This will be the thread to document the 3rd annual Blue Earth Classic, held in Mankato, MN and named after Mankato’s county and the river that runs nearby. The tournament will run games 5-9. We’ll try to rotate some of the better teams into the tournament each season, and hopefully showcasing these strong teams can be a source of pride and competitiveness for conferences with a participating team. Schools in the tournament aren’t just in it for themselves, but they also represent their conference. (Apologies to the Cal CAA…I’ll normally have your conference in this from now on.)


SCHEDULE
Game #5:
Adams St. @ Augustana
Tiffin @ Coker
Abilene Christian @ Lewis

Game #6:
Augustana @ Lewis
Adams St. @ Tiffin
Coker @ Abilene Christian

Game #7:
Tiffin @ Augustana
Lewis @ Coker
Adams St. @ Abilene Christian

Game #8:
Abilene Christian @ Augustana
Lewis @ Tiffin
Coker @ Adams St.

Game #9:
Augustana @ Coker
Tiffin @ Abilene Christian
Lewis @ Adams St.




RANKINGS:
Pre-S / Team / Current Rank
#1 / Tiffin / #1
#2/ Lewis / #24
#13 / Coker / #20
#15 / Adams St. / #6
#18 / Augustana / #8
NR / Abilene Christian / NR

PLAYERS TO WATCH
Tiffin - Paul Beadles, SF, 1st-Team All American
Alongside senior C Jeffrey Washington, Tiffin comprises 40% of the preseason 1st Team All-Americans. While just average defensively (59), Beadles is actually a weaker link on Tiffin’s top-notch defense (72). However, Beadles is a one-of-a-kind player offensively that changes the perspective of the game. Without Beadles, Tiffin is still a very good team. With Beadles, it gives them new dimensions offensively. Recruited as a SF, he hasn’t shifted from another position and is very fast for a SF (81). Combine that with guard skills (71 BH & 76 P), Beadles brings a lethal combination of LP and PE skills (84 & 81) that have resulted in him averaging a team-leading 15 points a game. The achilles heel might be his “D” FT shooting that could result in a hack-a-Beadles strategy, but he is hitting from the line at nearly 80% so far this season.

Lewis - Kenneth Zimmerman, PF
Despite having a couple of other senior post players, Joshua Cousins and Vernon Plewinski, named as honorable mention All-Americans, Zimmerman with his team high 842 overall rating was overlooked. Zimmerman is a star-level player in a lot of ways. His Athleticism (84), defense (86), and rebounding (83) are what any team would want in a post-player, even as he was a converted SF. What makes Zimmerman special, though, are his speed (61), which is very fast for a PF as a converted SF, and his perimeter skills (91), which would be outstanding in any SG. So far, he is averaging 13.5 points a game, 7.3 rebounds a game, and 1.5 blocks a game, along with a surprising 2.3 assists a game as well.

Coker - Charles Holcomb, SG, 2nd-Team All-American
Holcomb, having already scored over 1100 points (12.2/gm) in his career has an excellent chance of ending up in the top 5 scorers in Coker history. What stands out about Holcomb though, is his athleticism (96) and defense (95). With adequate perimeter skills (83), it is Holcomb’s athleticism combined with his ball handling (65) and passing (75) to help make his post skills (49) - quite good for a guard - very tough to defend. Indeed, Holcomb is the leading scorer for Coker at 15.3 point/gm, distributes the ball some, with 2.5 assists, and draws fouls and capitalizes at an 81% rate from the line.

Adams St. - Mathew Bauch, PG
While 3rd-Team All-American William Beaird (88 A, 100 DE) might be more noticeable, Bauch has been the star thus far, pouring in 22 points/game, good for 4th in the nation at D2, with his great speed (94) and perimeter ability (93). However, what is striking about Adams St is the combo of Bauch and Beaird. Both have excellent PE (93 & 88), and both have what are LP skills for guards (49 & 44). While Bauch thus far has been the primary weapon on offense, scoring at least 21 points in every game and accounting for nearly 30% of the Adams St. offense, it seems like Beaird is interchangeable on a given night if the match-ups favor it, all of which makes Adams St. harder to game plan against.

Augustana - Larry Stewart, SG
Right now, Larry Stewart is one of the big stories in South Dakota. Averaging 26 points a game, putting him at #2 in the nation, Stewart has been a workhorse in Augustana’s FB/FCP system, taking almost 20 shots a game, nearly three quarters from downtown. While Stewart is plenty capable with decent BH (65) to go along with a sharp perimeter game (85), it is the combo off the bench from the perimeter coming from fellow SG Gary Redding, who is 12th in the nation in scoring, that makes Augustana more difficult to defend. Redding is pouring in nearly 21 points a game off the bench with a 100 PE. In this system, both will receive PT. Notably, Stewart and Redding, both juniors, have each already scored over 1100 points in their careers and should land in the top 5 all-time for Augustana, which has the 4 players listed at the top of the all-time school scoring from coachcjinatl's tenure, including two players with over 2100 points. Both Redding and Stewart are on track to score over 2000 career points also.

Abilene Christian - Thomas Edgar, PG
On a light guard roster, Edgar and SG Michael Goss’s roles have increased importance since they will have to make a larger contribution. Edgar and Goss are both chipping in 3.3 assists per game on a team that averaged 10.5. Both are among the top three scorers, averaging 13.0 and 11.8 points/gm respectively. With few players with the speed, ball handling, or passing ability to be able to assume guard roles, keeping these guys in the game longer becomes essential. Edgar has fantastic speed (95) to go along with elite passing skills (86) to distribute the ball, whereas Goss contributes as the best defender (84) to go along with effective perimeter skills (87) and ball handling (86). Getting these two in foul trouble really impacts Abilene Christian’s chances in any given contest.

Here is a preview of the teams and associated coaches that are participating in this season’s Blue Earth Classic.


Tiffin – In his 12^th season at Tiffin, BergPride has his squad positioned as a contender, ranked #1 now and in pre-season. After a 3-season period to strengthen the program when BP first arrived, Tiffin has been consistently elite the last 8 seasons, going to three E8’s, one F4, and two title games, resulting in one NT in season 101, where he beat yours truly in OT as an unlikely 7-seed that beat three North Central teams in the E8 or later. Perpetually bringing a strong defense as the core of his teams, this will be BP’s first Classic appearance and enters as one of the favorites.

Lewis – Long-time coach cherrycokeze, representing the powerful GLV conference, is entering the 57^th season at Lewis and has over 1300 victories at Lewis alone. Last season, Lewis reached the F4 and entered this season ranked #2. Despite a slow start against other highly ranked teams, Lewis looks like they will be a strong contender to return to the F4. Over the last 56 seasons, Lewis has been to the F4 more times (5) than they have missed the NT (4). Cherrycokeze has also taken Lewis to E8 nine times and most importantly won the NT in season 63.

Coker – A new coach at Coker that has the program quickly rising into contending status, topdoggbm enters the Classic as a disruptive upstart against long established coaches as he enters in his 5th season at Coker. The last two seasons, topdogg has successfully turned around the program and reached the NT each year with a combined 50-10 record. Last season, Coker was upset in the first round as a 4-seed, which has the team looking to prove itself with a deep NT run this season, they enter as one of the more promising potential F4 teams.

Adams St. – farve3xmvp is a long-time D2 coach with over 1300 wins, and tenures at NJ Tech, Shepherd, and most recently Adams St, where he has spent the last 14 seasons, all of which have resulted in NT bids, and include multiple E8’s and S16’s. Including the time at Shepherd, favre3xmvp has been to the NT 26 straight seasons. During time in D2, favre3xmvp has been to the F4 five times, and was the NT runner-up in season 67. Entering the tournament as the #6 ranked team, Adams St. is well positioned to challenge for a Classic title and a long NT run.

Augustana (SD) – Entering the season ranked and now in the top 10, Augustana led by coachcjinatl is this season’s team representing the host North Central Conference. Coming back to HD in 3.0 after winning a title in earlier versions, coachcjinatl has been with Augustana the last 12 seasons and has started to turn them into a competitive squad with multiple NT bids and last year’s PIT title. This appears to be the strongest Augustana team in recent seasons and a program on the rise with a team 12-deep that runs the FB/FCP system.

Abilene Christian – After a long tenure by shoe3 that included 3 NT titles over the last 15 years along with multiple additional F4 and title game appearances, shoe3 left to coach UConn in D1. Taking his place and continuing the legacy at Abilene Christian is kbingham who has coached previously at 4 D2 programs and returns after 40 seasons in D1. Nearing 1000 career wins, kbingham’s last long-term job was in D1 with Washington, where he stayed 14 seasons and reached the F4 just a few seasons ago (season 98), also reaching a couple of more S16’s among multiple other NT appearances. Regularly taking over rebuild projects rather than strong teams, kb being at the helm at defending Blue Earth Classic Champ (Season 103) should help Abilene Christian not skip a beat after losing a great coach.

Despite being #1 and, as you say, one of the "favorites", I'm not entirely sure how to attack Coker tonight with my gameplan. Hopefully it'll be a good game regardless.

By the way, there are three great match-ups to kick us off tonight.

As BP mentioned, #1 Tiffin goes on the road to take on #20 Coker (the same Coker that beat my #7 ranked MSUM team on my court by double digits).

We have a top 10 match-up with #6 Adams St traveling to #8 Augustana.

Then defending Blue Earth Classic Champ Abilene Christian takes on #24 Lewis.

Like last season, any commentary is welcomed and encouraged.

Long_ge, thanks for the preview and we have a challenging field this year!

Yes.... excellent job with the previews. And overall effort in putting this together!

STANDINGS
Lewis 1-0
Coker 1-0
Augustana 1-0
Tiffin 0-1
Adams St. 0-1
Abilene Christian 0-1


ROUND ONE RESULTS

Adams St. 71 @ Augustana 72

Key Stat: In a tight contest that went into the final seconds and ended with a 1-point margin, Augustana’s accuracy from the line, going 16 of 17 was the difference.
Key Moment: The last couple of minutes saw the lead change several times. The game wasn’t decided until leading scorer Augustana’s Larry Stewart hit both free throws with 7 seconds remaining, followed by Adams St.’s Mathew Bauch missing the a potential game winning jumper with 3 seconds left.
Key Performance: While Larry Stewart took home POG honors, Gary Redding might have made the bigger difference, hitting 50% of his shots, while chipping in 3 steals and 3 assists.


Tiffin 70 @ Coker 82

Key Stat: Two numbers tell a lot of the story. First, Tiffin committed 27 fouls, compared to 18 from Coker, resulting in 13 more points from the line for Coker. Also, Coker forced 22 turnovers compared to 15 forced by Tiffin, resulting in Coker getting more shots from the floor, despite taking so many more shots from the line.
Key Moment: Leading 53-51 midway through the second half, Coker went on an 11-2 run over a 3-minute period to extend the lead to 11, led by star Charles Holcomb’s 5 points. Tiffin was unable to get closer than 7 points the rest of the way.
Key Performance: C Matthew Battle grabbed 12 boards, added 10 points, and collected 2 blocks. While Charles Holcomb’s 18 points were good for POG honors, Battle helped establish a rebounding advantage, 12-9 with offensive boards, and 36-30 overall.


Abilene Christian 72 @ Lewis 102

Key Stat: For a couple of teams running the FB/FCP system, what jumps out are Lewis’ 18 steals compared to only 2 for Abilene Christian. This translated to a 23:17 assist to turnover ratio for Lewis and a 6:32 ratio for Abilene Christian, which helps explain how Lewis took 20 shots more than ACU.
Key Moment: Trailing by 4 with just under 8 minutes to go in the first half, Lewis went on a 19-point run, from which ACU was unable to recover. By halftime, Lewis had turned a 4-point deficit into a 22-point advantage. Outside of those 8 minutes, it was a 4-point game.
Key Performance: Joseph Gilyard had an all-around outstanding game in getting named POG, scoring 25 points at high efficiency, and adding 4 assists and 5 steals.


ROUND TWO
#7 Augustana (1-0) @ #18 Lewis (1-0)
#15 Adams St. (0-1) @ #2 Tiffin (0-1)
#16 Coker (1-0) @ Abilene Christian (0-1)

Tonight, Augustana goes on the road after pulling out a last second win to take on #18 Lewis, where Vegas has them as a 2-point favorite. This game takes on added importance since the winner will have an early 2-0 edge in the Classic, with a critical tie-breaker against another contender. This will also showcase the North Central conference against the GLV. #15 Adams St., coming off a heartbreaking loss will travel to #2 Tiffin as a 5-point underdog. In this case, two contenders will both try to avoid falling to 0-2 in order to stay in the race. #16 Coker (cannot believe they aren’t ranked higher now) will go to Abilene Christian’s court as an 8-point favorite as they try to keep pace with the winner of the Augustana/Lewis winner, while ACU will try to climb back into things.

STANDINGS
Lewis 2-0
Coker 2-0
Augustana 1-1
Adams St. 1-1
Tiffin 0-2
Abilene Christian 0-2

ROUND TWO RESULTS


Augustana 79 @ Lewis 100

Key Stat: Like last night, Lewis leveraged an advantage in steals (15 to 5) into substantial assist/turnover ratio differences, with Lewis having a 20:12 ratio compared to Augustana’s 11:26.
Key Moment: With just over 13 minutes left to play, Lewis held onto a 6-point lead that Augustana had started to encroach a couple of times. Lewis then went on a 17-6 run, giving them a 17-point lead with less than 10 minutes to play.
Key Performance: Joseph Gilyard had another outstanding game, winning POG honors a second time, as he contributed 22 points, 2 assists and 2 steals, while surprisingly pulling down 4 offensive rebounds from the Point.


Adams St. 67 @ Tiffin 62

Key Stat: Despite an advantage in shooting pct of over 100 points, Tiffin again got into foul trouble out-fouling Adams St 25 to 17, allowing Adams St to make up for the shooting disparity by adding 15 more points from the line than Tiffin.
Key Moment: With the game tied approaching the 2-minute mark, Adams St. pulled away on an 8-point run consisting entirely of free throws to leave Tiffin with less than 30 seconds.
Key Performance: Even though he only hit one shot from the field, Adams St’s Edwin Updegraff chipped in 10 points going 8 of 8 from the line, while adding 7 rebounds to compliment the POG performance from fellow post player Michael Hitchcock and his 17 points.


Coker 109 @ Abilene Christian 71

Key Stat: ACU’s short roster at guard presented issues for them in trailing Coker in assists 22 to 5. After starting guards Edgar and Goss, ACU only had 1 other assist.
Key Moment: With only a 3-point lead toward the end of the 1^st half, Coker went on a 20-3 run in a period barely spanning more than 2 minutes to blow the game open.
Key Performance: Coker’s Charles Holcomb was a real force in obtaining POG honors, not only due to pouring in 26 points, but also due to his part in the press of holding his opposite, Michael Goss, to a poor game in which he had 3 points and 4 turnovers.

ROUND THREE

#5 Tiffin (0-2) @ #17 Augustana (1-1)
#14 Lewis (2-0) @ #10 Coker (2-0)
#12 Adams St. (1-1) @ Abilene Christian (0-2)


Tonight, the marquee match-up will involve #14 Lewis and #10 Coker. With both teams at 2-0, the winner will have a huge advantage by being the only 3-0 team with just a couple of games remaining and holding a critical tie-breaker. Vegas considers it basically a toss-up, giving the visitors, Lewis, a 1-point edge. #5 Tiffin travels as a 2-point favorite to #17 Augustana, where Tiffin tries to gain momentum before a potentially big game tomorrow night hosting Lewis, where Augustana looks to try to stay in contention as they begin to eye a potential title match-up with Coker on the tournament’s last night. Abilene Christian will host Adams St, where they also look to get on the board after a rough start that involved having to kick off the tournament with Coker and Lewis, where Adams St. goes to Teas as a 14-point favorite as they attempt to keep pace before hosting Coker tomorrow night.

long-geeeeeeeee, at it again! Nice work. It's really great that you add the recaps. I know that i'm not the only one refreshing my page, to see when your write up appears.

Biggest impact game of the tourney tonight thus far tonight! GL cherrycokeze. Maybe not tonight, but going forward after that!

STANDINGS
Coker 3-0
Lewis 2-1
Adams St. 2-1
Augustana 1-2
Tiffin 1-2
Abilene Christian 0-3

ROUND THREE RESULTS



Tiffin 89 @ Augustana 70

Key Stat: The stat that jumps out as a deciding factor is the shooting percentage disparity. With a lot of other categories comparable, Tiffin shot more than .550, whereas Augustana was below .400.
Key Moment: After Augustana’s Larry Stewart hit a 3 to bring Augustana within 5, with just over 13 minutes to go, Tiffin answered with a 3 as part of 9-2 run to extend the lead to 12. Augustana after that point was never able to challenge Tiffin’s lead.
Key Performance: While Jeffery Washington’s 14 points and 8 rebounds garnered POG honors, Michael Williams had an effective game at Point off the bench, going 4 of 4 from the floor and adding 14 points.


Lewis 78 @ Coker 114

Key Stat: Coker was dominant in several areas last night. Due to 31 turnovers Lewis committed, Coker had a 47-21 advantage on points off turnovers, bolstered by a strong bench performance where Coker outscored Lewis 67-36
Key Moment: Inside of 3 minutes to go in the first half, Lewis had seen earlier deficits of 3 to 5 points grow to 9. Over the last 2:44 of the half, Coker went on a 15-3 run to take a strong 21-point lead into the half.
Key Performance: Although Charles Holcomb led all scorers with 22 points, Chris Paugh had an outstanding performance off the bench to get names POG, scoring 18 points, while adding 3 assists and 5 steals.


Adams St. 99 @ Abilene Christian 80

Key Stat: ACU was competitive in a lot of categories, but the assists and turnovers were again the biggest pain points. Adams St. collected twice as many assists as ACU (20-10) and ACU had nearly twice the turnovers (31-17).
Key Moment: The entire second half was tough for ACU, particularly after building a solid 13-point halftime lead. To single out a sequence that epitomized the events of the second half, ACU led 66-61 with just over 11 minutes, and in less than 2 minutes, the 5-point lead had become a 5-point deficit and Adams St led 71-66, after a 10-point run.
Key Performance: In a POG effort, GG William Beaird was the major focus of the Adams St offense puring in 28 points and collecting 5 steals.


ROUND FOUR

Abilene Christian (0-3) @ #25 Augustana (1-2)
#21 Lewis (2-1) @ #4 Tiffin (1-2)
#7 Coker (3-0) @ #10 Adams St. (2-1)


With Coker’s impressive performance last night, that puts them in the driver’s seat to win the Classic this season. A win tonight would clinch the Blue Earth for Coker. However, this whole deal is far from wrapped up for Coker just yet due to the match-up tonight on the road against 10^th ranked Adams St. If Adams St. can prevail, both teams would be 3-1, with Adams St. owning the tie-breaker. Vegas still seems unconvinced by Coker’s recent play against top competition and considers Adams St. the 1-pont favorite on their own court. #21 Lewis stays alive if Adams St. can defeat Coker and has what should be a very interesting match-up tonight as they travel to #4 Tiffin, in what will be a battle between the pre-season #1 and #2. Abilene Christian after a dominant first half and a second half collapse will go on the road to take on a team running the same FB/FCP system. Augustana will seek to get back to .500 in the Classic, with a chance to potentially get into a 4-way tie if they can also beat Coker and have other games go the right way for them. Although Coker and Adams St. have the most direct path to a title, there are still several other scenarios possible.

Hey, I won't go winless in this thing after all.

Thanks for the write-ups, long!

I'll see you boys again the following season! Although I wont be near as good!

And GG favre..... that was excitement. Not cockiness. You held us down in scoring. That's for sure. And if anybody is interested in a rematch next season, I have game #1 still open for next season. Send me a request if you like.

Great game Top, we had a couple very important players in early foul trouble and failed to score over long stretched. Coker might be the team to beat this year!

STANDINGS
Coker 4-0
Lewis 3-1
Adams St. 2-2
Augustana 1-3
Tiffin 1-3
Abilene Christian 1-3


ROUND FOUR RESULTS

Abilene Christian 96 @ Augustana 89 2OT

Key Stat: In a thrilling game that saw two overtime periods, we saw a lot of high combined counting stats. For instance, the game saw 40 offensive rebounds, 111 overall rebounds, and 95 free throws. Interestingly, as the game was being decided late and in overtime, 8 players combined had fouled out.
Key Moment: Notably, ACU led in the waning seconds of regulation and the first OT when Augustana was able to score key points to continue the game. With less than 2:30 in the seconds in the second OT, ACU led by 2 and Augustana was unable to score for a couple of minutes, during which ACU build a 7-point lead in the final minute. Augustana was able to hit a 3 to get within 4 in the last half minute but having to foul paired with good free throw shooting from ACU prevented any attempt at a 3^rd OT.
Key Performance: Howard Browning won POG honors with 18 point and 14 boards, while importantly not committing any fouls. However, it is also worth mentioning Larry Stewart. Although Stewart wasn’t very efficient, shooting less than 40%, anytime a player throws up 35 points, it is worth noticing.


Lewis 69 @ Tiffin 67

Key Stat: Despite Tiffin having the edge in most categories, Lewis was barely able to prevail in large part due to having more shots. Tiffin having more free throws was part of that, but Lewis added my opportunities by having more steals and fewer turnovers, while also having more offensive rebounds (9-7) despite being outrebounded overall (30-27)
Key Moment: The game was essentially decided in the last 20 seconds. With Lewis leading by 2, Tiffin had 2 chanced to tie up the game and was unable to convert.
Key Performance: Lewis C Vernon Plewinski had a solid game in his PG effort, adding 11 points, 2 steals, and 11 boards, 4 of which were critical offensive rebounds. Tiffin’s C Jeffery Washington warrants a mention also with his 5 blocks, in a game that wasn’t particularly high paced.


Coker 70 @ Adams St. 59

Key Stat: What I found odd was that no statistical category jumped out, but Coker had a consistent but small edge across multiple categories, such as rebounds (36-33), assists (16-12), turnovers (17-15), steals (9-7) and blocks (7-5).
Key Moment: After Coker’s 9-point lead had been cut to 4 with just under 2 minutes to play, Coker went on a 7-2 run to turn a 4-point lead into a 9-point lead with under a minute remaining.
Key Performance: Even though he wasn’t the high scorer, Coker PG earned POG honors with his 11 points, with an important 5 assists and 4 steals.


FINAL ROUND

Augustana (1-3) @ #4 Coker (4-0)
#7 Tiffin (1-3) @ Abilene Christian (1-3)
#19 Lewis (3-1) @ #14 Adams St. (2-2)



With their victory against Adams St. last night, Coker clinches the 3^rd annual Blue Earth Classic with a 4-0 start. While Lewis and Coker still could potentially finish 4-1, Coker owns that tie-breaker. Congrats to topdogg on the title and the auto-invite next season. Tonight’s the final night of the Classic this season. Having already clinched, Coker hosts Augustana and will attempt to sweep the Classic as an 8-point favorite, while Augustana will try to end on a high note after a double OT loss. Tiffin goes on the road as a 15-point favorite, after a last second loss last night, to take on an Abilene Christian team coming off a thrilling win and looking to keep the momentum going to end the tournament. In what should be an entertaining game between two teams that have performed well overall during the Blue Earth, #19 Lewis travels to take on #14 Adams St., where Vegas is giving Lewis a 1-point edge.