East Metro Showcase Preview

The East Metro Showcase is Friday and Saturday at St. Paul Johnson.

Friday
6:00 Milwaukee Marshall vs Como Park. Marshall comes in 1-12 (0-8 in the Milwaukee City conference) and without a win in the last 2 months (10 straight losses). Chauncey Williams leads them in scoring at 16.6 PPG. Como Park comes in with a loss to Johnson on Wednesday but they're 8-5 overall, 2-1 in the St. Paul City only 1/2 game back of Central. Como Park wins easily.

8:00 Sioux City Heelan vs Johnson. Heelan comes in 14-0 ranked #1 in the Iowa 3A poll with 3 wins over other ranked Iowa opponents. They were the 3A runner-up last season. They're lead by 6-9 Jr Center Brennan Cougill who's the 9th ranked center in the nation for the junior class by rivals.com. He's committed to Iowa to play with Anthony Tucker and Andrew Brommer.

Johnson is 7-5 and also 2-1 in the city and as pointed out by a reader there are no bad losses on their schedule. That said, I'm surprised they played Appleton East close and they should have beaten Stillwater and Central. Johnson's defense keeps it close, but ultimately Cougill is too much and Johnson can't find enough offense when needed. Heelan by 9.

Saturday.
1:00 La Crosse Aquinas vs Eastview. This matchup should be fun. Aquinas comes in as the state runner-up in Wisconsin Division 3 last year (MN 2A), but they lose 4 starters from that team including co-Mr. Basketball Scott Christopherson. The cupboard is not bare however. They return Zach Rickaway and Lucas Morrisey from that team and they have emerging star Jimmy Whitehead at the point. They're 12-1 and currently ranked #4 in D3. That 12-1 includes a 17 pt beating of my alma mater La Crosse Central tonight.

Eastview stole one on Tuesday vs Jefferson and had lost 2 tough ones in a row before that. Eastview's got more inside play and they have great balance with 6 players averaging between 7 and 13 PPG. The main question will be if Aquinas can handle the Eastview pressure D. If they can, Aquinas can pull another big win like they did last year in this event over Woodbury 98-88 (Woodbury was #3 in the state at that time and rolling). If they don't, they could easily be blown out. I'm a La Crosse guy and Eastview is struggling right now, so I'm picking the upset.

3:00 Osseo vs Heelan. Zach Peterson vs Brennan Cougill should be fun to watch. If Heelan contains Carrington Tankson, I like their chances, but I think Tankson gets his. Osseo has too much and they win by 7.

5:00 Hope School (Milwaukee, WI) vs Little Wound, SD. Little Wound comes in at 8-6 and only lost by 7 at the #1 team in South Dakota class A by 7, at the #2 team in Class B by 5 and by 15 at the #5 team in Class A. Interesting that Oh Day Aki goes to Little Wound on February 16th so there's a little local relevance here. Hope comes in at 4-10 not including tonight and 1-3 in their league. They're lead by Deonte Trawick's 18.2 PPG.

7:00 Johnson vs Milwaukee Marshall. Johnson in a rout.