Class AAAA and AAA BRACKETS now set

UPDATE! Seeds and Pairings Class AAAA Tuesday March 14 Target Center 10 a.m.--#1 Hopkins vs. Minnetonka--we got our wish for a rematch of last year's final 12 Noon--#4 Eastview vs. #5 Park Center--we anticipated this one 2 p.m.--#2 Elk River vs. White Bear Lake--as anticipated, Elk gets the #2 seed 4 p.m.--#3 Lakeville North vs. Andover--also as predicted, North at #3 Class AAA Tuesday March 14 Target Center 6 p.m.--#1 Orono vs. Willmar--had not anticipated Orono at #1 but can't complain 8 p.m.--#4 Grand Rapids vs. #5 Alexandria--we had them reversed but same matchup Wednesday March 15 Mariucci Arena 10 a.m.--#2 Holy Angels vs. Waseca--I thought the defending champs would be #1 but this in no way will affect the outcome 12 Noon--#3 Winona vs. DeLaSalle--setting up a rematch of last year's final in the semis. I wonder if Orono went #1 and Holy Angels #2 in order to discourage a finals rematch? But of course Winona draw the hottest team in AAA. <s>De beat Holy Angels last month, so..</s>. CORRECTION: Holy Angels edged DeLaSalle 64-63 last month.... Our Original Report Follows Well, 16 teams have now qualified for the state tournament in Class AAAA and in Class AAA, and there have been precious few surprises. The folks who do the seeds, at least in the 2 “big school” classes, have a pretty good handle on things. Of course, most of the 125 or so teams in these 2 classes have played somewhere between 5 and a dozen games within their sections, or an average of probably 8 to 10. That makes the seeding a lot easier. And, so, the only “surprises,” going strictly by the numbers, are as follows. Class AAAA One #2 seed advances, White Bear Lake in Section 4, which beat #1 seed East Ridge 52-49 in OT. The 2 had tied for the Suburban East title (with Cretin and Roseville), so this was pretty much a toss-up, certainly not a “big surprise.” The only seeds lower than #2 to get to a final are Rosemount and Moorhead. #3 seed Rosemount “surprised” (sort of) an up-and-down #2 seed Apple Valley 61-58 in the semi. But Apple Valley had faltered down the stretch, losing 3 of 4, including to Prior Lake and Farmington and, in fact, we correctly picked Rosemount to win that game. So, not so much of an upset. Moorhead surprised #2 seed St. Michael-Albertville in a section semi 77-69 as Sam Haiby outscored Rae Johnson 31-10. Rae was playing with a sprained ankle and was estimated to be running at about 70 percent in that game. One retired coach guaranteed that Moorhead would win. I said, that’s not gonna happen. But, he cheated. He knew about Rae’s injury. Still, not such an upset. Probably the biggest surprise of the entire post-season in AAAA was this half-time score: Wayzata 41 Hopkins 29. Wow! Is Hopkins not invincible? You tell me. They won the 2nd half 52-33 and the game 81-74. Paige Bueckers and Raena Suggs scored 27 and 22 for Hopkins, Sydney Franks and Kallie Theisen 22 and 20 for Wayzata. So in Class AAAA the state tournament field is as follows. The official seeds come out Saturday, but we’re listing them in the order in which we have them rated. It would be a big surprise if the seeds don’t go just like this. 1. Hopkins, Section 6, 29-0 2. Elk River, Section 8, 29-0 3. Lakeville North, Section 1, 27-2 6. Park Center, Section 5, 24-5 7. Eastview, Section 3, 23-6 14. White Bear Lake, Section 4, 20-9 17. Minnetonka, Section 2, 16-12, defending state champ, but darkhorse here 19. Andover, Section 7, 20-9 If these are right, Eastview-Park Center is your feature game in the 1st round. I guess we’d like to see Hopkins draw Minnetonka in one of the seed vs. non-seed matchups. Class AAA You’ve got a few more surprises here—in fact, 3 section champs who were not rated #1 vs. just 1 in Class AAAA. Here, again, the surprises are not huge surprises. • #2 seed Willmar knocked off #1 Zimmerman 63-51. We had picked Willmar in this game, based on Zimmerman’s loss of its only real size, Naomi Hagstrom, to a knee injury about a month ago. • #2 seed Orono edged #1 Hutchinson 65-60. The 2 teams had split during the regular season and this was a toss-up all the way. • #4 DeLaSalle hammered #3 St. Anthony 84-51, and a thrashing of that magnitude in a section final is a surprise. But, the bigger surprise came in the semi-final, when DeLaSalle got away with a football-style tackle late in the game to beat #1 Mahtomedi 41-39. Again, we had picked De in that game, but we had thought St. Paul Como would win tonight. But there was no tonight for Como. • #1 Waseca beat #2 New Ulm 61-56 in Section 2AAA. The only surprise there is that it was Waseca’s 3rd win over New Ulm, and you know what they say about that. • Finally, #1 seed Alexandria defeated Sartell in Section 8AAA. Not a surprise, to be sure, but earlier I would have bet that somebody would have beaten Alex somewhere along the way in their 3 section games, what with Macy Hatlestad out with a knee injury. That will still hurt Alex, but not in Section 8, as it turns out. Again, here’s how we have them rated and how we expect the seeds to work out, though I must say in this case there are several opportunities for our version of the seeds to go south. There were just enough upsets to put the seeds in a little bit of doubt, but here goes. 1. Holy Angels, Section 3, 25-3, defending state champ 3. Orono, Section 6, 24-4 5. Winona, Section 1, 24-4, defending state runner-up 9. Grand Rapids, Section 7, 24-5, returns 10. Alexandria, Section 8, 25-4 13. DeLaSalle, Section 4, 18-10 15. Waseca, Section 1, 22-6 22. Willmar, Section 5, 20-9 If these are right, whoever gets DeLaSalle will be your feature game and a major upset possibility. I guess I’d like to see conference rivals De and Holy Angels go at it again. The Schedule The state tournament opens at 10 a.m. next Tuesday with 6 games—all 4 AAAA quarter-finals followed by the 1 vs. unseeded and 4 vs. 5 AAA games—at Target Center. On Wednesday, again starting at 10 a.m., you get the other 2 AAA quarter-finals and then all 4 AA quarter-finals at Mariucci Arena. The tournament concludes next Saturday with four state championship games beginning at 12 noon at Williams Arena.