Totino-Grace’s Class 3A dominance in boys basketball leads to the opt-up question

5:10 p.m.

Totino-Grace boys basketball coach Nick Carroll offered praise of beaten Class 3A championship opponent Mankato East in a manner unlikely to appease the haters.

“This was the toughest run for us,” Carroll said when asked about his team’s third consecutive state title pursuit. “Mankato East played as well as I saw them play all year today.”

Until the playoffs, however, Carroll had little chance (or reason) to see a 3A opponent. Twenty-one of the 22 Minnesota schools Carroll’s Eagles played during the regular season were from Class 4A, the largest schools by enrollment.

“There’s not a challenge they haven’t seen,” Carroll said.

Mankato East coach Joe Madson pointed out: “You don’t see a lot of teams like that in the Big 9 Conference or in our section. Most teams can say that. They play mostly 4A and out-of-state schools. Their regular-season schedule is awfully good, and certainly they had that going for them.”

Totino-Grace faced both teams that played in Saturday’s Class 4A title game, Wayzata and Minnetonka, and lost by a combined six points.

Such success leads to questions about opting up to compete in Class 4A in the postseason rather than 3A. Carroll addressed his desire to opt up.

“You don’t know what the future is going to hold,” he said. “Our football program went up to 6A and won it, but then they started to struggle quite a bit and went back to 4A. We understand all the noise that comes around it. We’re excited where the program is at and definitely it will be an ongoing conversation with our activities director.”

DAVID LA VAQUE

8:31 p.m.

Miles Newton received some advice before playing in the Class 2A boys basketball championship game from a pretty good source.

His dad, Milt, scored 15 points in the 1988 NCAA championship game for Kansas. His Jayhawks, led by Danny Manning, defeated the Oklahoma Sooners 83-79 in Kansas City. These days Milt Newton is assistant general manager of the Milwaukee Bucks. He served as general manager for the Timberwolves from late 2013 into 2016.

“He just told me to come out, be aggressive and play my game,” Miles said. “Just be myself, and I went out there and did it.”

A junior captain for top-seeded Breck, Newton scored nine of his 16 points in the second half as the Mustangs held off Lake City 76-72 to win the first state title in school history. Miles scored all nine of those second-half points during a stretch when the Mustangs outscored the Tigers 22-8 to take a 12-point lead with six minutes left.

“That’s not typical to have a junior captain in high school. But the leadership that he provides us on and off the floor during the day in the building, in the basketball locker room and on court helps us tremendously,” Mustangs coach Harry Sonie said. “He did the same thing [in the tournament semifinal win over Minnehaha Academy]. He had one or no points at halftime. Then he came out and scored 10 or 11 points that were huge for us. He is a very reliable player for us, and we hope he takes another step next year.”

Miles has learned a lot from his dad. He reached one step in his basketball life by finally beating Milt one-on-one last year.

“I get most of my edge and hard work from him,” Miles Newton said. “Growing up he didn’t have the things I have available. I’m able to take that and much more.”

JOE GUNTHER

2:55 p.m.

Cherry started with nothing.

Well, not quite nothing. It had Isaac Asuma. Trouble is, he was in seventh grade.

That season was 2018-19, and the Tigers went 0-22. Among the losses was 105-31 to North Woods. It didn’t get any worse than that, but the Tigers gave up 100-plus points three times.

Most projects don’t start where they end up, but this one has a stunning separation, now that Cherry won a state championship Saturday by defeating Fertile-Beltrami 78-40 at Williams Arena.

Here’s Cherry’s path to a state title from Isaac Asuma’s seventh-grade season through the junior year during which he committed to the Gophers to Saturday:

2023-24: 31-2, state championship.

2022-23: 27-6, lost in state semifinals.

2021-22: 27-6, lost in state semifinals.

2020-21: 12-7.

2019-20: 15-11.

2018-19: 0-22.

“We finally did it,” Isaac Asuma said Saturday. “We are now state champions. It’s super special to be remembered in the history books forever.”

RON HAGGSTROM

11 a.m.

Championship Saturday is upon us.

Four boys basketball teams have an opportunity to prove they were worthy of their No. 1 ratings by Minnesota Basketball News in the final regular-season poll.

All four have looked all season like the best team in their class: Wayzata in Class 4A, Totino-Grace in Class 3A, Breck in Class 2A and Cherry in Class 1A.

Wayzata (29-1) and Totino-Grace (26-5) are looking to successfully defend their state titles while Breck (30-1) and Cherry (30-2) are seeking the first state championships in program history. Totino-Grace is the reigning two-time champion.

All four teams are led by high-major Division I recruits. They are Cherry’s Isaac Asuma (Gophers), Breck’s Daniel Freitag (Wisconsin), Totino-Grace’s Isaiah Johnson-Arigu (Miami, Florida) and Wayzata’s Jackson McAndrew (Creighton). It’s time for the stars to shine brightly.

Basketball enthusiasts should take note that the schedule isn’t like that of previous years. Cherry and Fertile-Beltrami (27-6) will get everything started at 11 a.m. The Class 3A title game between Totino-Grace and No. 2-ranked Mankato East (28-2) will follow at 1 p.m.

The night session will consist of Breck against No. 3 Lake City (26-5) in the Class 2A finale at 5 p.m., and Lake Conference powers Wayzata and No. 4 Minnetonka (24-6) will meet at 8 p.m.

It’s moments from tipoff, and fans at Williams Arena are already in a frenzy. It should be a fun final day.

RON HAGGSTROM