Tartan 10th holds on to top spot among 2019s
This may have been as tough a choice as ever here at NSGH. I wrote an entire article about the pros and cons of North Tartan 19th EYBL’s state champions and Crossfire Theisen’s 2015 and 2016 state champs who pulled…
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Continue ReadingThis may have been as tough a choice as ever here at NSGH. I wrote an entire article about the pros and cons of North Tartan 19th EYBL’s state champions and Crossfire Theisen’s 2015 and 2016 state champs who pulled of a daily double, beating NT 10 and NT 9 at All Iowa Attack’s Battle of the Best last week.
But, in the end, NT 10 is the state champ, not that that’s automatic, but they’re also 4-2 against their key challengers—Crossfire, Fury Blue and Stars Nelson—while the Crossfire is 4-3.
After losing to the Crossfire, NT 10 was scheduled to play Fury Blue for 3rd place in the Grey division, but the 2 teams agreed to forget the game and come home. If they had played that game, and if NT 10 had lost, then Crossfire would be #1. So, that’s hair splitting. But it’s not us doing the splitting. The teams have already done that. We’re trying to untangle it. And we untangled it this way:
1. North Tartan 10th EYBL. Sara Scalia, Frannie Hottinger, Mykel Parham, Macy Guebert all had great summers.
2. Crossfire 10th Elite Theisen. Crossfire lost 3 times in the AAU prelim and tournament. If any of those 3 games had gone the other way, Crossfire would be #1, whether they won the state title or not. Kallie Theisen and Hannah Purcell had great summers.
3. Fury 2019 Blue. McKenna Hofschild, Carly Krsul, Abby Johnson and Taylor McAulay all had nice summers.
The Best of the Rest
4. Stars Nelson is the one team that is consistently competitive with the “big three.” In fact, it would be much more accurate to say they are a “big four.” They beat #1-seeded (at the time) Crossfire in the AAU Prelim. But, the bottom line is that the Stars ended up 1-4 against the other 3. Sara Stapleton had a nice summer.
5. Stars Amundson finished 5th in the AAU tournament and compiled a 15-8 record since then, including 2 pool wins. Kacie Borowicz and Tori Nelson had great summers.
6. Suns Keitzer started out slowly and continued to go kind of up and down. They finished 7th in the AAU. But they went 7-1 down the stretch and won their division at the Nike Nationals. Mimi Schrader had a great summer.
7. Rise 10th Purple finished 9th at the AAU and went 15-5 down the stretch with signature wins over Tartan Elite and Comets Elite. Joey Batt had a breakout summer.
8. Comets 10th Elite finished 7th at the AAU and went 12-3 since, with wins over Fury Gold and So Minn Fury Gold and a loss to the Rise.
9. Fury 2019 Gold finished 8th at the AAU and went 16-7 since then, but lost to Suns Keitzer and the Comets. Mariah McKeever had a nice summer.
10. Heat Smetana is one of the big surprises of the entire summer. They stumbled through the AAU Prelims and Tournament, finishing finished in D2. But, they racked up an impressive 18-3 record since then, with good wins over Energy and Stars Bjorgard, who were rated ahead of the Heat at the time. They also won a pair of divisions. They are our Most Improved Team and our biggest gainer since our ratings following the AAU tournament.
11. Stars 10th Buerman finished 9th at the AAU, then went 12-6 with a division win at the UA Challenge, Ankeny.
12. North Tartan 10th Elite finished 14th at the AAU and went 14-5 after than, with a division win at Simply the Best.
13. Suns 10th Jefferson finished 11th at AAU and 5-6 since then, with a nice win over Lady Get Shook Walker.
14. Lady Get Shook 15 Walker was 12th at the AAU and 9-9 since. The highlight was a loss, but by just 66-65, to NT Elite. Zaraya March had a nice summer.
15. Energy 15 was 15th at the AAU and 6-3 since with a loss to Heat Smetana.
16. Stars 10th Bjorgard was 13th at AAU and 4-4 since them with also a loss to Heat Smetana.
17. MN Nice 16U did not play in the AAU and went 2-1 since.
18. Central Lakes Thunder 10th finished 3rd in D2 at the AAU and made one last appearance going 1-4 at the Meltdown. Olivia Lane had a nice, if brief, summer.
19. MN PREP finished 8th in D2 but went 7-10 since then with a win over NT 8 Coley.
20. Northern Lights 10th finished 14th at the AAU, and did not play after that.
Honorable mention to Crossfire 10th Smith and Comets Select. We will have the 2019 all-summer-stars and a coach of the year coming up.