The Northern Lakes Preview

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Northland was clearly the best team in the Northern Lakes Conference last season. And coming into the season, Northland is a top 25 Class A team so they will be the favorite this year once again. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Conference Commentary</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Top Ten in State Potential</strong>: Northland</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Northland is by far the clear favorite in this league. They have a chance to be a top ten team in state with their senior group of Wakes and Carlsons leading the way after a 21 win season. [player_tooltip player_id='962322' first='Alec' last='Wake'] is a future college basketball player and Northland as a core has a chance to do something special. And in the league they are clearly the best team. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Compete with Most</strong>: Bigfork, Nashwauk-Keewatin</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Bigfork brings back most of their team and should take a step forward, but they are taking a step forward from five wins. I would say .500 is possible and if it's anything better than that we are talking about a massive one year turnaround. That said, we can't put them above Nashwauk-Keewatin who beat Bigfork in smackdowns twice last season. The Spartans lost five of their top seven but their second leading scorer is back so we think N-K will be the second best team in the league. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Rebuilding</strong>: Hill City, Littlefork-Big Falls</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Littlefork-Big Falls was 3-21 last season but they bring back four starters including an all conference first team so they have to be taking a nice step forward where as Hill City graduated I believe three starters from a team that only won one league game (but did win ten games overall). </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>22-23 Conference Predictions</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:list {"ordered":true} --> <ol><li>Northland</li><li>Nashwauk-Keewatin</li><li>Bigfork</li><li>Littlefork-Big Falls</li><li>Hill City</li></ol> <!-- /wp:list --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Preseason All North Lakes Conference</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>First Team</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='962322' first='Alec' last='Wake'] of Northland (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Jhace Pearson of Bigfork (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Noah Carlson of Northland (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1617775' first='Liam' last='Wake'] of Northland (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Marcus Moore of Nashwauk-Keewatin (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>Second Team</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Thomas Larson of Littlefork-Big Falls (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1288766' first='Aiden' last='Carlson'] of Northland (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Bradley Haley of Bigfork (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Conner Perryman of Nashwauk-Keewatin (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Jacob Roper of Hill City (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Wyatt Hell of Littlefork-Big Falls (jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->