Weekend Review

Once again I find myself behind on the post and will have to crunch two days into one. Friday night took it Badger South first place battle and then Saturday took in the Midwest Players Classic which is become one of the best showcases of the year.

Stoughton 82 Monona Grove 70
First chance to see undefeated Monona Grove and well they didn't come to play tonight. Stoughton jumped out to an early 12-0 lead and really shocked MG a bit. After that initial flury both teams played even throughout. The Stoughton guards severely out played the Monona Grove guards. 6'0 senior point guard Brady Schipper was unbelievable scoring 38 points and he just couldn't miss a shot. Schipper was hands down the best player on the court. MG did their best to pound the ball inside to 6'7 senior Jake Schroecenthaler but, he just didn't have it tonight and did have a nice scoring game but, most of his buckets game late. I really liked 6'4 senior Jimmy Thome for Grove as he isn't the most talented guy but, he plays with a ton of heart and hustle.

Bloomer 72 La Crosse Logan 71
Story of the game was Bloomer's 6'3 senior big man Payton Dachel. Dachel looks like a big time football recruit and has the soft hands. Early on Dachel got the taller Logan defenders in foul trouble and completely had his way. In the second half Logan doubled him every time and Dachel became the point guard out of the post. To finish the game Dachel hit a questionable three at the buzzer to give Bloomer the one point lead.

La Crosse Aquinas 64 Spring Grove MN 48
This game really surprised me as I had seen these two teams play a few times in the past and I knew Spring Grove has a solid program year in and year out. Aquinas has been down the last few years and has had a tought time competing in the Mississippi Valley Conference. Surprisingly Spring Grove wasn't a very deep team and didn't have the talent they've had in the past. In the first half 6'6 senior Randy Jacobson got in foul trouble and shot like 1-8 from the free throw line. In the second half Jacobson made a huge difference as he was able to play most of the half and he was 6-7 from the line. Early in the game I thought Jacobson might be a bit of a stiff but, he proved me wrong and was the difference in the win. Jacobson disrupted shots from Spring Grove and was able to score on the other side.

Caledonia MN 84 The Prairie School 66
Completely a tale of two halves here. In the first half the Prairie School looked like a top notch D4 team that was extremely talented and then they went to a 1-3-1 zone that really took over and JC Butler a 6'5 senior took over midway through the first half scoring 9 straight points including two monster dunks. Caledonia just hung around hung around and in the second half their disciplined took over the Prairie School panicked and completely fell apart and Caledonia was forcing turnover after turnover and they were converting on the other end. Caledonia started three King brothers in 6'3 senior Owen King, who can do it all and is just a super heady player to watch, 6'2 sophomore Noah King who is an undersized post player who can also do a little of everything like his brother, and then eighth grader 5'10 Eli King who is small and isn't quiet there yet but, you can see the ability is there. Both these teams have a great chance to make runs at state in their own individual states.

Minnehaha Academy MN 74 Stoughton 34
As you can see by the score this game just wasn't close. Stoughton didn't have the athletes to be in this game and they just couldn't get any easy shots and shot a horrible percentage in this game. Minnehaha's star 6'4 sophomore Jalen Suggs who didn't have a great game but, it just didn't matter today. Stoughton didn't have the athletes and Minnehaha did.

Waunakee 71 Stevens Point 54
Two good teams that play discipline basketball but, without Joey Hauser Stevens Point is just too short handed. This was a great one on one battle between a pair of seniors 6'5 Waunakee Mitch Listau and Stevens Point 6'3 Drew Blair. Listau did it more with the ball in his hands while Blair did it more moving without the ball. Point just didn't have enough help while Waunakee had some great three point shooting as a team. Huge shoot out to Waunakee's sixth man 6'5 junior Josh Cash. In my opinion Cash should be starting but, I think they like his scoring off the bench. Cash did a nice job of guarding Blair in the second half and slowing him down a bit and was able to do a bit of his own scoring on the offensive side.

La Crosse Central 57 Woodbury MN 51
Central had more talent in my opinion but, Woodbury was able to keep this game close with their three point shooting. Both teams played zones that really messed with the other teams offenses and this game was kind of ugly and tough to watch at time. Woodbury played the normal zone defense and Central just didn't have the shooters to bust the zone and they really weren't able to find that sweet spot in the middle of the zone. On the other side Central played a box and one defense on Woodbury's 6'5 senior Michael Jones. This seemed to frustrate Jones as he spent most of the time sitting in the corner and not really fighting to get open. This zone also hurt Centrals offense because they didn't rebound great out of the zone and they weren't forcing turnovers. From what I heard from other people around me Central is a team that thrives on the uptempo game and they weren't forcing the turnovers to get the easy buckets.

Well that's a quick recap of the weekend. Was a great Saturday of games and hopefully will have a few more Saturday showcases coming up in the near future.