As you read this on Wednesday — the first official day of spring — a warm, dry week is in the forecast and the snow piles are melting. Let’s hope that spring is really here to stay.
The four-class Minnesota High School boys’ basketball tournament begins today and continues through Saturday. There are 32 teams competing and I have seen six of them, including three Class A teams. My youngest son, Logan, has seen nine of the qualifying teams play this winter.
That seems fairly good for Logan (a college student at Southwest State in Marshall), but that’s nothing compared to his older brother, Chad. A high school basketball “nut” who loves to travel, Chad has amazingly seen 23 of the 32 state-tournament qualifying teams play this winter. That’s right, 23 of the 32.
I will start with my list. I have seen Spring Grove, Springfield and Westbrook-Walnut Grove in Class A, Lake City and Redwood Valley in Class AA, and mighty Waseca in Class AAA. I am, of course, most familiar with W-WG, the Section 3A champions who will square off against two-time defending Class A runner-up North Woods at 5 p.m. Thursday in the last of the four quarterfinal games at Williams Arena.
The Chargers (now 23-7) enjoyed an impressive run through the sectional tournament with victories over Red Rock Central (66-54), Murray County Central (75-68), Southwest Minnesota Christian (74-73) and Dawson-Boyd (80-72). W-WG last played in the state tournament in 1994 when it was two classes, finishing fourth. The Chargers were Class A runners-up in 1991, the first year of Westbrook-Walnut Grove.
Westbrook finished third in the 1982 Class A state tournament and Walnut Grove played in the old one-class tournament in both 1957 and 1967. The Loggers were led in ’67 by 6-9 Tom Masterson, who later became a doctor, living and working in Sioux Falls.
Westbrook had a great team in 1959 and again in both 1965 and 1966. The Wildcats won District 7 titles in ’59, ’65, ’79 and ’86. Dale Mischke, Ethan Mischke’s father, played for Westbrook on that ’86 championship team.
Chad and I both watched Springfield play Minneota in a classic battle at Minneota on December 29, won by the Vikings (78-75) — one of only two losses all year for the Tigers, who are this year’s top-seeded team in the Class A tournament. Dawson-Boyd eliminated Minneota in the semifinals of the Section 3A North playoffs.
Chad, son Lucas, Logan and I all watched Spring Grove edge Hayfield in the Section 1A semifinals at the Rochester Civic Center Auditorium last Wednesday (March 13). Playing well for Hayfield was 6-1 sophomore guard Ethan Slaathaug, who scored 15 points — including his team’s first nine — in a very closely-contested game (45-43) from start to finish. Ethan was playing for the Fulda Raiders two years ago and has been a spring basketball teammate of HL-O’s Eli Fest, Fulda’s Zach Thier, Worthington’s Gabe Villarreal and W-WG’s Ethan Mischke on a powerhouse squad the past several years which has been coached by his Ethan’s father, Gregg Slaathaug.
In addition to the six teams that I have seen, Logan has seen St. Peter (Class AA), Austin (AAA) and Lakeville North (AAAA).
Chad has seen those same nine (as Logan) and you can add these 14 teams to his list, North Woods and Henning (Class A), Minnehaha Academy, Minneapolis North, Perham and Melrose (AA), De La Salle, Princeton and Mahtomedi (AAA) and Park Center, East Ridge, Eden Prairie, Hopkins and Eastview in Class AAAA.
That’s a total of five of the eight Class A teams, seven of the eight in AA, five of the eight in AAA and six of the eight big schools in Class AAAA. He likes Henning, the Section 6A champions, who with a sparkling 28-1 record are back at “The Barn” for the first time since 1966.
Henning, led by the tall Petersen twins — Dick and Bob — were tournament darlings (the smallest school) in the one-class event back-to-back in ’65 and ’66. The Hornets took those over Hornets — Edina — into a triple overtime thriller in the ’66 semifinals.
Edina won three close games in ’66, edging Windom (60-59) in Thursday’s quarterfinals, winning in three overtimes over Henning in Friday night’s semifinals and then winning the championship in an overtime classic (just one extra three-minute session) over the Duluth East Greyhounds. Edina repeated easily in both ’67 and ’68.
Of all the teams, we have seen, Waseca — which has six sophomores among its top eight — is, perhaps, the most impressive. They have size, athleticism and depth. Most of them can dunk the basketball and they are an offensive “machine” when they are rolling. All four of us saw the Bluejays dismantle Faribault (83-54) in the Section 2AAA semifinals at Gustavus in St. Peter on March 8. They are confident in themselves, that’s for sure!
The no-foul out rule was in effect for three winters (’84-85, ’85-86 and ’86-87). I still need to tell an interesting tale or two about some of the things that happened in a few of those games. It certainly gave a coach more options.
When did high school overtimes expand from three minutes to four minutes?
