Boys State Tournament Recap

My All-Tournament Team All Classes

C- Reid Travis, DeLaSalle 63 points 40 rebounds 5 blocks, Class AAA MVP
F- Dennis Austin, Apple Valley 49 points 29 boards 3 steals
F- Quahingm Smith-Pugh, St. Paul Johnson 52 points 29 boards 9 steals 6 assists
G- Tyus Jones, Apple Valley 70 points 17 assists 13 steals, Class AAAA MVP
G- Graham Woodward, Edina 86 points 17 assists 5 steals
6th- Quinton Hooker, Park Center 61 points 27 rebounds 12 assists

2nd Team

C- Leighton Sampson, Southwest Christian 72 points 22 rebounds 7 blocks 3 steals, Class A MVP
F- Kaharri Carter, Minnehaha 49 points 25 rebounds, Class AA MVP
F- Isaiah Hanson, Maranatha 53 points 19 rebounds 4 steals
G- Dominic Nibbelink, Southwest Christian 55 points 11 assists 3 steals
G- Zach Kinny, Litchfield 45 points 15 rebounds 14 assists 3 steals
6th- Kory Deadrick, Esko 68 points 26 boards 4 steals


3rd Team

C- Reggie Lynch, Edina 55 points 23 rebounds 12 blocks
F- Tom Aase, Austin 38 points 15 rebounds 3 assists 3 steals
F- Matt Miller, Annandale 60 points 21 rebounds 5 assists
G- Dustin Fronk, Apple Valley 40 points
G- Josh Goldschmidt, Maranatha 26 points 20 rebounds 12 assists 9 blocks 8 steals
6th- Riley Sharbono, Marshall 49 points 16 rebounds

4th Team

C- Brock Bertram, Apple Valley 30 points 30 boards 9 blocks
F- Devon Buckley, Park Center 38 points 26 boards 3 steals
F- Seth Thompson, Rushford-Peterson 44 points 13 rebounds 4 steals 5 assists
G- Sacar Anim, DeLaSalle 27 points 5 assists 6 steals
G- Jarvis Johnson, DeLaSalle 27 points 7 assists
6th- Alex Illikainen, Grand Rapids 31 3 boards 3 blocks 2 steals

Only Goldschmidt among the 1st 18 players failed to make the official all-tournament team. I have more comments on that below under Class AA. On my 4th team I've got Bertram, Anim and Illikainen who did not earn all-tournament honors.

Overall Statistical Leaders

Scoring--Graham Woodward 86 Leighton Sampson 72 Tyus Jones 70
Rebounding--Reid Travis 40 Avery Smieja 33 Thomas Gedion 31
Assists--Jones and Woodward 17 Zach Kinny 14
Blocks--Reggie Lynch 12 Tom Aase, Brock Bertram, Josh Goldschmidt 9
Steals--Jones 13 Tyler Bukowski 10 Quashingm Smith-Pugh 9

Smieja, Bertram and Goldschmidt did not earn all-tournament honors. All should have.

Class AAAA

Top Scorers--Graham Woodward 86 Tyus Jones 70 Quinton Hooker 61
Top Rebounder--Brock Bertram 30 Dennis Austin 29 Jack Cottrell, Mark Handberg, Hooker all 27
Top Assists--Jones and Woodward 17 Hooker 12
Top Blocks--Reggie Lynch 12 Bertram 9 Cottrell and Treyton Daniels 4
Top Steals--Jones 13 Woodward and Tony Sauer 5 (Sauer of Brainerd 5 in 1 game)

Bertram, Cottrell, Handberg and Sauer did not get all-tournament honors. Bertram is a tough leave-off: 30 points 30 boards 9 blocks. Cottrell had a nice tournament for EP: 29 points 27 boards 4 blocks 4 steals. I voted for him ahead of Grant Shaeffer. That was my only difference with the official all-tournament team.

Class AAA


Top Scorers--Reid Travis 63 Quashigm Smith-Pugh 52 Riley Sharbono 49
Top Rebounder--Travis 40 Smith-Pugh 29 Aaron Mathiowetz 23
Top Assists--Geno Crandall 12 Austin Saugstad 12 Zach Wessels 10
Top Blocks--Tom Aase 9 Travis 5
Top Steals--Tyler Bukowski 10 Smith-Pugh 9 Wessels 8

Aaron Mathiowetz and Austin Saugstad of Marshall didn't make the all-tournament team (Sharbono and Bukowski did; you could miss Bukowski but his defense in particular was worthy of recognition). Crandall also didn't make it, coming off the bench for DeLaSalle.

The only different choice I would have made is Alex Illikainen of Grand Rapids, a dreaded 1st round loser with 31 points, over Jalen Mobley of St. Paul Johnson.

Class AA


Top Scorers--Kory Deadrick 68 Matt Miller 60 Kaharri Carter 49
Top Rebounder--Thomas Gedion 31 Deadrick 26 Carter 25
Top Assists--Zach Kinny 14 Brett Ahsenmacher 10 Jesse Johnson and Riley Pater 9
Top Blocks--there were almost none
Top Steals--Ahsenmacher 5 Pater and Deadrick 4

All of these guys made the all-tournament team. I didn't agree with Minnehaha getting 4 selections, I would have left it at Marcellous Hazzard of Minnehaha and Zach Whitchurch of Litchfield off and picked 1st round losers Alec Koster of Redwood Valley and Cole Krueger of Hayfield in their place. It defies logic that Litch would need OT to defeat Redwood, and 3 Dragons would make all-tournament and nobody from Redwood.


Class A


Top Scorers--Leighton Sampson 72 Dominic Nibbelink 55 Isaiah Hanson 53
Top Rebounder--Avery Smieja 33 Jorli Hauge 23 Sampson and Eric Talsma 22 each
Top Assists--Josh Goldschmidt 12 Nibbelink and Cole Kingsley 11
Top Blocks--Goldschmidt 9 Smieja 8 Sampson 7
Top Steals--Goldschmidt 8 Klint Knutson and Talsma 5

The voters should zero appreciation for guys who do the little things, not to mention the big things besides scoring. The biggest muff on all 4 all-tournament teams was Maranatha's Josh Goldschmidt. On Friday his line was 0 points 8 boards 5 assists 4 blocks and 4 steals. He was Maranatha's best player on the day. 0 points. For the tournament he was his team's #5 scorer but led in boards, assists, blocks and steals. Overall I would have to take their big scorer Isaiah Hanson as their MVP for the tournament, hut Goldschmidt was #2. Instead 4 of his teammates made all-tournament, he didn't.

Smieja, the top rebounder in the class and #2 in blocks, also didn't make it nor did Eric Talsma who was Southwest Christian's #5 scorer but it's top rebounder and steal guy and 3rd in assists.

I would have left Maranatha's Grantham Gillard and Jeremiah Hanson off and put Goldschmidt in their place. I would replace Southwest Christian's Klint Knutson with his teammate Talsma. The other extra spot then goes to Smieja.

Smieja's sister, by the way, made the girls all-tournament team, coming off the bench to hit a tournament record-tying 7 3s in a 1st round loss.

Also on the above list, Kingsley didn't make all-tournament and I'm OK with that. His teammate Seth Thompson had a better overall tournament.