19-20 First Look: Eastview
With a veteran team that includes several years of experience, the Eastview Lightning are looking for a repeat trip to state. Only this team Eastview is thinking gold. The Lightning made the state tournament last year 15-11. Wins over Minneapolis…
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Continue ReadingWith a veteran team that includes several years of experience, the Eastview Lightning are looking for a repeat trip to state. Only this team Eastview is thinking gold.
The Lightning made the state tournament last year 15-11. Wins over Minneapolis North and Chaska put Eastview in the top ten early last season but six losses in the ten following games led to some tough moments. The Lightning rebounded to win seven of their last eight before the state tournament started. And most of the talent returns.
Moving On: Izaak Raspberry was the lone senior on the team last season. Raspberry handled the ball and scored eight points a game.
Returning Starters: Eastview has four senior starters back and their graduated point guard will be replaced by a point guard that recently accepted a scholarship. The Everything starts with top 100 level senior Steven Crowl, a Wisconsin committed big that averaged 19 points and 11 rebounds a game as a junior. Crowl no longer has to worry about recruiting, about college coaches, and the media, now he can relax and play.
Crowl’s frontcourt partner Tate Machacek averaged 10.5 points and 6/7 boards a game last season and is coming off a great 17u year with the Minnesota Matrix. With Machacek improving the jumper, that means that all three frontcourt Eastview seniors can face-up and hit jumpers. That doesn’t mean that Tate/Crowl/Ryan Thissen need to shoot a ton of jumpers, but they can make them (this team moves the ball so well that high percentage deep paint 2-foot attempts could be the regular). Speaking of Thissen, at 6-foot-5 on the wing, Ryan scored 14.5 points a game as a junior and had a great 17u year with Minnesota Select picking up D2 offers. Add in 6-foot-1 Caden Scales and his seven points a game and you have your four returning starters. Four starters that can defend.
Reserves Playing a Bigger Role: Jaylen James is the fourth leading returning scorer on this team and is basically the fifth returning starter. Eastview will be better with James handling the ball and giving this team another trusted senior. The Lightning bench was young last season with James or Rasberry being joined by ultra athletic Zach Spann and steady guard Grayson Stalboerger. Spann and Stalboerger had excellent seasons with the Minnesota Magic 16s showing that the bucket a game they gave last year could surely be better as juniors. Zach and Grayson will give Eastview two of the best 6th and 7th men in Class AAAA basketball.
Potentials from the JV: Let me continue with that last comment. Spann and Stalboerger will be joined by Henry Shannon – who also had a great 16u year with the Minnesota Magic – and give Eastview one of the top benches in the state. In fact, I’d say that the Eastview bench will be right there with Park Center, Eden Prairie, and Shakopee as having the top benches (PC being #1). Eastview can go deeper than that. Senior Nick Vermurlen will get minutes and lets not forget that last year Eastview had a dozen juniors on their roster. Guys like Noah Mattson and Evan Schroeder will fight for time as well. Junior Jackson Purcell and sophomore Kenji Scales need mentions as well. This is a deep team.