The Pine to Prairie Preview

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The Pine to Prairie has very good basketball. Who is going to be the class of the league? We discuss NOW</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Conference Commentary</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Top Ten in State:</strong>  Fertile-Beltrami, Park Christian</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>With four starters returning from a 24 win team, Fertile-Beltrami is a top ten team in Class A thinking league title, section title, and playing for a state title. They are experienced and with the best four guys back they can certainly dream big. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Park Christian returns two of their top three players and four of top six from last year's 23 win team. Expectations are high against to compete for everything. They will start the year top ten in state. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>League Title Contenders</strong>:  Win-E-Mac, Ada Borup West, Norman County East/Ulen-Hitterdal</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>We are going to slide Win-E-Mac here in the last spot. Why? They were a junior dominated group and they have one of the top scorers in the league. On the other hand, this was just a ten win last season. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Ada Borup West is an interesting one to talk about. They are a good program that you expect to continue to be tough and they do bring back guys four through ten, but they lost their top three scorers. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Norman County East/Ulen-Hitterdal won 13 games a season ago and bring back three starters from that team. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Compete with Most:</strong> Fosston, Bagley, Lake Park-Audubon</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Fosston was a 13 win team last year but they lost their top three scorers/players last season so a likely step back could be coming. They will be young with only one or two seniors but there is a chance for the younger talent to step forward. Bagley lost their top two players from a ten win team so they are likely to take a step back from a year ago. Lake Park-Audubon won just seven games a season ago but they return their best player and have an experienced group. Not big but experienced. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Rebuilding</strong>: Climax-Fisher Mahnomen/Waubun</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>It's rare these days but Climax-Fisher is a mystery. No stats in the Hub, no information given to the Breakdown book, and tough to even find a game summary online any place. They won three games last year and that is all we can give you. Mahnomen/Waubun has a bit more information but not much out there from this eight win team from a season ago.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>25-26 Conference Predictions</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>Pine to Prairie Power Rankings</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(1) Fertile-Beltrami</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(2) Park Christian</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(3) Ada Borup West</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(4) Norman County East/Ulen-Hitterdal</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(5) Win-E-Mac</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(6) Lake Park-Audubon</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(7) Fosston</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(8) Mahnomen/Waubun</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(9) Bagley</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>(10) Climax-Fisher</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Preseason All</strong> <strong>Pine to Prairie</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>First Team</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1560792' first='Preston' last='Hanson'] of Fertile-Beltrami (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2139200' first='Joe' last='Courneya'] of Win-E-Mac (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2434178' first='Drew' last='Gullickson'] of Fertile-Beltrami (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2983036' first='Anders' last='Tinjum'] of Ada-Borup West (Jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1415930' first='Isaac' last='Jacobson'] of Park Christian (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>Second Team</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2985385' first='Gavin' last='Giese'] of Park Christian (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Luka Beske of Lake Park-Audubon (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Hayden Johnson of Win-E-Mac (Jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Brody Menge of Ada-Borup West (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Tyler Loeb of Park Christian (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>Third Team</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Bryer Strem of Fertile-Beltrami (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Drayden Thompson of Bagley (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Gage Henrickson of Fertile-Beltrami (Sr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Logan Giese of Park Christian (Jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2842647' first='Jack' last='Sekely'] of Fosston (Jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Jake Howard of Fosston (Jr)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->