Boys' basketball state tournament: Class 1A story lines
March 21, 2012 at 4:30AM
Who owns the best overall record in the state in the past two seasons? Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa. That's right, even better than Hopkins. The Jaguars enter the quarterfinals with a perfect 30-0 mark, after finishing 32-1 in 2011. Coach Dave Montbriand's squad also was unbeaten a year ago until it suffered a 70-58 loss to Springfield in the Class 1A championship game.
2 THE NUMBER WHERE BROMAN MIGHT BE, ALL-TIME, IN POINTS
Lakeview Christian junior guard Anders Broman is unofficially the state's second-leading career scorer, behind Kevin Noreen of Minnesota Transitions (both totals still await Minnesota State High School League approval). He has more than 3,800 career points after breaking the single-season scoring mark this year with 1,293 points. That's an average of more than 44.6 points a night. The Lions' first-round opponent, Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa, only allows 47.8 points per game.
3 THE SECTION THAT IS A STATE POWER
Southwest Minnesota Christian started the trend of Section 3 being a state power, and now must maintain it. Since the Eagles won the first of four consecutive state titles in 1999, the section has won eight championships, been the runner-up three times and won the quarterfinal matchup every season. "Basketball is all everybody does in the winter," Southwest Christian coach Jamie Pap said. "There's not a big school around. Playing basketball and going to basketball games are what people do."
RON HAGGSTROM
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Six players plus head coach Garrett Raboin and assistant coach Ben Gordon are from Minnesota. The tournament’s games will be televised starting Monday.
