Summer Week #1 Review

<p>1 week. 3 tournaments. 45 of our initial top 60 rated teams in action. What happened? Here are 10 teams that did newsworthy things the 1st week out in the 11th and 10th grade classes. (As you’ll see, not all of it was good news.) And, BTW, the 2018 and 2019 rankings updates are now posted in the usual place.</p> <p><strong>The 2018s</strong></p> <p><strong>• Taylor Hill 11th Elite</strong> swept 3 games and the title of the flagship 11 Black division at the Midwest Kickoff. Hill beat Fury 2010 Blue 54-49, Crossfire 10th Theisen 47-41 and Fury 2018 Elite 60-52. They move from #5 to #2 in our 2018 rankings. We watched the Fury Blue game. Morgan Hill, Masengo Mutanda and Elaina Jones scored in double digits for the Hills, while McKenna Hofschild did the same for the Fury.</p> <p><strong>• Stars 11th Hersch</strong> (formerly Willie Taylor’s team) swept 5 games and the title of the 16U division of the Suns Showcase. Only 1 of the 5 wins was against a Minnesota 11th, that being Suns 11th R. Long. They stay at #4.</p> <p>• <strong>Metro Stars 11th Wiese</strong> (Metro Stars Black) swapped place with Taylor Hill, dropping from 2nd to 5th after losing 2 of 3 in the 11 Black division at the Kickoff. They were in fact 0-2 vs. Minnesota teams—the Fury 2018 Elite won 50-46, and Crossfire 10th Theisen won 53-52.</p> <p><strong>• High Impact 11th Caddy</strong> swept 3 games to win the 11 White division. They defeated So Minn Fury 2018 Gold 49-28 in the final. They move into our rankings at #10.</p> <p>• <strong>Rise 11 Purple</strong> dropped 3 games in the 11 Black division of the Kickoff, including a pair of losses to the Fury (Fury 2018 Elite and Fury 2019 Blue; OK, that’s a tough schedule). They drop from #13 out of our top 15. 5-10 post Natalie Harmon of Mankato West was their most effective player in the Fury Elite game.</p> <p>Just for the record, #1 North Tartan 11th EYBL did not play and remains #1. Fury 2018 Elite remains at #3.</p> <p><strong>The 2019s</strong></p> <p>• <strong>Stars 10th Buerman</strong> swept 4 games to win the Suns Showcase 15U division. The victims included TCMS and Suns Wilson. They move up from #9 to #6 in our rankings.</p> <p>• <strong>Suns 10th Keitzer</strong> vacated #6 and dropped all the way out of the top 15 with 4 losses at the Suns Showcase. One of them was just a 6-pointer to #4-rated Stars 10th Amundson, so there’s hope. But, for now, an 0-4 start isn’t Top 15-worthy.</p> <p>• <strong>Stars 10th Vogelsberg</strong> went the other way, though just from #9 to #8, after winning 3 of 3 at the Comets Shootout. The victims were Central Lakes Thunder 10, West Central United and Comets Blue.</p> <p>• <strong>Northern Lights 10th</strong> jump from #15 to #11 by winning 2 of 3 in the 10 Black division at the Kickoff. The victims are both Crossfires—10th Smith and 9th Jorgenson.</p> <p>• <strong>Suns 10th Jefferson</strong> won 1 of 4 games at the Suns Showcase and dropped from #9 to #12 in the rankings. They played up in the 16U (actually, the Suns call it 17U) division where they lost to the WI Playmakers in the pool. In the bracket they lost to Stars Amundson 50-26 and another WI team. (Note that Keitzer played Amundson much closer but dropped out of the rankings with an 0-4 week. There were many such conundrums in the Suns results, and therefore a lot of shaking out yet to do.)</p> <p><strong>Team of the Week</strong></p> <p>In the upper division (16 minute halves), it’s <strong>Tayler Hill 11th Elite.</strong></p>