The Pine to Prairie Preview

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The class of the league in 22-23 was Fosston, Fertile-Beltrami, and Ada Borup-West. What changes in 2023-24? It's Pine to the Prairie time!</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Conference Commentary</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Top Ten in State</strong>: Ada Borup West, Fertile-Beltrami</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>It's Ada Borup time. They return their top six players from a team that won 19 games. The Cougars time is now and if they can figure out the big game the sky is the limit. We have them in the top ten but on the edge because they have come up short in those big games, but they are likely matured and ready for the run. Fertile-Beltrami is also a top ten team after winning 22 games and bringing back six of their top seven players. [player_tooltip player_id='1284094' first='Caiden' last='Swenby'] and Derek Soerenson are one of the better Class A backcourts. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Top Ten in State Potential</strong>: Win-E-Mac</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Win-E-Mac was just 15-12 last season but they have one of the top scorers in Minnesota in [player_tooltip player_id='1284164' first='Justin' last='Courneya'] plus others returning. If they continue to score at this rate and the defense improves they could move from top 30 to maybe close to top ten.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Compete with Most</strong>: Mahnomen/Waubun, Lake Park-Audubon, Park Christian, NCE/UH, Climax-Fisher</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Mahnomen/Waubun is likely to be in a similar spot. They were three games over .500 but they lost their best two players, but also have a good senior core. We expect a similar season. Lake Park-Audubon should take a step forward. The Raiders return their best two players, they have a decent amount of size and while they aren't likely a 20 win team, they should at least flip their record. With four starters back I would expect Park Christian to take a very similar jump to what we expect from Lake Park-Audubon. Park Christian was an underclassmen crew a season ago and did all right consider so much of the on the floor production came from sophomores and freshmen. A year older and likely a year better. NCE/UH should also be competitive and improve on their nine win season from a year ago. Climax-Fisher should be a bit better. Likely not a double figure win team but they should not be losing by an average of 28 points a game either. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Rebuilding</strong>: Fosston, Bagley</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>You would expect Fosston to be solid but you don't know. They had such a strong senior class last year that was 25-6 but so much of this year will be last year's talented JV team. But again, tough to predict what to expect from them when there will be so many new bodies. Put Bagley on that list of teams that never turn anything in for the Breakdown book, that never have any stats, no social media, nothing. Really don't know much about what is going on up there. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>23-24 Pine to Prairie Conference Predictions</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>North</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:list {"ordered":true} --> <ol><!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Fertile-Beltrami</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Win-E-Mac</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Fosston</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Climax-Fisher</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Bagley</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --></ol> <!-- /wp:list --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>South</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:list {"ordered":true} --> <ol><!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Ada Borup West</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Lake Park-Audubon</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Park Christian</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Mahnomen/Waubun</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>NCE/UH</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --></ol> <!-- /wp:list --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>Power Rankings</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:list {"ordered":true} --> <ol><!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Fertile-Beltrami</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Ada Borup West</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Win-E-Mac</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Lake Park-Audubon</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Park Christian</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Fosston</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Mahnomen/Waubun</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>NCE/UH</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Climax-Fisher</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Bagley</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --></ol> <!-- /wp:list --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Preseason All&nbsp;Pine to Prairie Conference</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>First Team</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1284164' first='Justin' last='Courneya'] of Win-E-Mac (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1284094' first='Caiden' last='Swenby'] of Fertile-Beltrami (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1434978' first='Cameron' last='Spaeth'] of Ada Borup West (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1284126' first='Derek' last='Sorenson'] of Fertile-Beltrami (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1537473' first='Cadyn' last='Dahl'] of Ada Borup West (jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>Second Team</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2100615' first='Ryan' last='Kangas'] of Win-E-Mac (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Colby Poegel of Lake Park-Audubon (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2104544' first='Bridger' last='Carlson'] of Park Christian (jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1482041' first='Austin' last='McCraven'] of Ada Borup West (jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1415930' first='Isaac' last='Jacobson'] of Park Christian (soph)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>Third Team</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Teigan Bjerke of Lake Park-Audubon (jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1560792' first='Preston' last='Hanson'] of Fertile-Beltrami (soph)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Aidan Flaten of NCE/UH (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Masen Nowacki of Fertile-Beltrami (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Daniel Swiers of Park Christian (jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>Fourth Team</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Carter Clark of Mahnomen/Waubun (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Hudson Boushee of Fosston (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Ryan Morris of Climax-Fisher (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Charles Scholl of Ada Borup West (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Tyler Loeb of Park Christian (jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->