The Great River Preview

The Great River has expanded to the ten teams from its seven team format of a year ago. It sounds like there might be a group of big schools, and a big group of small schools, with five in each. And the split, at least for boys basketball, seems pointless for this year as I think the small schools have about an equal group to the big schools.     Conference Commentary   Top Ten Potential: Mora, East Central, Braham   As we said yesterday for Mora..... Injuries got in the way of their rhythm last season leading to a somewhat surprising 14-13 season. I do not think that will be the case this year as I think Mora has a chance to be a top ten team. They look to have a lot of the pieces to give Albany and Pequot Lakes some battles.   Yesterday we were alerted that Mora moved over to the Great River and in looking on the internet there was an article from a week ago announcing the move along with CI and Aitkin. Is Mora playing in the Granite Ridge too? Maybe, I have no idea. The state of Minnesota is not very good at announcing these things so we are just going to keep Mora in both league previews.   East Central is a team I expect to be in the Class A top ten at some point this year. They did lose their top scorer but they return four members from their rotation and that includes two returning all league players. East Central is a top 15 team in Class A coming into the season.   The Bombers should have an outside shot at being a top ten team in Class A this season. They have two all league players back including [player_tooltip player_id='2369272' first='Tyler' last='Eklund'] who scored 22.5 points a game as a sophomore. That said, their games last year with East Central were ugly plus they have to figure out how to beat Upsala as well if they want to make a section move (and East Central, and Nevis too I guess).   Compete with Most: Hinckley-Finlayson, Rush City, Pine City   Hinckley-Finlayson lost all their guards from an 8-win team and while they do have frontcourt players back, they still aren't a very big team. They should be able to compete but this is close to being a rebuild it seems. Rush City won six games a season ago and they do have a couple guards back. That said they are a small team that has depth that needs to be filled. Pine City lost only one player to graduation so they should take a nice step forward from second to last in the league, especially considering so many teams are going through a restart.   Rebuilding: Aitkin, Crosby-Ironton, Ogilvie, Mille Lacs   Aitkin was a three win team last year that should be improved behind 6'8 big [player_tooltip player_id='1628773' first='Isaac' last='Asmus']. However, the Gobblers lost their other four starters from that three win team so even though they have a good big they are replacing everything else. Crosby-Ironton also experienced a ton of loss from last season as seven of their top eight players graduated. The Rangers have one guy back from last year's rotation. Ogilvie won 12 games last year but they lost their best two players and the majority of their rotation. Mille Lacs was winless in the league and they graduated a lot of players.     24-25 Conference Prediction   Power Rankings   (1) Mora   (2) East Central   (3) Braham   (4) Pine City   (5) Crosby-Ironton   (6) Hinckley-Finlayson   (7) Rush City   (8) Aitkin   (9) Ogilvie   (10) Mille Lacs     Big   (1) Mora   (2) Pine City   (3) Crosby-Ironton   (4) Rush City   (5) Aitkin     Small   (1) East Central   (2) Braham   (3) Hinckley-Finlayson   (4) Ogilvie   (5) Mille Lacs     Preseason All Great River   First Team   [player_tooltip player_id='1584900' first='Gage' last='Braiedy'] of Mora (Sr)   [player_tooltip player_id='1535036' first='Noah' last='Oberfeld'] of Mora (Sr)   [player_tooltip player_id='2369272' first='Tyler' last='Eklund'] of Braham (Jr)   [player_tooltip player_id='2432826' first='Benjamin' last='Carlin'] of East Central (Jr)   Xavior Le Texier of East Central (Jr)     Second Team   Charles Ausmus of Pine City (Sr)   [player_tooltip player_id='1628773' first='Isaac' last='Asmus'] of Aitkin (Jr)   [player_tooltip player_id='2124222' first='Tanner' last='Doble'] of Braham (Jr)   Josh Hegerness of Mora (Sr)   Bryer Willert of Pine City (Sr)     Third Team   Wesley Gahbow of Mille Lacs (Sr)   [player_tooltip player_id='2493874' first='Ethan' last='Millsop'] of Crosby-Ironton (Jr)   Ayden Ostenson of Pine City (Sr)   Lukas Diedrich of Rush City (Jr)   Cole Schrwarzbauer of Mora (Sr)   Garett Lidke of Braham (Jr)   Matt Kempf of Rush City (Sr)

The Great River has expanded to the ten teams from its seven team format of a year ago. It sounds like there might be a group of big schools, and a big group of small schools, with five in each. And the split, at least for boys basketball, seems pointless for this year as I think the small schools have about an equal group to the big schools.