The No. 1 seed lost to the No. 7 seed during the regular season. The No. 2 and 3 seeds lost to a team that didn't qualify for the region tournament.
The East Region boys basketball tournament -- which starts today in Grand Forks at the Alerus Center -- would give most prognosticators a headache.
"This year I don't think you can say there is one team that can walk in there and win their game hands down," said Fargo South coach Mike Hendrickson, whose team is the No. 4 seed.
Top-seeded Grand Forks Central (16-3 overall, 15-3 Eastern Dakota Conference points) is the closest thing to a favorite, having lost three conference games in the regular season. However, the Knights played two overtime games with Fargo North -- the No. 7 seed -- one of which resulted in a loss.
Central's other two defeats were double-digit losses to South and No. 5 Grand Forks Red River. If the Knights won their first-round game, they would play either South or Red River in the semifinals.
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"Coaches always say that these things are balanced going into tournaments," said West Fargo coach Greg Limke, whose team in the No. 2 seed. "But this season I think that has proven to be the case. It's definitely a balanced field."
The two hottest teams entering the East Region are No. 6 seed Devils Lake and No. 3 seed Wahpeton. They play at 8 p.m. in the first round. Devils Lake enters the tournament on a five-game winning streak and Wahpeton has won seven of its last eight games.
The Firebirds-Huskies tilt also features two of the top seniors in the conference in Devils Lake's Eric Rongen and Wahpeton's Matt Aakre.
"There are a number of good teams that can win it," North coach Brent Offerdahl said. "It could be interesting. I don't know if I could pick a favorite right now."
South girls perfect in EDC
Although South girls basketball coach Craig Flaagan is in his 12th season at the school and has three Class A state titles to his credit, this year was a first for the Bruins.
South went through the EDC regular season undefeated for the first time, winning the school's sixth conference title.
Five of those have come with Flaagan at the helm.
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"I think that is always a surprise when you go through a season like that," said Flaagan, whose team is 17-2 overall and finished 18-0 in EDC points. "We haven't overachieved, but we've played to a high level all season. We haven't had too many downs."
Unlike the boys tournament, two teams have separated themselves from the field for the girls tournament -- South and No. 2 seed Grand Forks Red River. Although No. 3 seed Grand Forks Central has the same EDC record as Red River, the Knights lost twice to both South and Red River during the regular season.
"Those two teams are definitely the favorites," said Fargo Shanley coach Barb Metcalf, whose team was the only squad to beat Red River outside of South. "Both Red River and South have great senior leadership and they both have great coaches."
However, Flaagan said that 18-0 conference record is off little significance now.
South plays Fargo North at 2:45 p.m. today in the first round of the tournament at the Alerus Center.
"It means that we played very good throughout the entire year, but I don't know if it means anything now," Flaagan said. "There are always upsets in a tournament. We just don't want it to be us."
Notes and quotes
The National Federation of High Schools has named Fargo South coach Ace Gregg a national coach of the year for girls hockey. "It's really a great honor and it's pretty surprising actually," Gregg said. "There is a lot of competition and a lot of good coaches. It's a pretty big honor just to be considered in that realm." Gregg guided the Bruins to a third-place finish at the state tournament last weekend and to a state championship the season before. ... Wyndmere senior athletic standout Jackie Sanden has signed a letter of intent to play volleyball at North Dakota State College of Science, the school announced Wednesday.
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Readers can reach Eric Peterson at (701) 241-5513 or epeterson@forumcomm.com
