Best of the 2025 Holiday season

Big XII Dog at McKale Center

Holiday Food Count
3 hot dogs
1 Taco in a Bag
1 slice Toppers Sausage Pizza
1 small bag Ruffles Cheddar and Sour Cream
1 package of 2 Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
68 oz Coke
36 oz Pepsi

A large chunk of an amazing beef tenderloin with mushroom sauce, mashed potatoes, carrots and peas.  1 mini Banana Cream Pie for dessert in the desert.

 

 

Now that I've addressed the always popular food counter request, let's talk games.  Last week I took a look at the surprise teams of the season.  Now lets take a look at some of the 29 games I took in over 2 week holiday break.  My season game count is up to 100.

The Big 5 (in honor of the annual Penn St game at the Palestra this week)
1) Wayzata easy 88-65 win over Totino-Grace in a matchup of the top teams in AAAA and AAA.  Isaac Olmstead huge game with 27 points and 7 3s in that one.  Nolan Anderson 23 points in another solid performance.  Wayzata would go on to suffer their 1st loss against West Allis Central in Wisconsin's biggest event.

2) East Ridge 86 Totino-Grace 79. East Ridge scored the last 7 points of the game.  Cedric Tomes makes his 1st 5 shots as East Ridge jumped out to a 22-8 lead.  Tomes in on the last 25 points of the game including 3 late assists for 8 points.  Tomes puts up a monster night of 50 points including 20-25 FTs, 13-27 FG (so 8 of last 22).  But another high profile game with a super high turnover count, 9 in this one, is something to be concerned about.  Malachi Hill 20 points to lead TG in that one.

3) #2AAAA Tartan 68 #3AAAA Maple Grove 61.  One of the best games I've seen so far this season.  Great chess matchup of Tartan's speed against Jack Thelen.  Thelen limited post touches and Duke King and Emmanuel Oyasomni able to still get buckets on offense.  Soph PG KJ Wilson 18 points to lead the way.  Baboucarr Ann 25 points not enough for the Crimson.

4) #2AAAA Richfield 69 #3AAAA De La Salle 68.  More flop calls and bench warnings/techs in this game than I've seen all year combined.  Richfield would use a 12-2 run to go up 6 but a Jaedan Udean triple would have us tied with 3:30 to play.  Dre Collins scoreless in 1st half, comes up with 16 2nd half points including a late dunk and a 3 point play that would ultimately be the game winner.  He also made a great read to intercept a home run pass that looked like it would be the winning Udean layup.  De la Salle 2 late chances to win it that they couldn't convert (2 FTs and the deep pass).  Gideon Horne 13 of his 19 in the 1st half to hold the offense while Collins had 2 fouls.  Jaedan Udean 19 points to lead De La Salle.

5) #9AA Caledonia 59 #3AA Pequot Lakes 55 in OT at Target Center.  Soph wing Grant King 25 points and 4 triples for Caledonia.  14 points in the last 13 minutes including all 5 in overtime.  He was quiet for the 1st 9 minutes of each half and then turned it on.  He was very productive as the middle man against the Patriots zone.  Pequot Lakes is big and their 1-2-2 zone is tough to play against.  Would love to see these teams rematch in March.

The Best of the Rest
Fun watching Chanhassen forward Nate Ramler show off his QB skills in the game vs Minnetonka.  CDH for years was led by point guards who were their QB.  In this instance, you have Ramler playing the Nikola Jokic role in the Storm 5 out offense and he had no fewer than 7 assists.  Chan curling and posting their big scoring wings Bennett Barger and Kolby Christl with Ramler finding them.  Very effective and great for their personnel.  Add in a couple of 3s and 10 points for Ramler too.  Then even ran the famous "Chips" inbound for him.

There continues to be no better entertainment value for the dollar than Kirby Wymore of Coon Rapids.  33 points and 5 triples in the Cardinals win over St. Francis in the New Year's Bethel get together at Anoka.

Northfield lost their season opener but is undefeated since. The Raiders have moved up to #6 in the class AAA state poll.  They knocked off Kennedy 64-52 to win the Hastings tournament.  It looks like a football team with lots of strong guys. But you have the skill with it led by Kayden Oakland (a South Dakota St FB commit) who had 26 in the win.

Lakeville South won the Owatonna tournament taking out Waconia and Owatonna.  I took in the win over Waconia.  Soph forward Nolan Greene 23 points in that win.  Senior Forward/Wing Nate Owata can play in or out. A name to keep an eye on for D3s.  Even off the bench he's one of their top scorers in a very balanced lineup.  Will Kirsch another big game for Waconia with 30 points and 4 triples in the loss

Higher Ground won the St. Paul Harding tourney.  They beat the hosts in the final and Minneapolis Edison in the semis.  Forward Abdiaziz Abdi with 34 points and 15 points in that semifinal win.  No matchup for him inside.

Hopkins no problems as they steamrolled their way to the championship at Augsburg.  Breck took 3rd place with a 74-73 win over #8AA Minneapolis North.  JP Musoke 6 triples and 32 points to lead the Mustangs to the win.  Cordae Williams with 22 and wing Niko Steward 13 in 2nd half for North after not playing in 1st half.  Then there's Camden who has been Jekyll and Hyde the last 2 weeks.  They barely beat Edison, got blown out by Cooper, Breck and Columbia Heights and were down 16 to Como Park before barely winning that game.  Camden benched their starters for a large chunk of that Heights game after falling behind by 20 early.

We talked about Richfield earlier.  They played their game against Minnehaha at Hamline without Dre Collins and got a scare winning 60-52.  Ayden Green 3 triples and 15 points to lead Minnehaha for another good outing in that one. 

Earlier in the day at Macalester, good 5AA section win for SW Christian as they took out Maranatha 85-72.  Jed Streed and Jameson McCarthy both with big games.  Marcus Marshall held down in the first half due to foul trouble for MCA  He got going in the 2nd half but already being double digits down was too much to overcome.

Up at the Granite City, Spectrum held off a spirited Providence Academy squad 83-77.  Eli Miller 31 pts, Cody Benson with 32 for Spectrum.  The stars need to shine as Providence had a 4 point lead with 6 minutes left.  Benson with a putback, 2 FTs and then a big 3 for a 4 point lead with 1:44 left.  Frosh guard Sachin Bloch 19 points and 5 triples off the Providence bench. Good to see Leo Giwa back running the show for the Lions after missing last season due to injury. 

Fun notes from other games I didn't see
Carson McMichael of Blake with a career high 40 points and 8 treys.  Blake took #1A Cherry to OT in the Lake Superior Classic before losing 81-78

Buffalo beats Bemidji by 19 to remain undefeated going into their trip to #1 Wayzata on Tuesday.  Bemidji's Jaxon Boschee becomes the school's all-time scorer in the game.

The Flops
The flopping calls in the De La Salle vs Richfield game have been a huge point of discussion. Sadly, these have been a point of emphasis for the last couple of years but almost always avoided.  1 ref had 3 of the 4 calls in the game.  Its the inconsistency that's maddening.  We get no calls and then 1 ref decides to call them.  Right or wrong, that's tough and I think the calls were absolutely correct.  Now while I'm all for draconian penalties for many things including flops, realistically a technical foul on the 2nd is something many officials don't want to resort to.  So I put this squarely on Lithgow and Jason Nickleby.  We can't get the notorious Tyus Jones head snap right let alone any other flop.  We need better training, better standards, better accountability and that has to come from on top.