Thursday, March 28, 2024

Basketball tournaments are wild and unpredictable

Dodge County’s only surviving team in the Minnesota State High School League basketball tournament is the Hayfield Vikings boys’ team. They are survivors. They are also CHAMPIONS, again. They conquered a back-and-forth slugfest with Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa 51-49. (Think about that—it took three schools to even come close to beating the Vikes.)

They were welcomed home by community fans.

Minnesota High School basketball draws out the community spirit and has done so for many years. Hayfield has given the county back-to-back years of victory in basketball and baseball.

On Friday, the Vikings made their way into the Class A finals by defeating No. 5 ranked Cherry by a score of 72-61. Hayfield’s deliberate style of moving the ball to the open man proved too much for the Tigers, who will undoubtedly be a force in next year’s tournament. (Cherry’s youngest player was a 7th grader.)

Minnesota’s high school basketball tournament is similar in many ways to the excitement that is swirling around the NCAA March Madness 2022 basketball tournament.

No. 1 seed Gonzaga fell to Arkansas, even with the Bulldogs’ freshman center Chet Holmgren scoring 11 points in the second half and pulling down 14 rebounds while blocking 2 shots like Superman. It wasn’t enough.

Arizona stubbed its toe when Houston outscored them 72-60. Baylor, last year’s NCAA champion saw its demise, but No. 2 seed Duke managed to defeat No. 3 seed Texas Tech in West Region play by a score of 78-73. While all of that was going on among basketball’s giants in the tournament, an upstart team from New Jersey grabbed the attention of March Madness viewers—Saint Peter’s Peacocks.

This small private school was the No. 15 seed heading into the tournament. The Proud Peacocks made the Sweet 16 round. The Peacocks were pitted against the No. 3 seed Purdue Boilermakers. The Peacocks knocked-off the Boilermakers 67-64, to make the Elite Eight. But the Peacocks ran into a buzz saw against North Carolina.

The only remaining No. 1 seed heading into last weekend was Kansas, which took on No. 4 seed Providence.

While everyone waits for the Final Four to step forward, all eyes seem to be on Coach Mike (Grandpa) Krzyzewski, who has racked up more wins, more championships and more adulation than any coach since UCLA’s John Wooden.

It’s Coach K’s final season as the Blue Devil’s head coach. He’s chosen to ride off into the sunset with another Duke NCAA Championship victory.

Going into the 2022 March Madness tourney, he had five national championships and 12 Final Four semifinals.

Coach K also led the U.S. men’s national team to gold in the 2008, 2012, and 2016 Olympics.

In 2010 and 2014 he led the U.S. to the world championships (known as the World Cup) for the 2014 iteration.

He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2001.

It’s unusual to watch history being made by a man who has led many men who became basketball legends in their own right in the National Basketball Association.

The 2022 Final Four is set: Villanova will face off against No. 1 seed Kansas and the University of North Carolina will hit the hardwoods against Duke and Coach K in his last Final Four.

WOODENISM

Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.”

—UCLA Coach John Wooden

 

Dodge County Independent

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