The St. Paul City Preview

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Central won the St. Paul City Conference by a pair of games last year and they are the favorite entering the 24-25 season. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Conference Commentary</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Top League Contenders</strong>: Central, Johnson, Harding</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Central was undefeated in league play last year and they return their top couple players - including the league's best player in [player_tooltip player_id='1574222' first='Allan' last='Lankfard'] Jr - and four all league honored players from a season ago. They are a big favorite entering the year and they are dreaming of league, section and state high honors. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Johnson is in an interesting spot. They lost some very good guards and a quality frontcourt player, but they also have the league's best big, some reserves returning, and some excellent up and comers. They are a contender and keep in mind, Johnson lost to Central twice last year, but these were one score games. Central has more returning, but Johnson is going to be very talented still.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Harding was 0-4 vs Central and Johnson last year but those games were close. The games were all single digit contests with the Johnson games being a bit closer. Harding has a couple key guys to replace but they won their 18 games last year with a big hand from the juniors. Harding will have a lot of motivation: they want to take the next step in the league, this is their last run with this crew, and they were upset by Roosevelt in sections last year in what was the section upset of last year I believe. They are ready to make a move. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Compete with Most</strong>: Como Park</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Como Park was 9-18 last year with five wins in the league. The three teams listed in the category above.... The Cougars had a really hard time with them. And they lost their best player, but at the same time they should be better than some of the teams below them. They are in this category but it's more relative than it is them being able to compete with the top three teams. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Rebuilding:</strong> Highland Park, Humboldt, Washington</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Highland Park won just seven games a year ago but they have a new coach, two of the top four players coming back, and they've added some solid transfers to make them a deeper team plus they have solid solid up and coming young competitors. It is a rebuilding year so there will be some tough spots but they have the talent and more depth so they could move to the middle. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Humboldt set up the right schedule for them and they won ten games outside the league. The league was tough for them though as they won two games, against Washington. Humboldt will be going young and they lost three all league players to graduation. Washington was winless last year in the league, 2-25 overall, and they have a new coach. But they do have a big time scoring option in Shawn Huberty. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>24-25 Conference Prediction</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(1) Central </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(2) Johnson</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(3) Harding</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(4) Highland Park</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(5) Como Park</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(6) Humboldt</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(7) Washington</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Preseason All St Paul City </strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>First Team</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1574222' first='Allan' last='Lankfard'] Jr of Central (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1560859' first='Kenneth' last='Turner'] of Johnson (Jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2104515' first='Ai'John' last='Douglas'] of Harding (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2120500' first='Eli' last='Moseman'] of Central (Jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2120509' first='Guarino' last='Kamp'] of Johnson (Jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>Second Team</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Finnegan Bloedel of Central (Jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Shawn Hunerty of Washington (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1874815' first='Contrell' last='Jenkins'] of Como Park (Jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2422779' first='Mahamadou' last='Kamara'] of Harding (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2461598' first='Etienne' last='Reyes'] of Central (Jr) </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='1874938' first='Yared' last='Yohannes'] of Highland Park (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Ja'Hari Hill of Como Park (Sr) HM</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Nathaniel Chea of Harding (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2119645' first='Tyrel' last='Pride'] of Johnson (Jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2463188' first='Salman' last='Hussein'] of Harding (Jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>Fourth Team</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2418775' first='Fadil' last='Alabi'] of Humboldt (Soph)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Octavious Johnson of Johnson (Jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Colin Moore of Johnson (Soph)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2126155' first='Taurean' last='Williams'] of Humboldt (Soph)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1874849' first='Hezekiah' last='Bradshaw'] of Como Park (Jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2569253' first='Leo' last='Clifford'] of Highland Park (Soph)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->