The Metro West Preview – Will Chaska Repeat?

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Chaska won all 14 league games last season leading to a four game advantage in the league. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Conference Commentary</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Top Ten in State</strong>: Chaska, Orono</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Chaska is the defending state champions and they have a lot of talent returning, and a lot of very good players that are likely to take a big step forward. They will be the top team in Class AAAA entering the year but its a balanced class and the Hawks will have to focus a lot on the section repeat before they start pushing for state repeat. The talent is there though for another run. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Orono will be a top five team in the state. They are now in the top group with TG or De, but they are right there with Richfield as the Spartan vs Spartan battle will be something people think about every year. The winner will likely be the three seed at state. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Top Ten in State Potential</strong>: BSM</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The Red Knights are the one other team in this section that I could see battling their way into the state top ten. Class AAA hoops will likely have about 15 different teams find their way into the second half of the top ten and BSM surely could be one of them. They do have a new coach but they have a strong senior class. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Compete with Most</strong>:  Chan, Waconia, St. Louis Park</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Chan looks to have more talent than the others in this group of four and I think they can be a team that wins a lot of games if they are healthy and get the guard play. Waconia is always a tough team but they lost an all time great and several others so this will be a new team. St. Louis Park has one of the best teams in the state in Johnson but what else?</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Rebuilding</strong>: New Prague, Bloomington Jefferson</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Another new coach at New Prague, the [program_tooltip program_id='2075965' first='Trojans' last=''] lost a lot of their key scoring threats to graduation. Jefferson has a good player in Gus but they have really struggled to have enough talent in recent years. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>26-27 Conference Predictions</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>Metro West Power Rankings</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:list {"ordered":true} --> <ol class="wp-block-list"><!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Chaska</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Orono</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Benidle-St. Margaret's</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Chanhassen</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Waconia</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>St. Louis Park</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>New Prague</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --> <li>Bloomington Jefferson</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --></ol> <!-- /wp:list --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Preseason All Metro West</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>First Team</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2126118' first='Tyler' last='Forrest'] of Chaska (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2362161' first='Matthew' last='Johnson'] of St. Louis Park (Sr).</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2140561' first='Benett' last='Barger'] of Chanhassen (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2424180' first='Grant' last='Hansen'] of Orono (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2126475' first='Conner' last='Watts'] of BSM (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>Second Team</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2126143' first='Kalin' last='Jochum'] of Chaska (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2561052' first='Chase' last='Maetzold'] of Chaska (Jr).</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2560476' first='Isaac' last='Johnson'] of Chanhassen (Jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2841981' first='Jed' last='Keenan'] of Chaska (Soph)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2842299' first='Finn' last='Dyvik'] of Orono (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>Third Team</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2140620' first='Gus' last='Vollmuth'] of Bloomington Jefferson (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2126470' first='Milton' last='Nuahn'] of BSM (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2113031' first='Eli' last='Herzog'] of Chaska (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2401711' first='Alexander' last='Pilakowski'] of Orono (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2421469' first='Colton' last='Henke'] of Waconia (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>Fourth Team</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Gavin Dohhety of Orono (Jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Carter Den Hartog of New Prague (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2140624' first='Isaiah' last='Gaffke'] of New Prague (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2140622' first='Henry' last='Wisniewski'] of Waconia (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Alexander Kirsch of Waconia (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>Fifth Team</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Josh Keenan of Chaska (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Champ Wright of BSM (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Thomas Lundell of Orono (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2842078' first='Holden' last='Steinbrueck'] of St. Louis Park (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2842041' first='Tyson' last='McDonald'] of Waconia (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->