The Mississippi 8 Preview

<p>Last year St. Francis stepped up to challenge Princeton but Tigers took the title again.  Who will challenge the champs this year?</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Conference Commentary</strong></p> <p><strong>Top Ten</strong>: Princeton</p> <p>The unquestioned top squad in the league right now and that will not change.  The Tigers are consistently bigger, tougher, more talented, and play better team basketball than the rest of the league.  Big favorites this year. </p> <p><strong style="font-size: 1rem;">Top Ten Potential:  </strong>Becker</p> <p>We talked contenders to Princeton this year and I think Becker will be that team.  They were .500 in league play last season and bring back their two best players plus have a nice group of seniors that play good team basketball.  </p> <p><strong>Compete with Most</strong>: Monticello. St. Francis, Cambridge-Isanti</p> <p>The Magic have their two best players back from last season but they must replace a ton of role players.  Injuries and good youth will help them with some of that.  The Magic should contend.  St. Francis is a tough one to figure out.  They went a healthy 12-7 last year but lost two of their best players.  That said, they have three starters back and all of their reserves return.  The number of players returning is great, the number of players that can score for this team outside of [player_tooltip player_id="962233" first="Matthew" last="Bothun"] is what has us totally uncertain.  Cambridge was 3-16 last season but they should take a step forward in a league that is very wide open after Princeton, .</p> <p><strong>Rebuilding</strong>:  Big Lake, Chisago Lakes, North Branch</p> <p>Big Lake will look totally different.  They will go from a bigger team that had good bigs that produced inside, to being a guard dominated team that isn’t big but they will come at you in waves number wise.  They have one starter back. Chisago Lakes lost three of their best four players and will have only a couple seniors.  They can still be a solid team but it’s going to look a bit different. North Branch won only two games last season BUT, they have an experienced new coach that will have an experienced team with most key pieces back.  They will be better this year. </p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>21-22 Conference Predictions</strong></p> <ol> <li>Princeton</li> <li>Becker</li> <li>Monticello</li> <li>St. Francis</li> <li>Chisago Lakes</li> <li>North Branch</li> <li>Cambridge-Isanti</li> <li>Big Lake</li> </ol> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Preseason All Mississippi 8 Conference</strong></p> <p><strong><u>First Team</u></strong></p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="962233" first="Matthew" last="Bothun"] of St. Francis (jr)</p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="962273" first="Cooper" last="Drews"] of Princeton (jr)</p> <p>Carson Knolles of Monticello (sr)</p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="1268459" first="Eric" last="Seavert"] of Becker (sr)</p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="958662" first="Haydn" last="Stay"] of Princeton (sr)</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong><u>Second Team</u></strong></p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="958755" first="Trevor" last="Johnson"] of North Branch (sr)</p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="958814" first="Wyatt" last="Sawatzke"] of Monticello (sr)</p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="962262" first="Brady" last="Paumen"] of Becker (jr)</p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="1144128" first="Cooper" last="Nowak"] of Princeton (sr)</p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="1180134" first="Alex" last="Weiss"] of Becker (jr)</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong><u>Third Team</u></strong></p> <p>Johnny O’Brien of Big Lake (jr)</p> <p>Ben Hallberg of Princeton (sr)</p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="1223083" first="Wes" last="Johnson"] of St. Francis (jr)</p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="1288689" first="Adam" last="Rehm"] of North Branch (sr)</p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="1221115" first="Kobe" last="Karels"] of Cambridge-Isanti (jr)</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong><u>Fourth Team</u></strong></p> <p>Reed Marquardt of Chisago Lakes (sr)</p> <p>Hayden Harmoning of Becker (sr)</p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="958685" first="Brady" last="Thompson"] of Monticello (sr)</p> <p>Reese Bickford of Cambridge-Isanti (sr)</p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="962266" first="Carson" last="Klein"] of North Branch (jr)</p> <p>Derek Stone of St. Francis (jr)</p>