1/30/18: Braham

Pine City Pioneer, Jesse Logan

With a pair of home games this past week, the Pine City boys basketball team enjoyed the comforts of home. The team had played just three of their previous 13 games at home, and was more than happy to pick up a couple of nice wins in front of their fans. Pine City is now 15-5 overall with six games to play.

Pine City 74, Braham 42

This was the Dragons first home win over Braham since Dec. 13, 2007. Stopping a home drought that had lasted more than a decade was sweet, and Pine City seemed to be enjoying the moment as the game went along. Parents and players alike appreciated the moment.

“Braham is a rivalry game,” said Dragons Head Coach Kyle Allen. “Braham has had such success and was the face of basketball for this area for so long. Our boys understand the history that is there, how much this game means. Some people only come watch that game and our whole season is judged by them based on how we do in that game. We can have big games, good or bad, with other teams, but when we play Braham, I receive the most correspondence from alumni, community members, and others than all other games combined. We know what playing Braham means to them.”

The Dragons played great defense all night and limited the Bombers by beating them to lots of loose and 50/50 balls, and rebounding relentlessly. Pine City was clearly eager to move their season along after the painful two-point loss to Hinckley-Finlayson in the game prior.

“We wanted to get that taste out of our mouths,” Allen said of his boys’ return to the hardwood. “We played gritty defense all night.  I liked how we tried to get in defensive position and take charges in the game, we ended up taking four in the game. Seth Logan has been an absolute beast on the boards for us; 13 boards, 12 of them being defensive, is unbelievably important to our team. Seth is starting to flex his ability on the boards and it is showing up big for us.”

Balanced scoring was also a key as five players scored seven or more points. Seth Logan led the way with 19 as he tallied another double-double. Clay Logan had 16 while going 5-7 from the floor. Nick Hansmann had 13 and Konnor Jusczak had 12. Jake Rademacher had his focus on the defensive end as he drew the assignment of guarding Braham forward Levi Wylie. Rademacher helped the Dragons shut down the lefty, holding him to zero points.

Pine City won going away in this one, which was played on Tuesday, Jan. 30. Two nights later the team would have a much tighter game to earn their second victory of the week.

Varsity: W (74-42)
JV: W (71-60)
C-Squad: W (59-29)

Pine City Featured on MSHSL's John's Journal

Pine City Boys Basketball Is One Of A Kind

Posted by John Millea (jmillea@mshsl.org) - Updated 1/29/2018 1:56:07 PM

PINE CITY – Kyle Allen is a social studies teacher at Pine City High School, but mathematics is a major part of his job as head coach of the Dragons boys basketball team. That’s because everything is measured and charted: not only the typical things like shooting percentages and rebounds, but also talking. Yes, the Dragons keep track of talking. And that’s just the start of what makes this basketball team unlike any other. The most visible example: They rarely shoot two-point shots other than layups, and focus on firing from outside the three-point line. It’s all based on math. “I think numbers make a lot of sense to me and they always have,” said Allen, whose team takes a record of 12-5 into a home game Tuesday vs. Braham. “We want to put numbers to everything. That lets us measure everything.” The Dragons attempt and make three-point shots at a rapid pace. In fact, they set a state record by making 348 threes in the 2015-16 season (nearly 13 per game). When the ball is in the area of mid-range shots, it almost always is passed to the perimeter for a three-point attempt or tossed to an open man under the basket for an easy two. It’s a remarkable thing to watch. “It’s pretty fun playing on this basketball team,” said senior captain Jake Rademacher. “Who doesn’t want to shoot a lot of threes? Coach never yells at us for taking a bad three, and we just go crazy all the time.” Allen, in his seventh year at Pine City – which is between the Twin Cities and Duluth on Interstate 35 -- has instituted a style of play that is also based on conditioning, hectic full-court defense and rebounding. In an 80-54 win over East Central last week, they had a season-high 54 rebounds. Their average score this season is 76-48. “We didn’t shoot a great percentage (against East Central). We talk about that a lot,” Allen said. “We really try to focus on the rebounds. It’s the purposeness of it. The variable is, does the shot go in or not? We try to make the constant variable be our rebounding.” Allen designed the offense after learning about similar concepts used at Grinnell College in Iowa. He is a 2005 graduate of Black River Falls High School in Wisconsin, which also produced former Grinnell player Jack Taylor, who set an NCAA single-game record in 2012 by scoring 138 points. Pine City doesn’t do everything Grinnell does – the college team, for example, substitutes players five at a time for short, fast-paced on-court shifts – but the Dragons focus on defense as a way to kick-start their offense. “We feel real confident with our depth and we like to play lots of kids,” Allen said. “I love coaching defense. Offense is just running to the right spots, while defense is effort and motivation. We really tried to take it (from Grinnell) and make a model for it at the high school level.” The players work hard on defense, which can lead to an outpouring of fast breaks and layups. “One of our big things is the other team has to take every step we take, so we pride ourselves on being in condition,” said senior captain Clay Logan. “We incorporate it into every drill and we also do free throws, which if we miss we start running.” When it comes to talking, team managers keep charts during practices and games. “It can be an out-loud positive statement to an individual or it can be a boy going to another boy and having an arm-around-the-shoulder kind of thing and helping them out,” Allen said. “Jack Taylor did a camp here and one of his insights was every time a player shoots a three, the bench is supposed to erupt. He talked about a positive mindset.” In the game against East Central, the Dragons’ first points came on a three and their next basket was a layup. It quickly became apparent that this isn’t a typical basketball team. “As much as we as a coaching staff believe in us and in what we do, I think sometimes there’s human error,” Allen said. “We try to be as non-biased as possible. The numbers give you a fuller story. We’ve worked hard to do anything we deem important, we want to put a number to it.” The team’s statistical methods are also atypical. Shot charts pinpoint shooting percentages from five different locations outside the three-point line. This season the Dragons are shooting 57 percent near the basket and 45 percent from the right corner, for example. In 17 games they have attempted fewer than four shots per game outside of five feet but inside the three-point line. The shooting statistics also can be viewed as line graphs, bar graphs and pie charts. It’s all math and probabilities, but more goes into it. “When the coaching staff gets together, and the captains, the word we use is purposeness,” Allen said. “We don’t want to do things just to do them. We looked at everything and said, ‘Why are we doing this?’ ” The Dragons received national publicity last season when a reporter from the Wall Street Journal came to town and wrote about them (headline: “The Basketball Team That Never Takes A Bad Shot”). That has led to a steady stream of emails to Allen. “I’ve heard from hundreds of other coaches from around the world,” he said. “It’s kind of cool. It’s fun to talk basketball with people who want to talk about it. I’m able to connect with hundreds of coaches.” Allen isn’t aware of any other Minnesota high school teams playing a similar style. If coaches are thinking about it, he has some advice. “The big thing is, you have to know what you’re getting yourself into. You have to have 100 percent buy-in. Whatever you do, as long as you believe in it and teach your kids how to do it, it’s all about buy-in.” --To see a photo gallery, go to the MSHSL Facebook page. Follow John on Twitter: @MSHSLjohn

1/25/18: @Hinckley-Finlayson

Pine City Pioneer, Jesse Logan

Hinckley-Finlayson 68, Pine City 66

After ending Braham’s reign of dominance in the GRC last season, the Jaguars have continued on to greater heights this year. Hinckley-Finlayson entered this game ranked #3 in the state in Class A, and has only lost twice. The Dragons came out ready to play and built a nice lead early only to see the Jags bounce back and take a 43-36 advantage into the locker room at halftime.

“What a fun game and fun atmosphere,” said Allen. “When you can walk into another school and have almost every seat filled it is a lot of fun. Shout-out to all the Dragon fans who traveled for the game; I think we were louder than the Hinckley fans. It is not often I struggle to hear myself out on the court, or that our boys can’t hear me. That is a good problem to have. Our boys did not flinch at the moment; very proud of them. They did not back down from any of the adversity they saw in the game.”

In the second half, Pine City would fall behind by as many as 12, but battled back and held leads at several points down the stretch. Despite a large foul and free throw disparity in favor of the Jaguars, Pine City had a chance to win the game. With the ball in their possession and down one with about 10 seconds to play, Clay Logan’s shot was blocked and the ball went out of bounds off of him. The Jags would make a free throw with two seconds remaining, but the Dragons never got a buzzer-beater shot off and lost by a bucket.

“Hinckley-Finlayson is tough, a great team,” said Allen. “They are currently ranked second in the state. We battled all night with them; [I] was really proud of how we played and executed our game plan. We had our chances, and I thought we left it all out on the court. You can walk away from that and keep your head up, feel proud of what you did.”

Pine City got key contributions across the board, both offensively and defensively. Clay Logan finished with 21 points while Seth Logan had 15 and Rademacher 11.

The Dragons had another key GRC game coming up when they hosted Braham on Tuesday, Jan. 30. Pine City will host Hinckley-Finlayson in the last game of the regular season on Feb. 2.

Varsity: L (66-68)
JV: W (64-43)
C-Squad: L (37-51)

John Millea Visits Pine City

John Millea, from The Minnesota High School League, was recently at Pine City taking in a Dragon's home game.

A Dragon Gets The Call Up From Saints

Pine City senior Jake Rademacher has committed to play at The College of St. Scholastica next year.

Jake Rademacher will leave Pine City as a three time captain, and was a All-Conference and All-Section selection as a junior while leading the team to the Sub-Section Finals.  The Dragons are currently 12-5 and sitting second in the Conference.

"Jake and I have been together for 4 years" said Head Coach Kyle Allen.  "It is a big deal to be voted a captain three times.  The boys believe in him, they follow him.  Jake has done a great job to purposefully become a great leader.  He was very fortunate to learn under Kole Jusczak and Noah Adams when he was a sophomore.  He has been my go-to-guy since Noah and Kole graduated".

Rademacher will be the first player under Allen to go to St. Scholastica to play basketball, where Allen played collegiately.  Jake will play for Coach David Staniger at CSS, who also coached Allen.

"Jake had some great options to choose from" Allen said.  "I tried to stay as non-bias as possible throughout the whole process for Jake.  I didn't think there was a bad option on the table for him.  But I have to admit, when he told me he was going to CSS, I was pretty excited!"

St. Scholastica is apart of the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference.  Crown College, where former Dragon Kole Jusczak plays, is also a member of this conference.

1/23/18: East Central

Pine City Pioneer, Jesse Logan

With two Great River Conference games on the schedule this past week, the Dragons boys basketball team knew they had to be on their proverbial A-game. Pine City’s squad played two very good games and nearly came away with a pair of wins. In the end, the Dragons fell short in a pivotal contest against reigning conference champion Hinckley-Finlayson, and will now have to regroup and move on with a 12-5 record.

Pine City 80, East Central 54

The Eagles are a solid team. Right in the middle of the pack in the Great River, beating East Central was no easy task for the Dragons, despite the final score.

“East Central is much bigger and more athletic than we are,” said Dragons head coach Kyle Allen. “It was a great challenge for us and we were able to utilize their strengths as preparation for the stretch towards the end of the year and into playoffs. We definitely left the game with some things to work on. I wasn’t 100 percent satisfied with our effort at all times. Throughout the game, it felt like dragging a cart through mud. But the boys kept grinding, our bench came in and did their part, and we were able to get the win.”

Jake Rademacher had his best offensive game of the season, pacing the Dragons with 21 points while also grabbing six rebounds. Seth Logan had a double-double with 15 points and 12 boards. Konnor Jusczak had 14 points and Jake Adams had 12. The Dragons posted a whopping 54 rebounds in this game and really took care of business on the boards.

“When the stats came out, I went and found Seth and told him how proud I was,” said Allen. “Rebounding the ball is so important and Seth is really buying into that. Right behind him was his brother Clay. Clay did not have the game he wanted to have on the offensive end, but getting it done on the boards (nine) is so important to us.  I would much rather have 10 rebounds out of a kid than 10 points.”

The Dragons defensive tandem of Jake Lunceford and Quentin Miklya held Eagles top-threat Gunnar Fogt to seven points in this home win, on Tuesday, Jan. 23.

Two nights later, the Dragons would come up just short in their biggest game of the season to date.

Varsity: W (80-54)
JV: W (72-41)
C-Squad: L (43-52)