My Preseason All-State squad

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Believe it or not, there is a science of sorts to selecting an All-State basketball team.<br><br>As someone who has been involved with selecting All-State squads for more than 30 years, going back to my newspaper days in the late 1980s and early 1990s, I have observed firsthand how these teams are chosen. <br><br>For many years, writers affiliated with the Associated Press (AP) and United Press International (UPI) picked true All-State teams. For decades those All-State squads featured five players on each of four teams plus an honorable mention list. Sports writers from newspapers across Wisconsin met at a hotel on the Sunday following the WIAA State Tournament to select the teams. <br><br>Now for the science of it ... the best player on the best team usually was guaranteed a spot on the first team. The fact the writers had just watched the WIAA State Tournament the previous three days gave the Class A/Division 1 champion the inside track to landing at least one spot.<br><br>The other spots were not quite as cut-and-dried, but players headed to either Marquette or Wisconsin usually fared well as did big-name stars from small schools, guys like Joe Wolf, Anthony Pieper and Sam Okey.<br><br>And the taller and more dominant the player, the better chance of landing on the first team as well. <br><br>Getting representation from different parts of the state is important, but not at the expense of placing a player over another more deserving player. <br><br>It's difficult for one school to have more than one player on one of the top four teams. It's happened, but it's somewhat rate. <br><br>Of course, the sports writers made some mistakes over the years. That's part of the deal when selecting five players for each of four teams across 500 or so high schools in the state. But mostly, they got it right. <br><br>Those meetings would last several hours and include some colorful personalities. <br><br>Thinking of some of the old sports writers and editors in Wisconsin -- Dave Wedeward of the Janesville Gazette, Don Lindstrom of the Wisconsin State Journal, John Paustian of the Appleton Post-Crescent, Bob Stevenson of the Marshfield News-Herald, Bob Lamb of the La Crosse Tribune, Peter Jackel of the Racine Journal Times and Ron Buckli of the Eau Claire Leader Telegram, among others -- brings back a lot of very good memories as each writer would really go to bat for the top players in their areas. <br><br>Today, the Associated Press no longer picks and All-State team, or if it still does, few know about it. <br><br>In today's world of high school athletics, the more the merrier. <br><br>The Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) selects the All-State teams for both boys and girls nowadays. That's not a bad thing and I've been a part of it for several years now. It's a good group of men and women who pay attention to players and teams across Wisconsin.<br><br>But the WBCA also picks five first-team All-State squads, one for each of the five divisions schools are divided into for the playoffs. And each first team includes a minimum of 10 players. So instead of having five first-team All-State players, Wisconsin now has no less than 50. That's crazy, to say the least.<br><br>Call me old school, but I prefer the old method of five players for four teams on the All-State squad. With that in mind, here are my picks for All-State for the 2026-27 season:</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><br><strong>2026-27 Preseason <br>First Team All-State</strong><br>[player_tooltip player_id='2140949' first='Kager' last='Knueppel'], 6-10, Sr., Wisconsin Lutheran<br>[player_tooltip player_id='1847792' first='Donovan' last='Davis'], 6-8, Sr., Freedom<br>[player_tooltip player_id='2351190' first='Jack' last='Kohnen'], 6-6, Sr., Slinger<br>[player_tooltip player_id='2853467' first='Max' last='McMullen'], 5-11, Soph., Brookfield East<br>[player_tooltip player_id='2127267' first='Zeak' last='Jones'], 6-4, Sr., Dominican<br><br><strong>Second Team All-State</strong><br>[player_tooltip player_id='2140913' first='Eli' last='Krueger'], 6-10, Sr., McFarland<br>[player_tooltip player_id='2140905' first='Colin' last='Julien'], 6-4, Sr., Whitefish Bay<br>[player_tooltip player_id='2194435' first='Max' last='Jones'], 6-4, Sr., West Allis Central<br>[player_tooltip player_id='2613959' first='Kinston' last='Knueppel'], 6-8, Jr., Wisconsin Lutheran<br>[player_tooltip player_id='2398448' first='Joey' last='Kohnen'], 6-5, Jr., Slinger<br><br><strong>Third Team All-State</strong><br>[player_tooltip player_id='2138098' first='Michael' last='Rogers Jr.'], 6-0, Sr., Homestead<br>[player_tooltip player_id='2505503' first='Will' last='Stremlow'], 6-5, Sr., Verona<br>[player_tooltip player_id='2502918' first='Will' last='Krueger'], 6-5, Sr., De Pere<br>[player_tooltip player_id='2434543' first='Logan' last='Ramczyk'], 6-2, Sr., Xavier<br>[player_tooltip player_id='2140924' first='Graysen' last='Becker'], 6-2, Sr., Altoona<br><br><strong>Fourth Team All-State</strong><br>[player_tooltip player_id='2371703' first='Jayce' last='Cook'], 6-2, Sr., New Berlin West<br>[player_tooltip player_id='2412456' first='Tyler' last='Schwalbach'], 6-2, Jr., Kaukauna<br>[player_tooltip player_id='2508468' first='Ben' last='Wittnebel'], 6-6, Jr., Beaver Dam<br>[player_tooltip player_id='2508296' first='Christopher' last='Kenesie'], 6-0, Sr., Kenosha St. Joseph<br>[player_tooltip player_id='2824423' first='Carter' last='Parks'], 6-5, Jr., Middleton<br><br><strong>Player of the Year</strong><br>[player_tooltip player_id='2140949' first='Kager' last='Knueppel'], Wisconsin Lutheran<br><br><strong>Coach of the Year</strong><br>Ryan Walz, Wisconsin Lutheran<br><br></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->