The Valley Preview

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Best in the Valley? That was LCWM last year. Mankato Loyola was the top contender. Who will try and take the title from LCWM this year? We jump into the Valley!</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>:  .LCWM</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>We have Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial as 16th in Class AA coming into the season. They are still expected to be good although they will be not quite as big but maybe more skilled with all of the guard talent. Another good year is coming. This is a senior packed team that has played a lot of basketball together. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Compete with Most</strong>: TMLGHEC, St Clair, Alden-Conger, Madelia</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>TMLGHEC, also known as the password that you get reset to by artificial intelligence, returns most of their line-up from last season and look to improve on their 14-13 record. They were in 4th last year and should take a step forward to potentially 20 wins. I feel like this is the year they take steps to get past Loyola, LCWM and/or MCW, but last year those teams won by about 20 in games with TMLGHEC every time. It's tough to predict TMLGHEC above them until we see them compete with those teams first. Especially with Loyola and MCW having reserves back plus some solid young players coming up. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>I feel like St. Clair will be similar to last year. They lost three all league players and four of their top six guys from a 12-win team. [player_tooltip player_id='2124220' first='Austin' last='Ward'] is a good young player so they will still be solid but likely similar to last year. To be completely honest with you, outside of knowing they won ten games last year and that they have a good player in junior [player_tooltip player_id='1935505' first='Quentin' last='Guanella'], I do not know much at all about Alden-Conger. But I do know that Madelia upset them last year in the playoffs. And, Madelia returns nearly everything from last year so they should move from a four win team to about ten wins at least. Based on experience. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Rebuilding</strong>: Mankato Loyola, Martin County West, Nicollet, Cleveland</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Not a total rebuild because this is a good program with bench players coming back and they added a solid transfer in Preston Grams (from WEM) who played last year as a sophomore. But they will have just three seniors and will be playing a lot of young guys. Martin County West is similar to Loyola, they will still be good but they lost a star and they lost four of their five top guys. When you have that type of graduation hit your line-up it's at least a mild start over. Nicollet has a couple starters back including their best player so they should be a bit better, I think. Cleveland might have enough to take a decent step forward from one win to a number that can be counter on two hands, maybe. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>23-24 Valley Conference Predictions</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:list {"ordered":true} --> <ol><!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial </li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Mankato Loyola</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Martin County West</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>TMLGHEC</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>St. Clair</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Madelia</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Alden-Conger</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Cleveland</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Nicollet</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --></ol> <!-- /wp:list --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Preseason All Valley Conference</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>First Team</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Janis Ulman of LCWM (sr) </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Jack Brockman of LCWM (sr) </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Carter Fox of TMLGHEC (sr) </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Josiah DeMaris of Madelia (jr) </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1935505' first='Quentin' last='Guanella'] of Alden-Conger (jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>Second Team</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Ethan Anderson of LCWM (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Hunter Schmidt of Martin County West (sr) </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Hayden Jones of Madelia (jr) </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1617699' first='Conner' last='Martens'] of Nicollet (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Carter Barto of Cleveland (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='2124220' first='Austin' last='Ward'] of St. Clair (soph)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Jackson Madsen of TMLGHEC (jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Quinn Kelly of Mankato Loyola (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1288792' first='Mason' last='Anderson'] of LCWM (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Noah Seys-Marshall of St. Clair (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Blake Lyons of Cleveland (jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>Fourth Team</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Skyler Hill-Koenen of Mankato Loyola (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Kayden Loeschen of TMLGHEC (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Jacob Clarke of Martin County West (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Anthony Zaleski of Madelia (soph)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Preston Grams of Mankato Loyola (jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Eric Anderson of Madelia (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->