26 of 40 AAA and AAAA Ranked Teams Lose

We said earlier this week that there were 20+ games matching top 20 rated teams. The corollary to that is that a good many top 20 teams would take a loss and, indeed, 12 of 20 teams ranked in Class AAAA did so, and 14 of 20 teams ranked in Class AAA did the same. Last week there was the Wednesday Night Massacre in which all of the top six teams in Class AAA lost, but that was just the beginning.

In the end, enough teams lost that the rankings really didn't change a whole lot. But there were a few really bad losses led to the really big drops in the rankings. Those included the following.

• Wayzata lost to Forest Lake and Mahtomedi and dropped from #6AAAA to #11

• Edina lost to White Bear Lake and dropped from #7AAAA to #12

• Thief River Falls lost big, appropriately enough, to Big Lake and dropped from #11AAA to #19. Losing to Big Lake is not a bad loss. Losing by 21 is a bad loss.

But, otherwise there were a lot of not so bad losses, predictable losses and mild upsets that didn’t necessarily lead to a whole lot of mobility.

Class AAAA

1. Hopkins edged Eastview 65-60 in OT and moves from #2 to #1.

2. Eastview drops from #1 to #2.

3. Apple Valley defeated Centennial to replace the Cougars at #3.

4. Elk River defeated Park Center and Rogers and remains at #4.

5. Centennial lost to Apple Valley and dropped from #3 to #5.

6. Lakeville North defeated Chan and Mayo and moved from #10 to #6, but that is more a case of others moving down.

7. St. Michael defeated Maple Grove and White Bear and jumped from #12 to #7.

8. East Ridge did not play and moved up one slot.

9. Park Center lost to Elk River and Minnetonka and dropped from #8 to #9.

10. Cretin did not play and moves from #11 to #10.

I suppose the real question here is how much to penalize Park Center. Is 9th low enough?

As noted above, Wayzata and Edina dropped out of the top 10.

Class AAA

1. Holy Angels lost to Forest Lake but remains #1. No unbeatens remain in Class AAA. So if there’s nobody obviously better than the defending state champ—and there’s not—then the defending state champ stays put at #1.

2. Northfield lost to Class AAAA Prior Lake but won 2 other games and moves up from #4 to #2. I am sure some people will have them #1. Having seen them on successive nights, I still like Holy Angels head-to-head.

3. Alexandria lost to Class AA Watertown-Mayer. No shame in that, but the Cards drop from #2 to #3

4. Orono lost a pair but to AAAA Champlin and Elk River and drops only from #3 to #4.

5. Mahtomedi won 3 games at Hill-Murray and moves up from #8 to #5.

6. Grand Rapids lost to Sauk Centre

7. Kennedy did not play and other people moved down around them.  CORRECTION: Kennedy beat Como and Burnsville in Rochester. So they go all the way from #14 to #7.

8. Kasson-Mantorville hammered Winona and moves back into the top 10 from #15.

9. Zimmerman won 2 at Monticello. Its best win came in game #1 over Big Lake and its own loss is a good loss, 86-83 at Grand Rapids. The move from #16 to #9.

10. New Ulm lost by 2 to the hosts at the Norwood Young America holiday tournament. Not a good loss but not a bad loss. Move from #9 to #10

Dropping out of the top 10 are Hutchinson, Winona and Waseca. Hutch drops to 5-4 with not a bad loss to Rosemount, but it is still their 4th loss. Winona lost to Kasson-Mantorville by 21. Losing to KM is not a bad loss. Losing by 21 is a bad loss. And Waseca lost to Winona by 17. Losing to Winona is not a bad loss. Losing by 17 is a bad loss. And the Bluejays lost to Byron 36-32, too. They dropped from #10 to #18.

The real question here was how high to go with Kennedy. #7 might be too high. Time will tell.

Teams of the Week

Our teams of the week in Class AAAA and Class AAA are Apple Valley and Mahtomedi, winners of 3 games apiece and of the Roseville and Hill-Murray tournaments.

• Apple Valley just mowed ‘em down at Roseville—Eden Prairie by 14, Andover by 7 and Centennial by 14.

• Mahtomedi ground it out at Hill-Murray. They beat stubborn Mounds View 68-61 on Wednesday, only because Erin Saemrow of Mounds View made 7-of-20 FT. Then they came up with a legitimately big win, 58-48 over Wayzata as Emma Grothaus played the Trojans bigs to a deadlock and Mahtomedi’s guards Marisa Gustafson, Annika Sougstad and friends outplayed Wayzata’s Mimi Schrader, Sydney Franks and company.

Finally the Zephyrs defeated Park of Cottage Grove 32-28. It was 12-11 at the half and nobody scored in double figures in this game. Mahtomedi, by the way, is now coached by Eric Prose, who was Stephanie Tolkinen’s assistant at Park for a decade or so.

Earlier Park had surprised the hosts from Hill-Murray 40-37 and then shocked Forest Lake, who had just beaten Holy Angels, 46-45. I’m sure Forest Lake is really looking forward to playing Park twice more in the Suburban East round robin.