Alexandria boys in state glow now

It's good to keep the focus indoors for March, like for following basketball. Weather has been blah. 

March Madness has no better showcase this year than Alexandria MN. It's about a 45-minute drive from our Morris. Multiple routes are available. Do you use the Lowry route? Go to Starbuck, take a left?

You can go to Glenwood and take a left. This is the route where I first got introduced to the "roundabout." I think my heart skipped a beat the first time. You are not alone if you feel confused and maybe scared of these. A well -known "stealth camper" spent the night camping in the middle of a roundabout where he was concealed by vegetation. He noticed many motorists veering off like they were shaken by dealing with it. 

I have learned: when all else fails, just look for the "yield" signs and be sure to honor them. You'll come out in one piece. I'm not sure I'd go for stealth camping. 

I regret that I did not make any trips to Alex this past winter to watch basketball. I rarely drive out of town now. But I should have gotten ambitious because I could have watched the Alexandria basketball teams, boys and girls. There are strong Morris connections with both, people who I think I could still consider close friends. Like the Witts. I emailed Jerry recently and he sent back a warm response. I need a little of that now and then because my life has gotten a little isolated. 

With the Alex girls team I have a connection with the old Lucken family, even though "Lucken" is not a name currently in use. I will still type "Lucken" as a reminder of who these people are, very special people. I wrote about Heather Lucken when she played MAHS sports. Heather's mom was "Lucken" and was married to the now-deceased Rick. Today Bev is Bev Kieffer and yes that's a connection with the well-known Kieffer family of Morris. 

Heather's daughter Chloe Scholl was an important member of the Alexandria girls team which recently captured third in Minnesota. They weren't even intimidated playing Cretin-Derham Hall! Such positive attitudes these student athletes have! No one scolds them on how "academics is more important than sports." I grew up when the attitude behind such scolding emanated quite a bit from the education establishment. I have hated it all along. 

Hey teachers, let the kids have fun! We aren't competing with the Russians any more. In fact we have a U.S. president who is an ally with Russia. Up is down, yes. The old education establishment that reflected a monopolistic system was really only interested in feathering its own nest anyway. Think I didn't notice that? The situation today is far better, rather liberated. 

Certainly the people of Alex are feeling abundant joy about how their girls and boys hoopsters are doing. The girls played all the way through the very last day of prep girls competition. That's the day of the state championship and third place games. The boys are making a run to do the same. As I write this the Alex boys have played one state game. A victory for the Cardinals over Byron. 

I wrote a preview post for the Alexandria boys in state yesterday. This post is on my companion blog of "Morris of Course." I invite you to read with this link:

https://morrisofcourse.blogspot.com/2025/03/now-its-alexandria-boys-in-state-aaa.html 

  

Cardinals 82, Byron 70

I have always been aware of this town called Byron but don't know much about it. Turns out it's in southeastern Minnesota and is sort of a bedroom community for Rochester. Its population isn't much larger than ours in Morris but the sports teams are AAA. 

The Alex Cardinals and Byron "Bears" played on Tuesday at Williams Arena on the U of M campus. This was a state quarter-final game. The teams appeared evenly matched in many ways. There was a big deciding factor: turnovers. This worked to the Cards' advantage. Byron experienced 25 turnovers compared to eight for Alex in this 82-70 win for the Cardinals. 

Mason Witt

The Alex head coach is Forrest Witt. His father Jerry is an assistant coach. The team roster includes Mason and Talan Witt, cousins not brothers. I wonder why Mason chose the number "0" to wear - unusual but why not? Talan is No. 4. 

Coach Forrest felt his team could pressure the Bears and it worked. 

Alex has the No. 3 seed and their record now is 27-3.  They got 33 points off turnovers. Talan Witt and Samson Hagstrom combined for 11 of Alex's 21 steals. 

Shooting was certainly not a problem for the Bears. Alex overcame the foul trouble experienced by Chase Thompson, who is one of five finalists for Mr. Minnesota Basketball. Chase is headed to Clemson for his college play. Thompson had four fouls with ten minutes left in the game. 

Make no mistake, there was suspense in this game, as Byron got the score tied with 14:13 remaining. The Cardinals tamped down the suspense by going on a 10-0 run. So the score was 59-49 with 11:47 left. They kept a sense of command. 

Talan Witt

Here are the Alex individual scoring totals: Mason Witt 18, Chase Thompson 10, Talan Witt 15, Samson Hagstrom 10, Gavin Roderick 16, Myles Gray 2, Thomas Hinrichs 5 and Grady Starzl 6. 

Now it's on to the semis for the Cardinal crew. There they will face Totino-Grace, the three-time defending Class 3A state champion. The game is set for 2 p.m. Thursday at Williams Arena.

One thing is a given: the Cardinals aren't intimidated by anyone.

If you're keeping score, Mason Witt is Forrest's son while Talan is Zachary's son. I wonder if Talan will have to clarify for the rest of his life what the second vowel in his name is! I wonder where that name came from but it sounds fine.

Oh, and Myles Gray of the Alex team is a Morris connection! Myles is the son of Dan Gray and Tracy Kleespie, both of Morris. Have you noticed, us Morrissites never lose track of each other?

 

Addendum: Another route to Alex from Morris: go north until you can take a right to go through Hoffman. Then it's a straight shot.

Here's Chase Thompson playing AAU ball

 

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com