Two boys basketball defending state champions find themselves in familiar territory after the brackets were unveiled Saturday by the Minnesota State High School League for the state tournament.
Wayzata (27-1) in Class 4A and Totino-Grace (24-5) in Class 3A received top seeds and will try starting Wednesday to repeat as state champions. The two powers met during the regular season, with Wayzata prevailing 83-81. Each was No. 1 in its class in Minnesota Basketball News’ final regular-season rankings.
The top-ranked schools in the two smallest classes also garnered top seeds, Breck (27-1) in Class 2A and Cherry (26-2) in Class 1A.
The tournaments will get under way Wednesday morning with the quarterfinals in the top three classes at Williams Arena and the Maturi Pavilion on the University of Minnesota campus. The Class 1A quarterfinals will begin Thursday morning at the Maturi Pavilion. The four championship games will be held Saturday at Williams Arena.
A rematch of last season’s Class 4A title game could be brewing. No. 2-ranked Park Center (24-3) is the No. 2 seed. The Pirates were swept by Totino-Grace in their two Northwest Suburban Conference regular-season meetings.
The Eagles won’t have an easy time in their quarterfinal matchup against No. 3 Stewartville (25-3). The Tigers are unseeded, and all three of their losses — to No. 2 Mankato East (26-2), No. 7 Alexandria (23-5) and unranked Orono (18-10) — were to state tournament entrants. Mankato East is seeded second, Alexandria third and Orono fourth.
Orono won’t have an easy task in the opening round either, going against No. 5-ranked DeLaSalle (20-9).
In Class 2A, No. 4 Albany (28-2) and No. 3 Lake City (24-5) drew the second and third seeds.
In Class 1A, only two other ranked teams besides Cherry made the field: No. 3 West Central Area (27-3) and No. 8 Mountain Lake Area/Comfrey (27-3). Cherry, featuring Gophers signee Isaac Asuma, is a heavy favorite.
Ron Haggstrom
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