19-20 First Look: East Ridge
The Raptors finished 2018-19 as a final four team and the team will still be talented. But a lot has changed. Today we preview East Ridge. Moving On: The Raptors lost four starters, two top bench players, the head coach,…
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Continue ReadingThe Raptors finished 2018-19 as a final four team and the team will still be talented. But a lot has changed. Today we preview East Ridge.
Moving On: The Raptors lost four starters, two top bench players, the head coach, and the expectations of others from around the state. Courtney Brown Jr was often the team’s heart and he’s now at Milwaukee. Kendall Brown was the young star, and he’s now at Sunrise Christian Prep School in Kansas. Patrick Lynott was the shooter, Zach Zebrowski the ball handler, Bryce Tesdahl the coach, and Alex Larson was the big off the bench. All of this was gone.
Returning Starters: There is one, and he’s a big one. Ben Carlson. Ben recently committed to Wisconsin as a top 75 player nationally and he has a chance to have about a 25/15 a game season. Carlson averaged 16 points and 10 boards a game as a junior playing on a balanced team. This year the numbers could be massive and I think back to the huge game Carlson had against Dain Dainja over the summer and if he can do that, what will he do against the bottom teams in the SEC?
Reserves Playing a Bigger Role: As the season hit March the Raptor rotation went from 8-9 guys down to six. That took away from the time of Kendall Blue (now a sophomore), Drew Adams (a junior), and Brody Kriesel (now a senior). All players are talented and now all of them will have a chance to show the state their talent. Kendall Blue is a hard working multi-position player, Drew Adams is a skilled a face-up forward, and Brody Kriesel was the guy that played throughout the year from game one to the state’s third place game.
Potentials from the JV: Two players that grabbed our attention this off-season were junior forward Zac Thomas and senior guard Rob Jeter Jr. The Raptors are going to have size with Thomas joining Kriesel, Adams, and Carlson as big frontcourt players. Thomas is agile and a growing skill set while Jeter grabbed our attention some big games in June at Breakdown Summer State and Gopher Team Camp.
Sophomore guard Logan Larson played JV as a frosh and is another guy that could find himself with a solid role this winter. Finally there is 6-foot-3 senior in Nolan Goetz who played in a lot of varsity games and will add more backcourt depth.
Starters: This is tough. Obviously Carlson is an easy starter and based on the fact that all the guard are gone, Kendall Blue also seems like an obvious starting pick. From there you would expect a player like Kriesel to start after he was the 6th man last season, and either Adams or Thomas will be in the starting five next to Ben and Brody in the frontcout. That means there will be one more guard which could be Jeter, could be Larson, could be Goetz. It will be interesting to watch and see.