First, here are the individual statistical leaders
Points All Classes–Casmir Chavis, Park Center 79 Zeke Austin Albany 76 Isaac Johnson-Arigu, Totino-Grace 66 Jackson McAndrew, Wayzata 63 Hunter Lorenson, Lake City 60
Rebounds All Classes–Alex Lester, Nevis 37 Abu Tarawallie, Heritage 36 Johnson-Arigu 32 Grayson Grove, Alexandria 31 McAndrew 31
Assists All Classes–Chavis 23 Isaac Asuma, Cherry 21 Cam Anderson, West Central 20 Blake Christianson, Russell-Tyler-Ruthton 18 Poet Davis, Mpls. South 18 Andy Steonowicz, Minnetonka 18
Steals All Classes–Chavis 17 Griffin Booms, Heritage 12 Jordan Cain, Minnetonka 11 Daniel Freitag, Breck 11 Keegan Ryan, Lake City 10
Blocks All Classes–Rylee Fick, Lake City 12 McAndrew 12 Harrison Kennen, Pequot Lakes 11 Isaac Asuma 9 Preston Hanson, Fertile-Beltrami 8 Aaron Palmer, Heritage 8
Summary All Classes–Chavis and McAndrew top 5 in 3 categories each, Isaac Asuma and Johnson-Arigu 2 each
Class AAAA Points–Casmir Chavis, Park Center 79 Jackson McAndrew, Wayzata 63 Jackson Fowlkes, Park Center 52 Alex Schroepfer, Eagan 51 Jordan Cain, Minnetonka 50
Class AAAA Rebounds–McAndrew 31 Chavis 25 Cain 24 Tyler Beckwith, Farmington 23 Brandon Hrncir, Farmington 22 Liam Madigan, Eagan 22 Monteff Dixon, Cretin 22
Class AAAA Assists–Chavis 23 Andy Stefonowicz, Minnetonka 18 Isaac Olmstead, Wayzata 17 Hrncir 13 Madigan 13
Class AAAA Steals–Chavis 17 Cain 11 Jaxon Young, Coon Rapids 8 Treyvon Mix, Rogers 7 (2 games) Dixon 6 Kayden Wells, Minnetonka 6
Class AAAA Blocks–McAndrew 12 Ari Gooch, Park Center 5 Chavis 4 Charlie Birk, Eagan 4 Ryan Beckwith, Farmington 3 Wells 3
Class AAAA Summary–Chavis top 5 in all 5 categories, Cain and McAndrew 3 each, and Dixon, Hrncir, Madigan and Wells 2 each
Class AAA Points–Isaac Johnson-Arigu, Totino-Grace 66 Brogan Madsen, Mankato East 51 Henry Tschetter, Stewartville 49 Jumarion Weh, Mpls. South 47 Grayson Grove and Chase Thompson, both Alexanderia, both 44 points
Class AAA Rebounds–Johnson-Arigu 32 Grove 31 Ray James, Jr., DeLaSalle 30 Carson Schweim, Mankato East 27 Dothan Ijadimbola, Totino-Grace 23
Class AAA Assists–Poet Davis, Mpls. South 18 James 15 Weh 15 Tschetter 14 Thompson 13
Class AAA Steals–Madsen 9 Davis 8 Grove 8 James 7 Tegan Malone, Stewartville 7
Class AAA Blocks–Johnson-Arigu 5 Davis 4 Grove 4 Thompson 4 Brady Wooley, Orono 4
Class AAA Summary–Grove top 5 in 4 categories, Davis, James, Johnson-Arigu and Thompson 3, and Madsen, Tschetter and Weh 2 each
Class AA Points–Zeke Austin, Albany 76 Hunter Lorenson, Lake City 60 Daniel Freitag, Breck 58 Roman Voss, Jackson County Central 53 Weston Rowe, Jackson County Central 52
Class AA Rebounds–Freitag 29 Keegan Ryan, Lake City 28 Lorenson 24 Harrison Kennen, Pequot Lakes 23 Rylee Fick, Lake City 22
Class AA Assists–Freitag 17 Ben Gallagher, Jackson County Central 12 Grant Freking, Jackson County Central 11 Hanif Muhammad, Breck 11 Jaden Shones, Lake City 11
Class AA Steals–Freitag 11 Ryan 10 Lorenzo Levy, Minnehaha 7 Lorenson 6 Voss 6 Miguel Torres, Pelican Rapids 6 (2 games)
Class AA Blocks–Fick 12 Kennen 11 Rowe 5 Ryan 5 DeAngelo Dungey, Breck 4
Class AA Summary–Freitag top 5 in 4 categories, Lorenson and Ryan 3, Fick, Kennen, Rowe and Voss 2 each
Class A Points–Crew Werkman, Russell-Tyler-Ruthton 59 Caiden Swenby, Fertile-Beltrami 56 Preston Hanson, Fertile-Beltrami 55 Cam Anderson, West Central 54 Isaac Asuma, Cherry 52
Class A Rebounds–Alex Lester, Nevis 37 Abu Tarawallie, Heritage 36 Swenby 30 Isaac Asuma 28 Ben Bye, West Central 25 Hanson 23 Werkman 23
Class A Assists–Isaac Asuma 21 Anderson 20 Blake Christianson, Russell-Tyler-Ruthton 18 Swenby 15 Joshua Sokeye, Heritage 14
Class A Steals–Griffin Booms, Heritage 12 Sokeye 7 Isaac Asuma 6 Noah Asuma, Cherry 6 John Paul Benson, Nevis 6 Carter Olson, Mountain Lake 6 (2 games) Anderson 6 Nasir Dotts, West Central 6 Masen Nowacki, Fertile-Beltrami 6
Class A Blocks–Isaac Asuma 9 Hanson 8 Aaron Palmer, Heritage 8 Bye 5 Noah Asuma 2 Chase Christianson, Russell-Tyler-Ruthton 2 Lester 2 A.J. Bessler, Nevis 2 Sokeye 2 Booms 2 Owen Haag, Heritage 2
Class A Summary–Isaac Asuma top 5 in all 5 categories, Anderson, Hanson, Sokeye and Swenby 3 each, Noah Asuma, Booms, Bye, Lester and Werkman 2 each
Commentary
The following players finished top 5 in 2 or more categories in their Class and did not make the all-tournament team. Most of them should have. OK, here it comes. My annual all-tournament team rant. Sigh.
Class AAAA Senior forward Brandon Hrncir of Farmington was top 5 in rebounds and assists for 6th place Farmington. Hrncir finished with 48 points, 22 rebounds and 13 assists. I had him on my all-tournament team but every all-tournament selection in all four classes were limited to teams that finished 5th or better. 7 of the 10 picks in Class AAAA went to the 2 finalists. That’s too many just categorically, and it’s too many when you look at the specific choices.
Class AAA Poet Davis of Mpls. South and Chase Thompson of Alex were top 5 in 3 categories each and both deserved to be on the all-tournament team. Again, 7 picks from the 2 finalists is too much. Jumarion Weh of Mpls. South led in 2 categories and did’t get all-tournament recognition, though I wouldn’t go to the mat for him.
Class AA Keegan Ryan of Lake City was top 5 in 3 categories and was by-passed in favor of teammates Hunter Lorenson, Rylee Fick and Jaden Shones. Far be it for me to say Ryan should join his teammates to make it 4 from Lake City. No. I would have picked Ryan ahead of, well, let’s just say, not Hunter Lorenson and leave it at that. Lorenson was a no-brainer, the other 3 were all pretty close, but Ryan was the best of the 3.
Also, Jackson County Central finished 6th and so they categorically weren’t going to get any all-tournament picks no matter what. That is just too rigid of an approach to naming all-tournament players. They shouldn’t be picked by formula–you know, 3 of this and 2 of that. They should just pick the best players. There are team trophies for the teams. These are individual trophies. And either Roman Voss or Weston Rowe of Jackson County Central should have gotten one. I can’t say both. And in AA at least they only picked 6 players from the 2 finalists but even that might have been too many.
Class A Here again there were just 6 picks from the 2 finalists, but in this case it was 4 from Cherry and 2 from Fertile-Beltrami, which is fair considered that FB got blitzed by Cherry in the final, same as RTR and Nevis, and then FB and West Central played that 3OT semi. I think all 4 of these “also-rans” should have gotten some all-tournament love. I would have figured out a way to get Drew Werkman of RTR on the all-tournament team despite their dreaded 6th place finish. He was top 5 in 2 categories. But, well, Nevis, FB and West Central did get all-tournament love, but in the case of Nevis it was 2 picks, which was one too many. The other guy I had on my all-tournament team who was top 5 in 3 categories yet didn’t make their all-tournament team was Josh Sokeye of Heritage and, if necessary, I might have elevated him ahead of his teammate.
So all in all, the all-tournament teams seem to have been picked by formula and the actual performance of the individual players was secondary. This is silly.