Sweet 16 Shaping Up

UPDATED MAY 13

The annual summer Sweet 16 tournament will be held August 4 and 5 at St. Ben's. The following teams have been invited and/or snubbed.

Boys


No info yet on which boys teams have accepted their invitation.


Class AAAA Osseo, Edina, Apple Valley, Eden Prairie. Dunno how they can have a tournament without Hopkins, but there it is. Apple Valley, if Tyus Jones shows up, is the obvious favorite but don't overlook Osseo, if everybody shows up.

THE FIRST THREE ARE CONFIRMED, HOPKINS INVITED IN PLACE OF EP, BUT NOT CONFIRMED.

Class AAA DeLaSalle, Austin, Grand Rapids, Blake. Yes. DLS is the obvious fave here.

THE FIRST THREE ARE CONFIRMED, BLAKE IS NOT.

Class AA Rochester Lourdes, Southland, Fairmont, Hayfield. What, no Litchfield? No PEM? From among the 4 actually invited, I'll take Fairmont.

ALL FOUR ARE CONFIRMED.

Class A Belgrade-BE, Lakeview Christian, Faribault BA, Heritage Christian. I might have invited Dawson-Boyd and Browerville but Lakeview looks like the fave to me.

THREE ARE CONFIRMED, LAKEVIEW NOT.

But of course they don't play in the 4 classes, that's the point of the Sweet 16. They play in 4 brackets, each with an A, AA, AAA and a AAAA, so the 4 semi-finalists can be all AAAA, for example. Depending on the draw and which players show up, the 4 semi-finalists probably ought to be Apple Valley, DeLaSalle, Osseo and Eden Prairie.


Girls

The Pacesetter Web site is tracking who has accepted on the girls side. Those who have accepted are shown in italics.

Class AAAA Hopkins, Bloomington Kennedy, Lakeville North, Eastview. What, no Osseo? Hopkins is the obvious favorite but BK and LN certainly are threats to get to the semis and maybe the finals.

ALL FOUR ARE CONFIRMED.

Class AAA DeLaSalle, Richfield, Fergus Falls, Mankato East. What, no Park Center? DLS is an obvious threat here.

FERGUS AND MANKATO CONFIRMED, PARK CENTER AND RED WING NOW INVITED IN PLACE OF DLS AND RICHFIELD, BUT NOT CONFIRMED.

Class AA Providence, Esko, Pine Island, Crookston. What, no Carlie Wagner? Providence is a threat to advance to the semis.

PROVIDENCE AND CROOKSTON CONFIRMED, STAPLES-MOTLEY NOW INVITED BUT NOT CONFIRMED, AND THE #4 SLOT IS NOW EMPTY.

Class A Maranatha, Mountain Iron-Buhl, Minneota, Win-E-Mac.

MIB, MINNEOTA AND WIN-E-MAC CONFIRMED, FARIBAULT BETHLEHEM NOW INVITED IN PLACE OF MARANATHA BUT NOT CONFIRMED. FBA JOINS HOPKINS AS THE ONLY POSSIBLE PARTICIPANTS IN BOTH BOYS AND GIRLS PLAY.

Hopkins, Kennedy, DeLaSalle and Providence look like semi-finalists depending on the draw and which teams and which players show up.

Mock Brackets

Boys

So, just for fun, let's say the Boys brackets look like this. These are not the official brackets.

Bracket A Apple Valley, Austin, Fairmont, BBE. AV and Tyus Jones advance.

Bracket B Eden Prairie, Blake, Hayfield and Faribault BA. EP advances.

Bracket C Edina, DeLaSalle, Rochester Lourdes, Heritage. The Islanders advance.

Bracket D Osseo, Grand Rapids, Southland, Lakeview. Osseo advances after an epic Ian Theisen vs. Alex Illikainen battle. 

Semis Apple Valley over EP, DeLaSalle over Osseo. Finals DLS over AV.

3rd Osseo, 5th Grand Rapids over Blake, 7th Austin over Edina, 9th Lakeview over BBE, 11th Hayfield over Lourdes, 13th Fairmont over Heritage, 15th FBA over Southland.

All-Stars T. Jones; Reid Travis and Jarvis Johnson, DLS; Theisen; and Illikainen.

Girls

Again, here are some hypothetical brackets.

Bracket A Kennedy, DeLaSalle, Crookston, Maranatha. DeLaSalle advances.

Bracket B Eastview, Fergus, Esko, Minneota. Eastview advances.

Bracket C Hopkins, Mankato East, Pine Island, MIB. Hopkins advances.

Bracket D Lakeville, Richfield, Providence, Win-E-Mac. Providence advances.

Semis DeLaSalle over Eastview, Hopkins over Providence. Finals Hopkins over DeLaSalle.

3d Providence over Eastview, 5th Kennedy over Lakeville North, 7th Fergus over Mankato, 9th Richfield over Maranatha, 11th Esko over MIB, 13th Crookston over Pine Island, 15th Minneota over Win-E-Mac.

All-Stars Nia Coffey and Taylor Anderson, Tyseanna Johnson and Allina Starr, Jade Martin

2nd Team Maddie Guebert,  Kenisha Bell, Brianna Zimmerman, Jessica January, Savanna Trapp

3rd Team Taylor Reiss, Sydney Boike, Onye Osemenam, Leah Szabla, Taylor Stewart

We'll try to keep tabs on further acceptances of these invitations.