Hopkins Royals boys basketball has been at the top of the Minn. prep sports pyramid since the early 2000’s. The Royals have won five of the last 10 Minnesota State High School League basketball championships, with the most recent title coming in 2011.

Looking back at the past three seasons of Hopkins Royals boys basketball:

 2012:  Regular season record of 25-1. Sophomore Jake Wright hit a buzzer-beater to send the state semi-final game to overtime, but the Royals eventually lost to Osseo in the extra session.

 2013: Regular season record of 20-6 and the Royals failed to make the state tournament after losing to Edina in the section final.

 2014: The Royals finished the regular season 25-1, with their only loss coming against current Duke starter Tyus Jones and Apple Valley. They went through sections with some adversity but mostly had control of the games. Tartan proved to be a walk over in the state quarterfinals. Amir Coffey, junior put the Royals over Shakopee and into the state championship game with a 75-foot buzzer beater in the fourth overtime of the semifinal. In the state championship, a game I still don’t like to talk about or even think of, the Royals lost to Lakeville North by one point after leading by four with less than 30 seconds left.

 When I transferred to the Hopkins district in ninth grade, I was expecting to witness a boys basketball dynasty like the many other students before me.

 Fine, call it the “Ben Segelbaum” curse, call it whatever but if the Royals don’t win state this year, 2015 will be the first graduating class to go without a state championship from ninth through 12th grade since the class of 2001.

 Looking ahead to the 2014-15 season, the Royals have lost three starters that made up 47 percent of last season’s total scoring: Wright, Kamali Chambers, and Stephon Sharp.

 Coming back as starters will be John Warren, senior and Amir Coffey, junior.

 The remainder of the starting five has yet to be determined, as the three other positions are in the hands of longtime coach Ken Novak Jr.

 The Royals are slated for a twenty-game season and will open against Benilde on Fri. Nov 28 in the first game of a home tournament.

 Last season, out of 26 games, the Royals had only 10 in front of the Lindbergh Loonies. Luckily for both parties, 12 out of 20 games this season will be at home.

 The Royals’ first non-tournament game is a home game against Burnsville on Dec. 2.

 My early pick for most important game of the season is Dec. 4 at Shakopee, where the Sabers will have their first crack at the team who knocked them out of the state tournament. Expect it to be an intense environment.

 The Royals’ first Lake Conference game comes Dec. 11 against Wayzata. The Royals are favored to win the Lake Conference, but watch out for last year’s Lake champions, Eden Prairie. The Royals will play every team in the conference twice, which means if they win both regular season games against Eden Prairie, they could possibly beat the Eagles three times in one season – a very rare feat.

 My prediction for this season is the Royals will start slow as they adjust to a new lineup and as young players adjust to the difficulty of playing varsity basketball. They will finish with a 17-3 regular season record and a section final loss. If the Royals do in fact win the section, the quality of their opponents will be subpar until they play in the state championship game against top-ranked Apple Valley.

The Royals’ schedule is as follows..