A Preview

#8 posting 3.11.2008
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A PREVIEWS
Class A doesn't start their play until Thursday at Williams Arena. There is no seeding in this tournament, but straight section vs section action.
11 am 1-Rushford-Peterson vs 4-New Life
1 pm 5-Barnum vs 8-Lake of the Woods
3 pm 2-Cedar Mt-Comfrey vs 3-SW Star
5 pm 6-Ada-Borup vs 7-Wrenshall

I have not seen all the class A teams. I managed to see four of them. So my insights will be from a distance on this class.
section, Team, record, final AP poll, MN Scores QRF poll
1 Rushford-Peterson 18-11, NR, 16
2 Cedar Mt-Comfrey 21-8, NR 13
3 SW Star 22-6, NR 17
4 New Life 26-3 3, 1
5 Barnum 28-2 4, 2
6 Ada-Borup 28-1 1, 3
7 Wrenshall 28-2 5, 4
8 Lake of the Woods 24-6 NR 19
It is too bad they don't seed. The last match up will be the best of the day. The first game won't be to shabby either.
The field is 195-39 for a .833 winning %. Half the teams didn't make the AP top 10 list, the same four I haven't seen.
Only Ada-Borup has not lost to a Class A team. Four others have one loss.
The team with the most wins vs upper class teams is New Life with 9, followed by Rushford-Peterson with 8 and Lake of the Woods with 7.
Three teams are north of 70+ ppg on offense--Wrenshall, Ada-Borup, and Barnum.
Two teams are south of 40- ppg on defense---Ada-Borup and Barnum.

There were two non #1 seeds that made it through and both were #3s in their respective subsections (the equivelent of being the #5 or 6 seed in the larter class seedings: Cedar Mt-Comfrey, and SW Star.

Here are the offensive and defensive numbers for the four teams I have seen.
team, pp100, floor %; Dpp100, Dfloor%
New Life 101.02, .472; 62.24, .281
Barnum 79.41, .324; 89.55, .448
Ada-Borup 94.87, .474; 52.56, .295
Wrenshall 89.55, .448; 79.4, .324
So with the fact that I haven't seen half of the teams which is ready to take the next step?
Here is the last two winners
2007: Fulda 79.23, .377; 67.3, .323
2008: Fulda 93.28, .448; 75.0, .355
So with this metric it looks like New Life and Ada-Borup are in position for titles, with defense the key.

There are three players that will continue their careers post high school from the 2008 class in this class: Megan Myhre will be going to Concordia St. Paul in D2, and the Anderson twins Danielle and Samantha are headed to UW Superior.

Here is the thumbnail of the four teams I have seen.
NEW LIFE: young, deep, good both in and out. Jenny Ramey runs the show. Cara Lutes does not play like a freshman inside. Add into the mix Sarah Nisleit inside and the Schmidt sisters on the outside and it makes for a potent mix. The first task for these state newcomers is to get the revenge on Rushford-Peterson. RP knocked them out in the 1A Championship last year. They get the benefit of being in the metro with ready opportunities to sharpen their game all year.

BARNUM: They also have balance with Megan Myhre and Katrina Newman inside. But they also can step out from behind the arc. There are a bevvy of sharpshooters that can deliver from 3 point land. Barnum made it to the semis two years ago and will look get to the Saturday game at the Target Center.

ADA-BORUP: Another tournament veteran. When I saw them up at Fergus in the infamous breakdown snow out event they executed with precision, moved the ball sharply and ran when given the chance. They also were the best team I saw all season at blocking out. There only loss on the year was to #1 AA Crookston. They have a win over AA state entrant Howard Lake. Last year they stubbed their toe in the semis against Hancock. Looking at the season it seems they are on a mission to rectify that lost. They got the Owls (both are in the same section this year) in the finals in the hardest section in the state.

WRENSHALL: The Wrens have inside and outside ability with Andrea Gould patrolling the middle and the Anderson twins plus Emma Glover providing the firepower outside. The best crowd atmosphere Coach Teas I saw all year was at Wrenshall. They will need their vocal fans as they open with #1 Ada-Borup.

So what does the crystal ball say?
Look for New Life to get their revenge over RP. Barnum should move on over LOW. In a rematch from the December match up look for Cedar Mt-Comfrey to replicate their performance. In the best battle of the day AB keeps moving on in a tight game.
In the semis New Life and Ada-Borup take the next step with AB taking the title back to the Red River Valley.

Next up: AA Previews