The Northland Preview

<p>The Northland Conference is consistently one of the most entertaining leagues in Minnesota.  Get to know the talent of the Northland Conference. </p> <p><strong>Conference Commentary</strong></p> <p><strong>Top Ten in State</strong> – Nevis</p> <p>Nevis enters the season as the number one ranked team in Class A basketball.  Why?  How? The Tigers were 24-4 a year ago and they return four starters including point guard/playmaker Derek Lindow and the returning leading scorer [player_tooltip player_id="958734" first="Eddie" last="Kramer"]. Nevis losses a solid post but has four starters back and all three players from their bench rotation.  More talent back from an experienced, good team than anywhere else in the state. </p> <p><strong>League Contenders</strong> - Cass Lake-Bena, Red Lake, Blackduck</p> <p>The Panthers lose a couple starters including Jarrell Jacobs who was the conference MVP.  They will now turn to the young talent coming up which ranks with the best in Northern Minnesota.  Senior PG Timmy Smith will be a nice holdover between the previous era and the new talent coming up. The Panthers had the better record/team last year, the Warriors split with the Panthers last season, and the Panthers have the leading league MVP candidate ([player_tooltip player_id="774786" first="Delwyn" last="Holthusen"]) and more returning all league players.  Red Lake seems to have a slight edge in the great high school rivalry. Blackduck will be another contender. They won 19 games but return four starters led by senior forward Ethan Merrill. </p> <p><strong>Compete with Most</strong> - Pine River-Backus</p> <p>Pine River-Backus has to replace most of their rotation from an 18 win team.  Matching the 18 wins will be tough but the Tigers have double figure scorers back in Champ Howard and [player_tooltip player_id="962299" first="Rian" last="Struss"].</p> <p><strong>Rebuilding</strong> - Walker-Hackensack-Akeley, Northome-Kelliher, Laporte</p> <p>WHA was a solid .500 team in league last year that won 16 games.  It was a good team, but also a team that had six seniors in their top seven guys.  Clay Nelson is a returning starter but there will be a lot of inexperience around him.  Northome-Kelliher lost three starters from a team that won just two league games a year ago.  The good news is that Laporte lost only one player from last year’s team.  The bad news is that Laporte lost games 76-38 last year on average. </p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>20-21 Northland Conference Predictions</strong></p> <ol> <li>Nevis</li> <li>Red Lake</li> <li>Cass Lake-Bena</li> <li>Blackduck</li> <li>Pine River-Backus</li> <li>Walker-Hackensack-Akeley </li> <li>Northome-Kelliher</li> <li>Laporte</li> </ol> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Preseason All Northland Conference </strong></p> <p><strong><u>First Team</u></strong></p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="958847" first="Leroy" last="Fairbanks IV"] of Cass Lake-Bena (Jr)</p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="774786" first="Delwyn" last="Holthusen"] of Red Lake (Sr)</p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="958734" first="Eddie" last="Kramer"] of Nevis (Jr)</p> <p>Derek Lindow of Nevis (Sr)</p> <p>Ethan Merrill of Blackduck (Sr)</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong><u>Second Team</u></strong></p> <p>Aaron Chaboyea of Red Lake (Sr)</p> <p>Riley Chaboyea of Red Lake (Sr)</p> <p>Champ Howard of Pine River-Backus (Sr)</p> <p>Quinn McKeeman of Blackduck (Sr)</p> <p>Mathias Warrington of Nevis (Jr)</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong><u>Third Team</u></strong></p> <p>Gerald Kingbird Jr of Red Lake (Fr)</p> <p>Kaydin Lee of Cass Lake-Bena (Fr)</p> <p>Clay Nelson of Walker-Hackensack-Akeley (Sr)</p> <p>Timmy Smith of Cass Lake-Bena (Sr)</p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="962299" first="Rian" last="Struss"] of Pine River-Backus (Soph)</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong><u>Fourth Team</u></strong></p> <p>Dominic Fairbanks of Cass Lake-Bena (Fr)</p> <p>Jack McNamee of Nevis (Sr)</p> <p>Cain Mitchell of Nevis (Jr)</p> <p>Sawyer Nendick of Blackduck (Sr)</p> <p>Caine Richardson of Laporte (Jr)</p>