12-13 Section 4AAAA Preview

This is the 21st preview in my 2012-2013 season preview series.  The final week of previews begins with a look at section 4AAAA.  For a list of all the season previews, click here.

Defending Champion: Woodbury

Predicted Seeding

1. Roseville
2. Tartan
3. Woodbury
4. Stillwater
5. Mahtomedi
6. White Bear Lake
7. North
8. Mounds View

While section 3AAAA has contenders for the Classic Suburban and Suburban East titles, the favorites for those titles lie here in section 4AAAA. Roseville returns a ton of guard play.  They also return Jordan Burich and have the expected improvement of Derek Magnuson inside.  As the expected Classic Suburban winner, Tartan slides into the 2 seed.  Woodbury and Stillwater are the next 2 best teams as they both return major portions of their rosters.  Mahtomedi and White Bear Lake were hit hard by graduation losses.  I picked both teams 6th in their leagues but thanks to Zach Lindquist, I'll give the Zephyrs the nod.  That seed will force a very different 1st round matchup as Mahtomedi plays more Stillwater's style and White Bear's guards put them more with Woodbury's style.  Its possible Mahtomedi could make a case for the 4 with a win at Stillwater on December 14th.  North is young but has some returning experience.  That gives them the nod over a Mounds View squad that only has 1 returning player from their rotation.

Sleeper: Stillwater.  The Ponies return almost all of last year's roster.   Note that this crew knocked off Roseville in mid-February so they have the potential to beat anybody in this section on any given night.  They have strength up front with Andrew Duxbury and Matt Anderson.  That will be a difficult matchup for the rest of the section.

Section Winner: Roseville.  Heartbreak hotel last year for the Raiders as they lost an overtime thriller to Woodbury last year in the section final.  This year's squad may be even deeper. With depth at every position, I think they clear that hurdle this season.