MPR Sunday: Upper Peninsula #1 District Seeds

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The Michigan Power Rankings are officially stamped and district brackets are drawn. This year for non-typical brackets (most), seeding will be used to decide the home game. If you are the host school, then you will see a home game no matter your seed. Let's look at some UP teams who earned a #1 seed in their respective districts. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:heading --> <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Division 1</h2> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>District 1: </strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:list --> <ul class="wp-block-list"><!-- wp:list-item --> <li>1 Marquette<br>2 Traverse City West <br>3 Traverse City Central <br>4 Petoskey <br>5 Gaylord <br>6 Alpena</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --></ul> <!-- /wp:list --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Marquette earned the #1 seed in District 1. They're also the host of this district, so they will play home games throughout district play. This is a very good team, likely one of the best Marquette has had in many years. [player_tooltip player_id='2471674' first='Jacob' last='MacPhee'] is a top contender for Division 1 - 3 UP Player of the Year as well as a front-runner for the Mr. UP Basketball award. The talent does not stop there though for Marquette. The guard duo of Kyler Sager and [player_tooltip player_id='2262437' first='Jaxon' last='Jurmu'] have been shredding the stat columns. Jaxon is on pace to hit 1,000 points any day and has just recently shattered a pile of Marquette High's assist records (more on that later). Sager is a shooting guard with many arrows in his quiver, two notables: the ability to jump out of the gym, and a nice accurate deep ball. Marquette often goes deep into their bench as well, often playing 10+ players. Coach Ledy should have multiple players to tap on this tournament run to make it pretty deep into the Division 1 tournament. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:heading --> <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Division 2</h2> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>District 33</strong>:</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:list --> <ul class="wp-block-list"><!-- wp:list-item --> <li>1 Kingsford<br>2 Houghton<br>3 Negaunee<br>4 Escanaba<br>5 Gladstone</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --></ul> <!-- /wp:list --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Kingsford decisively grabbed the top seed in this district and likely has had it locked for a few weeks now. Most recently we saw a nice win over Iron Mountain and an excellent comeback for their big, Carroll University commit [player_tooltip player_id='1504837' first='Morgan' last='Sleik']. Morgan played lock-down defense and held Kangas (the #36 prospect in the entire state of Michigan) to 12 points. Senior guard [player_tooltip player_id='2058663' first='Gavin' last='Grondin'] was also able to make all the right plays and put on a scoring clinic to pull his team to victory. Coach Olson has a very deep bench and a lot of guard talent on this team. We should also see a nice tournament push for this Flivvers team as well. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:heading --> <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Division 3</h2> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>District 66: </strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:list --> <ul class="wp-block-list"><!-- wp:list-item --> <li>1 Iron Mountain<br>2 Munising<br>3 Menominee<br>4 Gwinn<br>5 Bark River-Harris <br>6 Manistique</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --></ul> <!-- /wp:list --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Iron Mountain was able to hold off Munising for the top seed in this district. During the preseason, I predicted this to be one of the more competitive districts in the UP, and I think that may come to fruition. Iron Mountain's [player_tooltip player_id='1441371' first='Oskar' last='Kangas'] has shown the entire UP for many years he is a next-level contender. He recently inked a deal with UW-Oshkosh where he surely will make an immediate impact. Bark River-Harris is the host of this one and will play Gwinn in the first round. That puts the winner of the 4-5 game in a tough match-up with the Mountaineers for the semi. I think we see another Iron Mountain-Meominee rematch for the district championship, but that will lean on if the Maroons can handle the #2 seed Munising Mustangs in Munising. Should be a good one to keep an eye on. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:heading --> <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Division 4</h2> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>District 100:</strong> </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:list --> <ul class="wp-block-list"><!-- wp:list-item --> <li>1 Crystal Falls Forest Park<br>2 Norway<br>3 Powers North Central<br>4 Stephenson<br>5 Hannahville <br>6 Carney-Nadeau<br></li> <!-- /wp:list-item --></ul> <!-- /wp:list --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Crystal Falls has been rolling all season. They sit at 19-1 heading into MPR Sunday and dominantly atop District 100. The host for this one is Crystal Falls, so playing at home will be a huge benefit for them. The Trojans have had solid contributions from 2027 [player_tooltip player_id='2622028' first='Vic' last='Giuliani'], who at the mid-season mark, was crowned Dr. Dish Player of the Week (UP POWER!). Senior center Kevin Giuliani has been a large contributor as well. This young squad also boasts two major underclass contributors in 2028 [player_tooltip player_id='2759314' first='Aiden' last='Waldo'] and 2027 Dax Huuki. Watch out for Norway in this district though. The coach for the Knights will struggle to hand out an MVP at the end of the year, as these 5 kids all play excellent basketball.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>District 102:</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:list --> <ul class="wp-block-list"><!-- wp:list-item --> <li>1 Pickford <br>2 Cedarville<br>3 St Ignace<br>4 Mackinaw City<br>5 Mackinac Island</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --></ul> <!-- /wp:list --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Pickford has absolutely ROLLED their regular season schedule. Enough so to be ahead of the next team in their district by .078 ranking points--quite a lot in the power rankings world. One may say that might not be a good thing to not see a lot of matched competition; likely why they picked up Cheboygan on a last-minute schedule adjustment. They'll now travel down to face the Chiefs on Monday the 17th. Likely a much-needed competitive game for both squads. [player_tooltip player_id='2492563' first='Eli' last='MacDonald'] has been the tip of the spear for the Panthers this season, who have been shredding opponents on both sides of the ball. Pickford's entire starting 5 should see their names on the D4 All-Up list somewhere. They're quite deep as well, with Sophomores Mason Addrzejak and [player_tooltip player_id='2623017' first='Carter' last='Yiirs'] seeing solid minutes on varsity.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:heading --> <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Additional Notes: </h2> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>We'll have much more to come on the Division 4 teams. For now, sharing the bracket guidelines as they appear on the MHSAA Website. MARCH CAN'T COME SOON ENOUGH!!!!</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:image {"id":2776171,"sizeSlug":"large","linkDestination":"media"} --> <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><a href="https://prephoops.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/Bracket.jpeg"><img src="https://prephoops.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/02/Bracket.jpeg?w=790" alt="" class="wp-image-2776171" /></a></figure> <!-- /wp:image -->