Rochester player notes

One of the best places to experience March Madness high school style is the Mayo Civic Center in Rochester. On the second Saturday of March you can get into the Arena and see five or six games of solid basketball. This past weekend several talented teams and players were on display and most impressive was 6-foot-11 Winona big Alec Brown.

New Prague vs. Red Wing

Although I missed 90 percent of this game I was able to see 6-foot-2 New Prague guard Danny Geiger score part of his game high 17 points. I will confess that for over a year I have been confusing the name of Geiger for 6-foot-6 senior Conner O'Brien who leads the Trojans in scoring on the season but had only eight points in this victory. Both Geiger and O'Brien put forth strong efforts to get the win and O'Brien is a pretty mobile player up front who scores 19.4 a contest. The defense of New Prague was the story as the Trojans held Red Wing to 29 percent shooting for the game.

Hard not to miss 6-foot-10 Red Wing senior center Isaac Oeltjen on the bench for the Wingers. He had some nice performances for Red Wing in December but hasn't played since early January due to a reason I'm not sure of. Don't be surprised to see him show up on a college campus somewhere and make some noise. I wouldn't even be surprised to see him play a little AAU ball this spring or summer if he's healthy enough.

St. Thomas Academy vs. Austin

The Cadets rained 13 treys to end the Packers' season and St. Thomas was also much more physical than Austin. The combination of these two things resulted in a 57-44 STA win ending Austin's year at 18-8. St. Thomas will now face New Prague with a state tournament bid on the line next Friday.

Billy Chapman - Austin's defensive focus was entirely on taking away attempts from Mike Fitzgerald so Chapman stepped up in a major way. Given the room to catch and fire because of a zone scheme Chapman was scorching early and never seemed to cool off. The 5-foot-10 senior guard hit seven three-pointers for the contest finishing with a game high 27 points.

Charlie Aslesen - Later in the first half and into the second Austin went with a "Triangle and Two" defense on Chapman and Fitzgerald and it slowed down the Cadets for several minutes. But in the second half Aslesen, a 6-foot-4 junior forward, stepped up to hit four straight three-point looks and those four field goals put the game out of reach. Aslesen scored 14 points for the Cadets.

Mike Fitzgerald - Austin's defensive focus was on Mike almost the entire game as the Packers shadowed him with a guard constantly. Fitzgerald scored seven points shooting only a handful of times and he played a bigger part just defending Austin's top scorer and rebounding strong. Mike finished with eight boards playing in front of coaches from Air Force and Loyola-Chicago.

Connor Gunderson - Gunderson led the Packers with 13 points for the game. The 6-foot-5 Gunderson is a slender wing with good length, good agility, and solid ball skills for a player his size. Gunderson had the ability to penetrate the St. Thomas defense from the wing to create potential plays.

Goodhue vs. Bethlehem Academy - Goodhue was able to limit BA for 30 minutes using a box and one defense on Chris Palmer. Wildcat senior D.J. Buck was the main man chasing Palmer around and the tactic led to a 17-16 halftime lead for Goodhue. However, with eight minutes to go in the game Goodhue 6-foot-2 275 pound center Dan McNamara picked up his fourth foul and had to sit. From that point on the Cards went on a 10-0 run and blew the game wide open.

Blayne Erie - Expect to hear from 6-foot-3 Blayne Erie this spring and summer from someplace on the Minnesota AAU circuit. Erie, a junior, scored 15 points and grabbed eight boards in the loss. He knocked down one triple and attacked the glass several times to draw contact, hang in the air, and finish. He also has a talented sophomore brother by the name of Ashton Erie.

Chris Palmer - The long time Bethlehem Academy stud scored 13 points and grabbed 11 boards in the 50-33 victory despite being shadow defended from start to finish.

Drew Mathews - Drew stepped up to score almost half his team's points as the allowed space from the Box and One gave him room to produce 24.

Winona vs. Farmington

In January the Tigers crushed Winona by 27 points. They met again last weekend but there was a big difference in the section game and that was 6-foot-11 Winona center Alec Brown. Alec kept his team close and when Farmington couldn't cash in free throws in the final minutes it gave Winona the room to squeak out a 53-51 overtime victory.

Alec Brown - There is a lot to be said about the 6-foot-11 junior with the wingspan of a 747. But perhaps the biggest statistic to look at is the Farmington shooting percentage. This is a team that came into this sectional game winning 13 of their last 14 games, 20-6 overall, and the winner of the Missota Conference. But their final shooting percentage of 36 (16 of 44) is just another example of what the 6-foot-11 Brown can do to opposing offenses. Sure it's a team defensive effort but things are made a lot easier when you have a 6-foot-11 big behind you to clean up any defensive mess. Alec blocked two shots (including a Jake Lippert three-point attempt) but he adjusted five times that many and he made several Farmington players pull-up for jumpers instead of attacking the cup.

Offensively Brown was at his biggest throughout the first half and then down the stretch making free throws. Alec scored a game high 26 points and grabbed 13 rebounds including eight on the offensive end. Brown is quick off his feet and has great timing so he was able to get to loose boards faster than Jamestown commit David Steege of Farmington. Brown's activity on the glass led to three early baskets, he scored another on a back-door alley-opp play, plus Brown caught mid-line several times and scored either with a 12-foot jumper or by putting the ball down and going to the rim. Brown also ran the floor to catch and score a basket and he made all his crucial late free throws including four in OT.

Alec has learning to do and definitely will need to add some strength. When he caught on the low block and tried to score Steege was able to get Brown off balance with simple chest bumps and Brown's attempts would miss their mark. But overall the positives severely outweigh the negatives with this prospect. Alec runs very well for a man his size, he's fairly quick off his feet, and Brown has a nice touch on his shooting stroke. Defensively Alec has a very good concept of the game, he rebounds quite well, has good timing on his shot blocks, and Alec has played his best in big game situations.

Already seeing him play and/or practice has been Washington State, Colorado State, North Dakota State, and Loyola-Chicago. Iowa, Southern Illinois, Santa Clara, and Bucknell are amongst the many teams starting to show interest. There is the potential here for Brown to be one of the top two or three prospects in the state of Minnesota's 2010 class.