Minnesota basketball teams on national radar

A handful of boys high school basketball teams are representing Minnesota in national/regional polls, and have kept their positions since the preseason. The Hopkins boys basketball team, which features four starters who have committed to Division I colleges, is ranked No. 9 nationally (No. 22 in USA Today) and No. 1 in the Midlands Region. Henry Sibley is No. 3 in the Midlands Region, Robbinsdale Cooper is No. 5 and Osseo is No. 8. Each team will be in the 13th Annual Timberwolves-Gatorade Shootout at the Target Center on Jan. 3. Minnesota's top ranked team, Hopkins, will face Lake Geneva Badger (Wis.) at 4 p.m. Henry Sibley will meet Madison (Wis.) Memorial at 2 p.m., Osseo faces Sioux Falls Roosevelt (S.D.) at noon and Robbinsdale Cooper faces Eden Prairie at 6 p.m. More than 15 players among the 12 teams in the Shootout have committed to play for D-I schools. Four of those players belong to Hopkins, as 6-foot-7 senior Mike Broghammer is committed to Notre Dame, 6-foot-3 senior guard Raymond Cowels is committed to Santa Clara, 6-foot-5 senior guard Trent Lockett is committed to Arizona State and 6-foot-7 forward Royce White is heading to the Gophers. The Gophers also have a commitment from Cooper's 6-foot-6 senior forward Rodney Williams, who along with White is expected to lead one of the top recruiting classes in the nation next year. Henry Sibley will be led by a duo of D-I forwards in 6-foot-8 forward Mike Bruesewitz (Wisconsin) and 6-foot-9 center Chris Halvorsen (Valparaiso). Other D-I players from Minnesota in the Shootout include Eden Prairie's 6-foot-7 senior forward Ethan Wragge (Creighton) and Osseo's 6-foot-9 senior forward Sam Dower (Gonzaga). Tickets for the event are $10 and include a ticket to a Timberwolves game. Henry Sibley avenged its loss to Minnetonka in last year's Class AAAAA title game with a 90-76 win over the Skippers on Tuesday night. It marked the first time the two teams met since Minnetonka made a 22-point comeback to beat Henry Sibley, 68-59, March 29 at the Target Center. Henry Sibley senior guard Maurice Hernandez scored a game-high 30 points, while the duo of Bruesewitz and Halvorsen combined for 31 points.