The Week That Was #17: Final Exams

#6 posting 3.18.2007
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THE WEEK THAT WAS #17: FINALS EXAMS
18 games, four days, two dead rabbits, one nasty cold

The Minnesota state tournament wrapped up yesterday and here are some of the highlights.

There were more tight games across all tournaments with 9 games decided by 5 points or less. Last year there were five. This year's dramatics included two in the finals: Pipestone over Albany and Becker over DeLaSalle. Also earlier in the tournament Benilde edged New Prague that went down to the wire. Pipestone had nail biters in the quarters (2 over Caledonia) and semis (overtime with Jordan). And the South vs Champlin Park semi featured both teams in the +100 pp100 for the most artistic game of the tournament.

As always there was great coaching jobs. A pair that stood out were Hancock with Jodi Holleman and Pipestone with Jay Johnson.
Hancock took out #1 Ada-Borup with precise execution and taking away the transition game. The undersized Owls knew what they needed to do. They also were competitive against the much bigger defending champs from Fulda and led at halftime.

Pipestone had the comebacks from 16 down to Caledonia, 10 to Jordan and late game with Albany. Johnson lept his composure which helped his squad weather the storm. Kids have a natural tendancy to panic when things are not going well. That was kept in check by Johnson's confidence. When Jordan pulled the ball out when Pipestone was in their 2/3 zone Faith Tinklenberg looked very concerned and turned to the bench looking for direction. It was given in a manner that kept Pipestone aggressive yet controlled.

GLAESER'S THEOREM
I talked about this before. When did the top teams suffer their bad half?
AAAA: St. Paul Central---vs Roseville quarters; Central only led by 2 at half.
AAA: Becker----vs Benilde-St. Margaret's, trailed by three at half.
AA: Pipestone----vs Caledonia quarters; trailed by 16-0 to start the game.
A: Fulda----vs Hancock championship game; trailed by four.
Everyone has a bad half to win a tournament. You need to survive it.

SEEDING
The AAAA and AAA seeding system seemed to work out fine. It provided for two finals that had 1 vs 2. If AAA didn't have the seeding it would have had Becker vs Detroit Lakes; New Prague vs DeLaSalle in the top half of the bracket. Obviously that wouldn't be the way to have the tournament.
I hope the A and AA tournaments will be seeded.
At least the girls coaches had courage to seed. The boys sat on the sidelines seeing how the process worked out.

IMPROVEMENTS:
#1. have the state tourament at one site. You can run it like this: AAAA quarters plus 2 AAA quarters on Tuesday. 2 AAA quarters plus all AA quarters on Wednesday. All A quarters plus the AAAA Semis on Thursday. A, AA, and AAA semis on Friday. The Finals on Saturday just as it is now.
Seed AAAA 1-64. But it would have to be done at the MSHSL office. Iowa does it this way for their tournament putting the top teams in different brackets.
Warm up time: Iowa has 15 minutes and that seems to work out fine. 25 minutes is way, way, way too long.

INTERESTING
The team that sat to the left of the official table and had the dark uniforms lost all championship games Saturday.
There almost was a collective heart attack at the Target Center on Wednesday. The MSHSL site had Roseville beating Central. The score was transposed.
Jim Gogolin was an official this week. He also coached Brainerd in the state tournament back in 1991 and 1992.
It seemed the A bands were the best of the bunch. Hancock, Ada-Borup, Fulda as a class were better than the other classes.
Cheers: There were a couple that got my attention. "You got crackers, We got Cheese" from South; and "Give us a chance" more of a pleading, from Edina fans when up against St. Paul Central.
Champlin Park had the best student following with their section full of white tshirts, the uniform of the CP fans. They were constantly standing, swaying, and bouncing durning the night.

THINGS THAT ANNOY
1. Passing across the lane after getting the defensive rebound. All classes, including state champs would get a rebound on the right side and turn into the lane and pass across to the left side instead of turning to the right side in the proper outlet fashion. Of course if players would come to the ball and call for the ball it may be useful.
2. Many players are allergic to the backboard. and they don't have proper angle on drives either.
3. Parking ramps that can't open the gate despite a small crease in the card you slide to get out. It took 30 stinking minutes to escape that ramp on Saturday night.

TEAM OF THE WEEK
St. Paul Central etched its name in the history books with convincing fashion this week. Once they started rolling in the second half of the Roseville Quarterfinal win the Central Express ran over all. Edina and South were living in a Central world. It wasn't so much the offense, even though that was impressive enough, it was the defense that was the extreme difference maker. Edina was averaging 86.5 on their pp100, but only came up with a 53.9 against the Central Juggernaut. High flying Minneapolis South was at 104.1 but only checked in with 72.4 against the relentless, suffocating defense of Central. Defense wins championships and Central defense may be overlooked amid all the lightning and thunder, but it is critical part of their success.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Becker's Brianna Mastey had an outstanding tournament leading, pulling, and carrying her team to the top. She is a difference maker, has versatility on offense with decent ball handling skills, and plays with equal verve on the defensive end. This is her second player of the week honor this year and it came at the pinnacle of the season when all eyes were watching. She joins Kachine Alexander and Angel Robinson as two time winners.

A word on how this team was selected this week. #1 you had to play at Target Center (which is where I was all week). That meant if a player racked it up at the Pavillion or Concordia St. Paul it is not going to influence the selection process. #2 a player still has to make the gold standard: 100 pp100 and .500 floor %. That means, with two games, a player has to be consistent. It also means one bad game takes a player out of the running. That is why Hancock, and Minneapolis South among others don't have players on this week's list even though they were in the finals. It also means if a player had a good game in their only Target Center experience they make the list (but third team).

FIRST TEAM
Georgie Jones, St. Paul Central
Laura Kramer, Fulda
Brianna Mastey, Becker
Angel Robinson, St. Paul Central
Faith Tinklenberg, Pipestone
SECOND TEAM
Aaryn Booker, DeLaSalle
Kiara Buford, St. Paul Central
Steph Kocourek, Pipestone
Taylor Voss, Albany
LaToya Williams, Benilde-St. Margaret's
THIRD TEAM
Ebony Black, St. Paul Central
Ashlynn Fuller, Champlin Park
Rachel Pexa, Norwood-Young America
Jenny Theisen, Champlin Park
Whitney Trecker, New Prague

PAST TEAMS & PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
1 Centennial---- Megan Nipe, Centennial
2 Mpls South---- Alyssa Karel, Cretin-Derham Hall
3 Osseo----Janessa Wolff, Park Rapids
4 St. Paul Central----Kachine Alexander, Benilde-St. Margaret's
5 Wayzata----Cassie Rochel, Lakeville North
6 Champlin Park----Kachine Alexander, Benilde-St. Margaret's
7 Bloomington Kennedy---Shakila Boler, Bloomington Kennedy
8 Albany----Sam Larsen, Albany
9 Braham----Bri Zabel, Northfield
10 Champlin Park----Jenny Theisen, Champlin Park
11 Mpls North-----Maurika Hickman, Mpls North
12 Mpls South----Tayler Hill, Mpls South
13 Winona Cotter----Brianna Mastey, Becker
14 St. Paul Central---Angel Robinson, St. Paul Central
15 Holy Angels----Tara Steinbauer, Bloomington Kennedy
16 St. Paul Central---Angel Robinson, St. Paul Central

DEFENSIVE TEAM
Rachel Booth, DeLaSalle--captain
Georgie Jones, St. Paul Central
Laura Kramer, Fulda
Brianna Mastey, Becker
Angel Robinson, St. Paul Central

LAST YEAR
Here is comparisions from last year for the tournament only.
team, 0ff100, floor %; def100; floor%

Hopkins 101.12; .503; 84.3, .383
St. Paul Central: 98.16; .497; 63.8, .313

Benilde-St. Margaret's 84.44, .422; 62.43, .309
Becker 80.21, .375; 71.35, .380

Cannon Falls 99.51, .463; 82.84, .397
Pipestone 91.06, .415; 85.48, .387

Fulda 06 95.34, .466; 74.61, .363
Fulda 07 90.53, .452; 53.72, .261

LAST 10 YEARS
I was going to name the 10 year All tournament teams (not counting this year). Look for that tomorrow evening.

NEXT YEAR:
Here are preliminary picks to win it all next year: It looks like a back 2 back for two squads
AAAA: St. Paul Central
AAA: Becker
AA: Albany
A: New Life

What is up next now that the season is over? Next week it will be the Season That Was with awards and honors. Kind of like the Oscars without the papparazzi, gift bags, or acceptance speeches.
After that it is the opening of AAU season and summer action. Stay tuned.

What about the rabbits and cold?
Well at the end of the season I usually get a cold of some sort. It came a week early this year. It was nasty, but I got some antibotics and was good enough to go to the tournament, thank goodness.

As far as the rabbits--on Thursday night when I got home I let out the dogs and when they didn't come in fast enough, I investigated. There was the little one-scout the Cocker Spaniel-with a rabbit. So I had to entice him off his prize with some plain ordinary dog food. Then I disposed of the victim. On Saturday morning Scout didn't come in again. This time he had a rabbit under the deck. Looking for him I had the flash light (we are talking 5 am) and there was his blood red eyes under the deck, kind of Cujo-like. Well I had to entice him out again with hum drum dog food. Once he was safely in the house I had to crawl under the deck like a reptile to get the victim to dispose of it. That little dog is pretty ferocious and tenacious. By the way he is the puppy that the older dog Sparky attacked this summer after two days in the house. They get along now. But rabbits.......

I would like to thank Tim Teas for his advice and counsel during the year.

Next up: tomorrow morning