The Week That Was #3: Snow Go

#9 posting 12.2.2007
your daily dose of girls basketball news & information

THE WEEK THAT WAS #3
The week started with “Destination Anywhere.” Even Google Maps couldn’t pin point Kimball High School. I had to stop to get directions from a local gas station. The week ended with a snow “event” and three hour ride up to Fergus Falls, only to see one game out of the six scheduled. In between there were two games where the pp100 topped 2006-07s best efforts. And it is only the second week of the High school season.
I think I saw the fastest a team can get to the bonus when South made it to the bonus with 3:12 into the game. Johnson had three fouls alone in one possession. Their first foul came in 8 seconds. Also this week, two premier point guards and future Big 10 players Shakila Boler and Courtney Boylan put on a show at Kennedy.

ODDS AND ENDS
Since I have been taking photos I have noticed the lighting at the various gyms. Kimball is a new gym (2002) and has lights that my Canon loves. The next night at Johnson the lighting was dreadful. The luminescence was the intensity of a dark cave.
Speaking of gyms I have been to two new ones this week: Kimball and Fergus Falls. FF has atmosphere, double deck seating, and an arched roof, but the seats were pretty empty with the snow event.
Concessions? Kimball did not provide hot dogs at their concession stand. Definitely not in the running for best concession stand this year.

There was carnage in the top 10 polls---Class AA saw the most carnage with five teams picking up a loss. It started on Tuesday with Jordan falling to New Prague. In continued with Eden Valley-Watkins, Cannon Falls, and Blue Earth falling. Later in the week #2 Crookston beat #1 Albany despite falling behind big early.
In class AAA four top 10 teams have a loss (St. Paul Johnson, Totino-Grace, Hill-Murray, and Hibbing). Class A had two fall (Goodhue, Bethlehem Academy), while Class AAAA had the most stability with one (Osseo) team knocked out of the listing.

NUMBERS
The numbers continue to be better than last year. Here are the comparisons
2007-08 81.62, .403
2006-07 68.40, .338
The improvement is mainly concentrated in the AAAA level. The 07 numbers are from the full year. There is a clear, distinct difference between AAAA and AAA---about 12 points better in the pp100. When a team gets over 100 pp100 and loses (Chaska) it indicates offensive ability is on the rise.
AAAA 08 87.95, .432
AAAA 07 83.72, .408
AAA 08 75.96, .364
AAA 07 73.16, .354

TEAM OF THE WEEK
Minneapolis South went on the road to play St. Paul Johnson, a team that matched them with speed and quickness. South had their top scorer sit on the bench with three fouls early in the first half, and still prevailed in a solid performance. They scored often (plenty at the line) and held Johnson to a 64.5 pp100. So on both ends it was a convincing exhibition of power. They only allowed five field goals in the first half. South has a deeper bench than a year ago. Many of those players not only would start, by star on other teams. South’s back court is one of the premier collections in the state. Besides Tayler Hill, Ephesia Holmes is a steady performer and Tyisha Smith is the human blur. Their inside game is improving each time I see them.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Courtney Boylan is continuing her strong performance string that started turning heads in the summer. Now she is up to close to 200 pp100. In other words every possession for Boylan you can expect 2 points. She only had three non scoring possessions against Kennedy. Now that doesn’t mean she missed only three shots. She missed some, but Chaska retained possession. She knocked down deep NBA 3s when defenders sagged off. She penetrated and hit pull ups when defenders lunged and took themselves out of position. She also distributes the ball. Chaska is never out of the contest when Boylan is on the floor.

TEAM OF THE WEEK
FIRST TEAM
Courtney Boylan, Chaska
Tayler Hill, Mpls South
Gabrielle Roberts, Mpls South
Tyisha Smith, Mpls South
Brittany Zins, Bloomington Kennedy
SECOND TEAM
Shakila Boler, Bloomington Kennedy
Krista Kaput, Hill-Murray
Carollyn Mobley, St. Paul Johnson
Bekah Saugen, Chaska
Nicole Smart, Ada-Borup

DEFENDERS OF THE WEEK
Sarah Hintz, Woodbury, captain
Laura Kolness, Ada-Borup
Laura Maltby, Mpls Southwest
Bekah Saugen, Chaska
Rhonda Towner, Mt. Iron-Buhl

PREVIOUS WINNERS
Week, Team--Player of the week---Defender
2. Hopkins---Megan Nipe, Centennial---Madelyn Houser, North Iowa Area CC
1: NDSCS----Tanika Massey, NDSCS---Whitney Glazier, Central Lakes

GAMES THIS WEEK
Becker has an interesting one-two combination on Friday-Saturday hosting South Friday and traveling to Central on Saturday. Becker has really upgraded their schedule this season.
TUESDAY
Holy Family at Jordan
Dover-Eyota at Kingsland
Bloomington Kennedy at Lakeville North
Mpls Roosevelt at Richfield
THURSDAY
St. Paul Johnson at Mpls Roosevelt
FRIDAY
Mpls South at Becker
SATURDAY
Becker at St. Paul Central

Next up: tomorrow morning.