The Northland Preview
The Northland Conference is consistently one of the most entertaining leagues in Minnesota. Get to know the talent of the Northland Conference. Conference Commentary Top Ten in State – Nevis Nevis enters the season as the number one ranked team…
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Continue ReadingThe Northland Conference is consistently one of the most entertaining leagues in Minnesota. Get to know the talent of the Northland Conference.
Conference Commentary
Top Ten in State – Nevis
Nevis enters the season as the number one ranked team in Class A basketball. Why? How? The Tigers were 24-4 a year ago and they return four starters including point guard/playmaker Derek Lindow and the returning leading scorer Eddie Kramer Eddie Kramer 6'4" | SF Nevis | 2022 State MN . Nevis losses a solid post but has four starters back and all three players from their bench rotation. More talent back from an experienced, good team than anywhere else in the state.
League Contenders – Cass Lake-Bena, Red Lake, Blackduck
The Panthers lose a couple starters including Jarrell Jacobs who was the conference MVP. They will now turn to the young talent coming up which ranks with the best in Northern Minnesota. Senior PG Timmy Smith will be a nice holdover between the previous era and the new talent coming up. The Panthers had the better record/team last year, the Warriors split with the Panthers last season, and the Panthers have the leading league MVP candidate ( Delwyn Holthusen Delwyn Holthusen 6'6" | PF Red Lake | 2021 State MN ) and more returning all league players. Red Lake seems to have a slight edge in the great high school rivalry. Blackduck will be another contender. They won 19 games but return four starters led by senior forward Ethan Merrill.
Compete with Most – Pine River-Backus
Pine River-Backus has to replace most of their rotation from an 18 win team. Matching the 18 wins will be tough but the Tigers have double figure scorers back in Champ Howard and Rian Struss Rian Struss 6'2" | PF Pine River-Backus | 2023 MN .
Rebuilding – Walker-Hackensack-Akeley, Northome-Kelliher, Laporte
WHA was a solid .500 team in league last year that won 16 games. It was a good team, but also a team that had six seniors in their top seven guys. Clay Nelson is a returning starter but there will be a lot of inexperience around him. Northome-Kelliher lost three starters from a team that won just two league games a year ago. The good news is that Laporte lost only one player from last year’s team. The bad news is that Laporte lost games 76-38 last year on average.
20-21 Northland Conference Predictions
- Nevis
- Red Lake
- Cass Lake-Bena
- Blackduck
- Pine River-Backus
- Walker-Hackensack-Akeley
- Northome-Kelliher
- Laporte
Preseason All Northland Conference
First Team
Leroy Fairbanks IV Leroy Fairbanks IV 6'4" | SF Cass Lake-Bena | 2022 State MN of Cass Lake-Bena (Jr)
Delwyn Holthusen Delwyn Holthusen 6'6" | PF Red Lake | 2021 State MN of Red Lake (Sr)
Eddie Kramer Eddie Kramer 6'4" | SF Nevis | 2022 State MN of Nevis (Jr)
Derek Lindow of Nevis (Sr)
Ethan Merrill of Blackduck (Sr)
Second Team
Aaron Chaboyea of Red Lake (Sr)
Riley Chaboyea of Red Lake (Sr)
Champ Howard of Pine River-Backus (Sr)
Quinn McKeeman of Blackduck (Sr)
Mathias Warrington of Nevis (Jr)
Third Team
Gerald Kingbird Jr of Red Lake (Fr)
Kaydin Lee of Cass Lake-Bena (Fr)
Clay Nelson of Walker-Hackensack-Akeley (Sr)
Timmy Smith of Cass Lake-Bena (Sr)
Rian Struss Rian Struss 6'2" | PF Pine River-Backus | 2023 MN of Pine River-Backus (Soph)
Fourth Team
Dominic Fairbanks of Cass Lake-Bena (Fr)
Jack McNamee of Nevis (Sr)
Cain Mitchell of Nevis (Jr)
Sawyer Nendick of Blackduck (Sr)
Caine Richardson of Laporte (Jr)