2017-18 Opening Week Preview

Its opening week of the 2017-18 season and despite not officially starting until Thursday, it has plenty to offer.  Let's get to it. 

Wednesday
A couple of last minute tune up jamborees before the season starts.  If you like big north metro schools, then Spring Lake Park is the place to be.  8 teams from the NW Suburban plus Fridley, St. Francis, Forest Lake and Mounds View are participating there.

If smaller schools are more your thing, then Jump City is for you.  That's High School for Recording Arts in St. Paul.  They'll host Humboldt, Highland Park, Maranatha, Brooklyn Center and Prairie Seeds Academy with each team playing twice.  Both of those events start at 6 PM.

Thursday
Its a quiet opening night but quality is on the schedule.  The highest profile local game is the battle for St. Paul supremacy with Central visiting Cretin-Derham Hall.  That game is online so I may have comments on it after my game with the other St. Paul team looking for a title, Johnson.  They have a sneaky good game against River Falls, WI to open the season.  Jaxon Knotek played well over the summer and made himself into a NDSU commit. 

The Minneapolis side has a couple of games of note as well.  Roosevelt visits Orono in an early season matchup of 6AAA teams.  No good matchup for Jarvis Omersa there but Roosevelt's guards vs the Orono guards is a good test.  Rochester Lourdes visits Breck in a quality AA game as well.

Friday
Rare for a weeknight but one could pull off a 2 location tripleheader with the early Humboldt at Nova game and then a late girls/boys doubleheader at Trinity.  Nothing incredibly sticks out but Johnson gets no break as they visit Brooklyn Center.  Forest Lake also has the quick turnaround for a 7AAAA road game at Coon Rapids.  Centennial at Roseville is an early season 5AAAA battle and is my prediction for the 4 vs 5 section game.  Central Minnesota Christian comes in for a weekend doubleheader with SW Christian (Fri) and Heritage Christian (Sat)

Saturday
Speaking of Saturday, one could sit at the girls tipoff all day and wait for the boys games.  I on the other hand will take the chance to watch St. Cloud Apollo at St. Louis Park in an early noon start.  St. Louis Park is experienced, Apollo has talented youth and a new coach.  Should make for an interesting game.  Kasson-Mantorville visits Simley in a game that should have an impact on how these teams are seeded in 1AAA.  Then its the 4 boys games at the girls tipoff.

Iowa City West is the top ranked team in Iowa with star Patrick McCaffrey.  They'll take on De La Salle in the 3:45 game.  Gabe Kalscheur vs McCaffrey is the appealing matchup there.  But I would expect the worker bees from each team to get the defensive assignments and not much head to head.  Expect a grind it out defensive battle.

Orono takes on Robbinsdale Armstrong in the 5:30 game.  This was intended to be the Race Thompson vs Jarvis Omersa showdown but with Thompson leaving early for Indiana, that appeal is gone.

Cretin-Derham Hall shows up again on my radar for the 3rd time in a week.  This time they get host Hopkins.  That's the clear early season battle for #2 in the state AAAA poll.  Oturu vs Hedstrom and  Beauchamp vs Larson are fun matchups.  But the most interesting matchup could be Sy Chatman vs Zeke Nnaji.  Chatman stuck out with his play at the CDH jamboree on Saturday and in fall league.  His game has definitely advanced.

In the late game, its East Ridge vs Minnehaha.  These teams both return a ton.  Ben Carlson needs to be a big factor inside in this one.  If Javonni Bickham is in foul trouble for Minnehaha, that takes a major threat off the floor.  Jalen Suggs so dangerous creating off the high pick and roll either for himself or for a bevy of outside shooters.   The Raptors game plan against him will be interesting to see.