North Dakota Preps

Here are some of what I feel will be the top teams in regions 1 and 2 next season. I know very little about the teams in regions 3 and 4. Feel free to add information on the west teams.

D1
Maple River
SC

D2
Linton
Lamoure
EKM

D3
Langdon

D4
Mayville
New Rockford
Hatton-Northwood

Going with the experience they have returning

In District 5 I would say:
Bowman County
Grant County-Mott-Regent
Hettinger-Scranton
Glen Ullin-Hebron

D6
Central McLean
Garrison
Washburn
New Salem-Almont

In District 7 my top four would be:
Kenmare-Bowbells
Tioga
Trenton
Divide County

District 8
Our Redeemer's
Westhope-Newburg
Surrey
Bishop Ryan

Probably off, but feel free to correct me.

Will they be adding a section to this website for Class AA now that we have 3 classes?

Flip wrote:Here are some of what I feel will be the top teams in regions 1 and 2 next season. I know very little about the teams in regions 3 and 4. Feel free to add information on the west teams.

D1
Maple River
SC

D2
Linton
Lamoure
EKM

D3
Langdon

D4
Mayville
New Rockford
Hatton-Northwood

I'll take try to rank some of the east teams. Maybe start some conversation.

1. MPCGFS
2. Langdon
3. Maple River
4. Hatton-Northwood
5. New Rockford
6. Linton
7. SC
8. Lamoure
9. EKM
10. Saint John

After those 10 teams, it might be some hard bb to watch.

packers21 wrote:After those 10 teams, it might be some hard bb to watch.

I kind of thought it might not be good, but seeing it on paper makes it real. Hopefully, teams will improve when playing like competition. Some of the teams on that top 10 are not real fantastic basketball teams for being in the conversation of a top 10 team in the entire state (they are good, but don't feel top 10ish). It will be interesting to see the style of play teams in the new Class B go with. It became common for the big B's to really pressure defensively. I wonder if the new big B's will implement that style now that the numbers should be on their side.

btw, those are just regions 1 and 2. I think the top teams in R2 are quite a bit better than the top teams in R1. I think MPCGFS would be the preseason favorite in a 2-class system.

RiverMiner99 wrote:

packers21 wrote:After those 10 teams, it might be some hard bb to watch.

I kind of thought it might not be good, but seeing it on paper makes it real. Hopefully, teams will improve when playing like competition. Some of the teams on that top 10 are not real fantastic basketball teams for being in the conversation of a top 10 team in the entire state (they are good, but don't feel top 10ish). It will be interesting to see the style of play teams in the new Class B go with. It became common for the big B's to really pressure defensively. I wonder if the new big B's will implement that style now that the numbers should be on their side.

I’m assuming Garrsion or someone out west will still be decent as well but that’s about 12-15 teams and then a significant cut off.

Flip wrote:btw, those are just regions 1 and 2. I think the top teams in R2 are quite a bit better than the top teams in R1. I think MPCGFS would be the preseason favorite in a 2-class system.

You believe they would be the preseason 1 in Class B or in Region 2 in the 2 class?

Preseason #1 in the state. This year, they were a borderline top 5 team, beat both teams in the championship, and will return their top four players.

Flip wrote:Preseason #1 in the state. This year, they were a borderline top 5 team, beat both teams in the championship, and will return their top four players.

They didn't beat either team in their regions championship game, going 0-4. And both of those teams will be better next year than they were this year.

d_fense wrote:

Flip wrote:Preseason #1 in the state. This year, they were a borderline top 5 team, beat both teams in the championship, and will return their top four players.

They didn't beat either team in their regions championship game, going 0-4. And both of those teams will be better next year than they were this year.

They went 1-3 against Region 2 title teams last year

1/12: Thompson def. MPCG 63-39
1/24: Grafton def. MPCG 45-36
2/9: MPCG def. Thompson 54-50
2/21: Grafton def. MPCG 65-57

d_fense wrote:

Flip wrote:Preseason #1 in the state. This year, they were a borderline top 5 team, beat both teams in the championship, and will return their top four players.

They didn't beat either team in their regions championship game, going 0-4. And both of those teams will be better next year than they were this year.

Possible.

Thompson graduates dude and Stevens. Hurst, Sage, and Schwabe will fill in dude's minutes very easily, but they don't really have anyone (I'm aware of) that fills in adequately for Stevens. They played some really small lineups last year and they'll have to do it a lot more next year.

Grafton? We'll see I guess. I feel like they're deeper where they'll have more kids that can fill for their graduating players, but they weren't near as good as Thompson last year either.

There are just fewer question marks with MPCG.

Flip wrote:

d_fense wrote:

Flip wrote:Preseason #1 in the state. This year, they were a borderline top 5 team, beat both teams in the championship, and will return their top four players.

They didn't beat either team in their regions championship game, going 0-4. And both of those teams will be better next year than they were this year.

Possible.

Thompson graduates dude and Stevens. Hurst, Sage, and Schwabe will fill in dude's minutes very easily, but they don't really have anyone (I'm aware of) that fills in adequately for Stevens. They played some really small lineups last year and they'll have to do it a lot more next year.

Grafton? We'll see I guess. I feel like they're deeper where they'll have more kids that can fill for their graduating players, but they weren't near as good as Thompson last year either.

There are just fewer question marks with MPCG.

I need to apologize, I don't get on here as often as I would like. I was looking at the rosters of Thompson, Grafton, and MPCG on the NDHSAA site and noticed I was wrong in my reply to your first post. MPCG did beat Thompson by 4 at home after falling to Thompson by 24 on Jan 12th.

I don't agree about MPCG having fewer questions moving into next season. MPCG graduates 4 seniors including Bradner who is a very athletic 5'11" post player. I don't think she was the best post in the region, but I thought she was the most athletic, and did things other post just couldn't do. They don't have anyone on their roster returning who does what Bradner gave them.

Thompson only graduates 2 players off their roster. One a guard that provided good leadership and was as solid as any of their other perimeter players. And Thompson has a number of well above average perimeter players. The other, a post who moved well on both ends of the court. Where they will feel her loss the most is on the defensive side of the court.

Grafton graduates 2 players off their roster. One a 6'1" post player who was solid but not a standout in any area, but is 6'1". I think she was Grafton's 3rd best post player. The other a guard who is athletic, strong, and handled the ball very well. I thought she was one of the top players in the region. But she was more of a one on one player who in my opinion sometimes slowed down their ball movement which could hurt their offense at times. But she could also go get baskets that a lot of others couldn't.

I don't think Grafton "weren't near as good as Thompson last year either" like you do. One of the Thompson freshman hit a runner with a hand full of seconds left in the 4th to win by 2 in the regular season. And Thompson won in the region championship game by 10 in a game Grafton shot quite poorly.

I would say they will likely go Thompson, Grafton, and MPCG next season.

Sure the two Thompson/Grafton games were relatively close, but when you look at the entire season and not just the head-to-head games it was pretty obvious Thompson was the better team. Look at how Thompson/Grafton faired vs the top teams in region 1.

Benson County took it to Hatton-Northwood last night. 43-17 at half. BC has four girls who can play outstanding perimeter defense. BC should be the team to beat in '25 and '26 in region 2. They're starting 3 sophomores, a freshman, and an 8th grader.

Flip wrote:Benson County took it to Hatton-Northwood last night. 43-17 at half. BC has four girls who can play outstanding perimeter defense. BC should be the team to beat in '25 and '26 in region 2. They're starting 3 sophomores, a freshman, and an 8th grader.

Benson County gave Langdon a very tough game a few weeks ago in Langdon (ended up 65-56 but was only 4 points with 90 seconds left).

Might be a solid sleeper team that no one was talking about preseason

I have seen BC play. Very young team with talent. Not sure how far they will go this year but upcoming seasons will be very interesting I think. Could be a really fun team to watch.

I watched Central McLean. They have a freshman girl that will rival anyone IMHO. That one is on a different level.

Kidder County upset Linton-HMB last night. It was a good game and was close throughout.

Strong week for Maple River. Took down #6 EKM and #8 Oakes.

WalkingStick wrote:

Flip wrote:Benson County took it to Hatton-Northwood last night. 43-17 at half. BC has four girls who can play outstanding perimeter defense. BC should be the team to beat in '25 and '26 in region 2. They're starting 3 sophomores, a freshman, and an 8th grader.

Benson County gave Langdon a very tough game a few weeks ago in Langdon (ended up 65-56 but was only 4 points with 90 seconds left).

Might be a solid sleeper team that no one was talking about preseason

Defeated HN on the road again last night. Led the last 3 quarters by double digits for the most part. HN cut it to 6 midway through the 4th quarter, but BC quickly extended back to 10+.

They are a team that people are not going to want to play in the postseason and have a legitimate shot at earning one of those spots at state. The next two seasons they will probably be a favorite in region 2.

I haven't seen Central McLean play but I wonder if maybe they're the best team in B right now. They have destroying teams all season long.

Flip wrote:I haven't seen Central McLean play but I wonder if maybe they're the best team in B right now. They have destroying teams all season long.

We'll see as they play there two hardest opponents coming up (ORCS on 2/2 & Bowman on 2/5)

Central McLean had a tough schedule against some good teams that were either ranked or were receiving votes including: Linton-HMB, Flasher, Grant County-Mott-Regent, Kenmare-Bowbells, Tioga, Surrey, and Des Lacs-Burlington. Not to mention Our Redeemer's and Bowman County. But those two will play their toughest test as well, should be fun to watch whether Central McLean wins the last two or not.

Big game tonight with MPCG visiting Benson County. Top two teams in District 4 with the winner getting #1 seed. BC has won 9 in a row with the Patriots coming off their first loss of the season to Class A Thompson. Has a chance to be a great game.