The Week That Was #2 2007-08: Thanksgiving Tournaments

#8 posting 11.25.2007
your daily dose of girls basketball news & information

THE WEEK THAT WAS #2
8 games, (7 in two days)
The high school season started off with a bang. Improvement in the quality of play this early in the season is already noticeable. Here are the comparisons of last years numbers and this years numbers in the same two events:
06 combined 71.97 pp100, .356 floor %
06 Hamline 71.95 pp100, .347 floor %
06 Hudson 74.06 pp100, .366 floor %
07 combined 80.9 pp100, .396 floor %
07 Hamline 85.86 pp100, .414 floor %
07 Hudson 73.64 pp100, .370 floor %
As you can see Hamline increased 13.91 points, and .067 in the floor %. And this with the addition of four teams.
Hudson stayed relatively the same with their numbers.
The championship in the west bracket was a game for the books. It appeared Centennial was going to flame out, but they kept their head above water and got their groove back late in the first half and rode that to snap Central's 34 game winning streak.
Hopkins put on a clinic in the East bracket championship at Hamline.
The Minneapolis North comeback showed people that there is life after Hickman.
Rosemount was gritty in their win over Totino-Grace.
At Hudson, Superior beat the hosts a comeback of their own.
If this is the start of the season, then girls basketball fans, will be rubbing their hands with anticipation for the rest of the season.

TEAM OF THE WEEK
Hopkins won the Pat Paterson Memorial East bracket championship on Saturday. Their achievement was overshadowed by the #1 vs #2 battle in the west bracket, but their performance was spot on. They beat a Cretin-Derham Hall team that will be close to 20 wins this season. The first half was a showcase for Hopkins execution and intensity. They led CDH 40-19 at halftime. They had the highest pp100 for the week with 109. Their first half was a sizzling 125.0 pp100 and a floor % of .594. Hopkins is much quicker, athletic and deeper than last year's squad. Last year, when I charted five Hopkins games, the top level they finished with was 93. In the 2006 season when they won the state championship they had two games above this figure (125 vs CDH in the AV tournament and 114 vs Kennedy in the State final).

PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Megan Nipe is making a habit of taking the first high school player of the week award. Just like last year in the Hamline tournament Nipe claimed the honor again this year. In the first half Nipe was doing the heavy lifting for the Cougars. Nipe provided clutch shots for Centennial when Central was threatening in the second half. Her 3 broke a 48 all tie. When Central got within one at 53-52, Nipe answered again with a shot. She is also there for key defensive rebounds. She went down with what looked like an ankle injury with about two minutes to go after getting tangled up at mid court in transition. She got up and finished the game proving her durability and warrior mentality. Nipe understands the game and is in the right spot to cause damage and to break hearts.

How is the team of the week selected?
#1: I had to see the team during the week
#2: A minimum of 10 possessions by the player. The average possessions by a team is 70, so that means 7 players theoretically could have 10 possessions per team. Nine is one too few. In the summer this number is adjusted.
#3: the gold standard applies--pp100 north of 100; floor % north of .500. I will make adjustments if players don't reach those marks. This week there were 18 players that met the standard.
The Defensive team is based on defensive wraps---who gets the ball for their team.
TEAM OF THE WEEK
First Team
Megan Erlandson, Minnehaha
Amy Frye, Hudson, WI
Georgie Jones, St. Paul Central
Jenna Lillemoe, Hopkins
Megan Nipe, Centennial
Second Team
Brianna Edwards, Mpls North
Sonja Ellingson, Anoka-Ramsey CC
Megan Eul, Rosemount
Molly Geske, Cretin-Derham Hall
Shannon Lehikoinen, Superior, WI

DEFENSIVE TEAM
Deena Ewert, Andover
Molly Geske, Cretin-Derham Hall
Madelyn Houser, North Iowa Area CC--captain
Chaundera Riley, Mpls North
Laurie Tyson, Rosemount
Now if you paid attention this week you would now NIACC was hammered by Anoka-Ramsey. So how can a player on a team that was drilled be the captain of the defensive team? She was the only real player they had, and she was just an animal on the boards.

PREVIOUS WINNERS
Week, Team--Player of the week---Defender
1: NDSCS----Tanika Massey, NDSCS---

WEEK AHEAD
The big games this week include
TUESDAY
Bloomington Kennedy at Eden Prairie
Rogers at Osseo
Mpls South at St. Paul Johnson
THURSDAY
Hopkins vs St. Paul Johnson at Tartan
FRIDAY
Chaska at Bloomington Kennedy
SATURDAY
Hill-Murray at Minnehaha

The big (6 game) event is at Fergus Falls in the Breakdown Tip Off
#1 class A Ada-Borup will play Mt Iron-Buhl 11 am
#1 class AA Albany will play DGF at 12:45 pm
Crookston plays Park-Cottage Grove at 2:30 pm
Lakeville North plays Rogers at 4:15 pm
Centennial plays Moorhead at 6 pm
#1 class AAA Becker plays host Fergus Falls at 7:45 pm
The chances are Centennial will be #1 in AAAA after their comeback win over St. Paul Central, so four #1s in one spot.

next up: tomorrow morning. I plan on back filling the information on the Hamline games later today and tomorrow.