Episode #26 - Blaine Joerger (MN HS basketball legends series)

The mini-series featuring former Minnesota High School basketball
legends continues with former Staples-Motley Cardinal - Blaine
Joerger.   Blaine started playing varsity minutes as a
freshman for legendary coach Lynn Peterson.  Blaine and his
team had some epic section battles with Morris, and finally made
it past them his senior year advancing to the state tournament in
1995.

That 1995 state tournament is where Blaine and his team really
put themselves on the map.  That year the Minnesota State
High School League changed the format to a "Sweet 16" tournament
where the 16-teams participating were a mix of schools of all
sizes and they played to crown one state champion. 
Staples-Motley (who started 2 seniors and 3 sophomores) ended up
advancing all the way to the championship game where they faced
heavily favored Minneapolis North and Khalid El-Amin.  S-M
led by 14 in the first half but could not hold on as Minneapolis
North made a put-back in the final seconds to win 54-52. 
Blaine led his team with 28 points in that game and put up 100
points for the games in the state tournament.  As Blaine
mentions most people don't remember who the second place team
was, but they do that year because of the near victory they
almost pulled off.  After being lightly recruited until that
time, he ended up committing to Division 2 -  Mankato State
University.  Blaine had a great career for the Mavericks and
is the schools 10th all-time leading scorer.

Blaine is also the brother of former NBA head coach and current
NBA assistant coach - Dave Joerger.  We discuss what that
state tourney run was like along with how you handle having a
brother coach in the NBA.  Enjoy this conversation in the
Bare's Den with former Staples-Motley Cardinal - Blaine Joerger.