Class A top 25 more than ready for post-season
Our top 25 teams in Class A have all concluded their regular seasons, and they will all be up to their elbows in the post-season by this time next week. In fact, 4 opened post-season play last week and won…
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Continue ReadingOur top 25 teams in Class A have all concluded their regular seasons, and they will all be up to their elbows in the post-season by this time next week. In fact, 4 opened post-season play last week and won by an average of 66-30.
Meanwhile, our top 25 played 34 regular season games last week, winning 29. 4 of the 5 losses were to Class AA and AAA teams and the 5th was inflicted by #1A Mountain Iron-Buhl, 71-65 over #19A Heritage Christian. The other losses saw Worthington defeat #12A Southwest Minnesota Christian 79-75, Maranatha defeat #18A Mayer Lutheran 93-78 and Heritage Christian 73-63, and Cloquet defeat #16A Cromwell 69-55.
Those were the losses. The most impressive wins were #4A Ada winning at AA rated Barnesville 49-47, #11A Lac Qui Parle Valley knocking off AA rated Tracy-Milroy-Balaton to win the Camden Conference title and Cromwell defeating AA rated Duluth Marshall 58-47.
So there was relatively little movement among our top 25, but what there was might cause one to take a fresh look at 2 section races.
In Section 3A…
Lac Qui Parle Valley shocked #10AA Tracy-Milroy-Balaton 49-41 in the Camden Conference championship game, thus throwing even more uncertainty into a tough but wide open Section 3A tournament. Meanwhile, defending section champion Southwest Minnesota Christian lost its finale to Class AA Worthington 79-75. Under ordinary circumstances, such a loss might not have had any impact on the ratings. But, coupled with LQPV’s big win, it was enough to flip the 2 teams. LQPV moved up to #3 among Section 3A teams and #11 overall, while SWC dropped to #4 and #12.
3 of the 4 rated teams in Section 3A happen to be in the northern part of the draw, so the 1st post-season meeting of ranked teams in Class A will occur this Tuesday (February 27) night when Lac Qui Parle meets #8A Wabasso at Southwest Minnesota State University. The winner of that game will probably get #7A Minneota on Friday night, also at Southwest State, and the winner of that game will probably get Southwest MN Christian in the Section 3A final the following Friday, again, at Southwest State.
If Southwest Christian manages to return to the state tournament it will be hard not to say that the tougher draw in the north hurt whoever their opponent is in the final. In particular, LQPV or Wabasso would have to beat 3 top 12 teams in the state to get to the tournament, which is why we anticipate Minneota and SWC to meet in the final. Minneota, you might recall, clobbered SWC 80-48 3 weeks ago, and so you’d have to see them winning this game as well.
Also in Section 3A, Red Rock Central, having won 8 straight, closed out its regular season with a loss to Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s, 46-39. It also lost to Hills-Beaver Creek 46-35. Having just moved into the top 25, Red Rock thus drops back out.
In Section 4A…
Mayer Lutheran and Heritage Christian, Section 4A’s only rated teams, both head into the post-season with a regular season-ending loss. And, yet, both move up in the rankings. That’s because both teams lost to #2AA Maranatha. The Mustangs beat Mayer Lutheran 93-78 and Heritage 73-63. Heritage also lost to Mountain Iron-Buhl, but in another good game, 71-65. Despite the 2 losses, then, Heritage moves from unranked all the way up to #19A. Despite its loss, Mayer Lutheran moves up from #19A to #18.
Mayer Lutheran clobbered Heritage 82-56 a month ago and is thus the favorite in Section 4A.
Pre and Post
This week our rankings table includes the pre-season rankings for our top 25 and change.
5 teams dropped 5 spots or more in our Class A rankings since pre-season.
• Defending state champion Goodhue dropped from #1A to #6, and trails Section 1A rivals Lyle-Pacelli and Hayfield in the rankings. Still, despite Goodhue’s 2 losses to Hayfield and a loss to Lyle-Pacelli, the section still feels like a toss-up.
• Bigfork dropped from #3A to #9, and has returned to its customary position as underdog to the Rangers of MIB in Section 7A.
• Heritage Christian returns to our rankings at #19A after dropping all the way from #2A out of the rankings with a surprising 10 defeats. Despite an 82-56 loss to section rival Mayer Lutheran, however, Heritage has been playing a bit better the past 2 weeks, and they’re another team that is hard to count out.
• Finally, Floodwood and Cherry are 2 more Section 7A teams whose hopes for a breakthrough season are now on life support, having dropped out of our rankings today from #9A and #15, respectively, in our pre-season rankings.
The big gainers this season, from November to March, include:
• Menahga not only went from #12A in November to #3A now, they’re the only unbeaten team remaining in Class A at 26-0.
• Minneota and Wabasso in Section 3A made big moves—the Vikings from #19A to #7, and the Rabbits from #25 to #8.
• And, three teams moved from unranked in November to ranked in March—Parkers Prairie at #14A, Stephen-Argyle at #15A and Red Lake at #17A.
• And, finally, Mountain Iron-Buhl was the big story in Class A this regular season. The Rangers went from #6A to #1A, so far dashing the hopes of Bigfork, Floodwood, Cherry and every other Section 7A team that might have thought, as we did, that maybe this was the year for a breakthrough. It hasn’t happened yet, not by a Section 7A team, and the results so far don’t give much encouragement for a post-season surprise either. Instead, MIB is now favored to make it to state for the 8th straight year.
And, in the Post-Season…
The LQPV-Minneota game figures to be the only matchup of rated teams before the end of February but things will heat up considerably beginning on Friday, March 2, when #9A Sleepy Eye could meet #21 Cedar Mountain-Comfrey in Section 2A and Minneota might get the winner of the LQPV-Wabasso game.
On Saturday March 3, ranked teams are likely to face off in Section 1A—specifically, #20 Grand Meadow might get #2A Lyle-Pacelli, and #6A Goodhue might get #5A Hayfield, depending on the outcome of quarter-final games earlier in the week.
But, the big, big action in Class A is on Tuesday, March 6, when there are 6 semi-final doubleheaders in Rochester, Anoka, Morris, Duluth and Grand Forks. The best of them will likely be in Section 6A, 7A and 8A, where 3 of 4 semi-finalists in each could be rated teams. In Section 6A that means #4A Ada, #13A Wheaton-Herman-Norcross and #14 Parkers Prairie. In 7A, there’s #1A Mountain Iron-Buhl, #10A Bigfork and #16A Cromwell. In 8A, you’ve got #15A Stephen-Argyle, #17 Red Lake and #24 Badger-Greenbush-Middle River.
But, even this week, there will be a small handful of rated teams in Sections 3A and 1A whose seasons will come to an end. So long, and thanks for the memories.