Previewing The Season Opener: Top Five on December 2

<p>We aren’t too far away from high school basketball in Minnesota. States around the country have already tipped off, don’t worry Minnesota, your time is coming soon.  Here are the first games you can go see....</p> <p>I’m seeing there MIGHT be a few games on Tuesday, November 30th, just eight days after the first practice.  Not sure if that is a certainty.  I surely see that there are a number of games on December 2nd.  Here are five games of note on opening day!</p> <p>Morris Area at LQPV.  [player_tooltip player_id="850706" first="Jackson" last="Loge"] and the Tigers take on a 17-4 LQPV team on the road that returns three starters who were three of their best players.  Morris Area is a top five Class AA team with a first team all state player and all of their starters returning. This is an outstanding season opener.  LQPV is a reasonably sized team that will put some length on Loge at times, and likely some offensive lineman on Jackson at times. </p> <p>Eagan at South St. Paul.  The east metro opener of note is Eagan traveling to SSP.  The Wildcats have the talent to try and make a statement against one of the best teams.  [player_tooltip player_id="962213" first="Emmanuel" last="Schmitter"] and [player_tooltip player_id="962251" first="Oscar" last="Khazon"] will lead the Cats but their task will be monumental as SSP is a senior dominated group full of playmaking guards.  You try and defend [player_tooltip player_id="958636" first="Alonzo" last="Dodd"] and [player_tooltip player_id="1143864" first="Devin" last="Newsome"], but then who stops [player_tooltip player_id="958644" first="Shawn" last="West-Zimpel"]?  That’s the fun dilemma of the game. </p> <p>Watertown-Mayer at Lester Prairie.  The Bulldogs open their new gym with a tough game against a Watertown-Mayer team that is a real Wright County West contender and a 5AA section sleeper.  Both teams have big expectations for this winter and both squads have a good frontcourt scorer as well as good guards ([player_tooltip player_id="1188850" first="John" last="Mueller"] and [player_tooltip player_id="958838" first="Jack" last="Behning"]).  This could actually be the game of the night. </p> <p>Orono at Hopkins.   The plethora of Orono Spartan guards hit the road to face the big bad Hopkins Royals.  Orono has the skill and guard talent to match a lot of the Hopkins talent, but who is going to deal with the monster in the middle, [player_tooltip player_id="850704" first="Elvis" last="Nnaji"]?  The Spartan players can look to recent Wofford walk-on commit [player_tooltip player_id="850734" first="Cohen" last="Kellogg"] for advice as he’s played a ton of games against Hopkins. </p> <p>Deer River at Cherry.  Man, this is a very tempting drive.  [player_tooltip player_id="1288733" first="Isaac" last="Asuma"] is one of the best sophomores in the state and is coming off a monster number season.  [player_tooltip player_id="958848" first="Ty" last="Morrison"] is the Class A preseason player of the year and the leader of a deep Deer River team that is ranked number one entering the season.  This should be a very fun season opening game! </p> <p>&nbsp;</p>