2021-22 Season In A Nutshell

The Czar's 2021-2022 Season Preview series concludes with the traditional Season In A Nutshell preview.  This is a higher level season overview for casual fans who don't eat, sleep and breathe hoops.  Its who and what you need to see and when and where to see it.  If you missed any of the 13 conferences or 125 teams covered in the previews, a full list of them can be found here.

New Coaches
Jeremy Hable - Andover
Jesse Jefferson - Anoka
Lance Pettis - Blaine
Spencer Waldvogel - Centennial
Aaron Kloeppner - Champlin Park
Kris Babler - Eagle Ridge Academy
Kyle McDonald - Forest Lake
Trent Davis - Irondale
John Towle - Liberty Classical Academy
Mario Reese - Mounds Park Academy
Robbie Whitney - New Life Academy
Rob Ware - Robbinsdale Armstrong
Chris Pierce - St. Agnes
Saladin Wright - St. Paul Highland Park
Khalid El-Amin - St. Thomas Academy
Matt Hendley - United Christian
Dan Rubischko - Waconia
Greg Burke - White Bear Lake

The NW Suburban sees almost half of its members turn the page with 6 new coaches this season.  3 new coaches in the Suburban East as well.  A majority of the new hires stayed with in-house connections.  St. Thomas Academy and Forest Lake swung for the fences with the 2 highest profile hires.  17 of the 64 coaches in class AAAA have 1 year experience or are new this season.  That's over 25% of the class.

10 Notable Local Events (excluding holiday tourneys)

• Southside Showcase - Dec 11th (Minnehaha)
  
• Breakdown Tipoff Classic - Dec 11th (Hopkins)
• Breakdown Big 12 Classic - Dec 18th (Totino-Grace)
• Rumble on the River - Dec 18th (Hiawatha Collegiate) 
• Hall of Fame Winter Classic - Jan 15th (Anoka-Ramsey)
  
• MBBCA MLK Cultural Games - Jan 17th (Macalester)
• Dream Classic - Jan 17th (Minneapolis Roosevelt)
• Border Battle - Jan 22nd (Minneapolis North)
• South Metro Showcase - Jan 22nd (Burnsville)
• Breakdown Community Clash - Jan 29th (STMA)

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

• Shakopee at Wayzata - Dec 14th
• Minnehaha at Park Center - Dec 18th 
• De La Salle at Benilde-St. Margaret's - Dec 21st
  
• De La Salle at Minneapolis North - Jan 8th 
• Chicago Whitney Young at Totino-Grace - Jan 8th
  
• Minnehaha at Wayzata - Jan 11th
• Hopkins at Minneapolis North - Jan 25th
  
• Cretin-Derham Hall at De La Salle - Feb 19th
• Columbia Heights at Minnehaha - Feb 24th
  
• Wayzata at Minneapolis North - Feb 28th
  

10 Conference Games to Watch

• De La Salle at Columbia Heights - Jan 11th
• Wayzata at Hopkins - Jan 18th
  
• Park Center at Totino-Grace - Jan 21st 
• Cretin-Derham Hall at East Ridge - Jan 28th
  
• Central at Johnson - Feb 1st
  
• Columbia Heights at De La Salle - Feb 4th 
• Hopkins at Wayzata - Feb 11th
  
• Totino-Grace at Park Center - Feb 18th
• Shakopee at Eastview - Feb 24th
• Robbinsdale Cooper at Benilde-St. Margaret's - Mar 1st
  

10 Impact Transfers

• Donavhan Cain - Beloit Turner (WI) to Cretin-Derham Hall
• Cam Holter - Holy Angels to Minneapolis Southwest
• Aiden Johnson - Heritage Christian to Legacy Christian
  
• Cohen Kellogg - Minnetonka to Orono
  
• Ahjany Lee - Byron to Totino-Grace
  
• Brandon Melchior - Elk River to Cretin-Derham Hall
  
• Payton Mogire - Maple Grove to Robbinsdale Armstrong
• CJ O'Hara - Totino-Grace to Hopkins
  
• Cody Pennebaker - St. Francis to Park Center
• Gani Stevens - St. Anthony to Minneapolis North

Also note that 2 local high-major recruits, Camden Heide (Wayzata) and Josh Ola-Joseph (Osseo), have left the state for prep school. They are at Wasatch Academy (UT) and Compass Prep (AZ) respectively. 

10 Upperclassmen to Watch

• Carter Bjerke - Wayzata (U of St. Thomas)
  
• Kendall Blue - East Ridge (U of St. Thomas)
• Braeden Carrington - Park Center (Minnesota)
• Taison Chatman - Totino-Grace
  
• Alonzo Dodd - South St. Paul
  
• Tre Holloman - Cretin-Derham Hall (Michigan St)
  
• Ahjany Lee - Totino-Grace (U of St. Thomas)
  
• Pharrel Payne - Park of Cottage Grove (Minnesota)
• Demarion Watson - Totino-Grace (Iowa St)
• Nolan Winter - Lakeville North
  

10 Underclassmen to Watch

• Casmir Chavis - De La Salle
• Daniel Freitag - Bloomington Jefferson
• Randy McClendon - De La Salle
• Mercy Miller - Minnehaha
• Grayson Okoronkwo - Blake
• Chiang Ring - Minneapolis South
• Jack Robison - Lakeville North
• Andy Stefonowicz - Minnetonka
• Jerome Williams - Minneapolis South
• Max Woods - Chanhassen

10 Local Teams to Watch

• Columbia Heights
  
• Cretin-Derham Hall
  
• Eastview
  
• Minneapolis North
  
• Minnehaha Academy
• Park Center
  
• Shakopee
  
• South St. Paul
  
• Totino-Grace
  
• Wayzata
  

Active Streaks of 20 Games Or More In Conference Play

• Minneapolis North - 60 wins
• 36 home wins.  Last loss was 2/6/15 vs South
• 30 road wins.  Last loss was 2/5/16 at Minneapolis Washburn
• Minnehaha - 37 wins.  Last loss was 2/6/15 at St. Paul Academy
• 22-0 home record all-time in IMAC play
• St. Croix Prep - 34 wins including last 8 wins in the MCAA.
• 20 home wins.  Last home loss was 2/9/18 vs New Life Academy
• Hill-Murray - 33 road losses.  Last road win was 2/10/17 at South St. Paul.
• Minneapolis Roosevelt - 27 losses.  Last win was 2/1/19 vs Washburn
  
• Anoka - 25 losses.  Last win was 1/21/20 vs Rogers
  
• Nova Classical Academy - 25 losses
• 0-25 all-time in Skyline play
  
• Mounds Park Academy - 23 losses.  Last win was 2/9/18 at home.
• 65 road losses including their years in the Tri-Metro.  Last road conference win was at St. Paul Academy 2/1/2008
• Chaska - 20 home wins.  Last home loss was 2/13/18 vs Bloomington Jefferson
  
• St. Paul Central - 20 road wins.  Last road loss was 2/5/18 at St. Paul Johnson

Section Winners

We gave thoughts on 13 conferences plus independents.  I'll match that here with predictions for the winners of 14 metro area sections.  That includes all the 6 local A,AA and AAA sections and all 8 AAAA sections.

4A: The story here is current and former MCAA.  Legacy holds the current MCAA and section crown.  Former MCAA members New Life (dropping down from 4AA) and Trinity will also make noise here.  CHOF is always a potential threat.  Hope and Kaleidoscope will fill up the scoreboard.  It should be a very competitive section.  Most of those competitors play each other so things will be more clear late in the season.  Give me Legacy to repeat here.

4AA: Minnehaha moves back to their usual section.  With high-major talents Mercy Miller and Prince Aligbe leading the way, they are the heavy favorites in a very weak section. Don't be surprised to see double-digit teams with a below .500 record here.

5AA: Minneapolis North returns a strong guard group led by Willie Wilson.  Plus they add Gani Stevens inside.  They remain the heavy favorite here.  Maranatha and Blake look to be other contenders here.  Hiawatha has plenty of experience back and a quality PG in Jessye Lewis but their EMAC schedule will hurt them here.

3AAA: A real contrast in this section looms in the section final.  On 1 side, you have traditional power De La Salle (last year's section 6 winner) and their defensive minded style.  On the other, you have upstart South St. Paul and their high powered offensive system.  PG Alonzo Dodd is the head of the snake for South St. Paul.  Devin Newsome and Shawn West-Zimpel are wings who can fill it up.  De La Salle can counter with their own strong perimeter trio.  Junior Nasir Whitlock had a breakout summer and will lead the offense.  Sophomores Randy McClendon and Casmir Chavis join him.  Give me South St. Paul here.
4AAA: A heavyweight matchup between neighbors Totino-Grace and Columbia Heights looms in the section final.  Totino-Grace is arguably the state favorite so I take them here.  Despite graduating a ton of depth and losing CJ O'Hara, the addition of Ahjany Lee from Byron keeps them loaded.  Remember they had the lead with 6 min left vs Minnehaha in the section final last year.  PG Tommy Chatman looks poised for a big season.  Heights returns basically everybody from a team that was in the top 3 of the polls all year.  Their wing duo of Muja Burton and Hassan Kamara leads the way and they have size to try to match the big Totino-Grace front line.

6AAA: This is the deepest section top to bottom of the group listed here.  Wright County reps Mound-Westonka and Hutchinson will both make noise here and Delano isn't anything to sneeze at.  Hutch's Sam Rensch could put a team on his back.  From the Tri-Metro, you have last year's section 3AAA state qualifier, Richfield, returning a couple of quality pieces.  Holy Angels is no slouch here either.  From the Metro West, you have a talented Orono squad plus my pick to win the league and this section Benilde-St. Margaret's.  Their duo of Maddox Alipate and Daniel Ijadimbola should carry the day.

1AAAA:  Owatonna is the pick to repeat here.  Their strong guard duo of Brayden Williams and Ty Creger plus forward Evan Dushek all return to the lineup.  Lakeville North returns to the section that they've won the last 8 times they've played in it but they're a year away from doing it again.  Lakeville South will also contend here.

2AAAA: Shakopee returns almost everybody from last year's state semifinalist team that knocked out Owatonna.  They have to be the pick here with Nick Katona leading the way.  Chaska plus the strong Lake Conference group of Eden Prairie, Edina and Minnetonka make it a difficult section.

3AAAA: I'm taking Eastview here with their reloaded roster and the experience of Kenji Scales.  But last year's teams in the section final can make plenty of noise here too.  Minnesota commit Pharrel Payne looks to lead Park back to the final.  Caleb Siwek put Rosemount on his back last year and should do the same again this year.

4AAAA: Cretin-Derham Hall made the state final last year with Tre Holloman playing a do everything role.  The Raiders have reloaded around him and are the heavy favorite here.  East Ridge has a strong backcourt of Kendall Blue and Alex Mattes.  If they can find front court play, they can be dangerous here.

5AAAA:  Sneaky tough section here with Park Center as the favorite. The Pirates return Minnesota commit Braeden Carrington to lead a very talented roster.  Their rival Osseo returns plenty of experience and talent.  Mounds View has a pair of talented guards coming back.  Spring Lake Park and Maple Grove are sleepers here.

6AAAA: Wayzata and Hopkins are again the favorites here.  Very strong perimeter play for both squads.  I'll take the defending state champs Wayzata.  The 2 Robbinsdale schools will look to give them a run. 

7AAAA:  There are 5 new coaches in this section including a 3rd member of the McDonald family with Kyle taking over at Forest Lake.  Duluth East loses 2 stars but they get Will Van Scoy back from injury.  They'll feature experienced guard play plus major breakout candidate Isaac Nyakundi inside replacing Noah Paulson.  That's more than enough to win this section of rebuilding teams.

8AAAA: Maple Grove has owned this section in recent years but they've moved to section 5.  That leaves the section for Buffalo's taking.  The trio of Antonio Bluiett at the point, Zach Zrust up front and Will Pool on the wing carries the Bison to the state tourney.

Season Thoughts

After 5 straight season, it looks like Minnesota won't have a McDonald's All-American representative.  Despite that, the class of 2022 is as deep as we've seen.  8 high-major kids from the state as of now.  Minnesota and St. Thomas with 3 local commits each.  That should make for a very entertaining season with lots for the local fan to follow.  Quality depth at the top of AA, AAA and AAAA should make for some very exciting state games.  Note that the state tourney site is yet to be determined as Target Center is booked with the Timberwolves.  Sounds like everything will be at held at the U of Minnesota this season.

As to individual conferences, the EMAC, MCAA and Metro East will be in down years.  More tough seasons ahead in the Metro West, NW Suburban and Lake.  The Minneapolis and St. Paul city leagues see their traditional recent powers continue to thrive.

Great to see the local events back.  The Breakdown has its usual loaded Big 12 and Tipoff Classic events.  Plus they now have the Capitol Classic over the holidays which takes over the old U of St. Thomas holiday tourney spot.  The Southside Showcase and Hall of Fame Winter Classic are also back on the schedule.  Plus you have the Border Battle at Minneapolis North this year. 

The predictions and off season work are in, bulletin board material has been put up.  Let's get to it.  Time to #ShockTheCzar.