#3 posting 8.12.2007
your daily dose of girls basketball news & information
THE AAU WEEK THAT WAS #19: SWEET 16 (or is it 19?)
The summer season wrapped up last weekend with the crowning of a new Sweet 16 champ. The Minnesota Basketball News has put this event on for at least 15 years and Centennial took the title. Four of the top teams in each class met at the College of St. Benedict to crown one champ unlike the winter months. This year the larger classes had a 21-6 record good for .778. Cinderella was left at home scrubbing the floor. One team that stepped up and answered the call was Eden Prairie. They made the commitment to come to the tournament on Tuesday. That made it five AAAA teams. They were the first to grab on to the chance when presented and did not have their full squad. Even so they competed and won their first game.
In one game that unfortunately did not get to witness, New Life topped Winona Cotter in four overtimes for the most dramatic contest of the weekend.
In this tournament the varsity coaches were on the sidelines. There was a lot of squirming in the games as they had no control of the decisions.
A lot of summer is experimental--seeing what works, what needs improvement, what needs to be overhauled. With summer done, and the winter season (in Minnesota) now about 13 weeks away, we now enter the fall cycle. We will see if the seeds planted this summer bare fruit.
TEAM OF THE WEEK
This should come to no surprise: Centennial, the winners of the Sweet 16. Centennial averaged 111.5 pp100 and gave up and average of 72.6 pp100 (from the three games I saw). Centennial not only won convincingly, but they won against the best. If you look at last year's winner Champlin Park numbers Centennial was +7 in pp100 and +.018 in floor %. But it was defensively that Centennial really put their foot down. They improved on CP's mark with -14.9 pp100 and -.063 in the floor %.
The combined w-l % of the teams they faced was 11-5, 11-1 if you don't count games against Centennial. St. Paul Central finished 2nd; Becker 3rd; Albany 7th; and Rogers 9th. Centennial opened with a tour de force against Rogers. They beat Rogers by four a couple of weeks ago. This tournament it was 40. To top the tournament off they beat the runner up in 2AA last year in the quarters (Albany) and the defending AAA (Becker in the semis) and AAAA champs (St. Paul Central in the finals).
In the past the winners of the tournament have had success in the high school season. Centennial won the tournament but was NOT a full strength. That is not good news for the rest of the state.
This is Centennial's second weekly honor this summer, the only high school team to capture two weekly awards. In fact they are only one of five teams to win multiple awards. Three of the players (Becken, Blom and Schuneman) were also on the UConn top 100 team that won in week 16.
PLAYER OF THE WEEK
PAST WEEKLY WINNERS
Team...Player of the Week/D player
18: IBCA Select I….Katelin Oney (Cedar Rapids Washington) IBCA Select I/Kara Elofson, Hopkins
17: Centennial….Shelly Stemper (Becker) Fire & Gold All Star MN Elite Camp/Megan Howard (St. Paul Central) MN Elite Camp
16: U Conn (Top 100 Expo)…Kiara Strickland (Minneapolis Roosevelt) LSU/Jennifer Noordmans (Hancock) North Carolina Top 100 Expo
15: Metro Stars Black…Courtney Boylan (Chaska) Metro Stars Black/Brianna Williams (Hopkins) Mpls Lady Cats
14: Metro Stars Black....Courtney Boylan (Chaska) Metro Stars Black/same
13: Team WI Select 17.…Hannah Quilling (Eau Claire North) Team WI Select 17/Katie Bushman (Phillips) Team WI Select 17
12: North Tartan.....Jackie Voigt (Park-Cottage Grove) North Tartan/Cody Vandenheuvel (Cadott) Team WI Select 16
11: Totino-Grace....Amber Dvorak (Hinckley-Finlayson) MN Northern Lights/same
10: NC Heat.....Tayler Hill (Mpls South) NC Heat/same
9: Team WI Select 17.…Val Schuster (Wausau Newman) Team WI Select 17/Nicole Griffin (Milwaukee Vincent) Team WI Select 15
8: MN Stars Borowicz.....Kiara Buford (St. Paul Central) North Tartan/Katya Leick (Park-Cottage Grove) NC Heat
6: MN Stars Hested.....Theairra Taylor (St. Paul Central) MN Stars Hosted/Cassie Rochel (Lakeville North) Lakeville North 15
5: NC Heat....Tayler Hill (Mpls South) NC Heat/Katya Leick (Park-Cottage Grove) NC Heat
4: MN AAAA All Stars....Angel Robinson (St. Paul Central) AAAA/Janessa Wolf (Park Rapids) AAA
3: Team WI Select 17....Katie Bushman (Phillips) Team WI Select 17/same
2: Mpls Lady Cats..... Sarina Baker (DeLaSalle) Mpls Lady Cats/Aubrey Davis (Blm Kennedy) Mpls Lady Cats
1: IBCA Select I.....Indy Uhlenhopp (North Butler) IBCA Select I/same
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