State basketball pairings
Posted on March 20th, 2008 – 12:12 PMBy John Millea
The pairings have been announced for the 4A and 3A boys’ basketball tournaments. As expected, Minnetonka in 4A and Benilde-St. Margaret’s in 3A are the top seeds. Here’s the lineup:
4A, at Target Center
Bloomington Kennedy (19-8) vs. No. 1 Minnetonka (25-3) at 10 a.m.; Cambridge-Isanti (19-10) vs. No. 4 St. Cloud Tech (27-2) at noon; Rochester Mayo (24-4) vs. No. 2 Henry Sibley (24-5) at 2 p.m.; and Burnsville (20-9) vs. No. 3 Robbinsdale Cooper (23-6) at 4 p.m.
3A, Target Center and Mariucci Arena (yes, you read that right)
St. Paul Como Park (20-9) vs. No. 1 Benilde-St. Margaret’s, (26-3) at 6 p.m. at Target Center; Minneapolis Henry (19-10) vs. No. 4 St. Michael-Albertville (26-3) at 8 p.m. at Target Center; Little Falls (14-14) vs. No. 2 St. Thomas Academy (22-6) at 6 p.m. at Mariucci Arena; and Grand Rapids (13-17) vs. No. 3 Willmar (23-5) at 8 p.m. at Mariucci Arena.
8 Responses to "State basketball pairings"
You’re sure the 3A evening games are at Maruicci? (sp?) - that’ll be a first!
Yes, Mariucci Arena will be the site. Williams Arena/Pavilion was booked for another event and is not available for basketball next week.
Indeed, it will be the first time basketball will be played at Mariucci, the 10,000-seat home of the Gophers men’s hockey team.
have you heard whether the plexiglass panels will stay or be removed?
And do you have any idea of how far the end lines and the sidelines of the basketball court will be from the seating or the sidelines/end lines of the ice?
It will be, uh, interesting I guess.
I believe they will be removing the plexiglass. Since the rink at Mariucci is 200′ x 100′, the sidelines of the basketball court will be about 25 feet from the first row, while the end lines will be a little over 50 feet from Row 1.
That said, this isn’t much different from the times they’ve held the tournament at the Xcel Center (or even much different from the setup at Target Center for the girls’ state tournament last week), so it shouldn’t be too bad.
It’s too bad that they moved it to Mariucci. I understand they had another event, but I remember back in 9th grade Stillwater made it to state and probably one of my best memories as a basketball fan was the game against Eastview at Williams Arena. The place was just absolutely electric.
At Mariucci? LOL! Stupid MSHSL… one of the most dysfunctional organizations in the state. Well… at least they didn’t move the games to the old State Fairgrounds arena.
I heard through the U of M that the plexiglass will still be there in most all spots.
not the league’s fault. The U decided to book the robotics competition there and so they provided Mariucci as the alternative site.
