The Lake Conference Preview

Last Year   On the Money   We had the bottom two spots listed right and we picked Wayzata to win and they won the state title   Yikes RJ!   We picked Wayzata to win the league but Hopkins won the league, but then again Wayzata won the title so what is wrong and what is right? We had EP picked too high last season as they finished 5th and we had them third.   Conference Commentary   Top Ten in State: Wayzata, Hopkins, Maple Grove   Wayzata, Hopkins and Maple Grove will enter the season as the top three ranked teams in the state in AAAA and all of them have the type of talent, depth, size and skill to win the title this year. Naturally Wayzata is the favorite as they won the title last season and they return high level talent as well as have the depth to fill in the few spots that need to be filled in (Ryan Mann, Wyatt McBeth, and [player_tooltip player_id='1560807' first='Isaac' last='Olmstead'] who was injured last spring).   Hopkins adding the transfers of [player_tooltip player_id='1874906' first='Kyree' last='Nelson'] and [player_tooltip player_id='1560839' first='Xavier' last='Frelix'] moves them right into position to have depth, skill, size and talent to challenge the [program_tooltip program_id='2075965' first='Trojans' last=''] and the same can be said for Maple Grove who added [player_tooltip player_id='1560739' first='Max' last='Iversen'] and [player_tooltip player_id='2126108' first='Jack' last='Thelen'] as big name transfers. All three of these teams have the ability to overwhelm just about every other team in the state outside of a few. Frelix might be the ex-factor because Hopkins badly needed a shooter to replace Semanko and Frelix should step right into that role.   Top Ten in State Potential: Minnetonka, Edina, Eden Prairie   Tonka, Edina and EP are going to be good teams but they will be short the depth that the teams above have. That said, they will have the talent to be good teams that try and battle their way into the top ten. Tonka has a couple key guys back plus up and comers. Edina will have three starters back and some reserves as well. EP looks to have a chance to be the deepest among the teams listed here, they just struggled the most among the teams listed here.   Compete with Most: Buffalo   Buffalo lost twelve seniors. That is a ton of experience to replace and there will be some tough days but Buffalo has some very good young talent that will keep them a solid to good team. They will need another year before they move up in the categories but they will surprise some of the teams above this year at some point.   Rebuilding: STMA   The Knights lost just about everything. They are restarting things and while there will be some tough nights, STMA needs to get a lot of players experience for the future.   25-26 Conference Predictions   Lake Conference Power Rankings   <ol class="wp-block-list"> <li>Wayzata</li>   <li>Hopkins</li>   <li>Maple Grove</li>   <li>Minnetonka</li>   <li>Edina</li>   <li>Eden Prairie</li>   <li>Buffalo</li>   <li>STMA</li> </ol>     Preseason All Lake   First Team   [player_tooltip player_id='1550877' first='Jayden' last='Moore'] of Hopkins (Sr)   [player_tooltip player_id='1560867' first='Christian' last='Wiggins'] of Wayzata (Sr)   [player_tooltip player_id='1560778' first='Nolen' last='Anderson'] of Wayzata (Sr)   [player_tooltip player_id='2126467' first='Baboucarr' last='Ann'] of Maple Grove (Jr)   [player_tooltip player_id='1560739' first='Max' last='Iversen'] of Maple Grove (Sr)   [player_tooltip player_id='2420169' first='Ahmed' last='Nur'] of Hopkins (Jr)     Second Team   [player_tooltip player_id='2126115' first='Vincent' last='Cronin'] of Edina (Jr)   [player_tooltip player_id='1560839' first='Xavier' last='Frelix'] of Hopkins (Sr)   [player_tooltip player_id='1560851' first='Hamze' last='Yusuf'] of Eden Prairie (Sr)   [player_tooltip player_id='2126108' first='Jack' last='Thelen'] of Maple Grove (Jr)   [player_tooltip player_id='1874906' first='Kyree' last='Nelson'] of Hopkins (Sr)   [player_tooltip player_id='1560847' first='Tommy' last='Shunmugavelu'] of Wayzata (Sr)     Third Team   [player_tooltip player_id='1560801' first='Brady' last='Lam'] of Wayzata (Sr)   [player_tooltip player_id='2119596' first='Cooper' last='Fahning'] of Eden Prairie (Sr)   [player_tooltip player_id='1960892' first='Henry' last='Knutson'] of Maple Grove (Sr)   [player_tooltip player_id='2842020' first='Xaviahn' last='Ivey'] of Wayzata (Jr)   [player_tooltip player_id='2433532' first='Max' last='Beeninga'] of Wayzata (Jr)   [player_tooltip player_id='2560534' first='Tre' last='Moore'] of Hopkins (Soph)     Fourth Team   [player_tooltip player_id='2397563' first='Thomas' last='Jordan'] of Buffalo (Soph)   [player_tooltip player_id='2575638' first='Izayah' last='Cook'] of Wayata (Jr)   Caleb Francois of Minnetonka (Sr)   [player_tooltip player_id='2126442' first='Bennett' last='Cizadlo'] of Maple Grove (Jr)   [player_tooltip player_id='2121339' first='Anthony' last='Ortiz'] of Minnetonka (Sr)     Fifth Team   [player_tooltip player_id='2126866' first='Matthew' last='Jordan'] of Buffalo (Jr)   [player_tooltip player_id='2560540' first='Willie' last='Wright Jr'] of Minnetonka (Soph)   [player_tooltip player_id='2136339' first='Adryan' last='Miller'] of Edina (Jr)   [player_tooltip player_id='1961315' first='Gus' last='Carpenter'] of Edina (Sr)   [player_tooltip player_id='2137323' first='Carter' last='Pulrang'] of Eden Prairie (Jr)   [player_tooltip player_id='2430772' first='Mason' last='Mohs'] of Edina (Sr)     Sixth Team   [player_tooltip player_id='2121337' first='Kaden' last='Harney'] of Maple Grove (Sr)   [player_tooltip player_id='2400077' first='Eli' last='Hegle'] of Buffalo (Soph)   Samuel Mohs of Wayzata (Sr)   [player_tooltip player_id='1560877' first='Grant' last='Sprute'] of Eden Prairie (Sr)   [player_tooltip player_id='2380768' first='Jamir' last='Davis'] of Eden Prairie (Soph)