Sid Tomes was a senior at East Ridge High a little more than a decade ago when the Raptors student section began cheering after his little brother took the court at halftime.

Only 7 years old, Cedric Tomes entertained the crowd with long-range jumpers during the intermission. Before the game resumed, the students hoisted Cedric into the air, like Simba in “The Lion King.”

“I definitely remember that,” Sid said with a laugh. “Cedric would always shoot at halftime and make ridiculous shots for a kid at such a young age. My friends knew he would be really good, so they joked around and did that type of stuff with him.”

Like the character of the young lion cub, Tomes grew up to reign — over basketball courts — and uphold his family’s lineage. The East Ridge senior guard will play for the Gophers next fall, making him the third Tomes sibling to play Division I college basketball.

He’s a favorite to win Minnesota’s Mr. Basketball award, which goes to the top senior in the state, and with more than 2,000 career points, he’s the all-time leading scorer in Raptors history.

“That was a goal for him in a really healthy way,” Sid said. “You’re seeing that now. He’s always been very ambitious.”

The bar was set high.

Tomes’ mother, Michelle, and oldest brother are doctors. In addition to having two siblings who played in college, his father, Tarek, played professional basketball in Germany.

“Just following in their footsteps, I always wanted to be like them,” Cedric Tomes said. “Seeing where basketball took them and the opportunities it gave them, it kind of had an influence on me. That’s when I fell in love with it.”

Germany to Gophers

One could say the Tomes family was meant to live in Minnesota and Cedric was destined to be a Gopher.

Tarek and Michelle, both of German descent, met in college in Munich after attending high school in central Germany. Tarek played several years in one of Germany’s top professional leagues, from the age of 19 until his mid-20s.

Sight unseen, the couple moved to the Midwest in the mid-1990s upon a recommendation from a friend. Why? Michelle wanted to be a doctor.

“We thought we would be here a few years, and here we are … we never left,” Tarek said. “The University of Minnesota is the reason why we came.”

Michelle went to the U of M for her undergraduate degree and for medical school. Their oldest son, Adrian, was born in Germany but graduated from Woodbury High before earning a degree at the U, too. He’s a family physician and lives in San Francisco.

The Tomes family kept growing in Minnesota. Sid and Noelle Tomes were born and raised in the Twin Cities, attended East Ridge and played college basketball for the Air Force (Sid and Noelle) and University of St. Thomas (Noelle after transferring). Their fifth child, Coco, is eight years younger than Cedric and plays basketball.

Whether in the United States or abroad, basketball brought them together, including pickup games during summer trips to Germany to see family or 3-on-3 tournaments while on a cruise trip.

Cedric said he’s now a “better player than my brother was” in high school.

“Even though he won’t admit it,” Cedric said of Sid with a smile. “He’s helped me every step of the way. My sister and oldest brother as well.”

The older siblings have followed Cedric’s career closely. Like his parents, they’ve helped guide him.

“They’ve all given him something different,” Tarek said. “Sid gives very clear and detailed feedback. Noelle is the super supportive one. Adrian is really rational, calm, doesn’t get caught up in the moment and enjoys the journey and the process.”

Rise with the Raptors

As an eighth-grader on varsity during the 2021-22 season, Tomes didn’t care about having a limited role. He wasn’t afraid to take three-pointers from any distance.

“I remember him making a shot at Forest Lake that year right in front of our bench from the volleyball line,” East Ridge coach Josh Peltier said. “We had a few kids out. You start going down the depth chart as a staff, and Ced was the first one on our minds. He held his own.”

Tomes, who is now 6-feet-1, stood 5-6 at the time, but shooting from NBA range was no problem.

“Confidence is the one thing I’ve kind of always had,” Tomes said. “If I can tell anyone else I’m trying to help out with basketball and the game, confidence is one of the highest skills that you need.”

As an underclassman, Tomes played in the backcourt with veterans like Alex Mattes and Kendall Blue, the latter of whom now plays at Nebraska after starting his college career at St. Thomas.

“I for sure remember the early years,” Tomes said. “I know the feeling and how it can be nerve-racking. I’ve just been helping [younger players] through it and helping them adjust. Leaving lessons they can use when I’m gone, too.”

Tomes manifested signs of leadership as a sophomore when he averaged a team-high 19 points. Eventually, Division I programs took notice, including the Gophers.

“He was a knockdown shooter, that’s what he was,” Peltier said. “He started to evolve his game physically and to make an impact at all three levels.”

After games, Tomes dives into video sessions with his father and Sid, now an assistant coach for the Air Force men’s basketball team. They dissect the subtle ways he can improve to get his shot off, from harder fakes or backdoor cuts to making different pick-and-roll reads.

Tarek, recently named the University of Minnesota’s next vice president for information technology and chief information officer, was a high school basketball assistant coach at Tartan, St. Paul Arlington, Woodbury and East Ridge before coaching Cedric.

“My dad has been my trainer and my coach since I was 4 years old and first remember being in the gym,” Cedric said. “He’s kind of been putting in [me] the lessons he’s learned. He’s been coaching forever. He’s been around the game, and I trust him to make decisions on my game and what I should be doing.”

Mr. Basketball hopeful

In May 2025, Tomes became the first Minnesota high school player to commit to first-year Gophers basketball coach Niko Medved.

“Really excited about the culture Niko is building there,” Tomes said. “It’s only up from here.”

Tomes, who averaged 27 points per game as a junior, didn’t necessarily have the physical build for a Big Ten guard. But what critics couldn’t measure was his toughness, which he showed when he recovered from a fractured finger toward the end of the football season this past fall to lead East Ridge to a playoff win.

Former Minnehaha Academy star Jalen Suggs, now in the NBA with the Orlando Magic, was a two-sport high school legend and role model for Tomes. They’ve also chatted this season through text messages.

“He looked up to Jalen and Tyus [Jones],” Tarek said of two former Minnesota Mr. Basketball winners. “He took pieces of their game that he could emulate.”

Tomes is also an underrated passer. The night Tomes scored 50 points at Totino-Grace, on Jan. 2, Peltier highlighted how Tomes, while being double-teamed, found teammate Joe Lammer for the go-ahead three-pointer with a minute left. Tomes foresaw that play coming to fruition during an earlier timeout.

During a 47-point performance at Stillwater on Jan. 20, Tomes not only shot from beyond the arc. He zipped passes to others for easy layups when he drew attention from defenders.

“He’s making elite plays all of the time, but not just for himself but for teammates,” Peltier said.

On Monday night, Feb. 9, East Ridge didn’t have enough firepower to last with defending Class 4A champion Wayzata in a 90-70 loss at home.

Tomes, though, scored the first 14 points of the game for the Raptors, who led by 11 in the first half. He finished with a game-high 36 points, but fellow Mr. Basketball candidates Nolen Anderson and Christian Wiggins combined for 47 points for the Trojans.

Medved and top Minnesota assistants Dave Thorson and Brian Cooley were in attendance watching Tomes and Anderson, the Gophers’ two local recruits.

The same way East Ridge’s student section cheered on a confident kid during halftime years ago, they cheered again for Tomes, who did everything to show the crowd that it was his time to thrive.

“Ced has never been shy of the attention,” Sid said. “He embraces it. That’s always been him.”

Basketball Across Minnesota

Fuller’s five

Five Minnesota ballers who stood out:

Myles Barnette, Gustavus: The 6-1 junior and former Wayzata standout helped the Division III Gusties extend their winning streak to 19 games, scoring a career-high 28 points at St. John’s on Feb. 4 and 24 points on Feb. 7 at Macalester.

Aaliyah Crump, Texas: The former Minnetonka star, a freshman guard for the Longhorns, scored 16 points and was 7-for-10 from the field in Texas’ win over No. 5 LSU last week.

Peyton Hoffman, Climax/Fischer: The 6-1 sophomore helped her team go on a nine-game winning streak, and she averaged 30.3 points and 20.5 rebounds during a four-game stretch. That included a 32-point, 27-rebound game vs. Norman County East/Ulen-Hitterdal.

Max Iversen, Maple Grove: The senior guard and North Dakota State recruit led the Crimson with 30 points and five three-pointers Feb. 6 in a 62-57 victory at Wayzata, the previous No. 1 team in Class 4A.

Amber Scalia, Miami (Ohio): The senior from Stillwater had 44 points in a two-game span, including 21 points and 4-for-5 shooting from three-point range in a Feb. 7 win vs. Georgia Southern, the RedHawks’ 12th consecutive victory.

Minnesotans in the pros: Coffey gets hot again

Former Gophers and Hopkins standout Amir Coffey had a career year with the Los Angeles Clippers last season before he found a new home in Milwaukee.

The seventh-year NBA guard didn’t see the floor as often this season, but that all changed recently.

Coffey, who averaged career bests with 9.7 points and 24 minutes per game last season with the Clippers, recorded a season-high 16 points on 7-for-8 shooting with five rebounds in 25 minutes in Milwaukee’s 141-137 overtime win against New Orleans on Feb. 4.

The Bucks were on a five-game skid until Coffey started for the first time this season in a win vs. Chicago on Feb. 3. That’s probably not a coincidence.

The Bucks traded Coffey and another player to the Phoenix Suns on Feb. 5 in exchange for Nick Richards and Nigel Hayes-Davis.

I can’t forget to mention former Minnehaha Academy star Jalen Suggs having his first NBA triple-double with 15 points, 11 assists, 11 rebounds and four blocks in a Feb. 5 win against Brooklyn. Earlier that week, Suggs also had a 20-point game vs. his old high school teammate Chet Holmgren in a Feb. 3 loss at Oklahoma City.

College team of the week

Gophers women’s basketball coach Dawn Plitzuweit might just have the program’s first NCAA tournament team since 2018.

There’s still work to be done, but the Gophers put themselves in a pretty good position with six straight Big Ten wins. Most notably, their Feb. 5 win at Iowa was the program’s first top-10 road victory since 2003. Grace Grocholski led them with 21 points that night.

Four of Minnesota’s wins during the current streak came on the road, including Feb. 8 at Rutgers behind Sophie Hart’s 17 points and 10 rebounds. The Gophers had four different players leading them in scoring in the last four games, including Tori McKinney and Amaya Battle.

Minnesota Top 25 update

Wayzata has reached five straight boys state championship games and won three Class 4A titles during that stretch. The Lake Conference being such a big test certainly has contributed to that success.

The fact that the Trojans won the Lake four straight years (2001-2004) was almost as impressive as their runs at state. Hopkins ended that Lake streak last year, but the Royals still couldn’t beat them at sections.

Maple Grove seems to be the only team the Wayzata boys can’t solve this season after the Crimson completed a season sweep last week. Maple Grove also won the Jan. 13 matchup at home.

The Lake’s top three teams entering the week were Wayzata, Hopkins and Buffalo, and they’re all in Class 4A, Section 6A. Can one of those foes finally stop the Trojans from making the state tourney? These losses to Maple Grove aren’t convincing enough.

Final thoughts ...

Trying to pick this year’s Minnesota boys basketball player of the year won’t be easy. You can’t go wrong with the top three candidates right now in Cedric Tomes, Nolen Anderson and Christian Wiggins. But there’s something about Tomes that sets him apart. It’s not that East Ridge isn’t as talented as Wayzata (and that Tomes has to shoulder more of the points). Tomes, at slightly over 6 feet and 170 pounds, is clearly undersized compared with Anderson (6-8) and Wiggins (6-5). He doesn’t have elite athleticism or quickness. But he can take over games with his basketball skill and smarts. That’s why he will be a Gopher. That’s why he’s a strong contender in the Mr. Basketball race. But who wins it in the end? That might come down to the wire.

. . .

Basketball Across Minnesota will be published weekly on stribvarsity.com. Don’t be a stranger on X after reading, as chatting about these stories makes them even more fun to share. Thanks, Marcus (@Marcus_R_Fuller on X).