#10 posting 2.3.2008
your daily dose of girls basketball news & information
THE WEEK THAT WAS 12: Super
This week had important contests spread through the week. The themes this week include: injuries: four players had to leave the game after being put on the floor; Mississippi 8=1: I saw two M8 games, both went down to the wire, both were one point games. Top 5 games: Friday was a battle between #2 Rogers and #3 Becker; Saturday was #3 Mpls South vs #4 St. Paul Central. It also could be called Future Gopher week with Katie Loberg of Princeton on Tuesday, Brianna and Nicole Mastey of Becker on Friday, and Kiara Buford of St. Paul Central on Saturday.
I am happy to report I saw more energy from the teams this week. I saw more floor burns and hustle plays than the previous week. The crowds were also into the games. Basketball royalty was in attendance on Saturday watching the South/Central game. Gyms were close to full at South, Rogers, and Jordan.
I have now seen the top 29 teams in the MaxPreps list and 45 of the top 50. I have 2 AAAA teams with winning records left to see and 9 AAA teams.
MONTH BY MONTH
Here is a look at the pp100 & floor % month by month. I broke December and January into two segments:
Month; pp100, floor%
November 82.3, .404
December 1-15 79.82, .392
December 16-31 81.8, .394
January 1-15 85.34, .414
January 16-31 79.5, .380
2007-08 (so far) 81.62, .395
2006-07 78.64, .383
So you can see there was that dreaded mid winter doldrums at the end of January.
TEAM OF THE WEEK
For the second time this year Minneapolis South is team of the week. The Tigers used their defense to put distance between last year’s nemisis St. Paul Central. Their quickness, pressure, anticipation all came to the fore against Central. In four games I have seen this year South has held the other team to under a floor % of .330 in three of the games. They held the potent Central offense to a 65.0 pp100, the lowest total of the week.
Their three headed monster of guards definitely cause opponents headaches. Offensive they are slash and burn. They look to slash to the basket and burn by you with turbo charged speed in transition. The slash will get them lay ups, dishes to teammates left alone to try to stop the pen, or free throws with the inevitable fouls that happen. South was deadly at the line yesterday at 29/32.
The only other team that has won the team of the week twice is Hopkins. Unfortunately for basketball fans everywhere they reside in the same section. Only one will be playing after March 6.
South was team of the week twice last year. That ties them with St. Paul Central with the most total honors with four over the past two years.
your daily dose of girls basketball news & information
THE WEEK THAT WAS 12: Super
This week had important contests spread through the week. The themes this week include: injuries: four players had to leave the game after being put on the floor; Mississippi 8=1: I saw two M8 games, both went down to the wire, both were one point games. Top 5 games: Friday was a battle between #2 Rogers and #3 Becker; Saturday was #3 Mpls South vs #4 St. Paul Central. It also could be called Future Gopher week with Katie Loberg of Princeton on Tuesday, Brianna and Nicole Mastey of Becker on Friday, and Kiara Buford of St. Paul Central on Saturday.
I am happy to report I saw more energy from the teams this week. I saw more floor burns and hustle plays than the previous week. The crowds were also into the games. Basketball royalty was in attendance on Saturday watching the South/Central game. Gyms were close to full at South, Rogers, and Jordan.
I have now seen the top 29 teams in the MaxPreps list and 45 of the top 50. I have 2 AAAA teams with winning records left to see and 9 AAA teams.
MONTH BY MONTH
Here is a look at the pp100 & floor % month by month. I broke December and January into two segments:
Month; pp100, floor%
November 82.3, .404
December 1-15 79.82, .392
December 16-31 81.8, .394
January 1-15 85.34, .414
January 16-31 79.5, .380
2007-08 (so far) 81.62, .395
2006-07 78.64, .383
So you can see there was that dreaded mid winter doldrums at the end of January.
TEAM OF THE WEEK
For the second time this year Minneapolis South is team of the week. The Tigers used their defense to put distance between last year’s nemisis St. Paul Central. Their quickness, pressure, anticipation all came to the fore against Central. In four games I have seen this year South has held the other team to under a floor % of .330 in three of the games. They held the potent Central offense to a 65.0 pp100, the lowest total of the week.Their three headed monster of guards definitely cause opponents headaches. Offensive they are slash and burn. They look to slash to the basket and burn by you with turbo charged speed in transition. The slash will get them lay ups, dishes to teammates left alone to try to stop the pen, or free throws with the inevitable fouls that happen. South was deadly at the line yesterday at 29/32.
The only other team that has won the team of the week twice is Hopkins. Unfortunately for basketball fans everywhere they reside in the same section. Only one will be playing after March 6.
South was team of the week twice last year. That ties them with St. Paul Central with the most total honors with four over the past two years.
photo: The South brain trust: left to right: head coach Ahmil Jihad, Assistant Jimmy Rogers, Assistant Steve Sutton. photo by Teas.
PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Tayler Hill of Minneapolis South made a statement with her performance yesterday. She was on a mission and dominated both ends of the court. Her offensive skills have been well chronicled with her almost effortless stroke, deceptive, explosive first step to the basket and her elevation. She is a player of first significance. She is able to draw fouls and was deadly at the line (18/19).
What separated her yesterday was the command on defense. She reads eyes in the press and knows exactly what is going to happen next. She has great awareness.
This is Tayler Hill’s second win over the past two years in the high school season. Hill picked up two during the summer AAU Season in 08.
For the first time in a while I can field two teams. For those unfamiliar: #1 I have to see the player during the week. #2 player has to have 10 possessions; #3 player has to be north of 100 pp100; #4 player has to be north of .500 floor %.
FIRST TEAM
Brittany Chambers, Jordan (09)
Jennifer Dowd, Rogers (09)
Tayler Hill, Mpls South (09)
Katie Loberg, Princeton (09)
Ashley Kirk, MN West CC (11)
SECOND TEAM
Leah Dietel, Jordan (09)
Ashlee Domine, MN West CC (10)
Hannah Draxten, Fergus Falls (08)
Lauren Kessler, St. Michael-Albertville (08)
Michelle O’Malley, Jordan (10)
SPECIAL MENTION
Amanda Dietel of Jordan had a phenomenal outing against Mpls Roosevelt on Monday. She had 266.7 pp100 and 1.000 floor %. The unfortunate thing that kept her off the list was only six possessions. But she nailed four 3s in those six possessions. That was some expert long distant sniping.
DEFENDER OF THE WEEK
Tayler Hill (see above). This marks the second straight week where the player and defender are the same person. Furthermore in the four games Hill has led her team in defensive stops in three of the four games I have seen this year. The only game she didn’t she was in foul trouble and had to sit most of the first half (Johnson). She is undervalued in this category.
DEFENSIVE TEAM
Brittany Chambers, Jordan (09)
Jennifer Dowd, Rogers (09)
Hannah Draxten, Fergus Falls (08)
Tayler Hill, Mpls South (09)
Georgie Jones, St. Paul Central (08)
NEWCOMER OF THE WEEK
Guard Ashley Kirk of MN West Community College was constantly on Minneapolis point guard Jessica Ray all up court. And this with only six players available for MN West. She can hit the three, drive and runs the floor. On top of that she picked up key defensive rebounds late.
PAST WINNERS
Week, Team
11 Crookston
10 Centennial
9 New Life Academy
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
11 Lizzie Traxler, Holy Family
10 Becca Swalla, Riverland CC
9 Lauren Barber, Owatonna
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
11 Lizzie Traxler, Holy Family
10 Kiara Allums, Centennial
9 Charmaine Cross, Minneapolis CC
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
11 Taylor Stippel, Stillwater
10 Becca Swalla, Riverland CC
9 Brittany Monio, Minneapolis CC
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
Caucus night is Tuesday. Some games have been moved. The Lake conference has not moved their games. I am listing the games that are found on MN Scores calendar for Tuesday. My recommendation is call the schools to make sure the games are on.
Monday, Feb 4
Wayzata at Albany. An interesting cross class clash. Wayzata has been on the rise lately.
Wrenshall at Barnum. Part 2 of the battle in the Polar. If you haven’t been to a small town game this may be a good choice to get the flavor of it. Get there early.
Goodhue at Cannon Falls. Goodhue is underrated for A. They live in the AA Hiawatha Valley all season.
Hopkins at Park-Cottage Grove. Two top 10 teams. Defense is the forte for both teams.
Tuesday, Feb. 5
East Grand Forks at Crookston. 8AA battle.
Rogers at Minnetonka. Rogers lost to Tonka earlier in the year. Revenge in the air?
Wednesday, Feb. 6
Elk River at Osseo. Northwest Suburban games were moved from Tuesday to Wednesday.
Thursday, Feb. 7
Mpls North at Mpls South. A city civil war battle.
Albany at New London-Spicer. With Henjum out can NLS rise to the challenge?
Benilde-St. Margaret’s at Totino-Grace. Catholic powers in the North Suburban were in stat last year. Both teams have long winning streaks.
Friday, Feb. 8
Princeton at Becker. Three future Gophers on the court.
Hopkins at Edina. This is an intense rivalry.
CHOF at Maranatha. Two A powers tussle.
Pipestone at Worthington. The Trojans won in Arrow Country. Will Pipestone return the favor?
Saturday, Feb 9
Rogers Event
Centennial vs Moorhead 6 pm these games were supposed to be played in the blizzard of Dec. 1. Will Jacobson be ready?
Lakeville North vs Rogers 7:45 pm Rogers is on a roll. LN has stopped their slide.
Fergus Falls Event
Park-Cottage Grove vs Crookston 4 pm Big, power packed PCG vs Crookston sharpshooters.
Becker vs Fergus Falls 8 pm Mastey vs Draxten.
St. Paul Central at Eden Prairie. EP has dangerous options.
Benilde-St. Margaret’s at DeLaSalle. Both went to the state tournament last year. Both are in the same section. One will go, one will stay.
SEEDING THE STATE
This week the MSHSL, in a moment of weakness, caved into soccer/hockey coaches and decided that only the top four teams would be seeded. Apparently some schools and teams with low self esteem couldn’t handle the fact that they would be #8. Apparently the coaches of those schools couldn’t motivate their teams to rise to the challenge and upset the higher seeded team. Apparently therapists bill would be too high for these fragile egos.
Girls basketball is being forced to fall under the “standardization.” Guess what? there still will be 8th seeds even if they don’t know it. I wish someone would make sure they don’t check their backbone in with their coat when going to these meetings. Budget extra Kleenex for the 8th seeded teams perhaps.
I don’t see a lot of sympathy for the 12th seeds in section play.
What a joke.
AAAA
1. Centennial (5)
2. Hopkins (6)
3. Eastview (3)
4. St. Paul Central (4)
5. Chaska (2)
6. Elk River (8)
7. St. Francis (7)
8. Rochester JM (1)
AAA
1 DeLaSalle (6)
2 Rogers (5)
3 Minnehaha (4)
4 Totino-Grace (3)
5 Fergus Falls (8)
6 Worthington (2)
7 New Prague (1)
8 Grand Rapids (7)
next up: tomorrow morning
PLAYER OF THE WEEKTayler Hill of Minneapolis South made a statement with her performance yesterday. She was on a mission and dominated both ends of the court. Her offensive skills have been well chronicled with her almost effortless stroke, deceptive, explosive first step to the basket and her elevation. She is a player of first significance. She is able to draw fouls and was deadly at the line (18/19).
What separated her yesterday was the command on defense. She reads eyes in the press and knows exactly what is going to happen next. She has great awareness.
This is Tayler Hill’s second win over the past two years in the high school season. Hill picked up two during the summer AAU Season in 08.
For the first time in a while I can field two teams. For those unfamiliar: #1 I have to see the player during the week. #2 player has to have 10 possessions; #3 player has to be north of 100 pp100; #4 player has to be north of .500 floor %.
FIRST TEAM
Brittany Chambers, Jordan (09)
Jennifer Dowd, Rogers (09)
Tayler Hill, Mpls South (09)
Katie Loberg, Princeton (09)
Ashley Kirk, MN West CC (11)
SECOND TEAM
Leah Dietel, Jordan (09)
Ashlee Domine, MN West CC (10)
Hannah Draxten, Fergus Falls (08)
Lauren Kessler, St. Michael-Albertville (08)
Michelle O’Malley, Jordan (10)
SPECIAL MENTION
Amanda Dietel of Jordan had a phenomenal outing against Mpls Roosevelt on Monday. She had 266.7 pp100 and 1.000 floor %. The unfortunate thing that kept her off the list was only six possessions. But she nailed four 3s in those six possessions. That was some expert long distant sniping.
DEFENDER OF THE WEEK
Tayler Hill (see above). This marks the second straight week where the player and defender are the same person. Furthermore in the four games Hill has led her team in defensive stops in three of the four games I have seen this year. The only game she didn’t she was in foul trouble and had to sit most of the first half (Johnson). She is undervalued in this category.
DEFENSIVE TEAM
Brittany Chambers, Jordan (09)
Jennifer Dowd, Rogers (09)
Hannah Draxten, Fergus Falls (08)
Tayler Hill, Mpls South (09)
Georgie Jones, St. Paul Central (08)
NEWCOMER OF THE WEEKGuard Ashley Kirk of MN West Community College was constantly on Minneapolis point guard Jessica Ray all up court. And this with only six players available for MN West. She can hit the three, drive and runs the floor. On top of that she picked up key defensive rebounds late.
PAST WINNERS
Week, Team
11 Crookston
10 Centennial
9 New Life Academy
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
11 Lizzie Traxler, Holy Family
10 Becca Swalla, Riverland CC
9 Lauren Barber, Owatonna
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
11 Lizzie Traxler, Holy Family
10 Kiara Allums, Centennial
9 Charmaine Cross, Minneapolis CC
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
11 Taylor Stippel, Stillwater
10 Becca Swalla, Riverland CC
9 Brittany Monio, Minneapolis CC
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
Caucus night is Tuesday. Some games have been moved. The Lake conference has not moved their games. I am listing the games that are found on MN Scores calendar for Tuesday. My recommendation is call the schools to make sure the games are on.
Monday, Feb 4
Wayzata at Albany. An interesting cross class clash. Wayzata has been on the rise lately.
Wrenshall at Barnum. Part 2 of the battle in the Polar. If you haven’t been to a small town game this may be a good choice to get the flavor of it. Get there early.
Goodhue at Cannon Falls. Goodhue is underrated for A. They live in the AA Hiawatha Valley all season.
Hopkins at Park-Cottage Grove. Two top 10 teams. Defense is the forte for both teams.
Tuesday, Feb. 5
East Grand Forks at Crookston. 8AA battle.
Rogers at Minnetonka. Rogers lost to Tonka earlier in the year. Revenge in the air?
Wednesday, Feb. 6
Elk River at Osseo. Northwest Suburban games were moved from Tuesday to Wednesday.
Thursday, Feb. 7
Mpls North at Mpls South. A city civil war battle.
Albany at New London-Spicer. With Henjum out can NLS rise to the challenge?
Benilde-St. Margaret’s at Totino-Grace. Catholic powers in the North Suburban were in stat last year. Both teams have long winning streaks.
Friday, Feb. 8
Princeton at Becker. Three future Gophers on the court.
Hopkins at Edina. This is an intense rivalry.
CHOF at Maranatha. Two A powers tussle.
Pipestone at Worthington. The Trojans won in Arrow Country. Will Pipestone return the favor?
Saturday, Feb 9
Rogers Event
Centennial vs Moorhead 6 pm these games were supposed to be played in the blizzard of Dec. 1. Will Jacobson be ready?
Lakeville North vs Rogers 7:45 pm Rogers is on a roll. LN has stopped their slide.
Fergus Falls Event
Park-Cottage Grove vs Crookston 4 pm Big, power packed PCG vs Crookston sharpshooters.
Becker vs Fergus Falls 8 pm Mastey vs Draxten.
St. Paul Central at Eden Prairie. EP has dangerous options.
Benilde-St. Margaret’s at DeLaSalle. Both went to the state tournament last year. Both are in the same section. One will go, one will stay.
SEEDING THE STATE
This week the MSHSL, in a moment of weakness, caved into soccer/hockey coaches and decided that only the top four teams would be seeded. Apparently some schools and teams with low self esteem couldn’t handle the fact that they would be #8. Apparently the coaches of those schools couldn’t motivate their teams to rise to the challenge and upset the higher seeded team. Apparently therapists bill would be too high for these fragile egos.
Girls basketball is being forced to fall under the “standardization.” Guess what? there still will be 8th seeds even if they don’t know it. I wish someone would make sure they don’t check their backbone in with their coat when going to these meetings. Budget extra Kleenex for the 8th seeded teams perhaps.
I don’t see a lot of sympathy for the 12th seeds in section play.
What a joke.
AAAA
1. Centennial (5)
2. Hopkins (6)
3. Eastview (3)
4. St. Paul Central (4)
5. Chaska (2)
6. Elk River (8)
7. St. Francis (7)
8. Rochester JM (1)
AAA
1 DeLaSalle (6)
2 Rogers (5)
3 Minnehaha (4)
4 Totino-Grace (3)
5 Fergus Falls (8)
6 Worthington (2)
7 New Prague (1)
8 Grand Rapids (7)
next up: tomorrow morning