The Week That Was #9: Midway

#11 posting 1.13.2008
your daily dose of girls basketball news & information

THE WEEK THAT WAS #9: MIDWAY

This week we traveled four hours out and back on Tuesday across the frozen tundra in our quest to see the best in the state. We passed the blinking wind turbines of the Buffalo Ridge blinking like sentries guarding the land. We saw stars crisp and clean unlike the dull look you see with the urban light pollution. We also saw stars on the court--some shooting stars, also some asteroids.

Mondays are typically reserved for class A games. Wednesdays are for Community College action. Tuesdays and Fridays are feasts—too many contests to pick from. Thursdays have better choices than Mondays, but not the level of Tuesday or Friday. Saturdays have matinees and, if I am up to speed, double features.

I am working off a list and so far I have six AAAA teams that have winning records left to see. I have 19 in AAA left to go. On another list (the MaxPreps 50) I have 13 left to see. I will keep chipping away.

It now is mid season and some teams are on track, some teams have peaked, some are building momentum, and some need to make mid course corrections---fast. There are some teams laying in the weeds, neglected, overlooked, disrespected. All this will play out in the next six weeks before the heat of the playoffs begin. That’s right in six weeks the sections will have started in class A.

So let us look at the sections at the mid point.
Class, pp100, floor %, +/- from 07
A 66.54, .333, -7 (however I have only seen 6 teams)
AA 79.16, .384, 0
AAA 79.95, .379 +4
AAAA 86.98, .424 +3
Now look at the AAAA section breakdown:
1---67.22, .342
2---106.51, .493
3---84.7, .409
4---86.78, .437
5---88.05, .421
6---94.16, .453
7---83.72, .407
8---81.79, .419
For most of the season all eyes have focused on section 3 and they have had three teams in the top 10 (Eastview, Park-Cottage Grove, and Lakeville North). However section 2 has an eye popping 106.51 pp100. I have seen six games of section 2 teams and even if we discount the Richfield romp over Mpls Edison, when they struck for 128.05, the section is clocking in at 101.44 and the floor % is .471, still the tops in both categories. That is contrasted with the extremely low scoring in section 1. The highest observed pp100 in section 1 would not beat the lowest in section 2. Part of the reason section 1s numbers are so low is most of the teams were seen during the Christmas tournaments. I will go out on a limb and say that Section 1 will NOT produce the state champ this year in AAAA. Right now they are looking at an 8 seed.

WARNING
The teams/players are selected by crunching numbers and looking at how the teams performed when I watched them during the week. It does not mean that the selected team would beat all teams, or the player is on the fast track for the WNBA. It does mean the performances were noted during the week for their efficiency and their hard nosed play. These award winners caught my eye during the week and are noted.
On the player awards, #1 I need to see them, #2. They need to have 10 possessions (this eliminates some players) #3. they have to be north of 100 pp100 and .500 floor % during the time I watch.
The newcomer is selected on the basis I haven't seen/charted that player before.

TEAM
New Life Academy is the first class A team to win the award this year. Every other time it was a AAAA team. NLA have depth and youthful experience. NLA is capable of playing with larger schools. Their only loss was to #2 AAA Minnehaha before the Christmas break. They are effective and efficient on offense and don’t rely on one player. Defensively they held West Lutheran to 12 under their season average.

Photo: From left to right Jenny Ramey, Rebekah Schmidt, Danielle Cathey, Sarah Nisleit, Kristin Stein.

PLAYER
Lauren Barber of Owatonna simply took over against Mankato West. When Beth Christensen fouled out and the score tied at 51 it appeared that the lean was to MW. Barber stopped that by scoring on the next four possessions. It was like a super hero appeared to save the day. For most of the game she was Clark Kent. When she wants to, she is a woman amongst the girls. The key to Owatonna’s season will be for her to produce like she did Friday night. She is definitely capable of such feats.

It is also worth noting that guards/perimeters have won 7 of the 9 honors this year.

FIRST TEAM
Lauren Barber, Owatonna
Gabrielle Boever, Worthington
Brittany Monio, Minneapolis CTC
Jenny Ramey, New Life
Miranda Speckel, Buffalo
SECOND TEAM
Rachel Banham, Lakeville North
Charmaine Cross, Minneapolis CTC
Kaitlyn Rogalla, Moorhead
Rebekah Schmidt, New Life
Faith Tinklenberg, Pipestone
THIRD TEAM
Holli Aggen, Worthington
Brittany Quistorff, Fergus Falls CC
Danielle Schmidt, New Life
Alyssa Smith, Worthington
Olivia Smith, West Lutheran

DEFENDER
Charmaine Cross of Minneapolis CTC ruled the boards against Fergus Falls CC. If the ball was near her, she owned it. Physical, assertive and good timing helped give her the title this week.

NEWCOMER
Minneapolis CTC has another winner, Brittany Monio. She is not necessarily a youngster, but the “newcomer” status is for those that I haven’t seen before. Her back story is that she played with Stillwater and then went to NJIT and was on the soccer team. She is a 5-10 wing/perimeter player that has a good shot. She does have 3 range.

PAST WINNERS
Week, Team
8 Long Beach Poly, CA
7 Hopkins
6 Forest Lake
5 Richfield
4 St. Paul Central
3 Mpls South
2 Hopkins
1 NDSCS CC

Player of the week
8 Alison Johnson, St. Louis Park
7 Stephanie Sension, Hopkins
6 Hannah Linz, Eden Valley-Watkins
5 Brittnye McSparron, Eastview
4 Rachel Banham, Lakeville North
3 Courtney Boylan, Chaska
2 Megan Nipe, Centennial
1 Tanika Massey, NDSCS CC

Defender
8 Jasmine Dixon, Long Beach Poly CA
7 Meme Hudnell, DeLaSalle
6 Anne Berner, Forest Lake
5 DaNae Moore, Eastview
4 Brianna Mastey, Becker
3 Sarah Hintz, Woodbury
2 Madelyn Houser, North Iowa Area CC
1 Whitney Glazier, Central Lakes CC

Newcomer
8 Hope Sevlie, Red Wing
7 Ruby Harvey, St. Paul Arlington
6 Erin Schmeling of St. Croix Lutheran
5 Yaasmiyn Salahu-Din, St. Paul Como Park
4 Hannah Frost, Mahtomedi

THE WEEK TO COME
Monday, Jan 14
Granada-Huntley-East Chain at St. Clair: an important Valley conference match up. GHEC is 6-0 and undefeated on the year. St. Clair is 7-1 in the Valley.

Tuesday, Jan 15
Bemidji at Brainerd. Important for 8AAAA seeding
GF Red River, ND at Crookston. Bigger North Dakota school visits #1 AA in Minnesota.
Bloomington Kennedy at Eastview. This starts a heavy dose of power teams for Kennedy.
Lakeville North at Eden Prairie. LN will look to break a two game losing streak.
West Central at Hawley. Heart O'Lakes battle with Hawley in first, and WC tied for 2nd one game off.
Delano at Orono. A battle of Highway 12 rivals in the Wright County. The winner will be alone in first place. The loser will be in second.
MN Valley Lutheran at Sleepy Eye St. Mary's. SESM will look to slow MVL in the Tomahawk.
Mankato West at Worthington. Important for 2AAA seeding
St. Francis at Totino-Grace. Critical North Suburban meeting with St. Francis holding one loss.

Wednesday, Jan 16
It must be CC day

Thursday, Jan 17
Pequot Lakes at Crosby-Ironton. A Mid State battle. PL has one loss on the year. CI will look to avenge a loss earlier.
Eden Valley-Watkins at Howard Lake-W-W. A chance for HLWW to get revenge for the earlier loss.
Bemidji at Moorhead. Another vital seeding meeting for 8AAAA with Moorhead needing to adjust to the absence of Kelsey Jacobson.
Sartell at St. Cloud Tech. SCT hasn't lost in the Central Lakes. Sartell has been winning tight games.

Friday, Jan 18
St. Michael-Albertville at Becker. Important Mississippi 8 battle.
Eden Prairie at Bloomington Kennedy. #2 tough contest for Kennedy in the week.
Eastview at Burnsville. Burnsville is dangerous.
Osseo at Centennial. Both are undefeated in the NW Suburban.
Armstrong at Lakeville North. A classic Lake vs Lake battle.
Red Wing at New Prague. The battle for Missota. RW needs to come out quickly.
St. Paul Central at St. Paul Johnson. Expect an intense battle for the lead in the St. Paul City conference.
Park-Cottage Grove at Woodbury. A South Washington County School District civil war.

Saturday, Jan 19
Bloomington Kennedy at Mpls South. #3 tops Kennedy's grueling week.
Simley at New Prague. Important for #1 seed in 1AAA.


SEEDING THE STATE
Seed, team, (section)
AAAA
1. Centennial (5)
2. Hopkins (6)
3. Eastview (3)
4. St. Paul Central (4)
5. Bloomington Kennedy (2)
6. St. Francis (7)
7. Elk River (8)
8. Rochester JM (1)

A word about polls--I see Centennial is #10 in the MaxPreps poll Nationwide, but only #5 in the MN Scores AAAA poll in the state.

AAA
1 DeLaSalle (6)
2 Minnehaha (4)
3 Becker (5)
4 Totino-Grace (3)
5 Fergus Falls (8)
6 Worthington (2)
7 Simley (1)
8 Grand Rapids (7)

Next up: tomorrow morning