The Valley Conference Preview

An improving league that has balance and talent is the Valley Conference.  Today we look at the southern Minnesota league in depth.    Conference Commentary Top Ten in State – Nicollet, St. Clair With a top player like Riley Hulke Riley Hulke 6'1" | PG Nicollet | 2020 State MN graduating and a couple starters that need to be replaced, Nicollet has some holes to fill.  But with an All State Class level player back in Shane Stevenson Shane Stevenson 6'6" | PF Nicollet | 2021 State MN plus a couple others returning, Nicollet is a state contender in a year where there is no real favorite at all.  St. Clair doesn’t have a star like Stevenson but they have much more returning than Nicollet or just about everybody else from a 17-win club.   Potential Top Ten in State – TML-GHEC, Mankato Loyola With four of their top six guys back - including a pair of double figure scoring threats - TML-GHEC is another contender for this league.  Adam and Matt Heckman lead the way and both bigs could give a double-double with Adam capable of doing it on a nightly basis.  Loyola graduated a lot of players so contending will take some work but their backcourt of Logan Carlson Logan Carlson 5'10" | PG St. James | 2021 State MN and Lawson Godfrey Lawson Godfrey 6'1" | SG Mankato Loyola | 2023 State MN will be one of the best backcourts in this league.   Compete with Most – Madelia, Cleveland, Martin County West Ja’Sean Glover is the best player in this conference and one of the top two players in Class A basketball.  Maybe the best.  Madelia lost three starters from last year though so they have spots to fill around Glover.  Cleveland has a lot more back from last year than Madelia did although they won only nine games.  Ben Holden Ben Holden 6'6" | PF Cleveland | 2021 State MN is one of the best players in the league.  Martin County West won 18 games last season but lost their top two scorers, that’s the bad news.  Bringing back half the rotation is the good news.  Rebuilding – Alden-Conger, LCWM, JWP   20-21 Valley Conference Predictions Nicollet St Clair TML-GHEC Mankato Loyola Madelia Martin County West Cleveland LCWM JWP Alden-Conger   Preseason All Valley Conference  First Team Conner Andree of St. Clair (Jr) JaSean Glover JaSean Glover 6'3" | SG Madelia | 2022 State MN of Medelia (Jr) Adam Heckman Adam Heckman 6'6" | C TML-GHEC | 2022 State MN of TML-GHEC (Jr) Ben Holden Ben Holden 6'6" | PF Cleveland | 2021 State MN of Cleveland (Sr) Shane Stevenson Shane Stevenson 6'6" | PF Nicollet | 2021 State MN of Nicollet (Sr)    Second Team Logan Carlson Logan Carlson 5'10" | PG St. James | 2021 State MN of Mankato Loyola (Sr) Lawson Godfrey Lawson Godfrey 6'1" | SG Mankato Loyola | 2023 State MN of Mankato Loyola (Soph) Eric Rohlfing of Cleveland (Sr) Colton Thomsen Colton Thomsen 6'4" | SG Nicollet | 2022 State MN of Nicollet (Jr) Mason Ward Mason Ward 6'1" | PG St. Clair | 2022 State MN of St. Clair (Jr)   Third Team Zach Anderson Zach Anderson 6'6" | SF Martin County West | 2023 State MN of Martin County West (Soph) Devin Embacher Devin Embacher 5'8" | PG St. Clair | 2022 State MN of St. Clair (Jr) Matt Heckman of TML-GHEC (Sr) Cael Jaskulke of TML-GHEC (Sr) Tom Loeffler Tom Loeffler 6'4" | PF St. Clair | 2022 MN of St. Clair (Jr)   Fourth Team Collin Bode of Nicollet (Sr) Landon Dimler of JWP (Fr) Isaac Mueller of Cleveland (Sr) Tanner Sinn of Martin County West (Jr) Zack Wells of LCWM (Soph) Owen Wolter of TML-GHEC (Sr)