The Lake Conference Preview
Night to night no league in Minnesota can match the talent on the floor in the Lake. They only play eight games a year but the battles are intense! Today we preview the league.
17-18. 1) Hopkins (26-2), 2) Eden Prairie (23-9), 3) Wayzata (18-13), 4) Edina (19-10), 5) Minnetonka (14-13)
Conference Commentary
Top Ten in State: Hopkins, Eden Prairie, Wayzata
Hopkins and Eden Prairie will start this season as two of the top three ranked teams in the state as they simply have a bigger talent pool that includes experienced players at all spots. Hopkins can throw out one of the state’s better PGs in Jalen Dearring, a nationally ranked shooter in Kerwin Walton, one of the top unsigned players in Dane Zimmer, and a potential McDonald’s All American in Zeke Nnaji.
Eden Prairie has a junior class of talent that is big, talented, and seemingly growing by the day. Drake Dobbs, John Henry, Austin Andrews, and Connor Christensen all started as sophomores on a final four team plus Ariel Bland has joined the team and there are more in the class coming up.
Then you have Wayzata who has knocked Hopkins out of the playoffs the last two seasons. For awhile I felt it was impossible to put Hopkins over them until this group of Royals proves they can beat Wayzata in March but with Zeke becoming what he is and the Royals adding Andy Stafford and Dearring as transfers their roster became loaded. Wayzata is pretty loaded too though. A strong senior class led by Jacob Beeninga and Luke Paulson, a real up and coming young stud Cameron Heide, and then a lot of talented guys between them.
Top Ten Potential: Edina
The Hornets will start the year ranked fourth, and this is a team that you can say is top 10-12 in the state to start the year. Sure scorers Walt McGrory and Anders Nelson have moved on but Jack Middleton is a top Minnesota defender and all around player, plus this team is big. Jacob Hutson is up front along with Charles Haff and both are experienced.
Rebuilding: Minnetonka
Cameron Steele is the name to know here as he is a 6-foot-8 big with a pretty scoring touch. Gavin Patton will be a nice player along with Steele but this team will have to find guards ready to compete with the elite guard play in this league.
18-19 Prediction
- Eden Prairie
- Hopkins
- Wayzata
- Edina
- Minnetonka
Preseason All Lake Conference Team
First Team
Zeke Nnaji of Hopkins (12)
Jacob Beeninga of Wayzata (12)
Drake Dobbs of Eden Prairie (11)
Jack Middleton of Edina (12)
Kerwin Walton of Hopkins (11)
Second Team
Austin Andrews of Eden Prairie (11)
Dane Zimmer of Hopkins (12)
Connor Christensen of Eden Prairie (11)
Jalen Dearring of Hopkins (12)
Cameron Steele of Minnetonka (11)
Jacob Hutson of Edina (11)
Third team
Luke Paulson of Wayzata (12)
Camden Heide of Wayzata (9)
Ariel Bland of Eden Prairie (11)
Andy Stafford of Hopkins (12)
John Henry of Eden Prairie (11)