The West Central Conference Preview

Basketball in the West Central is strong and naturally last year the league was one by West Central Area last year. Who makes the push this year? We say West Central and Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta.     Conference Commentary   Top Ten in State: West Central Area   With a couple starters returning and a couple reserves back from a state tournament team and a conference champ, West Central Area is in a good spot to make another good push for a good to great season. The Knights face Class AA teams throughout the league schedule which has them ready once the playoffs come. They also return their big and their lead guard.   Top Ten Potential: Montevideo, Sauk Centre, Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta, BOLD   Montevideo has their top two scorers back along with key reserves from a team that won 21 games and could possibly be even better this season. They have a solid shot to be a team that moves into the top ten this year. Can they get past West Central Area? I think the gap will close and they can, but WCA won by 5 points and 14 points a season ago so they are pry the slight favorite still.   Half of the Sauk Centre rotation returns from last year's team. I'm not sure they will sniff the top ten but they should still be a good basketball team with size. They have two double figures capable guys returning.   I think Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta should be the favorite. Losing only one starter from a 20 win team with three all league honored double figure scoring players coming back plus reserves and good youth coming up, they should be the deepest and most talented team.   As a Class A team BOLD is also going to be in the top ten at some point this season. West Central and BOLD could both make State as they are in different sections but they are in the same conference. BOLD has five of their top seven guys back including their top piece in all state player [player_tooltip player_id='2449974' first='Jack' last='Gross']. Jack will be the top player in the conference.   Compete with Most: Melrose, Benson   Melrose is one that will still be competitive but they lost seven of their top nine guys and those losses included all their all league honored players. There will be a lot of spots that need to be filled while playing league teams that have a lot back.   Benson is in an odd spot. They were 11-3 outside of the league last year so they more than competed with the teams on their non league schedule but in league they were winless. Not only did they lose to Minnewaska twice, they got beat significantly once and then lost by nine the other game.   Rebuilding: Minnewaska Area   Minnewaska Area was a 2-25 team last year that lost their two best players. Likely another rebuild year although they do have a big senior class numbers wise.     24-25 Conference Prediction   (1) Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta   (2) West Central Area   (3) Montevideo   (4) Sauk Centre   (5) BOLD   (6) Melrose Area   (7) Minnwaska Area   (8) Benson     Preseason All West Central Area   First Team   [player_tooltip player_id='2449974' first='Jack' last='Gross'] of BOLD (Sr)   [player_tooltip player_id='2118471' first='Riley' last='Asmus'] of Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta (Jr)   [player_tooltip player_id='2451433' first='Ben' last='Bye'] of West Central Area (Sr)   [player_tooltip player_id='2104548' first='Gannon' last='Reidinger'] of Montevideo (Sr)   [player_tooltip player_id='2524646' first='Griffin' last='Epema'] of Montevideo (Soph)     Second Team   Will Penkert of BOLD (Sr)   [player_tooltip player_id='2445191' first='Drew' last='Huebner'] of Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta (Sr)   [player_tooltip player_id='2432892' first='Chad' last='Herickhoff'] of Sauk Centre (Sr)   Samuel Hanson of West Central Area (Sr) HM   Charles Hanson of Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta (Sr)     Third Team   [player_tooltip player_id='2488739' first='Jacob' last='Drevlow'] of Sauk Centre (Jr)   Cash Nelson of West Central Area (Sr)   [player_tooltip player_id='2377913' first='Alex' last='Asmus'] of Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta (Soph)   Jack Kehoe of Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta (Jr)   Harold Habben of Benson (Jr)     Fourth Team   [player_tooltip player_id='2402246' first='Damian' last='Ahrens'] of Sauk Centre (Sr)   [player_tooltip player_id='2425367' first='Brady' last='Goihl'] of Melrose Area (Jr)   Nels Baukol of Montevideo (Jr)   Owen Baumgartner of BOLD (Jr)   Owen Sanstead of West Central Area (Sr)     HM   Tyler Friesen of of Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta (Sr)   Samuel Wehlage of Melrose Area (Sr)   Hudson Vosika of BOLD (Sr)

Basketball in the West Central is strong and naturally last year the league was one by West Central Area last year. Who makes the push this year? We say West Central and Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta.