2025 Minnesota Basketball Awards
It’s a little more than 3 weeks since the Minnesota Lynx season—and, ergo, the 2024-2025 basketball season as a whole—came to an end. So I guess we’re a little tardy in getting around to our 2024-2025 Minnesota Basketball Awards. If you’re new to these awards, I’ve named Minnesota’s basketball team, player, coach and game of the year going back to about 1900, or earlier whenever possible. You can find these lists here on this blog, and I’ll be reposting them soon with these new winners added.
2025 Team of the Year
We’ll start with the team of the year, since the best players, coaches and games usually come from the best teams. The candidates, listed initially here in alpha order, are:
Concordia St. Paul Golden Bears Women 29-3. The Golden Bears won the NSIC regular season title at 20-2, then swept 3 post-season tournament games to win that title as well. The biggest wins came against defending national champion Minnesota State (sorry, folks, it still Mankato State to me) 64-56 in the regular season and 92-73 in the tournament final. CSP was then surprised by regular season 2nd place Southwest Minnesota State 77-64 in the 1st round of the NCAA tournament. The Bears were led by diminutive 5-3 guard Lydia Haack from Elk River, NSIC defensive PoY Lindsey Becher from Mounds View, and NSIC coach of the year Amanda Johnson.
Gustavus Adolphus Gusties Women 29-2. They were the most successful Gusties women ever, getting to the NCAA D3 Elite 8 before bowing out. They lost only to Bethel in the conference, and to Smith 61-50 at the Elite 8. They avenged the loss to Bethel in the MIAC tournament 66-53. Guard Emma Kniefel, from Medford, is both the 1st 4-time all-conference player and the 1st 3-time all-conference-playoff player ever. Laurie Kelly was the MIAC coach of the year.
Minnesota Gopher Women 25-11. The Gophers finished 13th in the Big 10 at 8-10 thanks to injuries to Mara Braun and Taylor Woodson. But they started 16-1 and finished with 5 straight wins and the title of the WBIT tournament. Hopkins grad Amaya Battle was the Gophers leader along with coach Dawn Plitzuweit.
Minnesota Lynx 34-10, and 3-3 in the playoffs. The Lynx were the #1 seed into the WNBA playoffs at 34-10, but split 6 playoff games down the middle, falling to the Phoenix Mercury 3 games to 1 in the playoff semi-finals. It was controversial as always in the WNBA. This time the Lynx were victimized by a rash of cheap shots and hyper-physical play that swept through the league pretty much all year long. And of course the officiating sucked, as always. Napheesa Collier was a solid MVP candidate, but lost both the award and, then, a week later, the use of her ankle as a result of that physicality. Cheryl Reeve went pretty much bananas again, and got fined a million dollars or something and was suspended for the decisive game 4 of the Phoenix series. It was a sad, goofy way for another very promising season to end.
Minnesota State-Moorhead Men 25-9. Their season seemingly derailed by injuries, the Dragons instead roared back to win 13 straight games—the last 8 of the regular season, 3 in the conference tournament, and 2 in the NCAAs—before bowing out in the D2 Sweet Sixteen. The highlight was an 81-55 shellacking of the defending national champion Minnesota State Mavericks in the regular season finale. Guards Jacob Beeninga and JaMir Price went down in the 1st month, so Moorhead started just 12-9. Freshman guard Carson Johnson from Ankeny, IA, was expected to redshirt but suddenly he was pressed into action, and emerged as an all-conference honoree.
The upshot of it all is that coach Tim Bergstrasser was hired after the season’s end by the Denver Pioneers. They play in the Summit, so he and they will be in town later this year (that is, this season, but next year) on January 3 to play at St. Thomas. Also appearing at St. Thomas will be former Moorhead players Johnson, Logan Kinsey and Shaun Wysocki. So, meanwhile back in Moorhead, the Dragons will be rebuilding. Thanks for the memories—that is, 3 tournament champions and a runner-up in 5 years.
Minnesota Timberwolves 49-33, and 9-6 in the playoffs. Coming off a 56-26 finish in 2024, the Wolves were struggling at 32-29 on March 1. They had moved Karl Anthony Towns for Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo in the weeks before the regular season. It wasn’t going well, until it did. Suddenly Randle was getting into the swing of things, and the Wolves went 17-4 down the stretch. Of course, Ant Edwards was “da man,” but getting Randle on track was needed to get the Wolves on track. Just the #6 seed, they beat the #3 L.A. Lakers 4 games to 1, then did the same (4-1) to the Golden State Warriors and Steph Curry. The Oklahoma City Thunder was too much, however. Only they were able double the Ant man and still keep track of everybody else. The result was a 1-4 loss. Still, 2 straight trips to the conference finals makes this the golden age of Timberwolves basketball so far.
Providence Academy Lions Girls 32-0. The Hopkins girls won their 9th Class AAAA title, but lost to the Class AA Providence Lions 66-59 during the regular season, making the Class AA champion the state’s best team. Providence won its 4th straight state title, beating Crosby-Ironton 81-63. All of this Providence success is essentially the handiwork of guard Maddyn Greenway, who has scored more than 4,000 career points with her senior season yet to come. She has scored 21, 24, 32, 34 and 33 points per game over 5 years, and the Lions have played in 5 state finals. She also holds the state record for soccer goals with 204.
St. Thomas Tommies Men 24-10. The Tommies finished 2nd in the Summit at 12-4, then finished 2nd again in the tournament, losing to Omaha 85-75. In 4 years in D1, the Tommies have improved from 10 wins, to 19, to 20, and now 24.
Wayzata Trojans Boys 28-4. Wayzata won its 3rd state title in 5 years with a surprise 80-55 win over once-beaten Cretin. Bryan Schnettler is the Wayzata coach.
And the Winner Is….
5. Gustavus Adolphus Women 29-2
4. Minnesota State-Moorhead Men 25-9
3. Minnesota Lynx 37-13
2. Providence Lions Girls 32-0
1. Minnesota Timberwolves 58-39. Not as good as last year, when they were denied by Minnesota State (Mankato’s) historic double of both the D2 men’s and women’s national titles. Believe it or not, this is the 1st time that the Timberwolves have ever been Minnesota’s top team according to this project, in their 36th year. Their other top season was back in 2004. They went to the conference finals for the 1st time, but were beaten out for team of the year honors by the Minnesota Gopher women, who went to the Final 4 that year behind Lindsay Whalen. It wouldn’t be right to overlook the Wolves again in light of 2 years of very excellent basketball.