NEW UPDATE. Hopkins 6th in USA POLL

Tonight I read an article in the Star Tribune about number 6th in the Nation, Hopkins, who is also ranked first in state, that played the number two team in state, Henry Sibley, last friday night at Henry Sibley High School. Henry Sibley is the 4th team in the region but didn't have enough to take down the ferocious Hopkins team. Hopkins has all 5 of their starters going to a top division one college next year, while Henry Sibley has 3 of their top 5 going D1. I had the chance to go to watch the Hopkins-Minnetonka game a day before I made my way out to Henry Sibley High School to watch the Hopkins-Sibley showdown. Minnetonka won the State Championship last year and knocked Hopkins out in the Section Finals. Hopkins came back for revenge this year, picking up a D1 caliber player, senior Royce White, who committed to The University  of Minnesota. He, along with the other Hopkins players, went nuts during the Tonka game, in front of what seemed like 200 people at the Lindbergh Center at Hopkins High School. The crowd, band, and Student section was as crazy as a college game. Hopkins came out and scored 60 points in the first half, which is usually what teams have in a full game, and ended up winning easily 112-60. Watching this game made me realize just how AMAZING Hopkins really is. It's different when I hear people say how good they are when they haven't even seen them, and when people actually know basketball and have witnessed this 6th ranked team in all of America. The Henry Sibley-Hopkins game the FOLLOWING NIGHT was ridiculous. Hopkins pretty much had complete control of the game until Sibley cut it to 4 with five minutes left. The place was rocking. Hopkins ended up holding on to the game 77-66. 

If I were Henry Sibley, I would have tried to slow the game down a little more just to make Hopkins have less possessions, even with a loss, they knew there's just that one extra step they can do to maybe turn that game around. Luckily they'll get to meet them sometime in the State Tournament held at the Target Center. 

My Edina team lost our first game at Shakopee last night in a battle. We just didn't play hard enough and got out worked and out coached. It was a devastating loss. We are now ranked tenth in state, moving back because of a 10-1 record. It is still an amazing start to the season but with still over half the year to go, and at least two games against Nationally Ranked HOPKINS, we are not stopping and are continuing to work hard to reach our goal of a State Championship.  

Standings.

In the news paper this last week I was reading about how many people are arguing to have a playoff for the best college football teams each year. Right now the teams are voted on by teams and coaches around America and are put into groups by computers catagorized in ways that sometimes are unfair. Let me correct myself. They are NEVER fair. When the last standings of the year come out, it's a complete toss up. Nobody knows who the REAL number one team in College Football is, and no one knows who the 15th best team in College Football is. A number of teams could be undefeated or only have one loss. But how do you know a fair way to stack the teams? Is there one? I myself don't think there is. That's why I think College Football should have a 3 or 4 round playoffs that could make or break your team. If college basketball has "March Madness", why couldn't college football have their own playoffs in January? It's completely the same thing. Upsets can happen every week, and by the end of the tournament, you know if your team deserves to be in that title game. Nobody can say, "Well USC shouldn't have been the National Champion because they lost to Texas in week 2 this year and Texas only had one loss just like Southern Cal!". Nothing like that. If you lost in the playoffs, nobody would care what you had to say and complain about how you should have been in that final game, because quite frankly, if you can't beat so called "underdog teams" (if you're a top seed) then how could you claim to be the best team in College football? Upsets happen all the time, and I think that's why teams that never get into the top 2 or 3 bowl games are pushing hard for this Playoff month just so their team could have a shot. Now I do think that makes the season not as important, but who doesn't want a little extra excitement? I know I do!

This is very much like High School Basketball standings. My basketball team lost tonight at Shakopee High School and are now 10-1. When the section playoffs come and we're supposed to play Shakopee, no matter what our final record was, if we went 25-1 and they went 10-15, we will have to play at their place if we were to meet them in the playoffs because they beat us tonight. I do not think this is fair, though if I were them, I'd probably be thinking how else could we do it? If we beat you, there's no way it'd be fair for you to be seeded over us and have home court advantage. This connects clearly with College football because this year Texas beat Oklahoma, but Oklahoma was in the Championship game against Florida because Texas lost to Texas Tech. Texas did not think this was fair at all and neither do I. PLAYOFFS SHOULD BE IN ORDER! 

Travel Team

For my book report, I'm reading the novel, Travel Team. Written by Mike Lupica. The book is about a young boy named Danny who struggles all his life being the shortest one at his school. He loves basketball and many other sports, but never gets taken seriously from adults because of how small he is! Danny sometimes gets mistaken for a little kid and never gets picked for the basketball team. When Danny plays with his friends, they all know what a great passer and defender he is, and of course want a playmaker on their team! Someone who can get them the ball and find them on the open court. So on the playground it's a fight to get him on your team, and for the city team, he doesn't even get picked? How does THAT work?! Danny works so hard over the summer after he finds out he didn't make the traveling team, so that the next winter, he'll make it even if he's short.

Something like this has happened to one of my friends, all throughout our childhood he was a great player, and then during the last few years of traveling and into high school basketball, he didn't even make a team. If in the book, I was Danny, I would set aside my anger and sadness and do exactly what he's doing in the offseason; using his disappointment about not making the traveling team to motivate him to work twice as hard. Even when nobody else is. That's what will make you a better player. I know what it feels like to think you're not as wanted or valued on the team especially playing with Seniors who have 2 years on me in terms of skill, strength, speed, and also experience. Experience is the biggest thing I think about when thinking of younger players playing with older guys, because no matter how good you are, if you didn't work your butt off in the offseason and train with the team or other teams during the spring, summer, and fall before the winter season, then you wont have experience and you will not get better. You will also not be picked to play up a level or two because the coaches know who has and who hasn't worked during 8 months in between the end of the season and tryouts. They can tell.