Preview of the ECI Spring Preview
Saturday and Sunday in West Fargo the annual ECI Spring Preview takes place hosted by the ECI program. Today PHD looks at the event.
The Spring Preview has teams at 13u-17u and we look at the top three groups.
17U. The eight team group includes the two ECI teams (Prospects and Select), three teams from Minnesota, a high school program from South Dakota, the Minot Heat, and something called the “The North” which is the unknown wild card.
The favorite is the ECI Prospects who are 8-6 after three events including a big weekend where ECI beat the Dakota Schoolers and WOTN from Minnesota who is the sixth ranked program in the state. The event is a good chance to see talented North Dakota players like Josh Sipes, Joe Pistorius, Kade Amundson, Jayce Archambault, Ian Schafer, and others.
The ECI Selects team is 5-7 so far this year but capable of picking up victories. In fact, ECI Select is 5-0 against teams from North and South Dakota. Kemal Hajric, Parker Stenseth, Jonas Mitzel, Zach Westphal, Siadu Conteh, and others. The Selects vs the Prospects would be an excellent game to see.
The Huron Tigers do a great job of taking their high school program on the road and facing talented spring/summer teams and this is their latest. Huron is moving on without Hyland Heinz and Tye Evers so this will be good off-season work for a new rotation. The Minot Heat is expected to include several Minot high players returning from the state title squad.
The Comets team headed to Fargo is their fourth team. They’ve played in four events already this year and have had reasonable success in the last two. Marquise Smith is a speedy guard from St. Cloud Apollo, Kuok Chuol of St. Cloud Tech has some potential, and Westen Olson of Cambridge gave his team good numbers this year.
Also playing in their fifth event is the West Central United Blue team out of northern Minnesota. This is WC United’s second team and they’ve played mostly in second level events so the ECI programs will be the toughest teams they’ve played this year. WC United Blue is a small team without any frontcourt players (biggest player is 6-foot-2).
The West Central Wildcats squad is from southern Minnesota. Jaden Peterson of Barnesville, Alex Swanson of Dawson-Boyd, and guys from West Central Area are their top players. This is the West Central top team and they are playing in their fourth event (They’ve been in the feature event from the Comets, Heat, and Select out of Minnesota this year).
16U. There are twelve teams in the ECI Spring Preview at this level broken up into four pools. The host ECI Prospects are .500 on the season after a dozen games in three events. They’ve played a difficult ten game schedule in the SPTS league so the competition in Fargo will be a nice time to gel. It won’t be easy though with West Central Wildcats having their top team in the ECI pool. Heat Miner is one of Minnesota Heat’s programs that have struggled this year and they are also in the pool.
Pool B has another of Minnesota Heat’s teams that are looking for some wins, the West Central United has their second team in the event, and the Comets Regional team is their fourth squad. Pool C has WC Wildcats second team, the South Dakota Crush playing in their second event, and ECI Select who is 6-10 so far this season (four events played). Pool D has a solid Heat Wallij squad, Borup which I would imagine is Ada-Borup High School, and the Full Court Elite who is a mystery.
15U. The ECI squad has a dozen teams also broken into three pools. The ECI Prospects are 5-9 so far this year but they will have their work cut out for them if they want to win this event. Select Cave is a top 20 team in Minnesota with 11 wins and The Alliance is .500 on the year after 14 games.