Dakota Showcase Day 1, Drafts & Player Evalauation

#1 posting 6.27.2008
your daily dose of girls basketball news & information

DAKOTA SHOWCASE
Sioux Falls Washington is a school team going up against multi-school teams at the Dakota Showcase. Yesterday SFW was 1-1. From the Sioux Falls Argus Leader.

Here is how the CSS teams fared at the Dakota Showcase:
NE Judds CSS 15's 78- Dakota Thunder 47
NE Judds has a tough match up today against the MN Metro Stars Black in the 2nd pool play game.
NE Bison CSS 17's 78- MN North Tartan Crosby 59
NE Bison CSS 17's 80- SF Warriors 63
NE Bison finished pool play against MN 43 Hoops Zuck.

Here is how the states have matched up so far
Nebraska 10-1
Kansas 3-3
Minnesota 5-6
South Dakota 4-5
Iowa 2-3
North Dakota 1-6
Montana 0-1


BORDER BATTLE TOURNAMENT
Luther will be hosting the Border Battle this weekend. Here are the teams involved:
Decorah, Des Moines Hoover, Iowa City West, Valley of Elgin, Waukon, Clarion Goldfield, MFL Mar-Mac (Iowa)
Caledonia, Rushford-Peterson, Rochester Lourdes, (Minnesota)
Onalaska, Neilsville (Wisconsin)

12U AAU NATIONALS
Rochester will host the 12u national AAU tournament. One of the teams in the tournament will be the Rochester Shock, made up of players from SE MN. The team is profiled on KAAL TV (with video).

DRAFTING AND PLAYERS VALUE
Rethinking Basketball has a posting on what the NBA draft. It is "dominated by athleticism, length, and power. Basketball skill and basketball IQ come in 4th and 5th place respectively."
Obviously being an athlete is a nice thing, however it doesn't guarantee wins. I am into winning. It would seem to me that skill and IQ should come up a little higher in the results. Where is Work ethic in the mix? Many coaches think they can "save" or "rescue" a player. I call these coaches missionaries. My experience is you can't make a silk purse out of sow's ear.

DEVILS LAKE 125
Mike Bellmore of the Devils Lake Journal has a wish list of people he wants to see at the Devils Lake 125 reunion. Among the people Debbie and Darcie Deutsch who played basketball for the high school back in the day. Darcie is now the Athletic Director at DeLaSalle. Both are second cousins of mine.

COACHING NEWS
Brendon Plowe of Crystal Falls, Michigan has been named girls basketball coach at Kenosha St. Joseph in Wisconsin. From the Escanaba Daily Press.

Former Creighton player Dayna Finch is returning to Creighton to be an assistant coach.

FUNDING
John Millea of the StarTribune looks at funding for high school sports.

NDSU CAMP
The Carolyn DeHoff era started off with a wonderful two weeks of camps concluding Wednesday. DeHoff’s new staff is a young, energetic and very out going, and they will provide high energy to the NDSU Women’s Basketball program.
The camp included 90+ kids from 5 states and Canada. Incoming freshman guard Kaitie Birkel and 2009 verbal Rachelle Eckmann along with many other recruits for the class of 2009 were in attendance. DeHoff is a very motivated coach and teaches her philosophies very well. Many campers walked away with a large increase in new knowledge and excitement for the game. Good luck to coach DeHoff and her new staff at NDSU.
submitted by Tom Eckmann

STILL PLAYING
Kaycee Damm of Laker High School in Michigan was involved in a car accident in 2006. She has defied the odds an continued her four sport athletic career. Now she will be playing in college. From the Bay City Times.

Next up: Late, late, late tonight after the games at the Dakota Showcase. Check out their site for game results and box scores. If I can't get online down in Sioux Falls, I will be back on Sunday.