The Bare's Den w/ Matt Bare

For this episode I’m joined by one of the best Minnesota boys high school basketball coaches to ever pace the sidelines.  John Oxton led the Lakeville North boys basketball program for 33 seasons, appearing in 12 state tournaments, capturing the 2014 class 4A state championship and finishing his career with 706 wins currently leaving him with the 6th most wins in state history.   Prior to arriving in Lakeville, “Ox” was the head coach for Gardiner High School in Montana and led them to a state championship in 1989 and he also won a state title as a player for Fargo North High School in North Dakota.  We cover a number of topics including his two-year coaching sabbatical that he took at Lakeville to watch his daughter play high school basketball, JP Macura and the 2014 state title team and how so many Lakeville North players ended up at Wisconsin.  

Winning the first boys basketball state title in school history is nice but winning it with your son and nephew in your starting five is extra special.  That was the case for Alexandria head coach Forrest Witt as his Cardinals secured the first state title in program history.   Forrest has the pleasure of coaching his son Mason and nephew Talan as well.  Along with those two the team was led by their biggest star Chase Thompson who was selected as Mr. Basketball in Minnesota and is headed to play for the Clemson Tigers.  Alexandira came out on top in Class 3A with a bracket that was absolutely loaded with top teams.  The other cool thing about this episode is hearing that one of your guests has listened to most of our podcast episode, so thank you to Forrest for that.

I really enjoy seeing teams or people do things that haven’t been done before especially in the basketball world and that’s exactly what happened at Concordia St. Paul this season with the Golden Bears men’s basketball team and Coach Matt Fletcher.   For the first time in school history the Golden Bears finished atop the NSIC conference in men’s basketball, in fact it was the first time in their programs history that they finished above 3rd place.  Led by all world guard Antwan Kimmons and Marcus Skeete the Golden Bears also advanced to the division 2 national tournament.  Coach Fletcher shares what went into the success this season at a place he calls a “dream job”.

For this episode I’m joined by two MN boys high school basketball experts to help break down the upcoming MN boys state basketball tournament.  Ryan James from Prep Hoops and TC Hoops Czar are here to give us their insight into each bracket for the 4 classes, some of the top players to watch and who they think will win it all.   These guys do a great job sharing their insight into the 2025 tournament.