacob Frey on hand to present a plaque with the proclamation.  Coach Larry McKenzie also retires Johnson's #10 jersey at halftime.  As to the game, MAS coming in with 2 D1 commits that were the focus.  But it was top 30 junior in Wisconsin Don McHenry that stepped up his game.  A 14-2 MAS first half run gets the Novas a 25-12 lead.  McHenry adds 2 buckets to start the 2nd half to keep the lead at 14.  Bradley commit Darius Hannah with 2 dunks and the lead is 54-37 with under 14 minutes left.

UW-Milwaukee commit Kaleim Taylor sits with his 4th foul at the 11:49 mark and North keeps some momentum going.  Willie Wilson for 3 and 2 buckets and the lead is down to 6 with 6 minutes left.  Taylor back in the game and he'll immediately bury a 3.  Davon Townley 2-4 free throws before another clutch hoop from Taylor.  Wilson counters that and North is still within 4 with 2:19 left.  Hannah with a 3 point play before a Cliff Brown 3.  MAS by 4 with a minute left and they still have the foot floored on the gas pedal.  Taylor to the rack for 2 free throws.  North misses and Taylor buries a 3 after a blocked shot to close it out.  Davon Townley with 20 points to lead North.  Quientrail Jamison-Travis active on the glass with 9 points.  Willie Wilson with all 11 of his points in the 2nd half.  Junior Don McHenry with 20 points for MAS.  Kaleim Taylor with 12 of his 22 points in the last 4:40.

Clash of Champions: Minnehaha 78 Sierra Canyon (CA) 58
Off to Target Center for the highly anticipated appearance of Sierra Canyon.  For the game, Kentucky commit BJ Boston gets off to a great start and Minnehaha looks a little shook.  But Minnehaha goes 2-3 zone and settles in.  Sierra Canyon no real answer for it just like earlier in the week in their loss to Rancho Christian.  The zone takes the high flying athletes totally out of the game.  Chet Holmgren in the middle of the zone was a monster blocking anyone and anything that came with the same area code.  Jalen Suggs and Prince Aligbe outstanding as well on both ends.  The game was tied at half and Minnehaha ran away from there.  BJ Boston finishes with 27 points and 8 rebounds but nobody else was productive for Sierra Canyon.  Jalen Suggs with 23 points/12 boards/6 assists and 6 steals in a big time performance.  Prince Aligbe adds offense in this one with 18 points and 8 rebounds.  Chet Holmgren cold outside shooting but still finishes with 9 points 10 rebounds and 13 blocks.

As to the atmosphere, what can you say.  WOW!  This exceeded any and all expectations anyone could possibly have had.  The attendance was an astounding 17,378 people.  Initial expectations were anywhere around 10,000 which would have been amazing too.  Loud partisan crowd and getting people in and out was smoother than expected by reports I heard.  Target Center is notorious for its bad setup moving people around so this was great.  Absolutely everybody was raving about the evening in all the discussions I had.  Incredible work by Jeff Munneke, Matt Bare, Josh Thurow and all the others behind the scenes to pull this off.

As I said in my Star Tribune comments to Jim Paulsen, I've never seen anything like it for a high school game. The only thing I can remotely compare it to was the scene in Las Vegas for the LaMelo Ball vs Zion Williamson game and I didn't attend that.  There was a high school rematch of that game scheduled but it never happened as LaMelo went overseas before the game was played.  Even going back to the big breakdown events that filled up Hopkins and Minnetonka, those wouldn't have touched this.  I saw DeMarcus Cousins and Kevin Love when they came in, didn't touch this.  This 1st Saturday of January was always the traditional Timberwolves Shootout day.  How incredibly fitting was it to have this happen on that day.  What a show and if this leads to more of the same, then I'm all for it and let's get it going.