St. Paul City Conference Preview – Can Central win four straight?

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The St. Paul City Conference has been won by St. Paul Central the last three straight seasons. Could Central win a fourth straight? With a massive amount of players having graduated, it will be a tough task for the Minutemen. Johnson has a chance to get back to the crown and we have a new team ready to challenge! </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Conference Commentary</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Title Contenders:</strong> Highland Park, Johnson</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Highland Park won 15 games last year and the big jump should come this season. They have their top two guys back, they have some reserves back, the Scots added a transfer with size (Brown), and overall have some pieces to have a great year. All the momentum seems to be leaning to Highland Park at the moment. Johnson is the other heavy competitor here and keep in mind, the Govs beat Highland Park in both games last season, once 62-61, and the other was a 93-46 hammering. And Johnson has five guys from their rotation back so they will enter the season as the favorite. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Compete with Most:</strong> Humboldt, Como Park</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Como Park had seven seniors that played last year for the 7-20 Como Park team and they have graduated but there are some up and coming young players that will have bigger roles for Jake Sullivan's second team. Humboldt lost their coach to South St. Paul, they lost their top player and a few others to graduation, and they lost a 15 point scorer to transfer. There is a reset at Humboldt BUT they can still win games in this league. [player_tooltip player_id='2418775' first='Fadil' last='Alabi'] is one of the best players in this league and he will keep Humboldt battling.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Rebuilding:</strong>&nbsp;Central, Washington, Harding</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>For Central to win a fourth straight City title they would need what will be an entirely new rotation to come together without any experience and win the league. That is a pretty tough ask especially with a team like Highland Park having a lot of returning talent and Central having ZERO juniors on their varsity/junior varsity roster last year (meaning no seniors this season that was on the team last year). Central had a dozen seniors last year and most of them played. They had a really nice season but now they are restarting with pretty much a brand new rotation. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Washington won nine games last year and they return three starters so it's hard to say it's a rebuild. That said, it's also hard to put them in the Compete with Most category because they were only competitive in one of the ten games against St. Paul City teams not named Harding. Their 2-10 league record was two wins beating Harding, a close game with Humboldt, and nine blowout losses. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The harding Knights were a four win team last year but they return the top pieces so they should improve but that improvement might come in non league play. Last year they were 0-12 in St. Paul City games and all games were blowout losses. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>26-27 Conference Predictions</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>St. Paul City Power Rankings</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(1) Johnson</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(2) Highland Park</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(3) Humboldt</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(4) Central</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(5) Como Park</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(6) Washington</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(7) Harding</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Preseason All St. Paul City</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>First Team</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2418775' first='Fadil' last='Alabi'] of Humboldt (sr).</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Colin Moore Jr of Johnson (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2569253' first='Leo' last='Clifford'] of Highland Park (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2874892' first='Izaiah' last='Davis'] of Highland Park (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2392217' first='David' last='Addai'] of Johnson (Jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Second Team</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Aaron Howard of Johnson (Sr).</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2835388' first='Kenny' last='Brown'] of Highland Park (Jr).&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2832757' first='Kaiden' last='Elphage'] of Johnson (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='3591524' first='Keith' last='Whitlow'] of Humboldt (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='3677797' first='Marcel' last='Bolden'] of Como Park (jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Third Team</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='3603743' first='Will' last='Walter'] of Highland Park (Sr).</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2569265' first='Noah' last='Rieger'] of Washington (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2464702' first='Elijah' last='Benepe'] of Johnson (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Derek Green of Harding (Jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>LeSean Andrewin of Washington (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Fourth Team</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='3614637' first='Tyler' last='Mortellaro'] of Central (Jr). </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2856437' first='Frankie' last='Leary'] of Como Park (Jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='3241129' first='Jamir' last='White'] of Humboldt (Soph)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Jarell Fung-A-Fatt of Harding (soph)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Joseph Myatt of Harding (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->