The SPTS Notebook: Week 1
The three weeks of SPTS play start tomorrow at Wayzata High School in the Twin Cities. Top games? Prospects to watch? How are the teams doing coming in? SPTS Notebook is back.
Current Standings
- OSA Crusaders Adidas: 0-0 (12-2)
- Fury Wilde: 0-0 (13-3)
- Comets Lewis: 0-0 (9-3)
- Southwest Minnesota Stars: 0-0 (3-1)
- Heat MacDonald: 0-0 (8-5)
- WOTN: 0-0 (8-5)
- OSA Crusaders National: 0-0 (7-5)
- Minnesota Select Leafblad: 0-0 (6-6)
- Pentagon Schoolers: 0-0 (4-4)
- ECI Prospects: 0-0 (2-2)
- Wisconsin Playmakers Strege: 0-0 (5-7)
- KC Basketball Club: 0-0 (2-6)
Season Predictions
- OSA Crusaders Adidas
- Minnesota Fury Wilde
- Minnesota Comets Lewis
- WOTN
- Minnesota Heat MacDonald
- Minnesota Select Leafblad
- Pentagon Schoolers
- OSA Crusaders National
- Wisconsin Playmakers Strege
- ECI Prospects
- Southwest Minnesota Stars
- KC Basketball Club
Five games to see this weekend
Select Leafbald vs Heat MacDonald. Select Leafblad is 16th in the NHR top 25, Heat MacDonald is 15th. Both have played three big games against solid Minnesota teams and both are 1-2 in those games. Which team gets themselves a big win? This is a spotlight game where Sam Schwartz and Malik Willingham as well as two of the top spring stock raisers Brad Winter and Noah Chamberlain.
Fury Wilde vs Comets Lewis. The annual Comets/Fury game is this weekend with both teams coming off very strong open period showings in their respected destinations. The match up of Isaac Fink versus Jack Middleton will be high quality and seeing Noah Christensen against Cole Nicholson could be really good as well.
ECI vs Select/OSA National. Not sure if ECI requested to get all the tough teams out of the way early or if the schedule maker decided to hit them with the hammer but ECI’s Saturday schedule is crazy. After a month off ECI will play the top 25 ranked nationally OSA Crusaders Adidas squad, Minnesota Fury Wilde, and Minnesota Comets Lewis. If you look at the records and predictions above you will see that is 1, 2, and 3 in both. The Sunday games aren’t easy but they are against Select Leafblad and the second OSA squad which of course will be not as daunting.
Pentagon Schoolers vs WOTN. Wear Out the Net has navigated the NY2LA Basketball League pretty good so far and after three weekends of play the only loss that we know of that WOTN would really want back is that Comets K loss on weekend one. A team that has beat Comets K? That would be the Pentagon Schoolers. The Schoolers are coming off a 1-3 showing in the Terrific 24. This weekend their schedule has the top two teams in our predictions and records, and the bottom two squads. The swing game will be against WOTN. WOTN has really done a nice job progressing after weekend one, and this will be a big game. As will…..
Heat MacDonald vs WOTN. A year ago it was Heat MacDonald getting the better of WOTN with Adam Williams, Sam Schwartz, and Carson Hallowaty all outplaying the WOTN guards. But a month ago WOTN flipped things on Heat MacDonald with a Comets Shootout win. In many ways this is a huge game and a big reason that WOTN turned things around on their opponents is the improvements of Tyler Kemp, Hunter Nielson, Sam Nelson, and Tommy Jensen.
Five Prospects to Watch
- Malik Willingham of Select Leafblad. My gut feeling if that Malik is about to put together a 12 month period filled with some special performances. He pushed Waseca a lot further than anyone expected and is a playmaking producer. This is the perfect stage for Malik to put together some eye popping performances.
- Justin Hohn of Pentagon Schoolers. The 6-foot-1 point guard from Tea Area has had a wonderful career already but the biggest year is in front of him. A state title, a second place in state finish, and several trophies won with the South Dakota Storm. Now, playing at the 17u level who will Justin handle his PG duties against some of the best in the Midwest?
- Logan Nagorski of Comets Lewis. Logan is a skilled 6-foot-5 forward that has good skills, moves well, scores from a lot of places on the floor. The Comets are going to be short some guys at times the next couple weekends so this would be the perfect time for Logan to step up. Same with Baden Noennig and Jack Thompson as well.
- Joe Jahner of ECI. Joe is commonly regarded as the top prospect in the 2019 class in North Dakota. The best. The next step for Joe is to help ECI to wins and start playing in a consistent way that keeps schools coming back for more views. The Prospects are playing three of the best teams in the Midwest this Saturday, it’s a great time to see what Joe can do against the best.
- Tyler Kemp of WOTN. Tyler has played so many spots in his life – point guard, wing, in the post, face-up big – that he is considered one of the more versatile players. Whichever way that WOTN uses Tyler this weekend is a great chance to show what he can do against the other top players in the Midwest.