MN AA Preview

#2 posting 3.14.2006

MN MISS BASKETBALL FINALISTS
Anna Bjorlin, Hermantown
Jessica Miller, Holy Angels
Kelly Jo Mullaney, Breck
Jillian Schurle, Hopkins
Jenna Smith, Bloomington Kennedy

MN STATE AA PREVIEW

This class has split sites the first day.
The top bracket is at the Target Center on Wednesday

Crookston will play MACCRAY AT 6 pm. Both teams return after an absence. Crookston has a young contingent led by Camille Wahlin with 17.1 ppg. Taylor Davis is second on the squad with 10.7, but they have three others averaging above 7. MACCRAY is the surprise team of the AA as they were the #2N seed. They are led by Hillary Groothuis 15.8 and Tory Brouwer 12.8. They are both inside players. I think Crookston might just have a bit more depth and would prefer to go where as MACCRAY would like a nice steady half court game. In this situation Crookston by 10.

Albany takes on Eden Valley-Watkins at 8 pm. This is will be a tight game. It is one of the better matchups for the night. Albany won at EVW on J30 in a race horse game 76-66. The score won’t be higher this time around. Possessions seem to become more valuable as the days dwindle down to a precious few. Albany is led by the coaches daughter Jennie Noreen, the third Noreen to take her team to the dance. She is averaging 16.2. Taylor Voss 12.5, and Sarah Korneck 10.6 also provide some scoring punch. Eden Valley-Watkins has a 1000 assist player, the only time anyone can say that. Krista Opheim is the all time assist leader. Getting most of those assists this year is Hannah Linz with 22.8. Also a threat is Amber Junker with 10.3 ppg. Albany in a very good, tight game by four.

At the Sports Pavillion on Wednesday night
Cannon Falls faces Esko at 6 pm. Cannon Falls toppled the number one team in AA Breck in the section finals. Will they ride that momentum to the top? The first challenge will be Esko. Cannon Falls has a big team led by the Montgomery sisters Cory and Alex 19 and 15.5 ppg respectively. Korie Jackson will provide scoring as well, usually from the corners. She averages 11.9. Sami Mattison is the sole Esko player above double digits with 12.2 ppg. Section four is a tough section by historical standards. Cannon Falls by 14.

It will be a battle between the Catholics and Lutherans at 8 pm as Winona Cotter takes on MN Valley Lutheran. This really is a shame that this game had to pit these two in the quarters. It deserves better. Cotter likes to press and run. So does MVL. Cotter plays in the rough and tumble world of the Hiawatha Valley Gold, MVL plays in the rough and tumble world of the Tomahawk. The difference is the HVG is a AA conference with top AA top ten teams a steady diet for Cotter. MVL faces a diet of top ten A teams. Cotter is led by a coaches daughter and point guard Devin Bowlin 10.9 and Jenny Gilbertson 18.8. Laura Erickson is also in double figures with 11.8. MVL also has three double figure scorers led by point guard Karissa Kramer with 16.l, Kristin Patterson and Laura Hunter also can find the hole with12.7 and 10.9 ppg. This will be an interesting game, but Cotter will pull away late and take it by 7.

This class has the most #1 seeds advancing to the tournament with 7. It must be remembered that there are two #1s for each section, so it may not be that big of a stretch. The only number #2 seed to make it is MACCRAY from section 3.

There are two coaching veterans in this group: Jon Noreen of Albany, and Sue Johnson-Northey of Esko. It will be Noreen’s fourth appearance in a row.
Pat Bowlin of Winona Cotter is in for the third time, second at Cotter. He brought St. Bernard’s to the show in 1988.
Tom Jansen of Eden Valley-Watkins and Dave Biedenbender of MN Valley Lutheran are taking teams in for a second time.
This will be the first time for Eric Schmidt of Crookston, Dale Peterson of MACCRAY, and Chuck Benda of Cannon Falls

Many happy returns---Albany, as noted above, is returning for the fourth year in a row. They know what to expect and know the routine. MVL is the only other team that played in last year’s tournament that is returning.

Only one team had more than four losses and won the tournament and that was Blake back in 1998. MVL does not have a loss pinned on them yet.

The best conferences at taking hardware away from the tournament are the West Central North (under current configurations) and the TriMetro. Since the TriMetro is not involved in the AA tournament this year, Albany becomes the favorite using the Conference method. The Hiawatha Valley Gold has three championships and that leads (along with the TriMetro). Using that measuring stick Winona Cotter is sitting pretty.

Looking at the top sections for taking home a trophy we see that section 4 has 8. If those trends continue Cannon Falls will have something to add to their case. Section 5 also has been successful at bringing shiny trophies in. That is a positive trend for Eden Valley-Watkins. However one section has never brought home a Gold, Silver, or Bronze and that is section 2. Not a good development for MVL.

The fact of the matter is, I haven’t seen all the teams or charted all the teams I saw this year. I did see three with Cotter, Cannon Falls and Eden Valley-Watkins being the victims. Therefore these selections are going to be blind, and are based on the information gleaned from the papers that cover these teams. Cotter played the most difficult schedule with 15 games against some pretty tough competition. Esko had the lightest with 6 games. Cracking down on defense is Albany checking in with a 47.8 against the best. EVW is next with 50.64. Crookston gave away the most with 56.5. The best margin belongs to MVL, seeing as that they are undefeated, with +16.50 margin. It must be remembered that MVL is playing against an A schedule in an A conference.

With three of the top four teams dumped in the section finals it is a wide open field. Even though MVL is the highest rated team left, I don’t see them taking the prize. I don’t even see them getting past Cotter in a bad draw. I look for Cotter to face Albany in the finals, with Cotter taking the prize back to Winona.

There you have it. My kiss of death on the AA teams.

Next up: my take on the A field close to 9 pm