Class AAAA State Tournament: What You Need to Know
The Class AAAA State Tournament opens Wednesday at 10am and runs through Saturday night with the State Championship. What are the Facts & Figures you need to know going in? We run you through them now.
NHR State Rankings: 2) Cretin-Derham Hall, 3) Apple Valley, 6) Lakeville North, 9) Eden Prairie, NR) Osseo, Wayzata, Forest Lake, Maple Grove
Seedings: 1) Cretin-Derham Hall, 2) Apple Valley, 3) Lakeville North, 4) Eden Prairie, 5) Osseo, NR) Wayzata, Forest Lake, Maple Grove
Records:
Cretin-Derham Hall (27-2) vs Wayzata (18-11): The Raiders have lost two games this year, one was to Edina early in the year when Daniel Oturu was recovering from an ankle injury, the other was to Eden Prairie, one of the first games after Ryan Larson injured his ankle. Before their three game win streak in sections including the win over Hopkins, Wayzata had lost six of it’s last nine regular season games (all losses were to teams that have been ranked this year).
Apple Valley (25-4) vs Forest Lake (19-10): The games Apple Valley lost, it was with an injured Luke Martens or an absent Luke Martens. They’ve won 18 straight games since losing four and that’s with Martens back. The Eagles are undefeated since Martens came back from his surgery. The Rangers went .500 in league play but won every game they placed against a section opponent all year.
Lakeville North (25-4) vs Maple Grove (21-8): A pair of teams that continue to go to state. They keep just filling pieces. Both teams lost a guy to the Wisconsin Badgers (Nate Reuvers and Brad Davison) but both had the talent to get back to state. North, it was more expected as they had experienced guys. The Crimson? They took a JV that dominated and moved them right into a varsity that won 20 games again.
Osseo (23-6) vs Eden Prairie (22-7): Should we be surprised that Osseo is at state? Not really. Tim Theisen is a veteran coach and when you look at how they played in sections it showed that the Orioles were 10-1 and those are the games that really matter. Now it’s EP. When you have young players – EP has five sophomores in their top seven – there is going to be a rough patch. A sophomore slump if you will. It happened when the Eagles lost four of five to start February but sense then they beat Tonka, Wayzata, CDH, Chaska, and Edina. A very strong finish. Fun note, Osseo and Maple Grove are in the same school district together, but in different sections. Don’t see that much.
Top Player Match-Ups:
Jacob Beeninga (5-10 Jr PG) of Wayzata vs Ryan Larson (6-1 Sr PG) of CDH. Jacob Beeninga just took out the Hopkins guards in a way that can only be described as dominating. Thirty points and another trip to state. Now he faces Ryan Larson. A Ryan Larson that every day is getting healthier. A tough Ryan Larson who will be physical with Beeninga. It’s a match-up that eyes will be on, but Larson doesn’t have to score, he needs to get the ball to the size up front that scores.
Manny Jingco (6-1 Sr Guard) of Forest Lake vs Tre Jones (6-3 Sr Guard) of Apple Valley. Jingco went up to Forest Lake and the expectations were lifted for himself, and for the Rangers. The team made the state tournament and Jingco now has his chance to go against a McDonald’s All American. It may not be Manny vs Tre in the match-ups per say, both teams have some very good defenders, but the final results of each will say a lot.
Alex Battist (6-7 Sr Power Forward) of Maple Grove vs Tyler Wahl (6-6 Jr Small Forward) of Lakeville North. Tyler is more of a basket attacking player that can play all over the court, but he can play near the rim as well. Battist is a physical player, a double-double guy with some skill that does more near the basket, but has shown some agility to move away from the cup defensively. Of course Tyler Lewko will be involved here, but the teams lean on Wahl and Battist for some big production.
Zach Theisen (6-0 Sr Guard) of Osseo vs Kyler Kluge (6-2 Sr Guard) of Eden Prairie. If my memory serves me correctly these two played basketball together on the AAU level as younger players. Now they get to go head to head to see who is playing in the semi-finals. Both are very good in other sports – Zach is looking at golf and hoops in college while Kyler will play football at St. Cloud State – but both are also very good basketball players.
Top Prospects
Top 20 Senior Prospects at Class AAAA State: 1) Tre Jones of Apple Valley (Duke), 2) Daniel Oturu of CDH (Minnesota), 3) Sy Chatman of CDH, 4) Ryan Larson of CDH, 5) Luke Martens of Apple Valley (Winona State), 6) Zach Theisen of Osseo, 7) Kyler Kluge of Eden Prairie (St. Cloud State Football), 8) Emmette Page of Osseo, 9) Alex Battist of Maple Grove, 10) Manny Jingco of Forest Lake, 11) Tyler Lewko of Lakeville North, 12) Spencer Rolland of Apple Valley (Harvard Football), 13) Drew Galinson of Wayzata (Minnesota Student), 14) Ely Hendrickson of Apple Valley (Jamestown), 15) Jacob Prince of CDH (Southern Miss Football), 16) Owen Blazciek of Lakeville North, 17)Nathan Macho of Apple Valley, 18) Cooper Berg of Forest Lake 19) Cole Anderson of Lakeville North (Jamestown), 20) Richard Mulbah of Osseo
Top 12 Junior Prospects at Class AAAA State: 1) Tyler Wahl of Lakeville North, 2) Jacob Beeninga of Wayzata, 3) Jaeden King of CDH, 4) Tommy Jensen of Lakeville North, 5) Luke Paulson of Wayzata, 6) Chris Rainey of Maple Grove, 7) John Schrader of Forest Lake, 8) Nate Adams of Maple Grove, 9) Tate Staloch of Lakeville North, 10) Mark Possis of Apple Valley, 11) Connor Hale of Wayzata, 12) Hunter Damon of Forest Lake
Top 5 Sophomore Prospects at Class AAAA State: 1) Drake Dobbs of Eden Prairie, 2) Connor Christensen of Eden Prairie, 3) Austin Andrews of Eden Prairie, 4) John Henry of Eden Prairie, 5) Cornell Richardson of Osseo, 5) Amari Carter of CDH,