Minnesota State Tourney!

[Siouxman]

Nanne continued his brilliance last night in the Hill-Murray vs Lakeville South game. Hill-Murray was ahead in shots 16-8 and on the scoreboard 2-0, and Nanne says "Hill-Murray has doubled up Lakeville in everything!" And he specifically referenced the shots and 2-0 score. Excuuuuuse me. Double of 0 is still zero. Obviously math isn't necessary in some parts of MN, or maybe it just doesn't soak into some people. Obviously not required to pretend you are a hockey announcer.

[MafiaMan]

why not hang a banner in each town?? when there is a realistic chance to do it almost every year (at least as of late and in the past) why wouldn't they?? they have there home and home battle every year and it's fantastic...but why jump up to beat the crap out of each other in sections and then only one go to the X??

Why doesn't Michigan opt out of the Big 10 so it can go play in Conference USA and hang conference championship banners every year? It's called 'competition.'

We can hang with you and want to battle it out home and home, but when a Section title is on the line, we'd rather not take the chance, so we'll stay in A?

My money says Burnsville and Minnetonka are better than half the teams playing this weekend. That's what happens in a sectional...someone has to lose.

[Matt]

Why doesn't Michigan opt out of the Big 10 so it can go play in Conference USA and hang conference championship banners every year? It's called 'competition.'

We can hang with you and want to battle it out home and home, but when a Section title is on the line, we'd rather not take the chance, so we'll stay in A?

My money says Burnsville and Minnetonka are better than half the teams playing this weekend. That's what happens in a sectional...someone has to lose.

It's what has set this tournament apart. It's as difficult, in many cases, to simply win your section for the right to go to St Paul, as it is in other states to win the state title. Thats what I do miss about the one class system. As tough as it is even now, it was tougher then.

The ability to move back and forth between classes so freely needs to be closed.

[siouxtatoo42]

Why doesn't Michigan opt out of the Big 10 so it can go play in Conference USA and hang conference championship banners every year? It's called 'competition.'

We can hang with you and want to battle it out home and home, but when a Section title is on the line, we'd rather not take the chance, so we'll stay in A?

My money says Burnsville and Minnetonka are better than half the teams playing this weekend. That's what happens in a sectional...someone has to lose.

i understand your point and i'm not disagreeing with you but it makes sense up here with that rivalry...it gives them both the opportunity to represent the section and their communities...A and AA up here all play each other in the section...so they do get to play the better competition...and it's not often that it's a laupsided contest either....at least with the top 3 or 4 teams from a and aa...at least in section 8...i don't know how scheduling works down in the cities...

i personally like the 2 tier system as it adds an extra day of awesome hockey and it gives twice as many teams the chance to repressent themselves and their communities in front of the entire state.......

if anything...they should have the winner of A play the winner of AA and see who reigns supreme....it would add another day and game to the tourney...Sunday is wide open!!!!

[MafiaMan]

i personally like the 2 tier system as it adds an extra day of awesome hockey and it gives twice as many teams the chance to repressent themselves and their communities in front of the entire state.......

Why not add another 17 classes and make it like football here?

[MafiaMan]

if anything...they should have the winner of A play the winner of AA and see who reigns supreme....it would add another day and game to the tourney...Sunday is wide open!!!!

It's pretty much accepted that the best team in Minnesota is the AA champion.

[Matt]

It's pretty much accepted that the best team in Minnesota is the AA champion.

That point hasn't even been seriously challenged in a long time. A small argument perhaps for Warroad when the split first occurred, but no A team has given people much of a reason to debate that for a while. This year is no different.

[I Ranger]

That point hasn't even been seriously challenged in a long time. A small argument perhaps for Warroad when the split first occurred, but no A team has given people much of a reason to debate that for a while. This year is no different.

Warroad went undefeated in Oshie's final year on their way to the state title with a few ties. I believe they played to a tie in a classic game with Moorehead that year in which Moorehead had a phenomenal team that lost in the AA final. I would think they would have had a chance but I do agree the AA champ is considered the best Minnesota has to offer.

[siouxtatoo42]

Warroad went undefeated in Oshie's final year on their way to the state title with a few ties. I believe they played to a tie in a classic game with Moorehead that year in which Moorehead had a phenomenal team that lost in the AA final. I would think they would have had a chance but I do agree the AA champ is considered the best Minnesota has to offer.

i understand that..and i agree 100% but if any changes were made that'd be the only one i'd really be in favor of

[Smoggy]

I think the MSHSL needs to re-evaluate this "two-class" system. Clearly, no one is interested in watching Class A games. Just look at the crowds. Also, why does Warroad continue to play the "small-town" card while Roseau plays with the "big boys"?

A few years ago, the South St Paul girls team won the "big school" title. They graduated a handful of seniors so they decided to bump back down to A league the following year and promptly won that state title. What kind of message are we sending kids by allowing manipulation of the system like that?

Let's get back to one-class hockey. Cmon, Minnesota. It was a nice experiment, but it's failed.

What irks me is the private schools playing single A. Ahem, talking to you St. Thomas Academy. Personally, the privates should either all be in the same section or have their own tourney.

[Smoggy]

That point hasn't even been seriously challenged in a long time. A small argument perhaps for Warroad when the split first occurred, but no A team has given people much of a reason to debate that for a while. This year is no different.

Roseau is a class A school in every sense. They just choose to play AA.

[MafiaMan]

What irks me is the private schools playing single A. Ahem, talking to you St. Thomas Academy.

I agree 100%!

[MafiaMan]

Roseau is a class A school in every sense. They just choose to play AA.

Right again!

[Camas Hawk]

The "main" reason Roseau went to Class AA in 1998 was because they couldn't past Warroad HS. Warroad had won (4) consecutive Section 8A banners and Roseau realized it wasn't going to get any better.

The courthouse issue was still going strong where Warroad wanted to build the Roseau County courthouse and Roseau denied it.

Realistically, if you look at Warroad, they have less students then Roseau and over 40% of the students are of ethnicticity (Native American / Laotian). Roseau primarily is a caucasin community of Swedish decent.

So, Roseau can say how proud they are of AA yet they were searching for a Section where they didn't have to matchup with Warroad. Warroad dominated Roseau from 2002-2005 and beat the Rams, 15-1, in January of 2004. Roseau' worst defeat in school's history.

Right now, Roseau has the upper hand but those two towns usually switch after a few years as to who is dominant.

[LeftyZL]

I think the MSHSL needs to re-evaluate this "two-class" system. Clearly, no one is interested in watching Class A games. Just look at the crowds. Also, why does Warroad continue to play the "small-town" card while Roseau plays with the "big boys"?

A few years ago, the South St Paul girls team won the "big school" title. They graduated a handful of seniors so they decided to bump back down to A league the following year and promptly won that state title. What kind of message are we sending kids by allowing manipulation of the system like that?

I thought there was a rule regarding moving among the 2 classes? For some reason, I thought when Roseau moved up, there was a so-called "moratorium" preventing teams from jumping between classes. The state said you had to stay up/down for at least 3-5 years, so you couldn't pad statistics.

I tried looking up the rules, but couldn't find anything.

[BigGreyAnt41]

6:00 left in the 2nd period, Benilde St. Margarets leads Roseau 1-0 in the Class AA third-place game.

[franchise]

Regarding the attendance and how it should be one class........

Teams like Roseau are certainly not the norm and you can't expect the smaller schools to compete with the big schools. Hibbing knocked off the defending state champs and were leading Marshall late in the section final and let it slip away. If Hibbing played a AA team like Edina they would lose 10-0.

I think it's great that smaller schools jump up to take on better teams, but it's sad when top programs tear through Class A, such as of maybe STA. This is a year that the AA champ isn't exactly the best team in the state. STA gave up the tying goal to Hill Murray with like 8 seconds left and lost in OT.

The Cadets are stacked and that's without Anders Lee and Jordan Schroeder on the team. It's almost pathetic what they did in the tourney.

To answer the question asked earlier, Lee is uncommitted and may go the football route. He's a top QB also.

But back to the attendance, the answer is 2 reasons.

Class A school are smaller, thus having less students and less people from the town to attend the games. Secondly, the AA games get the better time slot on Friday and Saturday and make it a little easier for people to attend.

[BigGreyAnt41]

All-Time All-Tournament First Team

G Karl Goehring - Apple Valley

D Phil Housley - South St. Paul

D Henry Boucha - Warroad

F John Mayasich - Eveleth

F Mike Antonovich - Greenway-Coleraine

F Neil Broten - Roseau

All-Time All-Tournament Second Team

G Willard Ikola - Eveleth

D Paul Martin - Elk River

D Bill Baker - Grand Rapids

F Don Ross - Roseau

F Dave Spehar - Duluth East

F Tim Sheehy - International Falls

F Aaron Broten - Roseau

[Matt]

Regarding the attendance and how it should be one class........

Teams like Roseau are certainly not the norm and you can't expect the smaller schools to compete with the big schools. Hibbing knocked off the defending state champs and were leading Marshall late in the section final and let it slip away. If Hibbing played a AA team like Edina they would lose 10-0.

I think it's great that smaller schools jump up to take on better teams, but it's sad when top programs tear through Class A, such as of maybe STA. This is a year that the AA champ isn't exactly the best team in the state. STA gave up the tying goal to Hill Murray with like 8 seconds left and lost in OT.

The Cadets are stacked and that's without Anders Lee and Jordan Schroeder on the team. It's almost pathetic what they did in the tourney.

To answer the question asked earlier, Lee is uncommitted and may go the football route. He's a top QB also.

But back to the attendance, the answer is 2 reasons.

Class A school are smaller, thus having less students and less people from the town to attend the games. Secondly, the AA games get the better time slot on Friday and Saturday and make it a little easier for people to attend.

I like your argument about the Friday and Saturday time slots, but I'm not sure about the small schools/small population argument. Small school basketball teams travel extraordinarily well for tournaments for the very reason that they are a small school and the whole town turns out. This isn't a phenomenon unique to BB either because we also see it when teams from section 7A and 8A in hockey travel the whole town. Maybe the smaller schools in the metro area just don't have the broader sense of community pride that comes with being a representative of a small town in outstate MN. I don't think there's just one answer to this question.

[gfhockey]

Hi is just me or was this one of the most boring tournamnets in a while. The only really good game was the edina-BSM game and it pakced in a record attendance fo the xcel which eat las years final five. Also, the tv coverage was the most horrid i thought.

[franchise]

I like your argument about the Friday and Saturday time slots, but I'm not sure about the small schools/small population argument. Small school basketball teams travel extraordinarily well for tournaments for the very reason that they are a small school and the whole town turns out. This isn't a phenomenon unique to BB either because we also see it when teams from section 7A and 8A in hockey travel the whole town. Maybe the smaller schools in the metro area just don't have the broader sense of community pride that comes with being a representative of a small town in outstate MN. I don't think there's just one answer to this question.

I agree that you do have towns like Warroad and Roseau that turn off the lights and follow the teams(although I was told the qtr final turnout for Warroad was awful), but you get my point.

If almost the entire town of Warroad goes, what's that 800 people?

STA seemed like they had about 1000 students.

[franchise]

Hi is just me or was this one of the most boring tournamnets in a while. The only really good game was the edina-BSM game and it pakced in a record attendance fo the xcel which eat las years final five. Also, the tv coverage was the most horrid i thought.

I thought the same thing. In years past, I was glued to the TV and did everything around the game times. This year, I found myself catching up on work and doing things around the house with the games in the background.

The games just weren't exciting. Most didn't even stay close. I would have rather watched Mankato West and Little Falls.

The announcers couldn't decide if it was Willie Paul or Paul Willie and if he played for Duluth Marshall or The Marshall School of Duluth. Jeremy Hahn was Jared Hahn and the list goes on.

I'm definately sick of hearing.....

You can't score unless you shoot.

Goal scorers know how to score goals.

You can't score without your stick on the ice.

That would have went in if he didn't stop it.

Probably the worst overall tourney that I can remember.

[gfhockey]

Also they were talking abotu how to beat roseau and housley goes, the only way to beat roseau s to score more goals then them.

[siouxkid12]

I agree that you do have towns like Warroad and Roseau that turn off the lights and follow the teams(although I was told the qtr final turnout for Warroad was awful), but you get my point.

If almost the entire town of Warroad goes, what's that 800 people?

STA seemed like they had about 1000 students.

800 people? try 1,700 plus in the town and then you have the surrounding cabins that are on the lakes!

[franchise]

800 people? try 1,700 plus in the town and then you have the surrounding cabins that are on the lakes!

Ok, so 1700. Edina is over 47,000. Who is pack the excel with fans?

Bigger school = Better attendance