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Class 4A tournament preview

By Jim Paulsen, Star Tribune, 03/22/11, 9:37PM CDT

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No. 1 seed Hopkins is looking to make it three-peat

The Class 4A boys’ basketball tournament starts Wednesday, with four quarterfinal games being played at Target Center at 10 a.m., noon, 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. Here are five valuable nuggets to know about the class that represents the state’s largest schools.

1. Can the Royals repeat ... again? No. 1-seeded Hopkins has won the last two Class 4A championships and looks to become the first team since Minneapolis North in the mid-1990s to win three consecutive titles in Minnesota’s largest class of basketball. Odds are with the Royals; Hopkins has a record of 89-3 over the past three years.

2. Don’t expect many surprises. All of the top four seeds has played at least one of the others during the season. Cretin-Derham Hall lost to Eden Prairie. Osseo lost to Hopkins. Eden Prairie split with Hopkins (and lost to Class 3A St. Paul Johnson). Hopkins also beat unseeded Lakeville South. And Osseo swept two games from conference rival Maple Grove. In other words, there aren’t any unknown commodities.

3. Will the Lake Conference complete the sweep? Of the four prominent large-school winter-sport team championships, a Lake team has won the first three — Minnetonka in girls’ hockey, Eden Prairie in boys’ hockey and Hopkins in girls’ basketball. Hopkins and Eden Prairie are seeded Nos. 1 and 2 this year.

4. Who says Duluth East is just a hockey school? Sure, the Greyhounds came within a skateblade of winning the Class 2A hockey championship two weeks ago, but the basketball team is no afterthought. Outside of Hopkins, Duluth East might have the tournament’s top backcourt in Johnny Woodard and Taylor Stafford, who combine to score more than 40 points per game.

5. Cretin-Derham Hall is back for the first time since 2001. The last time Cretin won a state championship was 1993, when the Raiders, behind Arvesta Kelly Jr., beat Anoka in the Class 2A finals. Leading the Raiders this time is his son, Raijon, a silky-smooth senior guard. And Arvesta Kelly Sr. is an assistant coach, adding to the fuzzy family vibe.

State Tournament News