The Great River Preview

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Braham had the best record in the league last season, East Central and Mora joined them as the best teams. So what is next for 26-27?</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Conference Commentary</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Top Contenders: Braham and Mora</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The Bombers have two double figure scorers back but they did lose their backcourt so the guards will be inexperienced. They will be the most talented team in the league still we believe.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Mora lost four of their top guys so they are resetting too, but they have some good up and comers. Contend? Maybe, but Mora is like everybody else in this conference as they have so many spots to fill. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Compete with Most: Rush City, East Central</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>East Central was a 17-win team that was mostly seniors, only one player returns from the main rotation. But its a program that does have some up and coming players. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Rush City was 13-13 last year and lost a senior post but have some good 2028s stepping up and a couple quality sceniors. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Rebuilding: Aitkin, Pine City, Mille Lacs, Hinckley-Finlayson, Ogilvie, Crosby-Ironton</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>There are two different types of rebuilding here - One is Aitkin. Aitkin is still going to be a solid team in the league, they just don't have a monster veteran center giving 20 and 10 so things change. But they should be solid. CI in this change of talent phase last year. CI lost their top three guys but they do still have some stability with returning role players. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Mille Lacs and Hinckley-Finlayson each won four league games and they were in that 8-10 win area. They have players to compete but they need to take that next step. Mille Lacs lost their top guy. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Pine City was 6-21 last year, Ogilvie was 0-27 a year ago. These are teams that kind of bottomed out and are now working the other way. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>26-27 Conference Power Rankings</strong><br><br>Braham (1)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Mora (2)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>East Central (3)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Rush City (4)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Aitkin (5)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Crosby-Ironton (6)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Pine City (7)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Mille Lacs (8)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Hinckley-Finlayson (9)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Ogilvie (10)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Preseason All Great River Conference</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>First Team</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2403777' first='Soren' last='Lilly'] of Braham (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Dominic Nahl of Braham (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Jude Houglum of Mora (jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Noah Moss of Aitkin (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Gradyn Swenson of East Central (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Graham Balmer of Mora (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>Second Team</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2772083' first='Reace' last='Youngberg'] of East Central (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Wyatt Stanton of Crosby-Ironton (jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Chase Stream of Rush City (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Bryalon Nihart of Rush City (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Austin James LaChappelle (jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Louie Meyer of Crosby-Ironton (sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->