The Mississippi 8 Preview
A year ago Princeton improved by 13 games and made a run at the league title. They are the favorites now, but who will challenge Princeton this winter?
17-18 – Last Winter: 1) Rogers, 2) Princeton, 3) Cambridge, 4) Monticello, 5) STMA, 6) Buffalo, 7) Big Lake, 8) St. Francis, 9) North Branch, 10) Chisago Lakes
Conference Commentary
Top Ten – Princeton
The Tigers are the most experienced team in the section and that experience likely edges them out as more talented when compared to Buffalo. With James Flicek handling and playmaking, Jon Stimmler inside, and the wings being Adam Williams and Reilly O’Neil give this team weapons on every part of the court.
Potential Top Team – Buffalo, Cambridge
The Buffalo Bison are still a bit young so it’s tough to know how much they will step forward this year after a big step forward last year. Believe us when we say this, the Bison have a real chance at playing in the state tournament. Matthew Willert is on the verge of becoming a D1 guy and Tony Dahl is the tough muscle who does a lot of everything. When you add in Aidan Bouman in the paint, Brandon Maatz scoring a dozen, and Trevor Johnson, that’s five juniors with talent and experience.
Cambridge and Buffalo are Class AAAA teams that may not quite have the depth of talent and experience to be top ten in that class just yet but they certainly have a shot to win this league. Henry Abraham is a scary, scary shooter and he’s got some good running mates in Luke Malamisuro and Micah Ladd. Buffalo beat Cambridge 62-58 last year and their game/games this year could be very fun.
Compete with Most – STMA, Big Lake, Monticello
Austin Jentzen has taken huge steps forward and the junior guards Sean Buchanan and Kale Hoselton should combine to score 25-30 this year. This could be another team that makes a push, that said they need to learn how to win first. Then you have Big Lake. Logan Nagorski and De’Vonne Harris give Big Lake the league’s top frontcourt but where this team goes is on the guard play. Then there is Monticello. We’ve seen a lot of good Magic players competing this past spring and summer which makes us think they are not going to fall as far without Matt Todd as people may think they will.
Rebuilding – Rogers, St. Francis, North Branch, Chisago Lakes
Rogers lost a ton of talent. There are a few guys that can play, like Hunter Stull, but they lost so much that it’s tough to know what they will do next. St. Francis, North Branch, and Chisago Lakes are all teams with good bigs, but for them to stop losing so much the guards have to be able to compete with the rest of the league.
Predicted Order of Finish
- Princeton
- Buffalo
- Cambridge
- STMA
- Big Lake
- Monticello
- Rogers
- St. Francis
- North Branch
- Chisago Lakes
Preseason All Mississippi 8
First Team
Austin Jentzen of STMA (12)
Henry Abraham of Cambridge (11)
Matthew Willert of Buffalo (11)
Logan Nagorski of Big Lake (12)
Jon Stimmler of Princeton (12)
Second Team
James Flicek of Princeton (12)
Tony Dahl of Buffalo (11)
Adam Williams of Princeton (12)
Reilly O’Neil of Princeton (12)
Luke Malamisuro of Cambridge (12)
Third Team
Brandon Maatz of Buffalo (11)
DeVonne Harris of Big Lake (12)
Aidan Bouman of Buffalo (11)
Zach Gazda of North Branch (12)
Wyatt Schroeder of St. Francis (11)
Fourth Team
Austin Puppe of Monitcello (11)
Will Ninjum of Chisago Lakes (12)
Kale Hoselton of STMA (11)
Sean Buchanan of STMA (11)
Micah Ladd of Cambridge (11)
Hunter Stull of Rogers (12)