Five Bold Predictions for the State Tournament
We are nearing the state of the girls’ basketball state tournament at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines. The games will begin on Monday, March 2nd at 10 AM and 40 games later we will have five state champions on…
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Continue ReadingWe are nearing the state of the girls’ basketball state tournament at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines. The games will begin on Monday, March 2nd at 10 AM and 40 games later we will have five state champions on Saturday night. To start our state tournament coverage we will be throwing out a bold prediction for each class. None of these are likely to come true, that is why they are bold predictions!
1A
Someone other than Newell-Fonda will win the state title: Newell-Fonda has run through the season so far and had no resistance through their region. Newell-Fonda is the clear cut favorite to win the state championship, but they won’t. They’ll have to face St. Albert in the first round, a team that has faced some of the competition that any 1A program has all season. They had to play Glenwood, Red Oak, and Lewis Central a combined six times this season and all three are in the state tournament. They will then have to play Montezuma or Saint Ansgar, two teams who have really been impactful this season and have shown the ability to handle the pressure. If Newell-Fonda makes it through these two tough games there are a couple tough opponents looking to come out of the bottom half of the bracket.
2A
Both Cascade and West Hancock will lose before Friday: Cascade and West Hancock have basically been neck and neck as the top two ranked teams in the state. Cascade has not lost a game yet while West Hancock dropped a single game on the year. The 2A field is loaded this season and it is wide open. West Branch and North Linn look to be two of the more star-studded rosters in the class while Osage and Western Christian have been able to knock off a few really good teams. Cascade and West Hancock both have high hopes coming into the state tournament but I am making a bold prediction that they’ll lose before they reach the state title game.
3A
There will be four “upsets” in the first round: By upsets I mean that three lower-seeded teams will win in the first round. Jesup, North Polk, Assumption, and Des Moines Christian all head into the tournament with a chip on their shoulder. Jesup is the unlikely state tournament attendee as they had to run a gauntlet in their region. North Polk has struggled at times against the stronger competition they have faced but made it look easy the last few weeks of the season. Assumption was not given a chance all season long and here they sit as the seven seed. Des Moines Christian has the second-best record but likely feel overlooked at the six seed. All of these teams have a chip on their shoulder and are playing in very winnable games. I look for the 3A bracket to be turned upside down.
4A
One of the bottom four seeds will be crowned champion: There is a lot of parity in almost all of the brackets but the class with the most parity is 4A. All of the teams in the bracket have 19 or more wins and no one has more than five losses. There is a ton of potential to have a lot of upsets throughout the bracket and I think that it’ll lead to a bottom half team winning the state title. North Scott and Glenwood haven’t lost a game this season and there are just 17 losses combined between the eight teams. This is a tournament where you can really see a few different teams coming out as champions. If there is one class where anything can happen.
5A
The top two seeds will lose their opening game: All season long the talk has been around how good City High has been and then they lost to Waukee. Waukee has two losses on the season while City High has just one. There are good reasons these two are looked at as the top contenders for the state title. City High takes on Prairie in the opening round while Waukee will get Sioux City East. Prairie has one of the top guard duos in the state with Sioux City East just did the unthinkable and knocked out Dowling Catholic. City High and Waukee are in trouble and I think if all falls perfectly then they can be beat in their opening game.
Note: Everything above is a fun look at five “what-if’s” in the state tournament.