AAU Prelim Report, the 2019s

<p>Unlike the 2018s, the surprises were relatively few among the 2019s. But, they were biggies. It was bright at early 8 a.m. Saturday morning when Stars Nelson shocked #1-seed and #1-rated Crossfire Theisen 43-40 as Aja Wheeler scored 10 for the winners and Taylie Scott 14 for the losers. Probably the bigger factor was that Abigail Groeneweg and Sara Stapleton outscored Kallie Theisen.</p> <p>In fact, that was the only real upset, but Stars Nelson came back on Sunday to edge Stars Amundson in a great in-house game 60-57 to advance to the final. Blake Greer and Dlayla Chakolis each scored 12 for Nelson, while Macy Nilsen, Tori Nelson and Kacie Borowicz all scored in double digits for Amundson.</p> <p>But, then, in the finals, Nelson laid an egg against former teammate McKenna Hofschild and her Fury Blue, losing 20-44. Hofschild scored 5, but it was the Fury bigs who dominated statistically as Abby Johnson, McKenzie Stumne and Carly Krsul all scored 8 or 9 points while Groeneweg and Stapleton managed just 11 for Nelson.</p> <p>Meanwhile, Tartan 10 EYBL hung another upset on Crossfire Theisen 52-43. Sara Scalia scored 13 for Tartan, while Taylie Scott and Hannah Purcell scored 14 each for CFT. Mykel Parham and Frannie Hottinger added 17 points inside for Tartan, and held Kallie Theisen to just 3 points.</p> <p>Those were some of the highlights, and so your top 8 seeds are 1) Fury Blue, 2) Stars Nelson, 3) Tartan EYBL, 4) Crossfire Theisen, 5) Stars Amundson, 6) Fury Gold, 7) Suns Kietzer and 8) Rise Purple. The latter 3 went 2-10 among them but you’ll recall that in the AAU’s strange format, the top 8 seeds cannot drop below #8 in the Prelims no matter how badly they play.</p> <p>Once again, what is the rationale that prevents Stars Bjorgard (3-0), Northern Lights 10 (3-0), Comets Elite (3-0) and Lady Get Shook Walker (3-0) from having a chance of moving up? Lady Get Shook Walker was the breakout team, winning its 3 games by an average of 13 ppg as Isabelle West and Andrea Gray averaged in double digits.</p> <p>Taya Hakamaki led all 2019 scorers with 68 points and 22.7 ppg and was tied for 3rd in 3-pointers made.</p> <p><strong>The Not-So Golden</strong></p> <p>The other 6 teams that will compete in the D1 tournament are as follows.</p> <p>• Pool C—Stars Buerman went just 1-2 and yet got seeded ahead of 4 teams that went 3-0 at #10.</p> <p>• Pool D—Comets Elite won 2 in the pool and beat Stars Buerman for the #9 seed 65-47 as Lariah Washington lit it up with 25 points.</p> <p>• Pool E—Lady Get Shook Walker went 3-0 and got seed #11.</p> <p>• Pool F—Suns Jefferson went 2-1 and got #12.</p> <p>• Pool G and H—Northern Lights 10 and Stars Bjorgard each went 3-0 and got #13 and #4, respectively.</p> <p>I refer to these teams as not-so golden not through any fault of theirs. It’s just that once they’re seeded below #8 for the Prelims, they have zero chance of moving into the top 8 no matter what they do.</p> <p><strong>Division 2</strong></p> <p>The top seeds in D2 are #15 Central Lakes Thunder 10, #16 Lady Get Shook Turner, #17 North Tartan Elite and #18 Comets Select. #20 Lady Hawks and #21 PREP could make some noise as well here. Several of the pools played just 2 pool games and no bracket games, and the seeds are awarded by pool totally arbitrarily. By that I mean that the Pool G runnerup gets the #16 seed no matter what team it turns out to be, no matter how many games they won or lost, or against whom, or how well or poorly the played. So don&#39;t be thinking that the seeds in D2 mean anything.</p> <p><strong>Looking Ahead</strong></p> <p>So, here are your 1st and 2nd round upset specials.</p> <p>• As always, #8 vs. #9 is an obvious opportunity for a no-surprise “surprise.” #8 Comets Elite went 3-0 and #9 Rise Purple went 0-4. The Comets feature the aforementioned Lariah Washington, who is a FT machine, plus Alyssa Daugherty, but Rise counters with Batt and Freeburg, a nice inside-outside combo of their own.</p> <p>• #11 Lady Get Shook is a good bet vs. #6 Fury Gold. If they pull this one out, is Lady Get Shook also good enough to push #3 Tartan EYBL?</p> <p>• A #4-#5 quarter-final would pit CFT vs. Stars Amundson if they both get that far. Tori Nelson gets her turn in the lane vs. Kallie Theisen.</p> <p>• Even the #8 vs. #1 matchup should be competitive, though we think it will actually be #9 Comets Elite going up against #1 Fury Blue.</p> <p>Still, it says here that the semis will have #1 Fury Blue vs. #4 CFT, and #2 Stars Nelson vs. #11 Lady Get Shook. There’s your upset special, Lady Get Shook beating 2 higher seeds.</p> <p>In D2, the favorites look like MN Energy (#19) and PREP (#21).</p> <p>Oh, and look for our updated team ratings in their usual place.</p>