The Great Plains Alliance Preview
The Great Plains Alliance kicks off tomorrow afternoon bringing Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, and South Dakota teams to the event that brings D2 coaches together unlike any other. 17U The 17U division is a five team guarantee, 32 team…
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Continue ReadingThe Great Plains Alliance kicks off tomorrow afternoon bringing Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, and South Dakota teams to the event that brings D2 coaches together unlike any other.
17U
The 17U division is a five team guarantee, 32 team event that sets up into bracket play right away and puts everybody head to head. There are 22 teams from Minnesota, 5 teams from Wisconsin, 3 teams from North Dakota, and 2 from South Dakota. Among those teams you have 15 of the top 25 teams in Minnesota, three of Wisconsin’s top ten, and four of the top ten teams in the Dakotas.
Minnesota
Minnesota Fury Kallman has a target on their back and their state tournament victims (MN Warriors, Heat Vang, Comets Lewis) all want a third and final game. Fury Kallman lost to that threesome early in the year but beat all of them at state. Now there is a big target on the back of the blue and gold jerseys (they have a black one too I believe) and the first team that could get a crack would be Comets Lewis. If Fury Kallman gets past the host they could see Warriors or Heat Vang in the final for that potential rematch.
Those four teams are your Minnesota favorites and then this event also has WOTN Nicols, Comets DLR, and Crossfire Weege as teams that have the capability of putting together a run. Others at the event that are ranked in the top 25 include Grassroots Minnesota, Crossfire Singh, Select Ellis, Magic Elite, SW MN Stars, West Central United, Select Leafblad, and Comets K. With 25 of the 32 teams in the event being ranked in decent spots this event will be a dogfight for many from the second round on.
Wisconsin
How big is this event for D2 coaches? Wisconsin teams that want their kids to get D2 scholarships often travel over. Wisconsin Playground Warriors is considered the top program in the state right now and they will be in St. Cloud (minus their three multi-D1 offered guys). Also in town will be the Playmakers and Blizzard who are very strong Wisconsin programs that are often similar to the Comets, Heat, Fury, Select, etc in Minnesota year by year.
Dakotas
As usual ECI is coming to St. Cloud. They are bringing both of their teams including the top squad (ECI Prospects) which has five guys with D2 or D1 scholarship offers and a couple others who could earn one. Traveling to St. Cloud for the first time is the brand new Pentagon Basketball Club which will have two teams and then there is ND Lace Up which is a squad we are not very familiar with but they have played in a couple events before so we are anxious to who they are and what they can do.
Pentagon Buus and ECI Prospects will be favorites to win their first round games. Both have tough match-ups though as each has drawn a top 25 team in Minnesota (ECI gets 24th ranked WC United, PBC gets 18th ranked Crossfire Singh). PBC Knippling has drawn 9th ranked WOTN Nicols so their task is tough, ECI Select gets a tough Crossfire Weege team (ranked 13th in MN), and Lace Up will be a heavy underdog to 11th ranked Comets DLR.
Can any of these teams make a run to the late rounds? ECI Prospects should be able to make the elite eight if they play well but outside of that chances look dim. Bot PBC Buus and ECI Prospects have host Comets Lewis on the horizon after the first round.
16U
Minnesota
Another 32 team bracket that includes five games in bracket play format. The breakdown is 25 Minnesota teams, one team from South Dakota, five from North Dakota, and one from Wisconsin. The Minnesota group has 12 of the top 25 teams in the state but just one of the top seven and three of the top ten. Comets Stumpf, Select Altenhofen, and SW MN Stars are the favorites from Minnesota with Comets Stumpf being a very heavy favorite.
This event is very strong when it comes to that next group of 16U Minnesota teams. This event will give one of them a real chance to show they belong with the top group. Out of tMBA Witthus, Fury Antl, Comets Servaty, WOTN Gold, MN Rise, Comets Little, and Crossfire Swanson, all of them are good teams and this event will give one or two of them to make some big noise.
North Dakota
Another event favorite is ECI Prospects. They are the number one ranked team in the Dakota 16U region having had a strong first group of events. ECI Selects Peterson and Sussenguth have also had their moments this year and are ranked in the top eight in the state. Bismarck Sabres is a high school group from Bismarck Legacy and they have some really good players in their program so watch them and then you have the ND Cougars, a team playing in their fourth event that has lost one game all year. How good are they?
All of these North Dakota teams have the talent or team to win their first round game. ECI Prospects are the favorite where as the rest are taking on ranked Minnesota teams that are beatable (ECI Suss faces 16th ranked Rise, ECI Peterson plays 12th ranked Fury Antl, Bismarck Legacy HS faces 17th ranked Comets Little, and the Cougars take on 14th ranked WOTN) but should the Minnesota squads are the favorite.
This is a big event for ECI Prospects. They have high expectations as the best team in North Dakota and ranked highest in the Dakotas, and if they want to make a run at the SPTS this is an event they should do well in. When you look at their path, they should be the favorite to win their first three games and make the final four.
Other
We don’t know what Playmakers team “Playmakers Blue” is. We had hoped to see their top team in this event although it doesn’t seem like this is it. The Pentagon Jewett team is from South Dakota and this will be their fourth event. They have won 7 of 12 games so far.
15U
The 15U level is just like the other levels, 32 teams playing five games in bracket style. There are 25 teams from Minnesota, 4 from South Dakota, 1 each from North Dakota and Wisconsin, and then ATC Blitz which could be from Greenland for all I know.
From the Dakotas there is the number one and two ranked teams in the Dakota area, PBC Long and ECI Prospects plus the fourth ranked team South Dakota Attack. That is three teams from the Dakotas that have a real chance to make a big run in this event. Or they can show that they are not up to par yet. This event will let all of us know.
Nine of the top 20 Minnesota teams will be in the event including two of the top ten which is Comets Schmidt and the SW Minnesota Stars. The Grassroots team ranked 10th may also be in this event, tough to know. Those three teams and Heat Wright could all make a run.