The Season that Was 2007-08

#4 posting 3.23.2008
your daily dose of girls basketball news & information

THE SEASON THAT WAS; END OF THE YEAR WRAP 2007-08
It seems hard to believe, but the winter season is over. It is hard to believe because I am looking at snow on the ground. There were lots of games and twists and turns throughout the year. I have had a week to digest it all and this end of the year wrap takes a week to write. I have come up with different categories, some are traditional, some are in good fun. I consulted Coach Teas on all awards. His comments are incorporated into the article.
By the way happy Easter. This article is like an Easter egg hunt.

Here it is by the numbers
# of games 130. This is 10 less than last year, but I lost five games at Fergus Falls on the Breakdown event on December 1. Last year I saw three games in Rochester during the post season due to a snow storm. I am not counting the Community College games I saw in this listing. The only time I go to Wisconsin this year was on Thanksgiving Friday at Hudson with three games. That was the farthest East I traveled. We went to Duluth in the NE, to Rochester in the SE, Pipestone in the SW, and Glyndon in the NW. We traveled 8764.6 miles during the season as we spanned the state in order to shine the light on all corners and classes of girls basketball action. I think that paid off as I saw all AAAA, AAA, and AA state tournament entrants. In A we saw half the field. Looking at the MaxPreps listing for the state I saw 90% of the top 100. The first team to trip me up was #69 Battle Lake. This season we had a better exposure to all corners of the state. Next year We are aiming for 100% of the top 100.
I used four notebooks during the season.

TRENDS
It is now time to get out your slide rules. Here are the numbers. First off, a look at the pp100 overall for the past three years:
Year, pp100, floor %
2006 82.91, .404
2007 78.64, .383
2008 81.70, .395
So 2008 rebounded above the 2007 year, but still 2006 is the year to beat.
By Class:
AAAA
2006 84.72, .412
2007 83.72, .408
2008 84.50, .411
Again 2006 is ahead
AAA
2006 80.55, .396
2007 73.16, .354
2008 77.55, .373
AAA continues to lag behind AAAA and AA. AAA is improved over the year before, but still is a ways off 2006.
AA
2006 83.59, .403
2007 79.76, .387
2008 83.93, .403
AA was the only class to have the highest rating in the three years for 2008
A
2006 80.82, .393
2007 73.19, .358
2008 78.45, .381
Similar to AAA in their fall and rise.

What Conference is toughest?
Here is the list of conferences that I saw a majority of teams
Conference, # of teams seen, pp100, floor %
Minneapolis 5 92.7, .428 (without South) 82.77, .373
Lake 10, 87.93, .423
Classic Suburban 6 86. 54, .414
Classic Lake 5 86.40, .417
Suburban East 8 83.56, .411
Northwest Suburban 9 82.70, .397
North Suburban 5 79.46, .382
MCAA 6 79.23, .372 (without New Life) 70.8, .336
Mississippi 8 6 75.8, .378
Hiawatha Valley 7 75.16, .367
TriMetro 9 74.92, .357
St. Paul 5 74.72, .381 (without Central) 61.89, .319
Central Lakes 6 74.71, .369
Big 9 6 73.59, .357
Missota 7 67.95, .340

What section is the toughest?
I only used AAAA sections for this equation
Section, pp100, floor %, eventual champ
One 67.22, .342 Owatonna
Two 93.39, .439 Chaska
Three 82.75, .405 Eastview
Four 83.37, .415 St. Paul Central
Five 83.91, .403 Osseo
Six 88.56, .422 Mpls South
Seven 81.28, .398 St. Francis
Eight 78.60, .391 St. Cloud Tech
The non-metro sections were under the 80 mark. Three sections were under .400 in floor %. All were 6-8 seeds in the state tournament. Section 2 was the toughest top to bottom with strong teams down to 7. Prior Lake lost to eventual 2AAAA champ Chaska by one.

TURNING POINTS
1. The first turning point took place last March when the MSHSL redrew the boundaries. If the borders were the same as 2007 you may have seen these teams in the AAAA tournament—1. Lakeville North, 2. Hopkins, 3. St. Paul Central, 4. White Bear Lake, 5. Osseo, 6. Minneapolis South, 7. Centennial, 8. St. Cloud Tech. That is a difference of half the field. In AAA the field would have looked like this: 1. Austin, 2. Marshall, 3. DeLaSalle, 4. Becker, 5. Orono, 6. Totino-Grace, 7. Grand Rapids, 8. Fergus Falls. Minnehaha would still be in AA. In A, Hancock and Ada-Borup would not have met in the section finals, but may have seen each other in the state tournament. Wrenshall and Barnum would have lived in section 7. The whole tournament would have had a different look and feel.
2. Big losses to Big Wins. Osseo lost to Centennial by 43 in January. They narrowed the gap in game two. In game three they ended Centennial’s season with a 62-56 win. St. Paul Central lost to Minneapolis South by 20 in early February. They narrowed the gap in the Twin City championship later in the month. Three weeks later they were state champs.
3. Injuries: Shelly Stemper of Becker gets hurt and the Bulldogs never gets their rhythm. Shelly Stemper was injured in December after a big win at Hopkins, but that was the high water mark for Becker, and that was in December. The defending AAA champs didn’t have the answer against Mississippi 8 rival Rogers three separate times. Also Kelsey Jacobson of Moorhead breaks her hand at Buffalo and with the losses the Spuds get in the ensuing weeks are the best #8 seed in the sections. New London-Spicer’s Renae Henjum injured her knee and the Wildcats fell to Albany in the subsection finals. Hill-Murray’s Krista Kaput was injured and that changed their attack. Sarah Hintz of Woodbury went down with a knee and the Royals still battled, but a big weapon was taken away. Faith Tinklenberg’s season ended early with mono and with her absence, the Pipestone Arrows chances to defend their title evaporated.
4. Central is seeded third in the AAAA tournament. The defending champs used that for motivation in their AAAA championship run. Apparently they should have been seeded #1.

BEST LISTS
TEAM
Best Rivalries: St. Paul Central vs. Minneapolis South. 651 vs. 612. It has the passion of the old Saints vs. Millers contests. Also Also for your consideration: Rogers vs. Becker, DeLaSalle vs Minnehaha. Hopkins vs Mpls South
Best Bench: Totino-Grace
Breakthrough team: Totino-Grace
Best State Tournament: Class AA
Program on the Rise: Braham, New Life, Richfield
Best team I didn't see (Coach Teas): Woodbury #21, Fergus Falls #35
Best team I didn’t see (kja): Battle Lake #69; West Central #71
Best pp100: Crookston 105.63
Best dpp100: Ada-Borup 59.18
Best floor %: Crookston .488
Best dfloor%: Ada-Borup .301
Best pp100 & lost: Chaska vs Kennedy on Nov. 30, 2007 (106.0)
Best floor% & lost: Pipestone vs Worthington on Jan. 8, 2008 (.494)
Best Stretch of games: Section Championship week from March 5 to March 7
Best State game (based on pp100): 122.6 Crookston vs. Howard Lake-W-W in the AA Quarterfinals.
Most interesting section game: Hopkins vs. Mpls. South
Biggest Section shocker: Osseo over Centennial
Best barefoot photo: Ada-Borup
Best State Championship: St. Paul Central vs. Mpls. South
Best regular-season game, minute for minute: Park-Cottage Grove vs. Hopkins
Best post-season game, minute for minute: Jordan vs. Crookston
Best revenge match: St. Paul Central vs. Mpls. South; Osseo vs. Centennial
Games I wished I could see, but they never played: Centennial vs. Mpls. South
Battle of the heavyweights: Centennial vs. St. Paul Central; Park-Cottage Grove vs Hopkins
Best Transfusion of talent: St. Paul Johnson
Most tattoos: St. Paul Johnson
Best Chemistry: Totino-Grace, Osseo, Hopkins
Most improved: Richfield
Most improved first half of the year to second half: Apple Valley
There will be Blood: Minneapolis Roosevelt with a collision between AunDreah Aune and Brittany Fuller vs Jordan on Jan. 28.
No, I am not stalking (most times I saw a team): Minneapolis South

PLACES/CROWDS/FOOD/TRAVEL
Best Court: Lakeville North
Worst Food: Kimball, No Hot Dogs? Don’t even have your concession stand open then.
Best bag of Popcorn: Buffalo, Fresh, hot, right amount of butter and salt
Smallest Bag of Popcorn: Still Osseo, but they do have a decent value on the $1 bag according to coach Teas.
Best Band: Ada-Borup
Best Announcer: Apple Valley. The between game music quizzes kept the audience involved.
Best Uniforms: New Life
Longest road trip: to Pipestone
Toughest Gyms to Find: Kimball, St. Anthony
Toughest Gym to find if you are Coach Teas: Alexandria
Easiest Gym to Find: St. Paul Central
Toughest place to find a parking space: Gustavus
“We have to pay to park??”: Concordia St. Paul
Best Cheering section: Minneapolis South

Best Cheering give and take: St. Paul Central vs Minneapolis South
Cheer I needed translating: “Red & Black, Orange is Wack” from the Central crowd
Biggest Crowd: Wrenshall vs. Barnum
Smallest Crowd: Minneapolis Roosevelt vs. St. Bernard’s
Best Back Rests: Brooten
Best Tournament site: Target Center for reporting, Williams Arena for Atmosphere
Best Regular HS Site: They treated us to front row tables at Buffalo, Alexandria, Apple Valley, Osseo
Crackerbox palace: Wrenshall
Best National Anthem: At Heritage Christian a la Jimi Hendrix.
Worst Attention during the national Anthem: St. Croix Lutheran’s B team in the crowd
Best run regular season tournament: Hopkins
Worst case of scheduling: Fergus Falls Showcase—the blizzard
Worst road trip: To Kingsland for no game.
Loudest fan: A male from Forest Lake
Best Atmosphere: Wrenshall vs. Barnum
Slowest Drive Through: Long Lake McDonald’s
Slowest in Store Service: Pine City McDonald’s
Worst uniforms: Any team with yellow numbers on white without any black trim around those numbers.
Worst Gym Lights: Centennial
Best High School Lights: St. Anthony, St. Peter

PLAYERS
Best Shooter: Hannah Linz, Eden Valley-Watkins.
Best Scorer: Megan Nipe, Centennial
Best Playmaker/Passer: Hannah Linz, Eden Valley-Watkins. Very deceptive and aware. Most Versatile: Tayler Hill, Minneapolis South
Best player under 5-5: Tyisha Smith, Minneapolis South
Best player over 6-5: Amber Dvorak, Hinckley-Finlayson
Player you want to have the ball in her hands trailing by one late in the game: Megan Nipe, Centennial
Best 6th player: Sam Laventure, Totino-Grace
Most Improved: Kelsey Nelson, Bemidji, Kristin Johnson, St. Cloud Tech
Best Grunt player/Player that does the unsung jobs: Sasha McHale, Totino-Grace, Chiamaka Okonkwo, Osseo
Don't Foul: Tayler Hill, Minneapolis South, Courtney Boylan, Chaska
Best one-two punch: Brittany Chambers and Leah Dietel, Jordan
Best Shot Blocker: Cassie Rochel, Lakeville North; Amber Dvorak, Hinckley-Finlayson; Kate Loberg, Princeton
Best 3 shooter: Hannah Linz, Eden Valley-Watkins; Kelsey Jacobson, Moorhead
Best Hustle: Kara Elofson, Hopkins; Lizzie Traxler, Holy Family
Best Taking Over a Game Late: Lauren Barber, Owatonna; Brittany Chambers, Jordan; Courtney Boylan, Chaska
Best Taking Over Start to Finish: Brittnye McSparron, Eastview
Comeback Player: Mercedes Johnson, GHEC
Intelligent Players: Courtney Boylan, Tayler Hill, Caitlin Rowland, Hopkins
Best Post up: Kate Warmack, EGF, Kiley Severson, Hayfield
Smallest Player: Keondra Mason, Mpls. Edison 4-8
Best College Prospects: Kate Loberg, Princeton; Tayler Hill, Mpls South;
Overlooked players: Devin Diedrich, Braham
Breakthrough Player: Angela Christenson, Alexandria; Cara Lutes, New Life
Last second heroics: Jordan Montgomery of Cannon Falls hits the game winner over Rochester Lourdes at the buzzer.
Most Electrifying performance: Brittany Chambers, Jordan 47 points vs. Crookston
Most Fearless Player: Tyisha Smith, Mpls South
Grittiest performance: In the low post Taylor Davis vs. Gilbertson
Best at pushing the ball up court: Kiara Allums, Centennial
Hustler: Lizzie Traxler, Holy Family
Best pull up J: Brittnye McSparron, Eastview
Toughest Break: Renae Henjum, New London-Spicer
5 Minutes from now everyone will be talking about: Kayla Hirt, Bemidji

GAMES
Oddest Game: Pine Island vs. Kingsland, three games in one. PI up 16-0. Kingsland then has a 36-17 run. PI finishes with a 17-0 run to win in overtime 50-36 in the 1AA subsection semis.
Best Free throw parade: Mpls South vs. St. Paul Johnson—58 made free throws between the two.
Best game plan: Central over South, Totino-Grace over DeLaSalle, Osseo over Centennial
Best comebacks, start of the game: Centennial down 12 to St. Paul Central in the Hamline Tournament. Centennial won 60-56
Best Second half Comeback: Chaska vs. Kennedy in the 2AAAA championship. Chaska was down 12 to start the second half; Rogers was down 10 to Marshall in the AAA quarters before rallying to tie and win in overtime. St. Paul Central vs Mpls South in the AAAA Championship. Central was down 9. Jordan was down 9 vs Crookston in the AA Semis.
Dramatic Finish: Jordan over Crookston
Grittiest performance: Shorthanded and small Lakeville North vs Park-Cottage Grove in the 3AAAA semis.
Best day of games: Wednesday, March 12 at Williams Arena

COACHES
Best Dressed coach: Lamar Detert, Rogers
Biggest coaching entourage: DeLaSalle
Best Comeback: Hopkins coach Cosgriff after surgery, and then again after the loss to South out & about at St. Olaf watching games.
Knows which levers to pull: Willie Taylor, St. Paul Central
I am old--an old player now coaching: Sarah Martens at Northfield Sophs
college coach I saw the most of at the games: Chad Eickhoff, St. Cloud State, assistant

ODDS & ENDS
needs to be changed: Seed the state in AAAA and AAAOverused Moves: spin dribble; also rolling the ball in late in the game.
Embarrassing moment: Coach Teas & I discussing a player (not favorably) with her grandmother behind us.
Most disturbing trend: The Wave substitution pattern, which ebbed by year’s end.
Overlooked: Northwest Minnesota AA teams
Best trend: having all the help from readers throughout the year, including spy out & Abouts; Thanks to Coach Teas, Seashells & Balloons, Spy #1, and Marc Hugunin for all the help provided during the season.
Best Photo: Coach Teas snapped Nicole Anderson going after a loose ball in the Cannon Falls vs Rochester Lourdes Hiawatha Valley championship game.





NEW GYMS
17 new gyms this year:
Alexandria
Brooten
DGF
Fergus Falls
Hawley
Hayfield (The old gym)
Kimball
Minnesota Valley Lutheran
Mounds Park Academy (new gym)
Pipestone (new gym)
Providence
Red Wing
St. Anthony
St. Clair
St. John’s
St. Peter
Wrenshall

DREAM TEAMS
ALL SUB 5-5
Tyisha Smith, Mpls South
Cyonna West, St. Paul Central
Tacita Gonzalez, St. Paul Johnson
Danielle Mangen, Osseo
Holly Recht, West Lutheran

ALL GRUNT TEAM
Kara Elofson, Hopkins
Bailey Lund, Bloomington Kennedy
Sasha McHale, Totino-Grace
Chiamaka Okonkwo, Osseo
Lizzie Traxler, Holy Family

ALL 8TH GRADE (& Under)
Tessa Cichy, Hill-Murray
Becca Dahlman, Braham
Jessica January, Richfield
Alexis Long, Maranatha
Ellie Zeller, St. Anthony

MULTIPLE TRENCH PLAYER WINS
Tayler Hill, Minneapolis South 5
Brittany Chambers, Jordan 3
Brittnye McSparron, Eastview 3
Courtney Boylan, Chaska 2
Kara Elofson, Hopkins 2
Sarah Luse, Orono 2
Jennie Noreen, Albany 3
Danielle Mangen, Osseo 2
Jenny Ramey, New Life 2
Veronica Scott, Totino-Grace 2
Nicole Smart, Ada-Borup 2
Jackie Voigt, Park-Cottage Grove 2
Samantha Zopfi, Providence 2

A word about the awards. Many teams, coaches, players were considered. Many are worthy. Many don't get the attention and glitter they deserve. These three were decided after careful deliberation.

TEAM OF THE YEAR
This goes to Ada-Borup. They were consistent all year from Dec 1 in Fergus Falls to March 15 winning the A title. They were in first place in the A poll all year. They never lost in class, their only loss was at the Crookston tournament to #1 AA Crookston (at the time). AB moves the ball without excess dribbling so common in most metro teams. They also move their bodies. Defensively they move their feet, and did a great job of blocking out. They all were tenacious and hungry getting over the hump with their first semifinal win on the Target floor. The closest game AB had after the first of the year was the 44-35 win over SW Star. For the year AB averaged 69.6 ppg and gave up 36.9 ppg for a margin of 32.7. The bad news for Class A—Only one of their six player rotation will not be back next year.
Would AB beat St. Paul Central? probably not, but for their class AB was unbeatable.

COACH OF THE YEAR
Totino-Grace Coach Shannon Hartinger gets the honor this year. At the start of the year the future AAA champs matched up with the once and future champs from St. Paul Central. The Eagles lost that game and then they lost to Rosemount in a game I saw which surprised me. TG was 0-2 and their pp100 vs. Rosemount was a low 62.7. A key component in good coaching is improvement and TG did that. After that game TG ran off 22 straight wins. It is hard to keep kids going after a rough start when expectations are high. Hartinger was able to convince players to buy into their roles and play the tough nosed defense that won the championship. TG used nine players a game and they all played hard. They were the 3rd seed in the AAA tournament and beat #2 Rogers and #1 DeLaSalle. Coach Hartinger used the senior leadership, balance, and defensive intensity to take the title. To top it off during the season coach Hartinger gave birth.

PLAYER OF THE YEAR
This year the honor goes to Tayler Hill of Minneapolis South who already has the AP POY, Gatorade POY, StarTribune POY and the Pioneer Press POY. On this site, Hill had the most trench player honors, most Players of the week awards (2), and most times named to the first team in the teams of the week (4). Hill draws attention wherever she moves on the court. Teams work hard to slow her down. It is her understanding of the game that is her key asset. She gets short shift on her defensive capabilities, but she lays in the weeds and pounces by reading the eyes, hands and feet of the opposition making key steals. When I watched South she was the leading defensive rebounder. She has a nose for the ball and a knack for scoring. Her future is extremely bright.

2008 GBB RECRUIT ALL STATE (3 games minimum)
This team was selected using the pp100 and floor % in GAMES I SAW during the year. Most of the games involved top teams against top teams. I added the points, possessions and times scored to come up with the numbers. If a player had a bad game, that was factored in. I also factored in Players of the Week and Trench Player totals. Most of these players were slightly above the 115 mark on the first team, and dropped as you went down the list.

GBB RECRUIT’S ALL STATE TEAM 2007-08
FIRST TEAM
Courtney Boylan, Chaska
Brittany Chambers, Jordan
Tayler Hill, Minneapolis South
Brittnye McSparron, Eastview
Megan Nipe, Centennial
SECOND TEAM
Kiara Buford. St. Paul Central
Ephesia Holmes, Minneapols South
Stephanie Sension, Hopkins
Kiley Severson, Hayfield
Jackie Voigt, Park-Cottage Grove
THIRD TEAM
Rachel Banham, Lakeville North
Aaryn Booker, DeLaSalle
Taylor Davis, Crookston
Jenny Ramey, New Life
Cassie Rochel, Lakeville North
FOURTH TEAM
Brooke Brown, Chaska
Leah Dietel, Jordan
Georgie Jones, St. Paul Central
Jennifer Sunnarborg, Osseo
Kamille Wahlin, Crookston
SPECIAL MENTION: 2 games
Hannah Linz, Eden Valley-Watkins
Pamela January, Richfield
Laura Melquist, Rochester Lourdes
Molly Geske, Cretin-Derham Hall
Ashley Walterman, Granada-Huntley-East Chain
SPECIAL MENTION: 1 game viewed
Lauren Barber, Owatonna
Angie Jetvig, Hawley
Ali Johnson, St. Louis Park
Taylor Stippel, Stillwater
Katie Warmack, East Grand Forks

DEFENSIVE TEAM OF THE YEAR
First Team
Brittany Chambers, Jordan
Tayler Hill, Minneapolis South, captain
Georgie Jones, St. Paul Central
Sam Larsen, Albany
Suriya McGuire, Minneapolis Roosevelt
Second Team
Sasha McHale, Totino-Grace
Jennie Noreen, Albany
Jackie Voigt, Park-Cottage Grove
Ashley Walterman, Granada-Huntley-East Chain
Leslie Wilson, Hayfield

Last year the winners were
Team: St. Paul Central
Coach: Willie Taylor, St. Paul Central
Player: Angel Robinson, St. Paul Central

It was great fun this season watching the games all over the state. Again Thanks to Coach Teas for criss crossing the state. I hope to see the top 100 teams next season.

Now we move on the the AAU/Summer Camp/Summer League seasons. I will have more and be out & about soon.

Thanks for the great help from the readers of this site.

Next up: tomorrow morning