MN A Preview

#3 posting 3.14.2006

MN State A Preview

These games will take place on Thursday at Williams Arena. All have interesting subplots

In the first contest Fosston faces Fulda at 11 am. Fosston is the lowest seed still standing #3E, but they have tournament savvy. They were runners up last year. They are led by Kelly Landsverk with 18.7, Carin Sundbom also checks in with 11 ppg. Fulda is back after a two year abasence and they have some fire power with a trio of double digit scorers. Kaitlyn Kramer is at 23.0 ppg, Laura Kramer, no relation, is at 11.8, and Sam Raddle scores 10.5. In the game I saw, Sarah Raddle dropped the 3 bomb on Hills-Beaver Creek. She has returned from injury and scores 9 ppg. Every season a section 8 team has taken some form of medal. This is the year that streak might stop. Fulda by 8.

A couple of first time entrants Ada-Borup plays Browerville at 1 pm. Ada-Borup is a Smart team. They are led by coach David Smart’s daughters Nicole 17.9 and Kelly 12.1. They are the second Pine to Prairie team to make the tournament. Fosston is the other. AB plays the top level defense coming into the tournament. They are up against Browerville from the Prairie. Browerville is not really covered by any daily paper and are therefore more mysterious. It is known that they are athletic and fast. Ashley Noska leads the way with 13.3 ppg. Jayme Reed chimes in with 10.9. This is another game that should be entertaining. But you have to get Smart in order to win. Ada-Borup by seven.

Meadow Creek tangles with Barnum at 3 pm. Meadow Creek took third last year and are looking to get to the championship game this time around. They have an inside outside combo led by Abby Thom on the outside 15.8, and Elizabeth Woerle on the inside 14.5. Barnum has some size up front Colleen McKay and Kylea Seboe both are double digit performers for Barnum. Coaches daughter Megan Myhre also is in the mix. Another tough game. It could go either way. My crystal ball says Meadow Creek by two.

Defending champ Elgin-Millville takes on GHEC in the final quarterfinal at 5 pm. EM is a little bit different from last year’s squad. That was a Katie Ohm led team. This year Kali Olstad is the tent pole. She is the state’s all time leading 3 point bomber. She also has the highest ppg for A at 23.2. No one else has a double digit ppg for EM. GHEC has a strong mixture with height on the perimeter and muscle on the inside. They have had some tight games and know how to play and survive in the heat. Ashley Walterman scores at a 17.1 clip on the outside, Lori Balcom has 13.9 and Abby Shoen is at 11.1 on the inside. EM plays AA teams all season. They didn’t face a team in 1A with a winning record. GHEC plays an A schedule, but they went through the fire. Look for GHEC to take EM in a minor upset by five.

Five #1s made the big dance. GHEC and Fulda made the show as #2s, and Fosston is the lowest seed dancing with a #3 in the East bracket of section 8. It should be noted there were four #1s in 5 and Browerville was one of the four.

Clark Olstad of Elgin-Millville has brought his school to the state five straight years. He is the only coach that has won a state title. Randy Myhre of Barnum matches the five total, the first since 2003. Rick Uttech of GHEC takes his fourth team to state this season. In 1982 his team finished second. Dean Coffland of Meadow Creek has taken two teams to state, This is the fourth overall trip, and third year in a row for MC. Gregg Slaathaug of Fulda makes his third trip to the state tournament. Donnie Nelson of Fosston is making the second straight trip down. This is the first year for both the first year teams in the tournament. David Smart of Ada-Borup and Gary Graham of Browerville take their first tournament ride as does their schools.

Looking at the conferences that have done well at the state A we see that the Pine to Prairie conference leads the pack with four in the medal hunt. That should give Ada-Borup and Fosston reason to smile. Of the remaining teams left the Three Rivers conference has three medals. Elgin-Millville is responsible for two of them. The Red Rock (Fulda) has two medals to its credit. The Polar (Barnum) and MCAA (Meadow Creek) each have one medal each. The Valley (GHEC), and Prairie (Browerville) have yet to take home any hardware.

Looking at the strength of the sections we see that 8 has been the dominate force. Section 8 has eight total medals. It has been a section dominated by Fosston and Kittson Central, and Fosston has that history behind them in their run this year. Section 5 has had four medals. Browerville will take that as good news. Also checking in with four is section 1. Elgin-Millville certainly has tournament experience going for it as well. Three sections come up with three medals each: 3, 4, and 6. Sections 2 (GHEC) and 7 (Barnum) have come up pretty dry with only one medal each in the nine previous years of the four class system.

The amount of top flight games drops in A somewhat. In AAAA Elk River played against 20 quality opponents through the year. Benilde and Rogers faced 15 in AAA as did Winona Cotter in AA. The most quality teams any A team faced was Fulda with 10. The defensive side of things turn up for Ada-Borup with 41.7, two other teams are under 50 with Meadow Creek and Barnum each hitting 46. These numbers are only for games against the better teams, not all the teams played during the course of the year. Ada-Borup also has the best margin with a 13.3 level, the only team in the double digit range. Fulda and Barnum are above 7.

I saw three teams during the course of the year with GHEC in the Valley finals, Fulda in the 3A quarters, and Meadow Creek a couple of times (Concordia Roseville in December, and West Lutheran in the MCAA finals). Fulda had the most efficient offense using the possession charting method, and Meadow Creek had the best defense.

So looking at the tea leaves and cracked bones I will go out on a limb in a wild unpredictable tournament by seeing a Fulda vs Meadow Creek final with Meadow Creek taking home the prize.

Now you have received the kiss of death for A

Next up: news and updates headed into the first day action.