Mounds View Basketball

MV-49, Pierz-41 Our final game of the season was against Pierz in the 3rd place game. We had to give a minor geography lesson to our players before we played them. Our kids were very disappointed by the heartbreaking semifinal loss and it was a concern as to how much they had left. No doubt Pierz was in the same mental frame. Several of our kids shook off their disappointment with improvised stocking feet games in an open gym while they waited. When the game started, we seemed to be back to our normal selves. Pierz had 2-3 kids who were great shooters and were fond of the 3 point arc. We needed to do a good job of man defense against those kids. On the other hand, we appeared to have a strength advantage inside, so we tried to work that in our favor. Our plan was to hound their shooters and pound the ball inside to our big guys. It worked, somewhat. Our bigs had 21 of our 49 points, and we limited their outside shooters a bit. They still shot 7 threes and our perimeter guys contributed offensively to match our big guys. In the end, we drove home with our 3rd place medals.... wishing we could have won all five, but happy for a great season and time with our friends. 

Spring Lake Park-33, MV-31 Oh my, what a bummer. But, what an exciting game. Our kids played Spring Lake Park early in the year and had lost by 11 points. We knew we were much improved and expected to win. At half time it was 14-14. Our kids were playing hard, but so was SLP. The winner would go to the championship game. With a few minutes to go, Spring Lake Park moved to a 5 point lead. Led by a burst of energy from Holden, Mounds View clawed back to a one point lead with about a minute left. But Spring Lake Park canned a three with just seconds left to take a 2 point lead. The game came down to Mounds View ball, 2.1 seconds and the length of the court to go. The ball came in to Luke, who took a couple of dribbles and launched a mid-court shot that banked off the backboard and in for a 3 pointer. Pretty cool!. The crowd was jumping up and down, the players were rolling on the floor, the older coaches were reaching for their heart medicine. But, the referees met and determined that the shot was not in the air when the buzzer went off. No championship game for Mounds View. Although the kids were really disappointed, a parent coaching move of ice cream for everyone on the team helped a bit. Eventually, someone found a fan who had videotaped the game and saw the playback. Luke was in the air when the buzzer went off, but the ball had not quite left his hand. The refs got it right.

MV-39, Woodbury-20 Each weekend in the second half of the season, these kids seemed to grasp and internalize new lessons that were drilled all year. Two things stood out in this game. This was probably our best half-court man defense of the season. Our slides were almost perfect. We were beating the cutters to the spot, calling out screens, executing proper help and recover techniques and staying in balance. The second thing that really stood out was the kids ability to avoid swatting down on defensive blocks. It is so tempting in the heat of the moment to swat and we generally disciplined ourselves to go straight up. Even though we were hustling on defense, we had only 6 fouls for the entire game! Woodbury was a team we had beaten by 3, then by 12. This time we upped it to 19 with excellent man defense.

MV-34, Minnetonka-28 We are reporting live from the Country Inn and Suites in Buffalo. The highlight of the day is pulling Coaches Swenson and Kremer out of the hottub to evacuate the building. The kids are playing ball in the pool and the assistant coaches are showing of their buffness in the hottub and we have a natural gas leak. The fire department is called in and we are all heading outside, but the coaches take the time to put on something a little warmer and a little less revealing. Oh yeah, ... and in our second game of the day, we faced the number 8 seed, Minnetonka. It was a close game for the most part. Minnetonka looked a little better than a number 8 seed should, but we continued to play good half court defense, both man and zone. We have been a little less successful with our press as the season comes to a conclusion and opposing teams improve their press breaks. Fortunately we have compensated for that with better half court defense. The Mustangs have now won 9 of their last 10 games as the season nears its end.

MV-30, Stillwater White-29 This was a strange game. The boys were really excited or maybe nervous for this one. Coaches sensed that and tried to lighten the tone before the game, but without success. Our boys outhustled and outscrapped the 2 seed team from Stillwater, but didn't have much to show for it. We were successfully running our offense and successful in getting good shots. Good shots do not always equate to scored baskets. Coach Kremer mentioned after the game that we would have shot well had they just moved the basket a foot to the left. Stillwater, on the other hand, was being stifled by the Mustang defense and was having trouble getting good shots. They did, however, get to the foul line and converted 11 of 13 from the charity stripe. We got to the line to but converted only 3 of about 12. We could live with that if we were getting our share of field goals. But those were finding metal or air also. While we have never been a real good shooting team, this was ridiculous. Good shot, after good shot not finding the mark. So, it was only fitting that the game was won by an amazing shot that found the mark. We were down by 2 with about 10 seconds left and we got the ball to Donny near the top of the key. He nailed a 3 pointer to give us the win. Our very unlucky shooting turned to good fortune just at the right time. Someone must be living right!!

MV-32, Roseville-30 Congratulations to the boys for winning 3 games Sunday and becoming the 2010 Roseville Winter Classic Champs for 6B. Three of our five games this tournament were very closely contested and the championship game was one of them. Roseville used their quickness to jump off to a early lead and it looked like Mounds View had no energy. Part of that appearance was playing in a large quiet space in the old part of the high school. After playing in close quarters with neighboring games going on, it was eerily quiet during the championship contest. Mounds View didn't panic after falling behind and by half-time we had a 16-12 lead. Both teams missed their share of layups during the game that could have swung the contest either way. The second half was a nail biter that seemed to swing the momentum with every possession. The fatigue factor was also starting to tell for both teams, who were playing their 3rd game in 7 hours. A key factor in the Mounds View victory was relentless board work by the Mustangs. We were beating the Raiders on the boards and not allowing a lot of second shots. When it was all over, our boys did their second victory dance of the afternoon and collected their 1st place trophies. The kids have now won 9 of their last 11 games as we peak for the final tournament of the season with the MSF State Tourney in Buffalo. Go Mustangs!

MV-33, Fridley-31 What a fun game! Fridley had a very strong young boy that we needed to solve defensively and on the boards. He was not only scoring in the first half, but was getting rebounds and creating opportunities for teammates. The other thing that was unusual about this game is the pressure of Fridley bothering us. Our boys have generally done a good job getting the ball up the court against pressure. However, when a pressing team is quick, the passes have to be crisper than when playing against a slower press rotation. At halftime, we assigned Henry to the strong young Fridley player. Henry and foul trouble limited the lad to only 2 points in the second half. With the score tied 31-31 and less than a minute left, both teams had opportunities to win. Mounds View got the basket and hung on to play in the their first championship game of the year. Our boys celebrated a bit like the Owatonna kids did against us. One more game today.

MV-46, Woodbury-33 We had played Woodbury the week before in the Mounds View Classic and beat them 43-40. It was a close game. We were behind at the half and used a strong second half to overcome the Royals. This game was the opposite. We had a strong 1st half, leading 24-12. Woodbury played us pretty even in the second half to leave us with a 13 point victory. As in the first game, our pressure bothered them. With only an hour between games, we dined in the luxurious Central Park Elementary Cafe. Coach has hot dogs, chips, a drink and a doughnut. No wonder he has a little extra just above the waist. Next up, Fridley.

Owatonna-27, MV-24  Whew! That was a fun one. When the game was over the Owatonna kids jumped around like they had won the World Series. Our kids had a little hang dog look, which is to be expected. But, really you can't ask for much more from youth sports. The old coach even stood for most of the 4th quarter. Owatonna had some good interior players, a big fellow who kept our kids off the boards a little and a couple of quick forwards who penetrated against our defense. They also handled our pressure better than we thought they would, although we did get a few turnovers off of the press. In the last couple of minutes we exchanged the lead a few times. But with 9 seconds left, Owatonna had a 1 point lead and the ball. We fouled to send them to the line and they cooperated by missing the shot. But there was that big guy again, refusing to be boxed out. They put in the rebound and it was over. As I tried to explain to our hang dogs, we are still in the running for 1st place and we get to sleep an extra hour. Just like we planned it :)

 MV-33, Andover-14  The Mustang 6B team jumped out to a quick start in the first game of the Roseville tournament and never looked back. Although we didn't play one of our better games of the season, we did enough good things to defeat a scrappy, but overmatched Huskie team. We will no doubt have to play better in future games. We saw some small areas of improvement tonight that were fun to witness. We have been working on keeping our hands straight up on defense when the ball is inside and the kids generally did a nice job of that. Although we weren't real scrappy tonight, for the most part our players were in the right positions defensively as Andover ran their sets. This was a good opportunity to practice denying the cut and staying in balance on defensive slides. When the competition gets tougher, we will need to improve even more. Offensively, we tried to practice a couple of things, but Andover switched their defenses enough that we never really got a chance to hone any one. Our kids adjusted to whatever was thrown at them. The Andover assistant coach came over and complimented our boys on the best offensive ball movement he has seen this year. As our kids are prone to do, there was a chorus of "thank you, Coach" voices in return. We decided we all would sleep in late Saturday morning and come back refreshed for our game with Owatonna.

MV-34, East Ridge-29  We received some more hardware for the kids to put on their shelves and for parents to dust. The trophies were well deserved. The boys played a team they lost to by 20 earlier in the season and battled the whole game. East Ridge was generally a little quicker than we were and we had to adjust a little to negate that. We also were trying a little too hard on offense early on and needed to calm down and protect the ball. Give credit to the boys for making those adjustments. We outscored East Ridge 23-10 in the second half to secure the win. We really had 4 good competitive games in this tournament and went 3 and 1. Those are definitely the most fun. Congratulations Mustangs!!

MV-27, Centennial-24. Well, we got to play Centennial after all. Coach R. knew it.... yeah sure he did. We won setting ourselves up for the consolation championship later today. The first half apparently was ugly. Coach was at baseball tryouts, but heard second hand that we scored only 4 points in the first half. Ouch. However, our defense was solid the whole game and we were only down 10 at halftime. In the second half we found a way to get the ball to the rim and scored 23 compared to Centennial's 10 points.

MV-More, Woodbury-Less. Coach K took the book home tonight and Coach R. is too old to remember the exact score, but it was a win of about 8 points??? Coach should not make predictions. He thought we would be playing Spring Lake Park in the first game. Wrong. Then, he read the brackets wrong and told the kids we were playing Centennial. As it turned out, that was a good thing. We got to play a Woodbury team that was equal in ability to us, although our skill sets are different. We struggle as shooters, but play good defense. Woodbury is a bigger, slower team, but shoots much better than we do. MV was able to score a lot of our points off of turnovers with our full court press. The other significant factor was our kids choosing to ignore their injuries. We had half of the team nicked up today. Early in the game, we were favoring those injuries. We asked the boys to think about the greater good and either play full speed or take themselves out so healthy players could go. Our boys responded nicely to the challenge and played a better second half than first. The other benefit to winning was no 8 am game. They can sleep in an hour and 10 minutes longer. Oh yeah!

Forest Lake-33, MV-25 This was a shoulda, coulda, woulda heartbreaker. We thought we would be playing Spring Lake Park, a team we had lost to earlier in the year by 11. But, Forest Lake beat SLP by 11 to play us. We expected a tough battle, but played well enough to stay with Forest Lake and take a 6 point lead midway through the second half. But, shooting is the great equalizer in basketball. If you can shoot well, it compensates for other mistakes. Forest Lake hit three 3 pointers in the 2nd half to forge back and take the lead. It was a game we felt we could have won, and those hurt a little more. The final moments of the game saw Forest Lake add a couple more baskets with a couple of alley-oop layups to make the score seem less heartbreaking... but we knew better. We were happy we battled, but .....

Full brackets are here.

MV-50, Wayzata-49 The consolation championship game of the Edina Classic was an anomaly. Our MO has been that of a weaker shooting team, but with enough good athletes to apply pressure and cause the other team troubles. The Wayzata team we played was equally or more athletic. They ran the floor well and handled our pressure for the most part. In their half-court offense, Wayzata was beating our kids to their chosen spots. At halftime, it was 26-14 Wayzata. We decided to change our personality for the second half. We removed our pressure and focused on getting back quickly on defense. We also switched to a 2-3 zone, a defense we had only used briefly early in the season. Credit Wayzata for forcing us out of our comfort zone. Credit our kids for adapting well. They hustled down the court on defense and had their hands up consistently.The other change in our MO was that we shot better than we normally do. Wayzata was aggressive and fouled us repeatedly. We went to the line for 23 shots, making 14 of them .... a much higher percentage than we normally do. With a couple of minutes left, we were up by 8 points. But then Wayzata hit a 3, a 2 and another 2. It was beginning to feel like the Eden Prairie game the previous morning. A Wayzata free throw made it 50-49 with 11 seconds left. A comfortable win was going to be a nail biter. Fortunately we were able to protect the basketball for those last 11 seconds to barely stave off a Wayzata surge. This was a fun tournament, having 2 of our 3 games with dramatic finishes. Congratulations to our boys on their continued improvement.

MV-39, Chanhassen-25 I think we left a little on the court in our early morning overtime game against Eden Prairie. Or perhaps it was just because it was our second game and Chanhassen was playing their first of the day. We were a little sluggish early on and they were getting too many loose balls. Each time we sent in a new group we were hoping to get a spark to get us started. We were playing a team we should beat, but they were hanging with us. There never was that exact moment that we kicked it in, but more of a gradual improvement. We asked the kids to pick up their defensive intensity in the second half and it kind of worked. We held them to 9 points in the second half and scored 20 to run away a bit at the end. Not our best game, but a workmanlike effort that got the job done. Plus, we ended the morning at DQ with Holden and his trained french fry seals.

Eden Prairie-46, MV-41 Nobody liked getting up in the dark on a Saturday morning, but all of our boys were on time and ready to play. Unfortunately we awoke to play Eden Prairie, again! The first two times they beat us fairly soundly. We were never in the first game. We played them tougher at the Jefferson tournament, staying with them until the end of the 3rd quarter, but eventually losing large. In this, our 3rd game, we took it to a higher level. The contest was so even that it ended in a 39-39 tie. We were ahead by 6 with less than 3 minutes left, but EP hit a 3 and then a 2 to bounce back. With 13 seconds left, our Mustangs led by 2. Eden Prairie had the ball. During our timeout, we talked about applying passive full court pressure to take some time off the clock, a common strategy but one we had not practiced. Turned out to be a mistake as our "passive/aggressive" pressure led to a fast break tying basket and our first overtime game of the season. Eden Prairie scored 7, we scored 2 in OT. A heart-breaking loss for our kids, but a sign of continued improvement. One of our players even asked me if we "get to play" Eden Prairie again?!?! Whether we do or not, our kids left an impression on the Eagles coach. He approached me after the game and twice remarked how "classy" our kids were. Talk about making us parents happy!! 

MV-43, EastView-9 It was our first friendship game and I guess we don't belong there. There is a reason we finished 3rd and 4th all season. It is who we are. We had the bad luck of some tough draws in this tournament and didn't have a close game all weekend. It would have been fun to face Cottage Grove again or Jefferson. Here's hoping that we get a good draw in the Edina tournament: teams that challenge us and that we can challenge. In the meantime, we have two weeks to work to get better; to challenge ourselves. Go Mustangs!!

Mahtomedi-31, MV-18 After our game, I asked the boys what a friendship game was all about, having not played in one before. Up until this point in the season we have been playing for 3rd place every tournament, except for a second at the Concordia tournament. In a friendship game, do we exchange gifts, bring a potluck item to share?? The boys assured me that it was a regular game, and as one player referred to it... the 7th place game. I was relieved that I didn't have to go shopping in this ugly weather. This is the 3rd time we have played Mahtomedi this season and we are getting tired of facing each other. Mahtomedi won the first half, MV won the second. However, in basketball, that does not equate to a 1-1 tie. Mahtomedi won by a 21-5 margin in the first half. Ouch! We did cut big number 45's scoring average in half, but were not able to sink enough baskets to take advantage of that. We did have a few smiles at the end of this game this time. Maybe it was in excited anticipation of the "friendship game"!!

Eden Prairie-41, MV-22 There were a few long faces near the end of the first game of the Jefferson tournament. The coaches tried, with little luck, to put some smiles back on those faces. As they have done in many, many games this season, our boys out hustled the other team. Maybe what made this a tougher game was that our hustle gave us some hope in the first half. Playing a team we were expected to lose badly to, the kids fought hard and were in the game until the end of the 3rd quarter. As always, shooting was our achilles heel. We were sent to the foul line many, many times in the first half, only to come up empty. Eden Prairie is a skilled team that easily handled our press the first time we played them. Tonight, our press gave them some troubles. We had opportunities to convert those turnovers, but missed many shots. Our half court offense was solid, moving the ball around crisply enough that the coaches didn't feel the need to call many structured plays. During this week's practice we worked on half-court help and recover defense and our kids executed the things they were taught. So... I guess it is natural for the boys to feel a let down near the end. A couple of quick Eden Prairie shots in the 4th quarter and the deficit was 10 points and the smiles gave way to frowns and a mounting deficit at the end. Hopefully the boys will understand that challenging and growing from playing a superior team is more valuable than an easy win over a weak team. This tournament has few weak teams in it and much opportunity to grow. 

MV-35, Edina-25 Sometimes old people love to tell stories. I have to tell you one. When I played basketball at Edina High School in 19blah,blah, we had a big game at MVHS against Mark Landsberger and the Mustangs. Both teams were undefeated or close to it. That same night the Gopher basketball team was playing a huge game for first place against Ohio State. One of our bench players brought a transistor radio with an earbud(parents will need to explain transistor radios to the players) to the game and hid it under his warmup jacket. We got updates on the Gopher game during timeouts. This was the Gopher game of the infamous "brawl" at Williams Arena. When the brawl occurred this bench player got so excited he started talking out loud on the bench about it. One of the coaches caught wind of what was happening and lit into the player as well as the rest of the bench for not paying attention. Fortunately I was on the court at the time. And yes, we lost to MV and young coach, Ziggy Kauls.

In the first half of our 6th grade game against Edina, one of our players reported during a time out that the Vikings were ahead 7-3. And no, we didnt play very well in the first half, trailing 13-10 at halftime. We didn't have much intensity or focus. Now, no one is blaming the Vikings game or the parents that were feeding scores to the players. Heck, even the coaches wanted to know the score. But, in the second half we came out with more hustle and focus and took the game away from Edina. We outscored them 25 to 12 in the second half with very good pressure defense. We finished the tournament in 2nd place and got home to see the Vikings blow away the Cowboys. All in all a pretty good day.

St. Paul-28, MV-20 The Mustangs brought it to within 21-20 in the second half, but were not able to finish. Too many rebound and in baskets for the big fella from St. Paul and number 32 put down some sweet jumpers. We were able to move the big guy out away from the basket a little better in the second half, but when you only score 20 points it is hard to win. We didn't have the offensive movement in this game that we needed and didn't score enough baskets off of pressure to overcome that. On the other hand, it was Henry's birthday and he brought some purple and gold cupcakes. Speaking of the Purple, we play our final game of this tournament in the first half of the Vikings game. Every player, and even the coaches, will skip the first half for MV Mustang basketball. A win over Edina tomorrow gives us a second place finish to go with all those 3rd's and 4th's.

MV-38, Westside-26 The Mustangs opened the Concordia tournament with their fastest start this year. The boys scored 14 straight points before Westside got a free throw to drop. We actually started out a little lethargic(a lot of tests at school today?), but the second team in lit a fire 2 minutes in and we rolled from there through the first half. The full court pressure was hard for the St. Paul team to handle in the first half. At halftime it was 25-7. We eliminated the full court pressure for the rest of the game and that seemed to put OUR kids to sleep. Many was the time that a gray Westside shirt was left unguarded. With a still comfortable lead, we chose to fight through the focus issue to improve our half court defense and not reinstate the press. Westside hit some shots in the second half to get the game as close as 9 points. The game was never in doubt, but we definitely lost a little edge in the second half. We will need that focus tomorrow against a St. Paul team that we lost to 33-23 earlier this year.

Mahtomedi-33, MV-20  We had a short 15 minute break between games. Water, a quick snack and get back on the court to face a team we had faced before. For our 5th straight tournament, 6B was in the third place game. Mahtomedi is a big team that started the season as an A team, but dropped down to be more competitive. They are on the upper end of the B scale, but probably appropriately there. It is a team that is a challenge for us, but challenges are good things. Throughout the first half it was a tight 2-3 point game. Mahtomedi in the lead, then MV, then back and forth. At half time the boys in blue had a 3 point lead. In the second half, the Mustangs only scored 4 points, YIKES! The shots would not fall and Mahtomedi stiffened up their defense a bit. The game slipped away from our boys in the second half. Another good effort by our kids, but a 4th place finish again.

MV-33, St. Michael-28  The 6B Mustangs have some really great kids, nice boys, on our team. Sometimes nice boys are unable to play sports with the grit and determination needed to succeed. Our nice boys don't appear to have that problem. They have developed an attitude of 100% hustle and effort somewhere between our 2nd and 4th tournaments. For our 4th straight 3rd place game, we played St. Michael, a familiar foe. We played St. Michael earlier this year on a day when they didn't have much hustle. This day they brought their A game and matched our intensity. We learned today that we would never want to get into a shooting contest with St. Michael. They scored half of their 28 points on free throws, making them with uncanny accuracy. As usual, the Mustangs relied on defense and hustle. The game was very close the entire way, with St. Michael holding a first half edge and MV clawing back and ahead in the second half. With about a minute left, St. Michael made a free throw to take a one point lead. The Mustangs ran a clearout play that Luke was able to put down for two points. With a one point lead, we were able to rely on our strength, defense. As St. Michael had to fight to get ahead, they committed several fouls that made the final margin 5 points. Happy Holidays to all the Mustang families. I hope the kids can all get some shooting practice in over the break.

Mahtomedi-31, MV-19  Good news and bad news. The good news was that Holden made it back from his piano recital about 50 seconds before the second game started. The bad news was that Coach Kremer wasn't able to implement his complex player rotation system. It apparently involved a derivative of the Pythagorean Theorem. For the fourth straight tournament, we played a game to enter into the championship game. For the fourth straight tournament we ended up playing for 3rd place. If you are a "glass half full" person, we have always finished in the top half. If you are of the other persuasion, we haven't been able to take that next step to advance to the finals. This was a game we could have won. We outhustled Mahtomedi and gave a really good effort. But Mahtomedi did two things well. They played good positional defense cutting off our offense and they grew their players taller than we did. Despite their size advantage, our post players did a good job fighting for rebounds. Our press and hustle gave them problems but their half-court defense and length made it tough for us to get as many good looks at the basket as we are used to. Frankly, the coaches were very proud of our players in the second game. They fought right down to the final buzzer. Let's get that 3rd place trophy again!!

MV-50, Brooklyn Park-19 The Mustangs had an offensive show in their first game of the Champlin Tournament. Fifty points is a lot for us!! We were missing Holden, which caused more problems for the coaches than the players. How to rotate kids in equally?? We even earned a technical foul for having 6 kids on the court at one time. Fortunately Coach Kremer, a numbers guru, volunteered to design a foolproof system for the second game. With a big lead, we were able to practice a zone defense if we ever decide to use it. A couple of improvements we saw today was Daniel and Henry making some good post moves and several guards keeping their eyes up and seeing teammates under the basket. Even more impressive to parents was, that by winning our first game, we didn't need to play 3 today and spend our entire evening at the gym!

Shakopee-37, MV-33 The 6B Mustangs again played in the 3rd place game, this time coming in 4th out of 9 teams. It has been our spot thus far to finish in the upper half of the tournaments, a good place to start with room to grow. Shakopee had a tall center with long arms that caused us problems at times. We didn't get our share of rebounds and the red team had a lot of put-back baskets. Our Mustangs had good attitudes, however, and worked hard. After a slow opening, the team of Luke, Nolan, Holden, Daniel and Carter gave us some energy and pushed us to the lead after the first 7 minutes. However, Shakopee continued to get second and third chances at the basket and retook the lead, 23-14 at halftime. The Mustangs outscored Shakopee in the 2nd half, but not enough to overcome the defiicit. When have been 4th twice and 3rd once. We would like to win it all at Champlin this week!!

East Ridge-43, MV-23  Just the like the morning game, we were tied at halftime. Unlike the morning game, it was not the Mustangs that pulled away in the end to win. The host team, East Ridge, was able to solve our press for some easy baskets and took the game over in the last 8 minutes. We were a step slow, or perhaps they were a step quicker than us. The game was closer than the score indicates, but East Ridge was the better team today. We play Shakopee for 3rd place today. It is our 3rd straight tournament going for hardware. We would have liked to have played on the big court for 1st place, but we should be proud of finishing in the top half at all of our tournaments thus far. Keep improving and we will get to the title game soon.

Mounds View-28, Cottage Grove-22  The boys continue to improve. We used good defense and pressure to defeat a team that had won two tournaments already and was 7-2. Cottage Grove's pressure did not bother our kids as we passed away from trouble. The Mustang pressure was harder to crack and we gained several turnovers due to aggressive defense. This was our closest game thus far as Cottage Grove held the early lead, but the majority of the time found teams tied or ahead by a couple of points. Kudos go to all 10 boys for aggressive play. Our post players did an exceptional job on the boards, fighting hard for rebounds. Cottage Grove sagged the weak-side post all game so our normal post offense was not open. We ran more plays that featured our perimeter guys and they came through with enough baskets to gain the win. We are getting good looks at the basket and will need to continue to work on shooting to gain greater improvement. Until that time, we will rely on defense.

MV-35, Rogers-15. We came home with the third place trophy from Elk River. More importantly, we came home with some understanding of how we need to play defense to win. We will continue to work on our shooting, but we have an opportunity to develop into a strong defensive club. When you have an evenly balanced team like we do, team defense can become a signature strength.

Mounds View dominated this game from the start. Our press caused problems for the Royals. Our wings are starting to take away the sideline dribble and our posts are doing a better job of anticipating passes. When we got back into halfcourt defense, we were moving our feet, deflecting passes and getting loose balls. The halftime score was 19-3.

Rogers went into a 1-3-1 zone in the second half that caused our boys to have to adjust to a defense they hadn't seen before. For the most part, they picked up what they needed to do and we were able to score another 16 points in the second half. Nice job, boys!!

Spring Lake Park-38, MV- 27. Our second game of the day was held at a very tight gym space. We decided to use our press to take advantage of the close quarters. Other teams also made that same analysis. If you looked in the 4 small gyms you saw a lot of pressure. We ran our press the whole game and Spring Lake Park used theirs for the majority of the game. Spring Lake Park was a much scrappier team than St. Michael. Their height was about equal to ours. However, they had some decent shooters. We would need to play better to win this game. The game was tight throughout the first 3 quarters. SLP was in the lead more often than we were, but one had a feel the game could go either way. Again we played very hard. Spring Lake Park did also. Again we missed many easy shots, but never gave up. Rebounding was evenly shared between the two squads. Spring Lake Park did a better job of pressuring us than we did them. We lost our cool several times on the press break and turned the ball over. Daniel and Holden led us in the effort department in the second game, but all kids worked hard. We need to continue to work on the ball management part of the game as well as shooting, but so far in this tournament coaches have been very proud of the kids. We are ready for the 3rd place game tomorrow. We could face any number of teams, but the oddsmakers(if they existed) would bet on Rogers or Elk River. No matter who it is, if we play with heart and effort, it will have been a good tournament. Sure would be nice to get some hardware though. I'm thinking most of our kids don't have enough trophies/medals in their bedrooms yet, eh??

Game 1: MV-27, St. Michael-20.  We had a couple of closely contested games to start the Elk River Tournament. That is a good thing. I think we grow most by being challenged a bit, but not too much. Our first game was against a St. Michael team that looked good in their blue warmup uniforms. They were taller than we, but they didn't play as hard as we did. Our boys fought for loose balls and held a huge edge in rebounding. This last statement is anectdotal since we don't keep rebounding stats. We missed our fair share of close in shots again or we would have opened an earlier lead. St. Michael led 15-4 after one quarter. Yikes. The remainder of the game was MV 23, St. Michael 5. They did not score a point in either the 2nd quarter or the 4th. Our kids seemed to accept defensive responsibility after a tough start. The biggest difference in the two teams was hustle. Mounds View worked very hard and deserved to win the game. For our parents, it was fun to be in a gym with bleacher seating so they could chat a bit as the game was going on. Another highlight of our first game was oustanding officiating. As we dispersed for snacks in between games, the boys were enjoying the start to the tournament.

Go Mustangs!

Game 3: St. Paul-33, Mustangs-23 We will be working on layups over the next week. We have struggled on getting those down in all 3 games. There actually is no shortage of things to work on, which should make for good practices. We have great room for improvement and with the attitudes of the players as positive as they are, we will be a better team moving forward. St. Paul was another team with the same coach and most of the same kids from last year. Those teams should have an advantage early in the season. Our goal  is to improve each time we practice, both as individuals and as a team. I have no doubt the kids will rise to that challenge. In this 3rd place game, we were tied at 21 with only a minute or two left in the game. St. Paul had a flurry of points at the end that put the game out of reach. So, our first tournament is over. We have a Tuesday practice and then eat turkey before resuming next week.

Game 3: St. Anthony - 40, Mustangs - 10 Hopefully we will get a close competitive game tomorrow. We have been involved in two blowouts and have been on both ends. Tonite we ran into a team that outplayed and outhustled us. St. Anthony had a very well disciplined and organized team. Add that to some tall and talented players and the recipe was not to the Mustangs liking. Apparently this is St. Anthony's second year together with this team and the same coach. It showed. They were running things we haven't come close to covering yet. Halfway through the first half it was apparent that this was going to be a learning experience. We switched to a zone in the second half, partially for change sake and partially to practice something new. Whereas we held them to half as many points in the second half, they still outscored us 13-6. A thorough shellacking, no matter what we tried. It is hard, when a team senses an imminent defeat to continue to work hard. That is the most important lesson to take from this. Let's bounce back tomorrow against St. Paul with a great effort, no matter what the score.

Game 1: Mustangs-45, St. Francis-16. Did everyone stop at Caribou for an expresso before the game? The boys were really pumped to play their first game. That can be a good thing or a bad thing. For the first half of the St. Francis game it was a bad thing. We over-launched a bunch of shots and dropped a bushel full of balls. Fortunately things began to settle down and we moved to a 20-11 halftime lead. The second half was all Mounds View. St. Francis is a very small, but quick team. Our boys adjusted to neutralize their quickness, but height is hard to neutralize. It wasn't the best execution we will display this year, but it was a first game and a chance to move into the semifinals against a tough St. Anthony team. And, of course, it was just FUN to play a game! We need to play better and we will. Whew!! First game over!