The Northland Preview

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Cass Lake-Bena was perfect in the league but it was Nevis from the league that represented the team at state again. What about 24-25? Nevis comes in the Big favorite. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Conference Commentary</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Top Ten in State</strong>: Nevis</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Nevis is looking for their 6th straight trip to the state tournament (qualified in 2020 but wasn't allowed to go because of Covid). They return four players from last year's rotation including their lead guard and their frontcourt which is the second best frontcourt in Class A basketball behind (Dawson-Boyd). They need some wings to step forward but wings are usually easier to find and fill than a lead guard and size. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Top Ten Potential</strong>: Cass Lake-Bena</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Cass Lake-Bena will be an interesting follow. They did lose Bemidji State's Dom Fairbanks as well as Kaydin Lee, who only played here and there last year, and some reserves, but they also bring back two all league players and some reserves. So now we see if the guys stepping into the lead roles can take the team to state.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Compete with Most</strong>: Red Lake, Walker-Hackensack-Akeley, Northome/Kelliher, Pine River-Backus</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Red Lake and their 88 points a game win 22 games last year, but they lost three all league players to graduation. How good will they be? Tough to know, information is limited, but they do have a couple guys back and it's been a consistent program. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Walker-Hackensack-Akeley has four starters back and should move from 14 wins to close to 20 wins. So you would think we can step them ahead of somebody, it's very hard to do that when Cass Lake-Bena destroyed them twice last year, Nevis beat them up three times, and Red Lake got them by 20+ both games. Can Walker-Hackensack-Akeley take the next step on one of these teams? Maybe, and it could be Red Lake who seems to have lost the most, but those scores last year have us hesitating. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Northome/Kelliher information is little but we do know they have a couple starters back from a season ago from a ten win team. The problem here is they gave up a league high 84 points a game a season ago and that was the league worst by nine points a game (they were fourth in the league in scoring). </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Pine River-Backus went through a rebuilding year last year and it was good for them. They won six games but more importantly they got a lot of young players experience and this year they should be better for it. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Rebuilding: </strong>Blackduck, Laporte</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Blackduck struggled to score (51 points a game) last year and they lost their two best players from that team. Looks to be a team that needs time to build back up. Laporte was winless in the league last season and they lost their two all league players.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>24-25 Conference Prediction</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(1) Nevis</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(2) Cass Lake-Bena</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(3) Red Lake</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(4) Walker-Hackensack-Akeley</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(5) Pine River-Backus</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(6) Northome/Kelliher </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(7) Blackduck</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(8) Laporte</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Preseason Northland</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>First Team</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2103319' first='Alex' last='Lester'] of Nevis (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2109862' first='Devan' last='Lindow'] of Nevis (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Kingsley Whitebird of Cass Lake-Bena (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Tateyn Boswell of Cass Lake-Bena (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Parker Brock of Walker-Hackensack-Akeley (Jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>Second Team</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Tyrone Beaulieu Jr of Red Lake (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Niko Morrow of Walker-Hackensack-Akeley (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>AJ Bessler of Nevis (Jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2449438' first='Tate' last='Norman'] of Pine River-Backus (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Gavin Oelschlager of Walker-Hackensack-Akeley (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>Third Team</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Isaih Aulie of Pine River-Backus (Jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Lorenzo Reyes of Cass Lake-Bena (Jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Vincent Pederson of Walker-Hackensack-Akeley (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Billy Jack Schoenborn of Northome/Kelliher (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->