The Week Ahead: Tip Off Classic is Saturday!
The highlight of this week is without a doubt the biggest even of the year, The Breakdown Tip-Off Classic. It’s the first full of the season so get ready for it with us today. Saturday, The Tip Off Classic. Every…
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Continue ReadingThe highlight of this week is without a doubt the biggest even of the year, The Breakdown Tip-Off Classic. It’s the first full of the season so get ready for it with us today.
Saturday, The Tip Off Classic. Every year the Breakdown Tip Off Classic is the single best day of the high school basketball season to see the best talent in the state of Minnesota. Outside of the state tournament Saturday it’s the most exciting and most anticipated high school basketball day of the year too.
Saturday at Hopkins there are 18 games in all starting at 9am with Sauk Rapids-Rice versus Faribault and 9:30 am with Minnetonka vs North St. Paul. Those fortunate enough to get there early can get the top row of the bleachers in the middle so they can see both courts, or spots on the catwalk can do the same.
Best games? How about a run of Minneapolis North versus Minnehaha Academy, Armstrong vs Tartan, Rochester JM vs Hopkins, Lakeville North vs Cretin-Derham Hall, Maple Grove vs DeLaSalle, and Apple Valley vs Champlin Park back to back to back to….etc.
You want small school big games? Sure. Spring Grove vs Browerville is before all of those monsters and on the other side of the Lindberg Center you have Esko vs Caledonia, Watertown-Mayer vs St. Charles, and of course Minnehaha and North. I didn’t even mention Woodbury vs Chaska, Orono vs Fergus Falls, Marshall vs Patrick Henry, and Lakeville South vs EP yet. It’s a monster day any way you look at it so get there and enjoy.
The games are at Hopkins so get there early and just know, the building is bigger so the fire marshal shouldn’t get in the way this year!
Tuesday! I really like the Totino-Grace at Minnehaha Academy game. JaVonni Bickham vs NDSU singed Rocky Kreuser is good, Charlie Jacob vs Jalen Suggs is fun, and from there its Eagle size against Redhawk guards when you talk depth. Another game I will have my eye on closely is St. Cloud Tech/Fergus Falls. As Kevin Alsteens recently said (aka the Hoop Czar of the Twin Cities) Tech is everybody’s statewide sleeper.
Park Center and St. Louis Park is another excellent game. The Pirates have talent young and old, are they ready for a run this year? A game against a veteran Orioles team will say a lot. Mounds View/BSM should also be good, Woodbury and St. Paul Johnson will give people a look at what Vern has, New Prague and Lakeville South is a good game as is Minneapolis North against Edina. Byron/Austin, Redwood V/Marshall, Cristo Rey/Park, Henry/Washburn, and Shakopee/Jefferson are all interesting too.
Race and Gabe reunite. Race Thompson and Gabe Kalscheur used to lead AAU teams together before Kalscheur left to go do a different squad. Now Thompson’s Falcons and Kalscheur’s Islanders get together on the Island. Race will be defended by Goanar Mar in what should be an excellent battle of skill, toughness, and basketball IQ. That game is Thursday.
Also Thursday is Wayzata vs Lakeville South, Caledonia/Rushford-Peterson, and Centennial/Mpls North.
Tip-Off Eve. Over the years there have been a lot of teams that have chosen to challenge themselves the night before the Tip Off Classic to prepare for events like the holiday events and the state tournament who are back to back events as well.
Rochester JM has a rivalry game with Mayo, Maple Grove has a battle with a quality opponent in Rogers, and Northfield plays Faribault who has a strong back to back Friday-Saturday with that game and then an early morning Tip Off contest.
Mahtomedi vs Monticello is a game to see on Friday with Parker Fox and Matt Todd playing to excite the crowd, and St. Cloud Tech against Rocori matches many of St. Cloud area’s best.