High School Tournament Time
March 2015

The Minnesota State High School League’s boys and girls high school basketball tournaments concluded last week with happiness reigning in the communities of Apple Valley and Hopkins. Teams representing those Twin Cities suburbs captured AAAA basketball championships in successive Saturdays.

The AAAA boy’s champion Apple Valley Eagles, led by Gary Trent, Jr.’s 15 points, topped previously undefeated Champlin Park, 64-61, for the title. Later, Hopkins’ speedy 6-1 guard Nia Hollie pumped in 26 points to propel Hopkins past defending girls’ AAAA champion Eastview.

As for the smaller schools, two of the six champions, the De La Salle boys and the Park Center girls, hailed from the Minneapolis metro area. Melrose and Rushford-Peterson claimed the boys’ AA and A championships. For the girls, the AA and A champions were Dover-Eyota and Ada-Borup. Dover-Eyota was making its first girls state tournament appearance.

The only private high school to win a championship was the dynastic De La Salle, winners of its fourth consecutive title. The school also won championships in 1985, 1988, 1998, 1999, 2006. Critics suggest the school “play up” to the AAAA classification, much in the same manner as St. Thomas Academy has done in boys’ high school hockey. De La Salle coach Dave Thorson has proved to be elusive when the issue has been raised. Perhaps, he fears a dry spell such as encountered by the De La Salle girls team (no state championships since 2013).

A front-page article in the March 21 (championship Saturday) Minneapolis Star-Tribune detailed the financial woes of the MSHSL on the same day ushers were busy herding spectators out of Williams Arena like cattle after the second game of the four-game series. The forced exit is typical of the league’s narrow-minded thinking. At a time when the league should be courting the public to increase interest in their events, it drives people away.

The inadequate classification system for basketball has been discussed to death by everyone but the ossified MSHSL. Of course, the concept of best 64 teams seeded in the same manner as the NCAA with the Elite Eight meeting in Minneapolis is just too big an idea for the league brain trust to comprehend, much less implement. Maybe, the system is too broken to be fixed, but league officials who complain about the high cost of renting Williams Arena and Target Center continue to drive people away.

The ship may have already sailed for basketball. Even the outstate schools playing in downtown Minneapolis or on the campus of the University of Minnesota don’t bring crowds with them. Many schools don’t have cheerleaders, and the league muffles band participation. Too often, the atmosphere is deadly dull.

While basketball is enveloped in a malaise, interest in high school hockey may be peaking. Unfortunately, the MSHSL is clueless when it comes to marketing a hot product. Once upon a time, the league could auction off the television rights to the popular event to the highest bidder. One year, the rights went to WCCO-TV who scrapped its lucrative prime-time CBS lineup for three days to air the event. What did the league do in response? It added eight teams to the show and killed the golden TV goose. Since the arrival of the Minnesota Wild, hockey has never been more popular, and the MSHSL could take advantage, but it won’t. Still sticking to a two-class tournament, the games are shown on UHF Channel 45 with limited state-wide access.

By cutting the field back to eight, anyone with marketing sense could increase league revenue with a better TV deal, perhaps a national one with ESPN or Fox Sports, or, at the least, the NHL Network, which seems to be searching for content and, accordingly, televises Canadian junior events.

But the league can’t or won’t capitalize on its most popular showcase, one that draws increasingly large crowds to the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. Those in school administrators in charge at the MSHSL simply aren’t sophisticated enough to know how to pull the league out of its financial bind.

Basketball tournament results:

Boys Class AAAA
Apple Valley 70, St. Michael-Albertville 57
Champlin Park 90, St. Francis 47
Lakeville North 65, Hopkins 61
Shakopee 64, Roseville 53
Apple Valley 67, Lakeville North 58
Champlin Park 65, Shakopee 57
Apple Valley 64, Champlin Park 61

Boys Class AAA
DeLaSalle 70, Albany 60
Mankato East 65, New Prague 60
St. Paul Johnson 59, Hermantown 56
Waconia 73, Orono 68
DeLaSalle 74, Mankato East 40
St. Paul Johnson 69, Waconia 62
DeLaSalle 82, St. Paul Johnson 62

Boys Class AA
Melrose 81, Redwood Valley 66
St. Croix Lutheran 37, Esko 35
Caledonia 72, Annandale 68
Maple River 78, Breckenridge 72
Melrose 55, St. Croix Lutheran 40
Caledonia 74, Maple River 72
Melrose 63, Caledonia 51

Boys Class A
Rushford-Peterson 105, Fond duLac Ojibwe 58
Maranatha 59, Red Lake 55
Battle Lake 83, Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 66
Central Minnesota Christian 56, Nevis 47
Rushford-Peterson 63, Central Minnesota Christian 39
Maranatha 74, Battle Lake 69
Rushford-Peterson 51, Maranatha 44

Girls Class AAAA
Hopkins 62, Rochester Mayo 35
Eastview 62, Andover 28
Shakopee 62, White Bear Lake 56
St. Michael-Albertville 66, Centennial 53
Hopkins 64, Shakopee 33
Eastview 48, St, Michael-Albertville 30
Hopkins 68, Eastview 60

Girls Class AAA
Park Center 72, Richfield 57
Orono 70, Thief River Falls 42
Marshall 65, Princeton 30
Kasson-Mantorville 62, New Prague 55
Park Center 47, Kasson-Mantorville 37
Marshall 55, Orono 48
Park Center 52, Marshall 45

Girls Class AA
Dover-Eyota 62, Fairmont 53
Sauk Centre 67, Norwood-Young America 45
Minnehaha Academy 49, Annandale 38
Roseau 50, Esko 37
Dover-Eyota 94, Roseau 61
Sauk Centre 54, Minnehaha Academy 49
Dover-Eyota 71, Sauk Centre 58

Girls Class A
Lyle-Austin Pacelli 66, Mountain Iron-Buhl 47
Ada-Borup 71, Springfield 53
Maranatha 65, Stephen-Argyle 50
Minneota 69, Browerville 68
Ada-Borup 54, Lyle-Austin Pacelli 52
Maranatha 76, Minneota 69
Ada-Borup 82, Marantha 65