Northwestern Suburban Preview – Can they send 3 teams to state?

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The Northwestern Suburban Conference is a 13 team team league that plays everybody once with the option to play the teams in the league a second time. They have teams in five different sections of basketball (5AAAA, 6AAAA, 7AAAA, 8AAAA, and 5AAA) but they had two state reps last season (Totino-Grace and Blaine). Can they get to three this year? It's possible. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Conference Commentary</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Top Ten in State:</strong> Totino-Grace, Champlin Park</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Totino-Grace is going for five state titles in the last six seasons. They are making a modern day dynasty run and with the talent they have been they are the favorites to win state again. They are very likely to come out of Section 5AAA.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Champlin Park has returning talent, they have talent that transferred in, and all of that leads to depth. The kind of depth that makes them the 6th ranked team in Class AAAA basketball and the second best team in 5AAAA (behind Maple Grove). </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Top Ten Potential</strong>:&nbsp;Anoka</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Anoka is the favorite in Section 7AAAA and when you consider that the three favorites of 7AAAA are from the NWSC, there is a solid chance the league has a state tournament rep from 7AAAA. Anoka has a D1 big in Gaustad, a top sophomore in Johnson, and Fred transferring in helps them too. They are a top 15 team now with top ten potential. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Compete with Most:</strong> Blaine, Andover, Armstrong, Park Center, Spring Lake Park, Osseo, Rogers, Centennial</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The middle of the pack. The center of the league. The teams that will compete with the top teams and then hope they can win two out of three against everybody else at least. Teams with some good young talent on the come up would be Park Center and Rogers. They may not have had great records last season but they have young guys that learned and really good players coming up. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Blaine, Andover, Armstrong, Osseo and Spring Lake Park all lost good players but they all have enough returning that we think they can be solid teams. Armstrong, Spring Lake Park, and Blaine have a bit more back than some others so expectations are solid there while Osseo was hit hard by transfers so they are in somewhat of a partial reset. Andover is always solid, and then you have Centennial who also has good young players from a four win team. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Rebuilding:</strong> Coon Rapids, Elk River</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Coon Rapids won more games than we thought they would last year meaning another good job by Coach Mike Ogorek who out-performs expectations more often than not. He lost his top five guys from last year though so it seems like a start over. As for the Elks, Ryan Servaty is another good coach in the league that has surprised teams many times over despite not having the same level of talent. His Elks graduated seven of their top eight guys though so they will look quite new. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>26-27 Conference Predictions</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>Northwest Suburban Power Rankings</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:list {"ordered":true} --> <ol class="wp-block-list"><!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Totino-Grace</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Champlin Park</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Anoka</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Blaine</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Andover</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Robbinsdale Armstrong</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Park Center</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Spring Lake Park</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Rogers</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Osseo</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Centennial</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Elk River</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Coon Rapids</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --></ol> <!-- /wp:list --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Preseason All NWSC</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>First Team</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2126117' first='Malachi' last='Hill'] of Totino-Grace (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1819128' first='Bryce' last='Gaustad'] of Anoka (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2126450' first='Gavin' last='Walter'] of Champlin Park (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Shay Jackson of Totino-Grace (Sr).</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2126472' first='Owen' last='Counce'] of Champlin Park (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Second Team</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1895712' first='Daniel' last='Zoa'] of Totino-Grace (Jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2126113' first='AJ' last='Taban'] of Totino-Grace (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2560485' first='Jackson' last='Vargas'] of Rogers (Jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2126166' first='Jaylan' last='Hynes'] of Totino-Grace (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='3665699' first='Kolden' last='Johnson'] of Anoka (Soph)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Third Team</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2782403' first='Henry' last='Semans'] of Blaine (Jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2847647' first='Paris' last='Kyles'] of Park Center (Fr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2352576' first='Moussa' last='Dukuly'] of Champlin Park (Jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2126461' first='Cal' last='Spencer'] of Spring Lake Park (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2418241' first='Joseph' last='Jacobs'] of Park Center (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Fourth Team</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2140649' first='Keishaun' last='Rolle'] of Totino-Grace (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2454248' first='Elijah' last='Christenson'] of Rogers (Soph)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>David Balisidya of Elk River (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2385813' first='Isaiah' last='Olson'] of Robbinsdale Armstrong (Jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2848157' first='Reid' last='Defeyter'] of Champlin Park (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Fifth Team</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Owen Albrecht of Rogers (Sr).</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2823872' first='Dalton' last='Iverson'] of Champlin Park (Sr).</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2417551' first='Gavin' last='Olson'] of Blaine (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2556742' first='Charlie' last='Howe'] of Champlin Park (Jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2128206' first='Eli' last='Ahlstrom'] of Andover (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2569258' first='Markus' last='O'Reilly'] of Osseo (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Sixth Team</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2813485' first='Alex' last='Olson'] of Robbinsdale Armstrong (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2140618' first='Griffin' last='Carroll'] of Totino-Grace (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2417287' first='Mike' last='Fields'] of Andover (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Alpha Assibu of Anoka (Jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2848335' first='Brady' last='Anderson'] of Centennial (Jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Seveth Team</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2140672' first='Nolan' last='Roach'] of Spring Lake Park (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2880414' first='Lane' last='Johnson'] of Andover (Sr).</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2857803' first='Aiden' last='Lavik'] of Blaine (Soph)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2447426' first='Liam' last='Paulson'] of Anoka (Sr).</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Wesley Kukkonen of Centennial (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->