1 HISTORY IN THE MAKING FOR HOPKINS

The top-ranked Royals will be looking to join Southwest Minnesota Christian and Minneapolis Henry as the only schools to win four consecutive state championships. The Eagles won four Class 1A titles in a row from 1999-2002. The Patriots garnered four consecutive Class 3A crowns from 2000-03. Hopkins senior guard Siyani Chambers also is looking to win his fourth consecutive title. He has been the starting point guard on the previous two teams and came off the bench in 2009.

2 CONFERENCE RIVALS TO SETTLE SCORE?

Lakeville North is seeded second while South Suburban Conference foe Eastview is No. 3. They split their two regular-season games. Eastview won at Lakeville North 54-48 on Jan. 10, while the Panthers rallied for a 57-56 victory in Apple Valley (the location of Eastview) exactly one month later. If they both win in the quarterfinals, the stage will be set for the tiebreaker in the semifinals.

3 GREYHOUNDS LIKE TO RUN

Duluth East is the second- highest scoring team (averaging 80.8 points per game) in the field, boosted by the return of prolific scorer Johnny Woodard to the starting lineup. The senior guard missed the first nine games of the season while recovering from a shoulder injury suffered last summer playing AAU basketball. He is averaging 23.3 points per game and has scored more than 2,000 points in his career.

RON HAGGSTROM