Best Class B Team Not To Win State.

[north_border_eagles2106]

I know they beat North Border in the semi-final game due to come ridiculous free throw shooting in the fourth quarter and I think they beat Cavalier or Park River in the first round. I can't remember for sure on the first round though.

That was the most stacked region the state has ever had. During the first day of state games when they were covering MPCG's game the announcers said you could take the 1-4 teams from Region 2 and put them in separate regions and they all more than likely would've made it to state. I remember Fordville beat Thompson and North Border during the year, Thompson beat MPCG, and North Border beat MPCG and Thompson in the season. Then NB beat Fordville in the district championship game by 1 and MPCG beat Thompson in the district championship game in a close one. I think at one time all 4 teams (NB, MPCG, Thompson, Fordville-Lankin) were ranked in the top 5 in the state and were all in the top ten in the final regular season poll.

[north_border_eagles2106]

1994 Fordville Lankin too. They were picked by the hoopster to win it all. Lost the region championship game to a team they had beat earlier in the year by over 20 I believe. I'm sure "Flying Wallenda" would know but I believe that's how it went down.

[north_border_eagles2106]

Cando lead North Border in the championship game???? what was the score 2-0. North Border lead from beginning to end.


2002 Thompson and North Border would of wond state also.

Cando led 6-0 to start the game. Cando led 15-8 late in the first quarter. North Border's big second quarter was the result of a beyond-half-court three-pointer at the first quarter buzzer by Warren Eagan. That's when the tide turned. North Border nearly coughed up a sizable lead when it got within five points at 55-50, but they didn't give up the lead. There you go...

yep the three pointer is what won North Border the game (come on), the tide turned and the Titanic sunk,

How did they get a sizable lead off of one three pointer, you mean after, a beyond the half court shot Cando just threw in the towel ,with a Kid that was 6'9" and a team that had harldy lost any games, if any all year long,
to tell you the truth those two team would beat any team that has won the state tounament since!! period.
it was a heavey wieght boxing match with tremendous talent !!!!!!!!!!!!

wrong

Ok, Ok, Ok let met try to mediate some of this. At some point in the third quarter we were ahead by 20. The box-and-one against Lindahl using our guards like Defoe, Eagan, Delude, Tryan in shifts didn't "shut down" Evan Lindahl but it frustrated him and got into his head. He had 24 points and 17 rebounds in the game so I don't think any NB fan can say we "shut him down". Also I believe when Warren hit that shot it pulled is from down 15-11 to down 15-14.

Nathan Carrier and Dennis Delude kept us in the game on offense. Aaron Mitchell had one of the worst shooting nights of his life in that game and until Jonathon Lindahl started hitting three's Cando was no match for us that night. Another big momentum play was when sophomore Anthony Chaput came in right before half and hit a three to give us a more comfortable lead and if anyone not in the Cando section wasn't cheering for us already, they were after that.

Cando was an amazing team and we all knew they were going to make a run. Our guys weathered the storm and came up with big baskets to keep the lead for us. The big play in the second half for us was when Matt Defoe threw a perfect baseball pass to Dennis Delude for a lay-up coming out of a time-out. Also to get to the championship game we beat Fargo Oak Grove, (defending champs with everybody important back) Dickinson Trinity (always good) and then play number 1 ranked and undefeated Cando. Going into state the big talk was that the only team that had a chance to stop Cando was Oak Grove and once they lost everyone (but us) thought it was over.

After the nail-biter against MPCG the guys really showed us they had were good enough to win it by completely running Fordville-Lankin off the court 80-53. Fordville had beat us earlier that year by about 15 but were upset in districts so we didn't see them again until regionals.

As far as saying they would beat any of the state champions since then, I could agree there. The 2 MPCG teams and New Rockford in 2005 would've been the toughest to beat but other than that I don't think the others would be much of a problem.

[GRIDIRON GURU]

I had to go back and read the whole thread but I did not see the 1985 Newburg team. They lost to Linton in overtime they were absolutly loaded with talent.

The 1986 Page team was loaded too, they were upset by Oak Grove in regionals.

[roison33]

About 2001 NB eagle....you didn't even mention Bonaime, who I thought played the best on the team that game. And I'm not sure, but I believe Oak Grove lost Nick Hall (1st All-State) that would be a big difference from the championship team. Another point is people think very highly of LIndahl and Cando. Lindahl is HIGHLY overrated on here. I've seen people mention him as one of the best ever and it actually makes me mad. He was a very good player, but Robert Lawrence from Warwick was a better player than Lindahl (but different topic). Cando was undefeated, but they almost lost in Regionals to Wells Co. in the first or second round. Not what I call a dominant team. I would take '03 Mayville against any team this decade: two MR. BB finalists (one being one of the best PG from the state EVER, the other is 6' 10" post) Side note: F-L was missing an all-district player (car accident before the game) in districts in 2002 when NB beat them. I think most people believe they were the better team that year. But like I said before, both could have won state that year. I'll even throw in some more from 2001: Griggs Co., Central Valley, DP, and F-L all could have won state. You probably guessed it already: I played those years in that region and thats my $.02.

[north_border_eagles2106]

About 2001 NB eagle....you didn't even mention Bonaime, who I thought played the best on the team that game. And I'm not sure, but I believe Oak Grove lost Nick Hall (1st All-State) that would be a big difference from the championship team. Another point is people think very highly of LIndahl and Cando. Lindahl is HIGHLY overrated on here. I've seen people mention him as one of the best ever and it actually makes me mad. He was a very good player, but Robert Lawrence from Warwick was a better player than Lindahl (but different topic). Cando was undefeated, but they almost lost in Regionals to Wells Co. in the first or second round. Not what I call a dominant team. I would take '03 Mayville against any team this decade: two MR. BB finalists (one being one of the best PG from the state EVER, the other is 6' 10" post) Side note: F-L was missing an all-district player (car accident before the game) in districts in 2002 when NB beat them. I think most people believe they were the better team that year. But like I said before, both could have won state that year. I'll even throw in some more from 2001: Griggs Co., Central Valley, DP, and F-L all could have won state. You probably guessed it already: I played those years in that region and thats my $.02.

Yeah Bonaime was huge, he had one of those games where at the end you didn't think he had that many points but had a quite double double. He got a lot of points at the free throw line and was our best free throw shooter that year.

I am pretty sure Nick Hall still played for Oak Grove that year but I guess unless I watched the tape (again) I couldn't say for sure. They still had Aaron Ankrum and Sean Keating who were 6'5 and 6'6. I forget the name of their swing man but he had like a 38 inch vertical (remember the announcers talking about that) and was the most athletic player in the tournament. They were still a good team. So Cando Cando had ONE close game in regionals, big deal! That doesn't mean they aren't a "dominant" team caues of one game. We only beat MPCG by 2 that year in the first round too. I'll agree with Griggs Co. Central I think they were ranked top 5 all year and got "upset" by Central Valley on a buzzer beater. CV had a great team that year with Hong and the Olsons. Dakota Prairie had loads of talent too.

2003 MPCG was a great team but Kyle Nelson was good because of Craig in HS. His numbers were impressive because all he had to do was catch the ball and turn with the ball by his head and shoot over everyone. If we would've done to Nelson what we did to Lindahl I know he'd get just as flustered and wouldnt've hit his average. People say Lindahl is overrated but I think Nelson is too. Lindahl had an all-around game. Nelson was good, but only from about 10 feet and in.

I will agree that Fordville-Lankin was more talented than us in 2002. The only thing we had going for us is that we are a tournament team and they had been notorious for getting upset come tournament time no matter how much talent they had. Had Chuck Helland been able to play normal during tournaments I guarantee they would've gone to state that year. He was so much better than most people knew and was a great all-around player. The only reason we could've won had we both won the semi-finals would've been coaching.

[ndlionsfan]

I disagree with your analysis on Kyle Nelson. Yeah, having a point guard like Craig on the team definitely helped, but Kyle was a pretty darn good player, too. He did a lot more than just turn and shoot over everyone. He worked hard at getting good position inside and had good fundamentals with the ball. Yeah, we wasn't a scoring threat like LIndahl that could go inside and out, plus take you to the hoop as well, but he was an excellent post up/back to the basket center.

[duke_boy90]

I had to go back and read the whole thread but I did not see the 1985 Newburg team. They lost to Linton in overtime they were absolutly loaded with talent.

The 1986 Page team was loaded too, they were upset by Oak Grove in regionals.

I'll also throw in Ellendale from 1985. Lost two games the entire year. Linton by 1 in the last reg. season game and Linton by 1 or 2 in the first round of the state. Ended up getting 5th

[roison33]

I agree with you about big Nelson's offensive skills, but I was actually talking about him on defense which was MPCG forte'...once you got by their perimeter defense he was very intimidating when you thought about going to the hole. He is the only guy that has blocked me two feet away while I did a fade away...and he hardly jumped. Brian Bell also did that to me but I didn't fade away b/c I had no idea he could jump that high that quick, it was nuts. I don't know if he played college anywhere but he should have, great defender. Anyway, I've played against Lindahl and he was a slow defender and he didn't block very many shots, he just seemed like he didn't care on that end of the court. On offense he stood at the 3 line the whole time when he coulda killed us inside, it didn't make sense but I suppose he was developing himself for college.

I didn't mean to take anything away from NB by saying that about Cando, I WOULD say NB had a dominant team by the end of the year. I just feel like Cando was highly overrated and it really wasn't an upset b/c NB had more talent, despite what their respective records were going into the championship

[Flying Wallenda]

1994 Fordville Lankin too. They were picked by the hoopster to win it all. Lost the region championship game to a team they had beat earlier in the year by over 20 I believe. I'm sure "Flying Wallenda" would know but I believe that's how it went down.

Fordville-Lankin lost to Drayton/St.Thomas in regional title...they beat them twice in the regular season by about 20, lost to them once by a couple, then lost to them in the regional by about 5...Drayton/St. THomas didn't fair well at state, taking 6th I believe.

[ndlionsfan]

Wasn't it St Thomas/Valley instead of Drayton/St Thomas? I think that coop came along many years later.

[winner-within]

Wasn't it St Thomas/Valley instead of Drayton/St Thomas? I think that coop came along many years later.

Yes it was St.Thomas/Valley then and they had a real nice team, although I think the topic, and no Offense, should read "real good teams that just didn't make it"

[winner-within]

1994 Fordville Lankin too. They were picked by the hoopster to win it all. Lost the region championship game to a team they had beat earlier in the year by over 20 I believe. I'm sure "Flying Wallenda" would know but I believe that's how it went down.

Fordville-Lankin lost to Drayton/St.Thomas in regional title...they beat them twice in the regular season by about 20, lost to them once by a couple, then lost to them in the regional by about 5...Drayton/St. THomas didn't fair well at state, taking 6th I believe.

I have listened to allot of talk on this Forum about Fordville/Lankin, Fordville/Lankin and I will say this much, in regards to this particular Topic (best team etc. etc.) the 1983-84 Team of Lankin-Adams would blow any Fordville/Lankin team off the map!! No Question's asked.

[north_border_eagles2106]

1994 Fordville Lankin too. They were picked by the hoopster to win it all. Lost the region championship game to a team they had beat earlier in the year by over 20 I believe. I'm sure "Flying Wallenda" would know but I believe that's how it went down.

Fordville-Lankin lost to Drayton/St.Thomas in regional title...they beat them twice in the regular season by about 20, lost to them once by a couple, then lost to them in the regional by about 5...Drayton/St. THomas didn't fair well at state, taking 6th I believe.

I have listened to allot of talk on this Forum about Fordville/Lankin, Fordville/Lankin and I will say this much, in regards to this particular Topic (best team etc. etc.) the 1983-84 Team of Lankin-Adams would blow any Fordville/Lankin team off the map!! No Question's asked.

Was Mitch Carlson on that team? He was AMAZING.

[winner-within]

1994 Fordville Lankin too. They were picked by the hoopster to win it all. Lost the region championship game to a team they had beat earlier in the year by over 20 I believe. I'm sure "Flying Wallenda" would know but I believe that's how it went down.

Fordville-Lankin lost to Drayton/St.Thomas in regional title...they beat them twice in the regular season by about 20, lost to them once by a couple, then lost to them in the regional by about 5...Drayton/St. THomas didn't fair well at state, taking 6th I believe.

I have listened to allot of talk on this Forum about Fordville/Lankin, Fordville/Lankin and I will say this much, in regards to this particular Topic (best team etc. etc.) the 1983-84 Team of Lankin-Adams would blow any Fordville/Lankin team off the map!! No Question's asked.

Was Mitch Carlson on that team? He was AMAZING.

actually Mitch graduated in 1982, 2 years before the two Towns merged, in 83' Lankin went to the Regional Finals and lost to Munich by about 6 points, Adams had a great squad in 83' and then they merged, it was the year they brought in the 3 point Basket, although it took time for teams to use it, Lankin/Adams didn't make a huge impression at state but they made it there with the new team, they were real fast and had size inside, these two towns had trouble seeing eye to eye and the co-op dissolved after two or three seasons I believe.

[classB4ever]

To say that Evan Lindahl was overrated, is not fair in my book. If I remember correctly, he was up for Mr. Basketball with career numbers of +2000 points & +1000 rebounds. Not sure of how many years he started, but assume 4 years at an average of 25 games a year, for 100 high school games. That leaves a 20 point / 10 rebound average for 4 years. Kind of hard to be overrated with those kinds of numbers.

[winner-within]

To say that Evan Lindahl was overrated, is not fair in my book. If I remember correctly, he was up for Mr. Basketball with career numbers of +2000 points & +1000 rebounds. Not sure of how many years he started, but assume 4 years at an average of 25 games a year, for 100 high school games. That leaves a 20 point / 10 rebound average for 4 years. Kind of hard to be overrated with those kinds of numbers.

Oh yea, on this Forum you will see players rated as "the best ever", or "best in the state", and if you research it they probably never even played collage ball, But Even play's at UND and contributes well and gets classified as Overrated. It isnt everyday a 6'9" kid that can play 3 spots at Collage comes along in ND.

[roison33]

You've got to realize he I say he is overrated in the context of being considered one of the greatest players in the state all time. I've played against him, and he wasn't I'd say he is 4th on my list on players I've seen and played against in just a 5-year period: 1)Robert Lawrence (nobody talks about him, avg 26 n 14, very efficient, probably shot 60% from the field) 2. Travis Kraft (the most talented on the list at 6' 7", handled the ball like a point, shot from 25 ft, over 30/10/5/5stls ) 3. craig nelson (still swear to this day his dad had some chip in his head controlling every decision he did out there) 4. Evan Lindahl ( great size and skills). Lindahl had a great career, but if you compare their senior years at their best, I think this is a fair list. So when I see people claiming he is one of the best ever from this state and he ranks 4th in a short 5 year period, YES, I think he is overrated.

[roison33]

BTW, I am JUST talking about HS and haven't played Evan since HS, so if you include college he is definitely higher, but I wasn't. He did have a good career at UND and I'm proud to see a ND product do well in college.

[winner-within]

BTW, I am JUST talking about HS and haven't played Evan since HS, so if you include college he is definitely higher, but I wasn't. He did have a good career at UND and I'm proud to see a ND product do well in college.

[classB4ever]

Ok people, back it up. Give me one person since the year 2000 that has scored over 2000 points, had over 1000 rebounds, and for good measure bent a rim or shattered a backboard? I cannot tell you whether or not he could have been more aggressive, as I didn't see him play enough to remark on that. But irregardless, the numbers he put up were stellar. And since you can't put players from various generations side by side for comparison, all we have are numbers. How many 6'-9" kids could shoot from long range and move and run the court like he could? Could he have been more dominant? Probably.
However, you are saying he should have been so much better rather then giving him the props for being as good as he was. Just my own opinion.

[Run4Fun2009]

About 2001 NB eagle....you didn't even mention Bonaime, who I thought played the best on the team that game. And I'm not sure, but I believe Oak Grove lost Nick Hall (1st All-State) that would be a big difference from the championship team. Another point is people think very highly of LIndahl and Cando. Lindahl is HIGHLY overrated on here. I've seen people mention him as one of the best ever and it actually makes me mad. He was a very good player, but Robert Lawrence from Warwick was a better player than Lindahl (but different topic). Cando was undefeated, but they almost lost in Regionals to Wells Co. in the first or second round. Not what I call a dominant team. I would take '03 Mayville against any team this decade: two MR. BB finalists (one being one of the best PG from the state EVER, the other is 6' 10" post) Side note: F-L was missing an all-district player (car accident before the game) in districts in 2002 when NB beat them. I think most people believe they were the better team that year. But like I said before, both could have won state that year. I'll even throw in some more from 2001: Griggs Co., Central Valley, DP, and F-L all could have won state. You probably guessed it already: I played those years in that region and thats my $.02.

Yeah Bonaime was huge, he had one of those games where at the end you didn't think he had that many points but had a quite double double. He got a lot of points at the free throw line and was our best free throw shooter that year.

I am pretty sure Nick Hall still played for Oak Grove that year but I guess unless I watched the tape (again) I couldn't say for sure. They still had Aaron Ankrum and Sean Keating who were 6'5 and 6'6. I forget the name of their swing man but he had like a 38 inch vertical (remember the announcers talking about that) and was the most athletic player in the tournament. They were still a good team. So Cando Cando had ONE close game in regionals, big deal! That doesn't mean they aren't a "dominant" team caues of one game. We only beat MPCG by 2 that year in the first round too. I'll agree with Griggs Co. Central I think they were ranked top 5 all year and got "upset" by Central Valley on a buzzer beater. CV had a great team that year with Hong and the Olsons. Dakota Prairie had loads of talent too.

2003 MPCG was a great team but Kyle Nelson was good because of Craig in HS. His numbers were impressive because all he had to do was catch the ball and turn with the ball by his head and shoot over everyone. If we would've done to Nelson what we did to Lindahl I know he'd get just as flustered and wouldnt've hit his average. People say Lindahl is overrated but I think Nelson is too. Lindahl had an all-around game. Nelson was good, but only from about 10 feet and in.

I will agree that Fordville-Lankin was more talented than us in 2002. The only thing we had going for us is that we are a tournament team and they had been notorious for getting upset come tournament time no matter how much talent they had. Had Chuck Helland been able to play normal during tournaments I guarantee they would've gone to state that year. He was so much better than most people knew and was a great all-around player. The only reason we could've won had we both won the semi-finals would've been coaching.

2001 - Nick Hall was on the team

[winner-within]

It was the 1986 GU rattlers 23-1 lost to belfield 74-72 in regional Championship. Beat Mandan and Bismarck St. Marys that season both qualified for State A.
Kevin Gerving - all state
Doug Gerving All state
Corey Wilhelm All state
Jeff Meissner - played at UND W
and a host of others that filled the 5 hole.
In 1987 The Rattlers made it to state and lost to eventual champ Mayport in 1st round at the buzzer. That team beat then Class A grafton by 14 (Herbel, Krajewski(LSU), Jacobson) that finished third at the state class A.
Starters were the same with exception of K. Gerving. All totaled for those 2 years 49-2.
Glen Ullin did go to state in 1984 and finished 4th with a lesser team than these. All totaled 1983-1991 GU had 9 straight district Champs (state record) 3 regional champs and 6 regional champ appearances not a bad run when regions had alot more teams in them at the time. Oh how the mighty have fallen.

who was their coach?...was it the same coach for years?...Wow! that's an impressive story line during an era when making it to state was a huge challenge (much harder than today)....it also shows that in the midst of 3-class talk we are much closer to go to 1 class then 3.

[ndlionsfan]

Was there another team in their region that was tough to beat during that time? You'd think with 9 straight district titles they would have gone to state more than twice. I know there were 3 districts in each region back at that time, too.

[Applegrany]

I don’t get it. Bob Allard is quoted in this article and made out to be something special. The reality is he and his team lost and that is the bottom line. I get that they came from a smaller school. So what? They had equal players and they lost. Somehow he is made out to be something special for losing. His team should have won and they did not. He and his team were not good enough. Plain and simple. The really sad thing is this has become the highlight of his life. Really? A high school basketball game? He even has a picture of himself in the game on his Facebook page today. Seriously? Has anyone seen the Rob Lowe commercial “Peaked in High School?” If you haven’t, take a look and you will see Bob Allard. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCPKLcM_O2Q Sad, very sad. I think being a loser in the game set the stage for the rest of his life.