I remember last fall wondering if this might be one of those rare years when the Mountain Iron-Buhl Rangers girls might miss out on a trip to the state tournament. It has only happened once in 14 years. But, as coach Jeff Buffetta told me just before the tip-off of the Rangers game at Ogilvie, “This is my new team. I had those girls last season for years and years. Now, this is my new team.” I offered that now he would have this team for years and years, and he agreed. “Today I’ll be starting four sophomores and a freshman,” he said. “We make youthful mistakes,” he said. “We’re up and down.” But, overall, I thought he sounded pretty pleased with their efforts so far. And, why not? They’re, well, now they’re 21-3, after clobbering Ogilvie, who came in with a respectable 14-9 record and on Ogilvie’s home court, 81-45. They’ve (MIB) lost to Class AAA Rock Ridge, Class AA Proctor and Class A Hancock, who among them have 60 wins and 12 losses.
So, after seeing the Rangers today, I’m no longer wondering whether they’ll make it back to Williams Arena in March. They’ll be there. And, in saying so, one must add, No disrespect to Cromwell-Wright and coach Jeff Gronner, who has made Cromwell the 2nd leading Class A power in the section. They’ve even been to state themselves 3 times in the past 9 years. But, two of those appearances came in a 2-year cycle when they were placed in section 5A. Only once in 9 tries have they beaten MIB in section 7 play. That was in 2020, the one year in the last 14 that MIB was MIA. And, MIB has already beaten Cromwell this year 53-37 at home. This in no way suggests that Cromwell will not be competitive in the section. They will be. But, MIB has some real horses to ride for the next 3 or 4 years. Young horses, who are gaining valuable experience and improving as the year progresses.
Take today, for instance. Ogilvie is, as I said, a respectable 14-9. Well, now 14-10, though it must be admitted that they are riding 5-10 junior Kadence Pierce, already a 2,000 point scorer, to that respectability. She is the #49-rated junior in Minnesota on Prep Girls Hoops, and that’s too low. I would rate her in the 20s. When she wasn’t handling the ball, Ogilvie was never more than 30 seconds removed from a turnover. So Pierce not only handled the ball, oh, about 2/3 of the time. She also had to then create her own shot, which she frequently did. She finished with 26 of Ogilvie’s 45 points on 9-of-21 shooting and 6-of-7 FT, with a defense that knew as sure as the sun rises in the east that she was going to be taking most of their shots. She tied with MIB’s Sami Warwas as the game’s leading rebounder with 7, according to my unofficial numbers, and she turned the ball over just twice, again handling the ball 2/3 of the time against an aggressive ball-hawking defense. She is the real deal.
But, my main point is that other than Pierce, MIB had better athletes and better basketball players at every position. After the game, I said to coach Buffetta that I thought that this team would be OK, being his team for the next several years. A 2nd state title is hardly out of the question. Why do I say this? Well:
• Exhibit 1 was shooting guard Anna Neyens, a 5-6 sophomore in her 3rd year of varsity ball. She is scoring 16 ppg with 2 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals. I happened to be sitting next to her grandpa, as it turned out. “Is she always this good?” I asked. He said, “She’s good.” But I then answered my own question. No, she’s not this good. She averages 16 points. She must have had twice that today. Well, it turns out she had 31 on 9-of-10 3-point shooting. I could hear the Ogilvie bench. I heard coach Jon Nelson begging his team. “I know you’re tired. But, they’ve got such range. You’ve got to get out there on her!” Well, they couldn’t do it.
• Exhibit 2 was Sami Warwas, a 5-9 sophomore forward who also happens to handle the ball in transition like a point guard. But, while Neyens punished Ogilvie outside, Warwas punished them inside, making 7-of-9 2s, mostly on dribble drives and offensive boards, while adding 7 boards and 3 assists.
• Exhibit 3 was Izzy Witta, a 5-7 do-everything freshman guard. She was everywhere, scoring 17 points inside and out and from the FT line while also attacking with the ball like yet another point guard.
• These 3 are supported inside by 6-0 Paige Norman and 5-8 forward Lindsay Olin. They scored 11 points between them on 5-of-12 shooting, with 5 rebounds, 4 assists and 6 steals, again according to my unofficial numbers.
• OK, it’s true that MIB was not deep today, though Farrah Thomas and Ava Luukkonen have been scoring 12 ppg between them. Today, however, just 3, but they were scrappy, with 8 rebounds and 3 steals. Meanwhile, Aniyah Thomas, who has scored 12 ppg, did not play today.
Along with “youthful mistakes,” coach Buffetta said that “they’re up and down” in terms of their “defensive engagement.” When they’re engaged on defense, they’re very good. Otherwise, well, not so much. And, so it was today. In the 1st half, they were engaged, running out to a 54-22 lead and forcing 15 turnovers. They won the 2nd half just 27-23 and forced just 6 more turnovers. Of course, it was a short half, what with running time kicking in. But, how ya gonna keep a bunch of freshmen and sophomores interested when they’re up 54-22 at the half? I think coach Buffetta has given that a fair amount of thought. I mean, approximately 12 of their 24 games have gone to running time.
As I look ahead to the next 3 years of MIB basketball with the Neyens-Warwas-Witta generation, what really struck me was not their size or their shooting or their athleticism, at least not their physical athleticism–and, of course, they’re not big, but they shoot it and they’re athletic. But, what really struck me about this group was the mental game, their decision-making, their ability to play together as a unit, to space the floor, to keep moving and keep the ball moving. They’re basketball players. In this respect, they’re already as good or better than some of MIB’s tournament teams and the upside is there for them maybe to become the best MIB team yet.