The Conference Review – Big Nine

<p>Who met expectations?  Exceeded Expectations?  And who made Big Nine All Conference (with the Prep Hoops twist)? Find out now in the Big Nine Conference Review.</p> <p><strong>The Final Standings (with the NHR Prediction)</strong></p> <ol> <li>Mankato East (1)</li> <li>Rochester Mayo (3)</li> <li>Austin (2)</li> <li>Rochester Century (4)</li> <li>Owatonna (10)</li> <li>Albert Lea (11)</li> <li>Winona (8)</li> <li>Rochester JM (6)</li> <li>Northfield (5)</li> <li>Mankato West (7)</li> <li>Faribault (9)</li> <li>Red Wing (12)</li> </ol> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>The Review</strong></p> <p>At the Top - Mankato East was perfect in league play earning the crown.  Mayo and Austin flip-flopped in our expectations because of Austin’s loss to Albert Lea. Century was as steady as expected.</p> <p>The Surprise - That’s Owatonna.  The sophomore class ([player_tooltip player_id="850718" first="Evan" last="Dushek"], Brayden Williams, Ty Creger) combined with a nice coaching job from Coach Josh Williams leading to a much better year than anticipated.  Then you have Albert Lea improving by ten games this season!</p> <p>What Happened?  JM sunk a bit more than expected because they lost [player_tooltip player_id="549366" first="Lincoln" last="Meister"] to injury which is quite understandable.  Northfield’s defensive struggle was a big surprise leading to their 8-19 record, and I definitely thought Mankato West was going to take a bigger step forward than they did (improving from 6 wins to 7)</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>All Conference</strong></p> <p>**Note.  We are going to honor the decisions of the coaches of the Big Nine as they’ve already come forward with the league All Conference Tea.  BUT they put together a big long list of 19 names followed by 10 honorable mention choices.  We are going to stay true to our First Team-Second Team-Etc format.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong><u>First Team</u></strong></p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="846124" first="Joich" last="Gong"], Mankato East, Sr</p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="846106" first="Gabe" last="Madsen"], Rochester Mayo, Sr</p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="721826" first="Mason" last="Madsen"], Rochester Mayo, Sr</p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="846123" first="Jax" last="Madson"], Mankato East, Sr</p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="549410" first="Agwa" last="Nywesh"], Austin, Sr</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong><u>Second Team</u></strong></p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="850718" first="Evan" last="Dushek"], Owatonna, Soph</p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="549381" first="Jack" last="Fisher"], Rochester Century, Sr</p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="846147" first="Chay" last="Guen"], Albert Lea, Sr</p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="774763" first="Teyghan" last="Hovland"], Austin, Jr</p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="721862" first="Jordan" last="Merseth"], Mankato East, Sr</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong><u>Third Team</u></strong></p> <p>Jacob Daing, Rochester JM, Sr</p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="549366" first="Lincoln" last="Meister"], Rochester JM, Sr</p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="850715" first="BJ" last="Omot"], Mankato East, Soph</p> <p>Okey Okey, Austin, Jr</p> <p>Kip Schetnan, Northfield, Jr</p> <p>Brayden Williams, Owatonna, Soph</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong><u>Fourth Team</u></strong></p> <p>Mekhi Collins, Mankato West, Soph</p> <p>Jasper Hedin, Winona, Soph</p> <p>Mark Leonard, Rochester Century, Sr</p> <p>Stephen Olander, Rochester Century, Sr</p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="774831" first="Michael" last="Sharp"], Rochester Mayo, Jr </p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p>