Can The Boys’ Basketball Tournament Be Restored To Former Glory?
March 27, 2010

The 2010 Boys State High School Basketball Tournament, held for the benefit of students, parents, and friends of the participants, concluded Saturday night with the crowning of the Hopkins Royals as Class AAAA champions at the Target Center in downtown Minneapolis.

As usual, other potential ticket buyers to the four-day event stayed home. Each year, attendance has declined with the Minnesota State High School League apparently oblivious to the flaws it has created in this once-popular event. The presence of the 1960 state champion team Edgerton at the halftime of the final game only served to emphasize the death wish the MSHSL seems to harbor for the tournament. The Edgerton-Austin final game in the 1960 tournament (when only eight teams participated) drew a tournament record crowd of 19,018. That year, 85,486 fans passed through the turnstiles to watch the three-day event. That basketball tournament was the toughest ticket in the state to obtain. One can only hope that someone at the League will come to his senses and realize that a bloated, four-class, 32-team event (with four champions crowned) has caused the general public to look elsewhere for entertainment. Even those students, parents, and friends that do show up at either Williams Arena or Target Center (or both) only stay to watch the game in which their team is involved. They show little or no interest in seeing other teams perform.

Many see a 16-team winner-take-all tournament to be the solution to the problem. However the MSHSL tried that approach in 1995 and 1996 and each year less than 56,000 attended. It’s safe to assume that the League will not go back to the Sweet Sixteen format.

What, then, is to be done?

***Put all the private schools and charter schools in a separate division. The notion of public schools mixed in with private and charter schools created an apples-and-oranges situation.

***There obviously is a wide gap between small-town Minnesota public schools and mega-schools such as Eden Prairie (enrollment 3,079). There probably never will be another “Edgerton Miracle” such as occurred in 1960.

***Every public school with an enrollment of 1,000 or more should play in the same class. This year, St. Paul Johnson, the AAA champion, defeated Hopkins, the AAAA champ, 86-78, in the regular season. Did the Governors get a chance to repeat that feat in the state tournament? Nope.

A few modest proposals:

***Combine AA and A public schools into a single division. These two divisions typically draw the fewest ticket-buyers. Also, for them, a trip to Minneapolis now longer holds the allure it once did. A single eight-team tournament between the combined AA and A schools could be held outside the metro, say in St. Cloud, Duluth, or Rochester. Or even Williams Arena, if the schools still desire an event held in the metro area.

***Hold an eight-team tournament of private/charter schools at the Galgelhoff Center on the Campus of Concordia in St. Paul.

***Let the bigger schools hold a regional elimination tournament (a various sites) to determine the top six teams in that division.

***Take the champions of the AA/A and private/charter schools and place them in an eight-team tournament with six current AAAA/AAA schools to be held at either Target Center or Williams Arena. This may rekindle the interest of ticket buyers outside of the usual students, relatives, and friends of the current tournament, and, wonder upon wonder, make some money for the MSHSL. Eliminate seeding the teams, perhaps by using an open draw. This still gives the smaller schools and the private/charter schools a chance at the overall state championship. As unlikely as it may sound, another Edgerton could emerge. At least, that school (such as Ellsworth) would have the chance of doing so. And the private/charter schools would not be shut out of the picture. They would have representation in the state tournament.

What are the chances of these things happening? Not many, unless the current hierarchy at the MSHSL somehow start to think outside of the box in which it currently resides.

Anyway, for the record here are the 2010 tournament results:

Class A
Rushford-Peterson 71, Springfield 63
Minnesota Transitions 69, Cass Lake-Bena 47
Sebeka 75, Mesabi East 51
Ellsworth 58, Hillcrest Lutheran 53
Minnesota Transitions 56, Rushford-Peterson 49
Sebeka 61, Ellsworth 60
Minnesota Transitions 61, Sebeka 52

Class AA
Braham 60, Sibley East 59, OT
New London-Spicer 78, Windom 60
Plainview-Elgin-Millville 45, Jordan 42
Crosby-Ironton 51, Minnehaha Academy 67
New London-Spicer 76, Braham 67
Crosby-Ironton 51, Plainview-Elgin-Millville 48, OT
New London-Spicer 62, Crosby-Ironton 52

Class AAA St. Paul Johnson 80, Hutchinson 37
Winona 70, Orono 57
Grand Rapids 70, Benilde-St. Margaret’s 61
DeLaSalle 66, Little Falls 61
St. Paul Johnson 80, Winona 55
Grand Rapids 57, DeLaSalle 53, 2OT
St. Paul Johnson 59, Grand Rapids 55

Class AAAA
Henry Sibley 50, Eastview 47
Hopkins 75, Forest Lake 51
Eden Prairie 62, Owatonna 46
St. Cloud Tech 55, Champlin Park 51
Hopkins 90, Henry Sibley 82, 2OT
St. Cloud Tech 62, Eden Prairie 58, 2OT
Hopkins 76, St. Cloud Tech 56