The Northland Preview

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Cass Lake-Bena and Nevis have been the class of the league and Top Ten teams in Class A the past handful of years. Guess what? The Panthers and Tigers are right there again! And watch out for Blackduck who is right on their heels. </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</strong>: Cass Lake-Bena</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Cass Lake-Bena starts the year as the favorite because they did win 13 of 14 league games last year, because they were 26-4 last season, and they bring arguably the most talented players in the league in Fairbanks and Lee. That said, they don't have as much back as Nevis and Blackduck in terms of depth and role players, but they do have the most talented duo so they get the nod out in front. That said, Blackduck was within three scores of the Panthers last year twice. That said twice over, they got the last laugh vs Nevis and they are motivated by missing state by one overtime basket. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Top Ten in State Potential</strong>: Nevis, Blackduck</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Nevis hammered Blackduck twice last season and Nevis returns five players from their rotation so they are a step ahead of Blackduck when it comes to preseason listings. Blackduck is a serious contender here because they have four starters returning who were all league players, but then again Nevis has five experienced talents returning and again, they crushed Blackduck last season. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>So in summary: Cass Lake-Bena has the most talented duo, but less returning depth than the other three. Blackduck has the most talent back from last season, but did not have as much success last year as the other two. Nevis has good talent back, they crushed Blackduck last year, and they split with CLB. But CLB went the furthest last season and got the last laugh vs Nevis.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>All in all, should be a fun race. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Compete with Most</strong>: Red Lake, Pine River-Backus, Northome/Kelliher</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Pine River-Backus is my next up. With three all league honored starters back and all the bench players returning, they should take a big next step from 13-14. Maybe not contending with the top three, but right behind them. Red Lake is not as deep as the other teams mentioned but [player_tooltip player_id='1284136' first='Gerald' last='Kingbird Jr'] is one of the best players in the league. The N/K Vikings have their best player returning but they lost three starters from a ten win team. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Rebuilding:</strong> Walker-Hackensack-Akeley, Laporte</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>With Christian Moe returning WHA might be slightly better but they are still in the rebuild. And Laporte, Laporte was arguably the worst team in high school basketball last year. They were winless and lost games by an average of 36 points a night. They were running timed in at least 13 of their 21 games. So yes that is a rebuild. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>22-23 Conference Predictions</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:list {"ordered":true} --> <ol><li>Cass Lake-Bena</li><li>Nevis</li><li>Blackduck</li><li>Pine River-Backus</li><li>Red Lake</li><li>Northome/Kelliher</li><li>WHA</li><li>Laporte</li></ol> <!-- /wp:list --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Preseason All Northland Conference</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>First Team</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1284127' first='Dominic' last='Fairbanks'] of Cass Lake-Bena (jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1284165' first='Kaydin' last='Lee'] of Cass Lake-Bena (jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Dante Frank of Blackduck (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1284136' first='Gerald' last='Kingbird Jr'] of Red Lake (jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1284161' first='John' last='Paul Benson'] of Nevis (jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>Second Team</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Oliver Stroeing of Blackduck (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Leodyn Kingbird of Blackduck (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1284159' first='Joe' last='Houchin'] of Nevis (jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1293062' first='Owen' last='Wilson'] of Blackduck (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Jared Hamilton of Pine River-Backus (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>Third Team</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='962299' first='Rian' last='Struss'] of Pine River-Backus (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1288732' first='Cade' last='Beaulieu'] of Red Lake (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Marcus Johnson of Northome/Kelliher (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Christian Moe of WHA (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Trayvauhn Lee of Cass Lake-Bena (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>Fourth Team</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2109862' first='Devan' last='Lindow'] of Nevis (soph)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2398578' first='Andrew' last='Bueckers'] of Pine River-Backus (jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Austin Ahrendyt of Nevis (jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Grant Hamilton of Laporte (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Kinglsey Whitebird of Cass Lake-Bena (soph)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->