Class AAA Title Contender Series: Totino-Grace

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The Totino-Grace Eagles have won back to back titles and they are going for a third. It's a very talented team but there is some inexperience and youth so they will have to gel chemistry wise. Here are the Eagles!</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Key Wins in 22-23 (24-8)</strong>:&nbsp; Maple Grove, Osseo, Houston (TN), Hopkins, Columbia Heights, Andover, Mahtomedi, St. Francis, Alexandria, DeLaSalle</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Oops</strong>: Dream City Christian (Arizona), Lakeville North, Park Center (x2), Pewaukee (WI), Waukee (IA), Osseo, Minnetonka</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Moving On</strong>: Taison Chatman is at Ohio State, Tommy Humphries is at Furman, Patrick Bath is at Drake, and Jayden Livingston is at North Central. Those four and fellow seniors London James and Rhikeishi Lee left the Eagles with a pair of state titles and a lot of wins in the NWSC as well as against a tough non-league schedule. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Returning Starters (1)</strong>: [player_tooltip player_id='1284143' first='Isaiah' last='Johnson'] is the lone returning starters. Johnson was the second leading scorer on the team last year and he played both forward spots for the Eagles. Johnson recently picked Miami of Florida for his future school over Iowa, Northwestern, and Virginia Tech. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Reserves Playing a Bigger Role:</strong> Now juniors [player_tooltip player_id='1574227' first='Chace' last='Watley'] and [player_tooltip player_id='1288748' first='Tyler' last='Wagner'] should be slide right into big roles for the next two seasons. Watley will be a ball handler/creator/attacking scorer while Wagner will be one of the better shooters in the state as well as one of the better metro scoring wings. Watley scored six a game last year while Wagner averaged 9.5 a game. Wagner is a player that I could see really make a jump as a prospect in the next twelve months. As a freshmen playing behind the likes of Wagner, Humphries and Johnson at forward, 2026 [player_tooltip player_id='1560740' first='Dothan' last='Ijadimbola'] still played in nearly all of the varsity games averaging five points a contest. Over the spring and summer, Dothan showed in front of scouts and college coaches alike that he is a nationally rated four star level prospect and the high major offers have started to come in. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Potentials from the JV</strong>. [player_tooltip player_id='1560835' first='Tian' last='Chatman'] and [player_tooltip player_id='1552934' first='Will' last='Brands'] were the 10th and 11th men on the varsity team that played on the varsity level when there were injuries or scores that were becoming lopsided. They also played some junior varsity. Both are coming off excellent off-seasons. Chatman was a first team all state 15u player while Brands was outstanding with the Minnesota Rush. Chatman will move into the combo guard role for the Eagles this year as a sophomore while Brands will supply frontcourt depth. Both should play fairly bigger roles this year. Vince Jacob, Josiah Young, and [player_tooltip player_id='1617806' first='Will' last='Fariss'] are all now juniors. All three played junior varsity last year as sophomores. Guards [player_tooltip player_id='2121355' first='Jaden' last='Miller'] and [player_tooltip player_id='1560756' first='Pierless' last='Davis'] were on the JV last year as freshmen (Davis has transferred to Champlin Park). </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>New to the Varsity program</strong>: Malachi HIll is a ball handler to keep an eye on. He played varsity at Minneapolis South last year as an 8th grader scoring 5-6 points a game. Hill was excellent for PJ Hoops 14u last spring/summer and should add depth to the TG group of ball handlers. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Final Thoughts</strong>: This will be a deep team of talent once again but there will only be three seniors (that's assumed because there were only three juniors last year: Johnson, Brands and Stewart). Having only three seniors won't stop the Eagles from being a top team and they surely have a quality shot at a three-peat, but it does open the door a bit. Watley, Wagner, Ijadimbola and Chatman are excellent duo of juniors and sophomores that will all have bigger roles. The biggest thing for this group is finding the right chemistry with all of those talent to make the run. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->