Meg Vang Invitational Preview
The Meg Vang Invitational is back in the Twin Cities and once again it has a nice helping of top 25 teams in the state of Minnesota. Here is our preview for the three day event.
17U. The 17U level has two divisions of 24 teams separated into division one, and division two. The first 24 squads includes seven ranked teams: #9 Mpls FAB, #10 Rip City, #11 Fury Antl, #16 tMBA, #19 Magic Elite, #20 D1 MN Rise, and #21 West Central United as well as .500 teams Select Leafblad, WOTN Wold, TC Finest, and others that are fighting to get into the top 25.
That group right there will give this tournament a nice Elite Eight. Also, in the second division is the second Grassroots team who we have ranked 24th. FAB has 2020 standout Lu’Cye Patteron, Trokon Massey, and others while Fury Antl has schools watching them because of Max Bjorklund, Andrew Niebuhr, and Manny Jingco. West Central United has had success with their Perham dominated roster (good players from Melrose, Minnewaska, and others too) while D1 MN Rise is a tough group led by one of 2019’s best in Isaac Fink plus Michael Coble, Mitch Weber, Alex Raichle, and maybe the Mankato East kids (Damani Hayes and Uhana Ochan are also playing with Grassroots Sizzle).
The Minnesota Magic has a nice AAU veterans coaching club leading the way with John Sherman, Matt Ricker, and Jerry Noreen and they have some interesting players like 6-foot-9 Mike Sathoff of Mankato West, Tyler Ebert from JM, and Matt Hofrenning of Edina. Select Leafblad is led by Blaine guard pair Byron Binum and Sam Browne plus Nolan Wald of Roseville has given them good minutes. Powerhouse White has some interesting players led by Riley Alger of Watertown and Griffin Sage of Orono and let’s not forget the Chanhassen/Chaska crew with Parker Bjorklund and Austin Carter giving them numbers.
Rip City won the Select Classic two weeks ago with their aggressive defense and pace pushing style so they are a favorite and in that same tournament Brainerd was really good. They are back in the top division as is Andover. Finally, TC Finest put the scare in D1 Minnesota a month ago, they can be a factor as well.
16U. Willie Vang and the Heat got 54 teams for 16U level splitting them into a 26 team division and a 28 team division. Top 25 16U teams in this event include #13 Grassroots Sizzle, #11 Heat Wright, #12 Heat Henderson, #23 Heat Ismail, #9 Fury Kaupa, #25 Powerhouse Minnesota, #25 Heat Bui, #22 West Central United, and #21 School Boys. That is nine of the top 25 teams in the state not to mention South Dakota Storm who is the second best team in the Dakotas (they won the Comets Shootout). Add in Magic Elite, Select Geiger, Northern Lakers, WOTNch, and Twin Cities Finest and you have a strong event. Plus you can expect Wayzata to beat a team or two on this list as well.
15U. The Heat 15U event has seven of the NHR top 20 teams. The favorites in the event? That would be #6 Heat Fox and #7 Fury Kline. They’ve played once already and a rematch would be an excellent game. The event also includes, #10 Select Cave, #15 Grassroots Sizzle, #17 Mpls FAB, #18 West Central United, and #20 Select Cave. There are 64 teams at the 15U level put together in two different events.