North Dakota Preps

What does everyone think about Region 2 this year? I would love to see some picks on how everyone thinks this region will shake out this season.

After most teams have played 3-5 games, I think Hillsboro/CV is the class of the region. I think their biggest challengers will be Larimore and PRFL. I like Larimores group of juniors, they play well together. PRFL doesn't seem to have any standouts, but nice athletes that seem pretty diverse in their skill sets that are working well together.

HCV really seems to be the cream of the crop in what is beginning to look like a pretty weak region. Other than sleep walking through most of the first quarter vs Hankinson, I thought they played much better than they did vs Kindred. They are well coached, bust their butts on defense and are blessed with 2 strong ball handlers that make good decisions in Austin and Kyle. They also have enough height to match up with most teams down low and some capable shooters as well.

After those 3, I guess i would look at Thompson. But, they have been disappointing so far this season.

I really don't even have a guess after those 4.

I don't see how this region isn't a toss up. Are there potentially a group of 3-4 teams that are ahead of the rest right now? Sure, but a good amount of the teams have decent athletes and I expect most to improve somewhat throughout the season, so who knows who will be playing their best in February. It's hard to make any major strides in basketball during one season--you are what you are to some extent, but I'm excited to see games between HCV, PRFL, Larimore, Thompson, and Grafton.

1. HCV. Experienced and Defense Travels

2. Thompson struggled a little bit here early but still dangerous.
3. PRFL Hard nosed with one if not the best shooter in the region.

4-10 will all beat up on each other. All also have the ability to beat 1-3. I don't think Larimore has a chance at all to come out of the Region, Grafton had a very very nice group of 10 graders.

packers21 wrote:1. HCV. Experienced and Defense Travels

2. Thompson struggled a little bit here early but still dangerous.
3. PRFL Hard nosed with one if not the best shooter in the region.

4-10 will all beat up on each other. All also have the ability to beat 1-3. I don't think Larimore has a chance at all to come out of the Region, Grafton had a very very nice group of 10 graders.

I think PRFL's physical senior class will make a difference for them throughout the season, especially on defense. I can imagine that Larimore is also a fairly physical team. I really don't know anything about HCV or Thompson, but I also think Grafton might stick their nose into this fracas. I don't think there's a clear cut top team. They're all going to beat up on each other throughout the season.

MPCG looked pretty darn good against HCV. Played excellent defense, found Johnson in post for nice little turnarounds, Chandler ran the show very well. The Patriots have tools and the new coach is so enthusiastic that he lifts the play of his team. I don't know that they can sustain their good play game in and game out, so they won't end up with a great regular season record. But come tournament time, they will compete with anyone in this region.

I watched the HCV - Hankinson game last week. HCV is not a bad team, especially when they are hitting their outside shots. I thought #24 was their best player as he was very good at driving to the hoop.
I do give them a bunch of credit after their bad start in that game - I think Hankinson was up 18-4 at one point and I really thought they were going to run HCV out of their own gym.

The difference? HCV adjusted, they played better pressure D and they were deeper. Their coach changed things up. Hankinson stayed in their man to man all game and they don't have a very deep bench.

Yeah, HCV won and they wound up winning handily. However, I really believe Hankinson could've done things differently by changing up their defensive sets and actually running an offense. They stood around the entire second half and watched HCV mount an impressive comeback. Hankinson has a couple of very talented players and their coach needs to find out better ways to get them involved and to play better pressure D. Kudos to HCV on the strong start to the season - you can really tell that their coach stresses defense first.

I also watched Thompson play against Hankinson. Thompson is a very young team and basically runs a 4 guard offense. They moved the ball very well. The game completely changed when #3 Hjelmstad went out with an apparent ankle sprain. IMO - he was Thompson's best player that night but went out at the end of the first half. Thompson was rated in the top 10 to start the year, but they appeared to be overmatched by Hankinson in this one. The trio of Mauch-Hernandez-Mauch was a tough challenge for Thompson and Hankinson's overall team play was much better. Hankinson still has a ways to go before tournament time to compete with the top teams in Region 1, but I do believe they can make some noise if they get coached up better.

UNDSiouxfan wrote:I watched the HCV - Hankinson game last week. HCV is not a bad team, especially when they are hitting their outside shots. I thought #24 was their best player as he was very good at driving to the hoop.
I do give them a bunch of credit after their bad start in that game - I think Hankinson was up 18-4 at one point and I really thought they were going to run HCV out of their own gym.

The difference? HCV adjusted, they played better pressure D and they were deeper. Their coach changed things up. Hankinson stayed in their man to man all game and they don't have a very deep bench.

Yeah, HCV won and they wound up winning handily. However, I really believe Hankinson could've done things differently by changing up their defensive sets and actually running an offense. They stood around the entire second half and watched HCV mount an impressive comeback. Hankinson has a couple of very talented players and their coach needs to find out better ways to get them involved and to play better pressure D. Kudos to HCV on the strong start to the season - you can really tell that their coach stresses defense first.

I also watched Thompson play against Hankinson. Thompson is a very young team and basically runs a 4 guard offense. They moved the ball very well. The game completely changed when #3 Hjelmstad went out with an apparent ankle sprain. IMO - he was Thompson's best player that night but went out at the end of the first half. Thompson was rated in the top 10 to start the year, but they appeared to be overmatched by Hankinson in this one. The trio of Mauch-Hernandez-Mauch was a tough challenge for Thompson and Hankinson's overall team play was much better. Hankinson still has a ways to go before tournament time to compete with the top teams in Region 1, but I do believe they can make some noise if they get coached up better.

You must be missing the 20+ paint shots and lay ups that Thompson missed. I don't think they were out matched just failed to execute. Hankinson is a nice team and I though they ran some nice high/low stuff against Thompson so get their post some nice touches, thought they shoulda threw it into him every time down the court.

Very good point SCC. It will be interesting to see if thee Burros can start to come out a bit stronger as the season goes on. They won't be able to rely on being able to come back from deficits like they have been come tournament time.

12-13 games into the season and this Region is completely wide open. PRFL stands in the lead and each of their region wins came with a rather comfortable margin, the smallest being 6 points (9, really, with a 3 made at the buzzer) and 10, but otherwise they're pulling away from teams in the second half. They run a bit of a gauntlet to end the season, and I think they'll come out of that in decent shape. HCV, Larimore, Thompson, and Grafton are having some excellent games right now and all, along with PRFL, will fight it out for the top seeds. I'm not sure what I think as of yet, not having seen 3 of the 5 teams, but I imagine Region 2 fans are in for some great games.

What do the rest of you think?

Any team any night barring injury to a key player.

ReadyToPlay wrote:Any team any night barring injury to a key player.

for sure!

Coaches better off scouting refs then teams....

will be a good one