2015-16 State Tournament

[B-oldtimer]

Four Winds player that doesn't get much recognition is Red Fox he does so much for that team. He play very good defense and sets the offense for Four Winds. If you would have seen him in the regionals and end of the season you would have been impressed with his offense too. He hasn't shot the ball like he did in the regionals but if has night like he did in the regionals your see he can play a complete game at very high level.

[NotTheCoach]

Tonight's match-up for the title has just about everything true fans could hope for in a game. The #1 ranked team vs. the #2 ranked team in the state. A "David vs. Goliath" match-up with perennial powerhouse 4 Winds (6th State appearance in past 10 years and 3rd State Final in past 4 years. One of the largest enrollments in class B at 217.) playing against ORCS (1st time in school history the boys have even played in a District Championship game was this year, so obviously 1st time at State, one of the smallest enrollments in class B at 66.). It will also feature a match between a team with "stars" - 4 Winds has a Mr. Basketball candidate in Feather and a probable All-State player in McKay - and a team without "stars". ORCS had no one on the team getting attention as an All-State player before the tournament. The leading scorer on their team averages under 15 points per game.
It should be a great game! I am excited to see them play. The Dome in Minot will be packed and deafening tonight. Bring on the game!

[Sportsrube]

Anyone know if Strasburg-Zeeland coach Brent Kleinsasser is related to Jim Kleinsasser?

In an interview he did with KFGO he said they are distant relatives, something about one of Brent's relatives being a cousin of Jim's Dad or something like that.

[winner-within]

Anyone know if Strasburg-Zeeland coach Brent Kleinsasser is related to Jim Kleinsasser?

In an interview he did with KFGO he said they are distant relatives, something about one of Brent's relatives being a cousin of Jim's Dad or something like that.

I would say every Kleinsasser is related some how.....if there up here in ND area

[HighPlainsDrifter]

Fun night at the State 'B' , I thought a really good crowd, I dont think the B is dead , as was seemingly being referred when there were so many big B and parochial schools in it. Four Winds was fun to watch tonight.

They were very fun to watch. I love how they push the ball up the floor every possession. I also like how they rarely take their foot off the gas. Even when the should be draining the clock, they are still looking to score, and aren't bashful about it. Exciting.

Just curious: Does anyone know if there are any kids from Minnewauken on the roster?

[heimer]

Anyone want to join the broadcast team as a floor reporter tonight? I have a color commentator, but could use a third man/woman on the team. Any takers?

[winner-within]

I think the one thing people miss with FW's is that they are true Ballers in the sense of their football team isn't good and that they live a die for the sport of BBall.....In MN they're considered a "treat" to watch and MN has Red Lake....four winds brings a mix of flare to the game yet can play disciplined ball when they want.....but you can tell these guys have spent a lot of time together on the Hard Court....and I would go on to say their program has come a long ways when it comes to being able to dominate and that is because of their Coach IMO.....Fw's wasn't know for executing the way they do now days....they were way more free lanced at one time.....I do not think that there is an advantage with their enrollment or anything like that....I believe their advantage is created by the time and effort they spend playing Basketball and their Coach....I will go on to say that they look naturally gifted in the sport.....each one of them.

[Old Drifter]

Friday, March 18th
G5: Strasburg/Zeeland (20-5) vs. Grafton (17-9)
Grafton was impressive but the spoilers couldn't spoil. Strasburg has some shooter and looks like they have some good strength.
Strasburg/Zeland
G6: Northern Cass (18-6) vs. Kenmare (21-4)
#2 for Northern Cass is a good player. He and #14 will give Kenmare fits. They will be the difference for Northern Cass is they pull it off. Kenmare has a deeper bench and does line changes about every dead ball. Kenmare should warm up now in the tournament after ending their 18 game winning streak and getting out sized and out muscled by Trinity. Once the Rodin boys start hitting their shots they will be much tougher to stop. Unfortunately for Kenmare they didn't shoot very well at all last night.
Kenmare
G7: #2 Shiloh Christian (23-2) vs. #3 Our Redeemer's (25-1)
Shiloh Christian needs Coulter to shoot better this game to have a chance. Reiten and Vanlith should carry Our Redeemers though.
Our Redeemers
G8: #1 Four Winds-Minnewaukan (24-1) vs. #4 Dickinson Trinity (21-4)
Very impressed with Dickinson Trinity. Held Kenmare to their lowest scoring of the season. Their big men are really good. They play very good fundamental basketball. Four Winds is extremely athletic and they can shoot. But they looked lazy last night. Trinity's size will kill Four Winds, again.
Dickinson Trinity

1 outa 4...your shooting 25% so far....

[Old Drifter]

Agreed, EHS1998. If I had to choose one player to pick from FW/M, it would be Three Irons.

same here...what does he go??? 5'11" at the most?....that kid has cajones....puts it on the floor and backs right into the 6'6"-6'7"-6'8" kids and scores probably 7 outa 10 times...takes it right at em....That's how you play ball...does the Superman bit when introduced...and after watching all the teams and players so far....he's the only kid who can.....

[classB4ever]

I think the one thing people miss with FW's is that they are true Ballers in the sense of their football team isn't good and that they live a die for the sport of BBall.....In MN they're considered a "treat" to watch and MN has Red Lake....four winds brings a mix of flare to the game yet can play disciplined ball when they want.....but you can tell these guys have spent a lot of time together on the Hard Court....and I would go on to say their program has come a long ways when it comes to being able to dominate and that is because of their Coach IMO.....Fw's wasn't know for executing the way they do now days....they were way more free lanced at one time.....I do not think that there is an advantage with their enrollment or anything like that....I believe their advantage is created by the time and effort they spend playing Basketball and their Coach....I will go on to say that they look naturally gifted in the sport.....each one of them.

There is no question they are ballers. They will be traveling for tourneys in the next 2 weeks following the B. And will be on the road after that nonstop until next bb season starts. Have been following them for many years. The Smith's are great coaches and demand discipline. They have done a great job with the team. Won't get into an argument about their enrollment but they are by far the biggest in Region 4 and nobody will touch them for years in the region. Basketball drives their school. No showing in football. Just being honest. Unfortunate they don't get the same showing for the other sports.

[ndlionsfan]

Just curious: Does anyone know if there are any kids from Minnewauken on the roster?

I know ThreeIrons goes to school in Mwkn. Not 100%, but I think Feather might, too.

[north1]

My God, I hope the refs get their you know what together cause that first quarter was brutal.

[CC1983]

My God, I hope the refs get their you know what together cause that first quarter was brutal.

It surprises me hat they let a region 4 ref do the championship game with a region 4 team playing.

[NDSportsFan]

Congrats to Four Winds-Minnewaukan. They definitely played like the best team in the state.

[ndlionsfan]

9,251 for attendance tonight. Pretty good crowd.

[bsoldiergirl]

Congrats to Four Winds-Minnewaukan. They definitely played like the best team in the state.

I absolutely agree...They had a mission tonight and nobody was going to stop them!!

[Bison-Vikes #1]

I think the one thing people miss with FW's is that they are true Ballers in the sense of their football team isn't good and that they live a die for the sport of BBall. .I do not think that there is an advantage with their enrollment or anything like that.....

Yes, they can play ball and they work their butts off. But their numbers are very important as well. Apologize for cutting your message short but trying to save space.

[RedDirtFan]

Congrats to FWM. What they've built in that community is something all of us hope to see at some point in our own rural parts of the state. I also want to comment on how well each kid can handle the ball. So many teams struggle just to find one great ballhandler, and FWM has so many. They are extremely fun to watch.

[Magic74]

What a great game and I would reiterate FWs were really fun to watch. The way they play defense is phenomenal. Ball handling, ball hawking, on the floor for every ball, it was a tremendous display of total basketball. Their shooting was also tremendous. And yes, you don't get that kind of basketball without playing all the time. They have to be on the court and doing the right kind of drills to develop to that level of basketball at the high school level. Most players are not that committed to one sport as they are involved in other sports. ND was treated to a level of basketball that I would say is uncommon to the state of ND for the aforementioned reason. Thanks Four Winds and Coach Smith, it was pure joy to watch.

[scruffy]

Great team. Nice to see them finally get over the hump! Where's all the complaining about being a large school and how they dominate their region? What would you be talking about today if they were a private school with over 200 kids? Isn't it a two way street or do some just want to complain when it's convenient for them?

[leroybla]

Great team. Nice to see them finally get over the hump! Where's all the complaining about being a large school and how they dominate their region? What would you be talking about today if they were a private school with over 200 kids? Isn't it a two way street or do some just want to complain when it's convenient for them?

The distinction has always been about private schools in LARGE ND CITIES.

[4mrnative]

...or maybe it's a credit to the Region 4 teams and fans that they aren't complaining.
"Isn't it a two way street or do some just want to complain when it's convenient for them?"
Exactly who is complaining on this one?
Congrats to the Four Winds team and community. They've worked long and hard to establish what others have observed in previous posts. Well done. Magic, I think you described it perfectly.

[Howie]

A few comments from this weekends state tournament.
1. My post about the reffing seemed to be misunderstood. The reffing this weekend (with the exception of the first half of the title game imo) was very fair, didn't seem one sided. My comment made during the first day was in reference to the belief, if it's a foul in the first game of the year it should be a foul in the last game of the year. I understand that people say "let the kids play". They should be allowed to "play" all year. Traveling is incorrectly called a lot, and travels are not called a lot. They need to have a point of emphasis on this in the future imo.
2. I really enjoyed watching this year's state tournament, a lot of impressive kids on all the teams. The one on one skills of players are getting so good that it's getting tough to be able to guard them. Most people probably didn't like FWM "stall" game in the second halfs, but it wasn't stalling, they have so many kids with good ball skills that they would wait for a team to defend the dribble hand off incorrectly and then they would exploit it. That was so impressive to me.
3. There is definitely a need for a 3 class system (more on this later). Strasburg and Kenmare would be what I would consider smaller class b towns. When I saw Strasburg pull up for the last session I saw their ONLY coach, driving his team in a MINI bus. I thought this was an awesome representation of what small towns go through on a day to day basis.
4. I'm a big believer in the separation of church and state, but if they want to pray after the game that's ok by me, I'm not so sure about putting it on display at a public institution tournament. I'm sure I'll get a ton of back lash from this, but I'm entitled to my opinion. The main reason I bring this up bring me back to two points I witnessed this weekend. The first, if you are going to scream and yell and celebrate in an opponents face (I know he was excited and rightfully so) and then ask him to come pray with you its kind of talking out of both sides of your mouth. If you're going to send your child (a player on the team) to a Christian school and during his games you proceed to taunt opposing players and flip off an entire crowd in a game that's on state wide television (and you could have been captured doing this on tv) are you setting a very good, Christian example?
5. If a 3 class system passes the district chair meeting with a vote of 14 to 2, something better be done by the NDHSAA. Remember, it's not about the money, it's about the KIDS.

[thefourwinds]

A few comments from this weekends state tournament.
1. My post about the reffing seemed to be misunderstood. The reffing this weekend (with the exception of the first half of the title game imo) was very fair, didn't seem one sided. My comment made during the first day was in reference to the belief, if it's a foul in the first game of the year it should be a foul in the last game of the year. I understand that people say "let the kids play". They should be allowed to "play" all year. Traveling is incorrectly called a lot, and travels are not called a lot. They need to have a point of emphasis on this in the future imo.

3. There is definitely a need for a 3 class system (more on this later). Strasburg and Kenmare would be what I would consider smaller class b towns. When I saw Strasburg pull up for the last session I saw their ONLY coach, driving his team in a MINI bus. I thought this was an awesome representation of what small towns go through on a day to day basis.

4. I'm a big believer in the separation of church and state, but if they want to pray after the game that's ok by me, I'm not so sure about putting it on display at a public institution tournament. I'm sure I'll get a ton of back lash from this, but I'm entitled to my opinion. The main reason I bring this up bring me back to two points I witnessed this weekend. The first, if you are going to scream and yell and celebrate in an opponents face (I know he was excited and rightfully so) and then ask him to come pray with you its kind of talking out of both sides of your mouth. If you're going to send your child (a player on the team) to a Christian school and during his games you proceed to taunt opposing players and flip off an entire crowd in a game that's on state wide television (and you could have been captured doing this on tv) are you setting a very good, Christian example?

Re: 1. I think if you thought the first half of the title game was poorly reffed, then you are seriously one-sided. Everyone of those fouls was legitimate, it's just that most refs let hacking teams hack away. ORCS had been penalized all year because of their characteristically clean defense, so fouls would often get lopsided, and then the refs just would stop calling fouls against the other team, because it might look too lopsided. The one ref in their quarterfinal game against S/Z actually told the ORCS coach that he couldn't do anything about calling more fouls because S/Z already had 7 team fouls and ORCS only had 2. That is the only kind of reffing that really ticks me off, because that is when kids start getting hurt (because of uncalled fouls) and that often leads to tempers flaring as well. That kind of reffing ought to be shamed and exposed.

Now, I credit FW/M for adjusting their play in the second half, and they skillfully got ORCS out of their own game. But that is what good reffing ought to do, which is to make good teams win on skill and not on cheap fouling that never gets called.

As for Kenmare playing the game "the way it should be played," ask any of the coaches and players who have to play against them and you will find out that Kenmare has quickly become the dirtiest team in Class B, and they seem proud of it.

Re: 3, the S/Z coach driving their team bus, that's what the ORCS coach has had to do nearly every year until finally this year a volunteer from the school helped out with driving. Oh, and the coach is also the athletic director for the school

Re: 4, you're acting as if you don't want to call anyone out, but the only team that was inviting others to pray at the end of the games was ORCS. So are you saying it was an ORCS player that was flipping off people? It was an ORCS player that was getting in the opponents' faces in taunting? If you're going to imply it, you may as well come out and say it. If it was from a different team, why don't you say so?

Also, regarding this topic, it might help you to know that Christianity is not about being perfect. It is about being honest with yourself that you are not perfect, and that you are dependent on the grace of God for everything, including the ability to rein in one's own selfish behavior, and the grace to be forgiven if you confess and repent.

Finally, regarding this topic, yes, you're entitled to your opinion and you're entitled to express it. But just being entitled to express it doesn't mean everyone has to agree with you either.

[bisonation6]

A few comments from this weekends state tournament.
1. My post about the reffing seemed to be misunderstood. The reffing this weekend (with the exception of the first half of the title game imo) was very fair, didn't seem one sided. My comment made during the first day was in reference to the belief, if it's a foul in the first game of the year it should be a foul in the last game of the year. I understand that people say "let the kids play". They should be allowed to "play" all year. Traveling is incorrectly called a lot, and travels are not called a lot. They need to have a point of emphasis on this in the future imo.

3. There is definitely a need for a 3 class system (more on this later). Strasburg and Kenmare would be what I would consider smaller class b towns. When I saw Strasburg pull up for the last session I saw their ONLY coach, driving his team in a MINI bus. I thought this was an awesome representation of what small towns go through on a day to day basis.

4. I'm a big believer in the separation of church and state, but if they want to pray after the game that's ok by me, I'm not so sure about putting it on display at a public institution tournament. I'm sure I'll get a ton of back lash from this, but I'm entitled to my opinion. The main reason I bring this up bring me back to two points I witnessed this weekend. The first, if you are going to scream and yell and celebrate in an opponents face (I know he was excited and rightfully so) and then ask him to come pray with you its kind of talking out of both sides of your mouth. If you're going to send your child (a player on the team) to a Christian school and during his games you proceed to taunt opposing players and flip off an entire crowd in a game that's on state wide television (and you could have been captured doing this on tv) are you setting a very good, Christian example?

Re: 1. I think if you thought the first half of the title game was poorly reffed, then you are seriously one-sided. Everyone of those fouls was legitimate, it's just that most refs let hacking teams hack away. ORCS had been penalized all year because of their characteristically clean defense, so fouls would often get lopsided, and then the refs just would stop calling fouls against the other team, because it might look too lopsided. The one ref in their quarterfinal game against S/Z actually told the ORCS coach that he couldn't do anything about calling more fouls because S/Z already had 7 team fouls and ORCS only had 2. That is the only kind of reffing that really ticks me off, because that is when kids start getting hurt (because of uncalled fouls) and that often leads to tempers flaring as well. That kind of reffing ought to be shamed and exposed.

Now, I credit FW/M for adjusting their play in the second half, and they skillfully got ORCS out of their own game. But that is what good reffing ought to do, which is to make good teams win on skill and not on cheap fouling that never gets called.

As for Kenmare playing the game "the way it should be played," ask any of the coaches and players who have to play against them and you will find out that Kenmare has quickly become the dirtiest team in Class B, and they seem proud of it.

Re: 3, the S/Z coach driving their team bus, that's what the ORCS coach has had to do nearly every year until finally this year a volunteer from the school helped out with driving. Oh, and the coach is also the athletic director for the school

Re: 4, you're acting as if you don't want to call anyone out, but the only team that was inviting others to pray at the end of the games was ORCS. So are you saying it was an ORCS player that was flipping off people? It was an ORCS player that was getting in the opponents' faces in taunting? If you're going to imply it, you may as well come out and say it. If it was from a different team, why don't you say so?

Also, regarding this topic, it might help you to know that Christianity is not about being perfect. It is about being honest with yourself that you are not perfect, and that you are dependent on the grace of God for everything, including the ability to rein in one's own selfish behavior, and the grace to be forgiven if you confess and repent.

Finally, regarding this topic, yes, you're entitled to your opinion and you're entitled to express it. But just being entitled to express it doesn't mean everyone has to agree with you either.

First, how busy can the Our Redeemer's athletic director be? They have four teams. Haha.

Other than that, Howie, your reasoning is dumb. Just because you are Christian doesn't mean you are gonna be perfect. The game is going on so of course the kids will be fired up.
However, the beauty is that once the game is over, it is over. It's just a ballgame and life goes on one way or the other and the ORCS kids display that notion perfectly. Obviously, the kids are gonna explode when something good happens for their team even if they are Christian. When the game ends though,life is life again and the players, coaches, and fans are all one. I know of so many teams in North Dakota who are huge rivals in sports and battle in the biggest of games, yet have deep friendships off the court, field, ice, etc. There isn't friendship between the lines, but when it's all said and done, all that changes. Someone has to win and someone has to lose. That's life.

And yes, Kenmare is one of the dirtiest teams in the state now.

And I didn't see any poor sportsmanship for the ORCS players last night. When did the fans taunt the other team? If anybody, it was the Four Winds fans taunting ORCS.