Summer State: Class AA Thoughts
State titles have become the Minneapolis North norm as of late and this past weekend they won the Summer State Title now at the Class AA level.
Minneapolis North (1). The Polars won all three games by double figures and this was with Coach McKenzie at the end of the bench allowing his assistant to lead the team giving the players a different voice (Legend Khalid El-Amin kind of wondered over there too at times lending his voice to the team). Overtime win over Lake City, hammering of Jordan, and a 75-62 win over Brooklyn Center. As for the players went it wasn’t complicated, Tyler was too athletic and too much of a veteran for the guards he faced and Odell was too big and too smart inside to be stopped. They put numbers on the board every game. Tayler had 24 points against BC in the final while Odell had 19 points and eight rebounds. Also thought that Zion Stanford took some good steps forward with his ball pressure and halfcourt delivery while backcourt mate Nasir El-Amin was steady. Then you have Trejuan Holloman who plays beyond his years maturity wise. The way he competed had me thinking he was a veteran starting to come into his own but no, this is an 8th grader to be.
Brooklyn Center (2). Much learned from BC. We as a basketball public learned that they are a top five team with wins over full Cathedral and Esko teams by double digits, and they learned that while better than most, they still have another level to go to beat the champions. Lu’Cye Patterson, Qentrell Douglas, and Adreone Sprinkles were a mean pair of three. Patterson scoring and delivering, Sprinkles slashing and scoring in tough ways, and Douglas taking a step up in production, these three have two more years together to win a lot of games. Not to mention there are others. This is a top five team for sure and the only thing keeping them from being mentioned on the same level as Minneahaha and North is first place gold.
Jordan (3). This was one of the weekend surprises. They don’t have the experienced guard play yet to play with North but they have the talent and size to beat Perham and Esko. Jimmy V is at UMD, but Ws will still come to the Hub. Eric Tiedman may be the most underappreciated player in the state right now. Not by Augustana who just offered, but in the conversations that people have. Eric is arguably the best defender in the state at the forward spot and is definitely a better athlete and finisher than he is given credit for. Eric also had an attacking game winner in the first round of play finished with one second on the clock.
Esko (4). Picked up a very nice win over Caledonia as Adam Trapp completely dominated the game. They then lost to BC in a game where Trapp was injured about half way through the game and then lost to Jordan when Adam was out with ice on the ankle. Adam dominated against Caledonia. Dominated. Caught the ball high and kept it there and finished over the top of everyone. He boarded everything and Caledonia either didn’t attack him in the paint or he blocked them. Then Adam got hurt. Esko does have other quality players (Peyton Wefel hit five threes vs Caledonia) as there are shooters and good ball handlers, but when Adam was down you can see their ceiling.
Caledonia (5). They responded to the loss against Esko and beat very good Lake City and Cathedral teams. Owen King had a few missed chances against Esko, so he took that out on his other opponents. That’s not to say Adam didn’t play well against Esko, he scored 26 points and had one of the best back-cut finishes late in the game that I’ve seen. That said he missed some chances and then took that out on the other teams. Noah King is an excellent running mate with his deep touch.
Perham (6). Beat Lake City so not a bad weekend but the losses to Jordan and Caledonia are a nice way for Coach Cresap to motivate his team for the coming year. They will be a good team. Jenson Beachy, Logan Richter, Martin Lafond, and Ben Winkels are all back as key guys from the rotation and we constantly hear about young players from this team playing well.
St. Cloud Cathedral (7). This is a team that we thought would be the best outstate Class AA squad and the best challenger to the metro champion North Polars and Minnehaha Redhawks. With their top guys there Cathedral still fell to Brooklyn Center and Cathedral by double figure numbers. They took some pride back beating Lake City but this weekend was a bit of a struggle.
Lake City (8). Not sure how you go from almost beating Minneapolis North to losing their last two but Lake City did it. They have good guards but were short on athletes in some spots and short on size in other areas. They will still be a very good team though, this was a tough bracket bringing the best of the best so somebody had to go 0-3.