Class B versus Class A

[Eminence]

From what I saw, she will be tough to guard. She is more of a slasher and not really a set shooter.  Quick feet.  Doesn't like to bang in the post but has a lot of finese.  You need a tall athletic guard or small forward who is also strong.  She is very smooth and fun to watch. 

[EDC]

How many girls do you know that can touch the rim?  Apparently Shanna Knife can!  What an athlete.  From what I hear she is a great kid also.  She is fun to watch.  I haven't seen her "take over the game" but I would guess she could.  You always want to be ahead enough so she cannot just drive and win the game.  Her and Ashley Privatsky are unstoppable one on one .

[ball23]

How many girls do you know that can touch the rim?  Apparently Shanna Knife can!  What an athlete.  From what I hear she is a great kid also.  She is fun to watch.  I haven't seen her "take over the game" but I would guess she could.  You always want to be ahead enough so she cannot just drive and win the game.  Her and Ashley Privatsky are unstoppable one on one .

Yes I've heard Shaunna Knife can touch the rim which is true, and she is very capable of taking over a game. As a sophomore she just had to work a little bit harder to do that because of different defenses that were put on her, and she played with very little or no help last year so she had to work game in and game out.

[EDC]

What place would Bottineau be if they played in the EDC this Year? Who would they beat?

[BBall dominator]

I think alot of people are sleeping on S. Knife. Literally willed a very very weak belcourt team to somewhat respectability teams actually had to come out hard or she would burn them. On bottineau she doesn't need to do that but I expect a couple of huge games from her. Only seen her play 5 or 6 times but each time she didn't seem selfish as if she was hoping her teammates would help her out. But also knew she was the best player on her team and had to make things happen. Showed how young she was at WDA tournament time though.

[Dynasty]

No offense to any Class B kids/schools but typically.....they can't hang with the A kids. The numbers are just not there to choose from. I agree with one of the posters who said talent wise, the top kids are close. However, it is a rarity to have 5 or 6 top notch players on a B squaud and it's pretty normal to have that many on a top A squad.

I witnessed a perfect example of "B vs. A" just last night at the Mott Lions Tournament. The Mandan Braves "JV" won the 5th place game last night. Now, there were only 8 teams in that tourney, the other 7 teams were not "powerhouse" B teams and 5th place is generally nothing to brag about, but......here is the kicker.....the "JV" team fielded by the Braves was not your typical JV team......

Due to previous committments to attend the Snowball dance, most of the kids were not present for the game. In fact, the Mandan team on the court consisted of 8 8th graders, one freshmen and one sophomore.

Mandan ended up winning by 14, with a score of 57 to 43 (I think that was the final, I was too excited to remember, but I do know it was a 14 pt. victory.) The match up was this Mandan "JV" squad vs. the Grant County Varsity.

Class A schools have just too many talented kids to pick from shearly due to population.

[wahoo]

No offense to any Class B kids/schools but typically.....they can't hang with the A kids. The numbers are just not there to choose from. I agree with one of the posters who said talent wise, the top kids are close. However, it is a rarity to have 5 or 6 top notch players on a B squaud and it's pretty normal to have that many on a top A squad.

I witnessed a perfect example of "B vs. A" just last night at the Mott Lions Tournament. The Mandan Braves "JV" won the 5th place game last night. Now, there were only 8 teams in that tourney, the other 7 teams were not "powerhouse" B teams and 5th place is generally nothing to brag about, but......here is the kicker.....the "JV" team fielded by the Braves was not your typical JV team......

Due to previous committments to attend the Snowball dance, most of the kids were not present for the game. In fact, the Mandan team on the court consisted of 8 8th graders, one freshmen and one sophomore.

Mandan ended up winning by 14, with a score of 57 to 43 (I think that was the final, I was too excited to remember, but I do know it was a 14 pt. victory.) The match up was this Mandan "JV" squad vs. the Grant County Varsity.

Class A schools have just too many talented kids to pick from shearly due to population.

are you kidding. none of these teams are powerhouses. none of them are even rated in the top 30 teams in the state. and there are how many class A teams and how many class B teams? my guess is that there are less than 20 girls in the whole high school at many of these schools and there are how many girls to choose from in Mandan. And how many camps do they attend and how many shootarounds and 3on3s and team camps and tourneys are they able to attend without leaving town and dishing out money for motels gas food?
it is hard to even compare the top B teams to A becasue of all the population and opportunity factors thrown in. but you can never beat class B for their ratio of enthusiatic fan support
good for your 8th graders but how did your jv team end up losing to someone to start with?

[Dynasty]

are you kidding. none of these teams are powerhouses. none of them are even rated in the top 30 teams in the state.

Like I said, they weren't powerhouses. I didn't say they played Bottineau! How do you want me to state it? Do you want me to degrade the teams in that tourney? Look, the point is, Grant Co. did the best they could with what they had. They played hard and never gave up. Again, it's all about numbers.

and there are how many class A teams and how many class B teams? my guess is that there are less than 20 girls in the whole high school at many of these schools and there are how many girls to choose from in Mandan.

That's my point. It's about numbers! If Grant Co. had as many kids to choose from as Mandan their varsity wouldn't lose to a bunch of eigth graders. Could the top ten 8th graders from Minneapolis or New York beat the Mandan Varsity girls or BHS Varsity? I don't know....maybe....it'd be fun to watch!

And how many camps do they attend and how many shootarounds and 3on3s and team camps and tourneys are they able to attend without leaving town and dishing out money for motels gas food?

IMO, this is about committment. The top B players in the state are doing whatever it takes to improve their play....just like the top A players are. They excell because they are committed to the game. Natural ability only takes a person so far. To be on top and stay on top the kids have to work hard ALL year around. This type of committment is what forms a good PROGRAM which in turn develops into a MACHINE....not unlike Bottineau, Mandan, and the other dominant schools. Devils Lake is a good example of an up and coming machine. They start the kids off young, get the older kids involved with the younger ones, set up the tourneys and camps.....they are breeding success so to speak. In other words...if you want to be the best....you have to committ. That includes EVERYONE, the parents, coaches, communities.

it is hard to even compare the top B teams to A becasue of all the population and opportunity factors thrown in.

I agree with the population thing, but again, opportunities are there IF everyone is committed. Trust me, my pocket book suffers as much as the next guy for all this basketball stuff, but it beats a lot of the alternative things my daughter could be in to!

but you can never beat class B for their ratio of enthusiatic fan support

I agree with this to a point. This is one of the advantages of a small community. Lots of relatives, everyone knows everyone, ends up supporting each other. I grew up in small town ND, I know first hand.

good for your 8th graders but how did your jv team end up losing to someone to start with?

Hey, thanks for saying something nice about the 8th graders! They work hard and deserve a pat on the back! What they did last night is something I could only dream of doing when I was in eighth grade....being in Jr. High and beating a Varsity team. They are very lucky, but they work dang hard to help create that "luck". As far as how the JV team(actually it was the sophomore team, they were listed as the JV) lost to start with....I don't know, I wasn't there, but I'm pretty sure they lost cause they didn't score as many points as the other team did! Nobody's perfect....all you can do is strive to improve.

[EDC]

What we all have to remember is this is a TEAM comparison between "A" and "B". It is not a put down of "B" athletes because there are as many in both classes. The "A" athletes are more concentrated. An example: Kristen Killoran from Maple Valley is a great athlete putting up huge scoring numbers this year. MV played Shanley in a 3 on 3 league last year and Shanley won something like 65 to 18. Shanley had three 6 footers and one guard that completely shut down MV and scored at will. Killoran is still a great athlete and player.

[Deuce]

Class B will have a larger discrepancy in teams from top to bottom than Class A. In the Mott tourney there were some good teams like Beach who won it and some not so good teams. As far as it being the Mandan JV, well the paper listed it all week as Mandan Soph and the program also listed it as Mandan Soph. The Mandan Soph team has 3 soph, 4 fresh and 3 eigth graders. The team they lost to was Beach, 62 - 45. Congrats to the Buccaneers and keep up the great free throw shooting. They're young and with Bob Waldal back a the helm I see a bright future for them.

[Deuce]

What we all have to remember is this is a TEAM comparison between "A" and "B". It is not a put down of "B" athletes because there are as many in both classes. The "A" athletes are more concentrated. An example: Kristen Killoran from Maple Valley is a great athlete putting up huge scoring numbers this year. MV played Shanley in a 3 on 3 league last year and Shanley won something like 65 to 18. Shanley had three 6 footers and one guard that completely shut down MV and scored at will. Killoran is still a great athlete and player.

3 on 3 tournaments are heavily geared towards post play in a half court set. Shanley would be tough in that kind of a league.

[EDC]

Any comments after Class "B" tournament?

[tellmeaboutit]

Even as dominate as Bottineau is, there still would be no real competition for most Class A teams. Even if you combined the two best teams in the state (Botno and Bowman County) they wouldn't be competitive.

[ICU]

Even as dominate as Bottineau is, there still would be no real competition for most Class A teams. Even if you combined the two best teams in the state (Botno and Bowman County) they wouldn't be competitive.

And that is why everyone has their own opinion and they speak it well in this forum. I think Botno and Bowman together would play well vs. the class a schools. Mandan and BHS would give them the most trouble, but they would still be competitive.

[g.f.basketball]

Bottineau would easily compete against the majority of Class "A" teams. On Dec. 29th, 2005, Dickinson Trinity beat Minot High 69-54 in Bismarck. Bottineau beat DTrinity over 20 points, twice, that same season (05-06). So Bottineau would have easily been in the State "A" in 2006. As for this year's team, I think they would have been in the state "A" had Roemmich been healthy all year. Only three of Bottineau's players were even on the varsity roster of their 2006 championship team. That tells you that Bottineau can reload, just like the bigger "A" schools. I do think Mandan and Bismarck would have finished ahead of Bottineau in the WDA. I would put Bottineau at either 3 or 4 this year.