NHR Playoff Central: Section Finals are Coming
This week dreams will be realized, and dreams will be crushed. Some will realize that the state tournament excitement is in their future, and others will learn the tougher parts of spots. NHR Playoff Central moves on.
The Big Stage. Gustavus & Mankato. In the outstate the excitement of rare venues for section games is still something that happens. Gustavus hosts the Class A Section 2 games of BOLD vs Mayer Lutheran, and Springfield vs St. Clair. It’s the two teams in Class A (Mayer Lutheran and Springfield) working to hold on against BOLD – an upstart that is ranked but at the state of the year people didn’t know Carter Henry would play there nor did most know how good Gavin Vosika was going to be – and St. Clair. Then at Minnesota State Mankato, the Class AA games of section 2 have NRHEG playing Maple River, and Sibley East taking on Jordan. NRHEG and Maple River are consistently good programs that have played better than expected and then Sibley East/Jordan has stars in St. John’s committed Gavin Bates and Augustana committed Eric Tiedman.
Upset City. St Paul Academy has went from a 7-12 team, to a team on a nine game win streak after beating Cristo Rey. Next up for SPA is New Life Academy who they beat by 11 points two weeks ago. Another upset was Pine City taking out Annandale and ending their five year run of state tournament appearances. Rockford knocking out Holy Family was a bit of a surprise while Waseca beat Marshall for the second time in three weeks meaning that was not a surprise.
Oh My. Maple Grove beat STMA and is a 20 win team after losing so much…. That young Buffalo kids are playing for the state tournament… Big Lake game planned to slow Willmar, and they nearly did it. But winners move on and Willmar has learned how to be a winner… We told you Owatonna is very good, JM beat them by two and now they try and get over that Lakeville North hump this Saturday… Calvin Wishart had 48 points and 19 rebounds against Monticello and Matt Todd. Incredible… Caledonia and Byron is next. Caledonia looks to be on a mission, Byron looks to have learned greatly from their early season tough schedule… Blaine made a statement with a 25 point win over Cambridge-Isanti… Daniel Oturu going for 30 points, 19 rebounds, and 10 blocks in a big game atmosphere…
Are Parents Out of Control? Yes. You see the guy on twitter from Byron giving Lake City kids the bird? That’s a grown man. How about the Austin father-son combo cursing at Matthew Hurt and the officials dropping f-bombs because they lost? Or maybe the Chaska dad who continued to call the officials idiots all game? I still can’t get my mind off the Breck parents giving student managers a standing ovation for getting kicked out of a game for yelling at the officials from their bench. Many of you are shaking your heads reading this, and then you go to the games and holler at the officials with the thought that your situation is different. It’s not. There needs to be a stiffer penalty for the ridiculous behavior that adults in the stands are openly putting out there. It’s a game. There is no excuse for hollering at officials the way fans are. And yelling at kids? Very pathetic. An $8 ticket should not be a pass to yell at people the way they are at games.
Hat Tip to the Career. Matt Todd and Michael Jones. Both were Mr. Basketball Top Ten Finalists and both had outstanding careers. Todd finished a top 25-30 scorer of all time in Minnesota while Jones scored 31 of his team’s 48 points before falling by a single point. Jones is going to be fantastic at Davidson. Imagine him being a guy who only has to worry about getting open within the offense and not having several help defenders in his way? That is Michael’s future at Davidson. Matt Todd is now looking at his future in college. Will a D1 school step up and offer? Will he take one of the junior college offers at the D1 juco level? Will Matt play in the NSIC? Time will tell.