The Northern Sun pre-season coaches poll has defending champion Minnesota State Mankato at #1 with 8 of 15 1st place votes. Minnesota State Moorhead is just behind with 6 1st place votes, and the U of Minnesota-Duluth gets a #1 vote, too. It should be a good year for Minnesota schools, with Southwest State rated #4 and Bemidji State #5. But, the latter 2 are not gonna be contending for 1st place. Neither even is UMD, possibly. Mankato and Moorhead are just that good.
Mankato of course won its 1st national title last year at 35-2 but they lose NSIC player of the year Malik Willingham plus Dylan Peeters and Elijah Hazekamp. Little bro Kyreese Willingham returns to be the pre-season PoY and point guard Justin Eagins is back, too. So, they’ll be good. But the other returnees/projected starters–Braudis, Opsahl and Stuttley–scored just 12 ppg among them. Freshman big Carson Schweim from Mankato East may be their 3rd best player.
Moorhead went 25-6 last year and was rated as high as #3 nationally at one time. They will be led by 6-0 point guard Jacob Beeninga who, honestly, is probably a better and more valuable player than Kyreese. Their projected starters return 49 ppg versus Mankato’s 39. And freshman forward Tyson Gerads will be every bit as productive as Schweim for the Mavericks.
UMD’s projected starters return 42 ppg from a team that went 26-7 but loses the school’s all-time leading scorer Drew Blair. Forwards Charlie Katona and Austin Andrews will carry a lot of the water, but the Bulldogs may need to hustle true freshman Kole Hanson into the starting lineup at the point guard position.
It’s hard to pick against the reigning national champions, but I think Moorhead will win the regular season title at 19-3 with Mankato at 18-4 and UMD at 16-6. The coaches, again, had Southwest State and Bemidji next, and that’s hard to argue. But what’s really is getting my head around the fall of St. Cloud State to just 12 wins last year. They’re projected to move up from 11th to 9th, but 9th place–behind Concordia St. Paul in 8th place–just doesn’t sound like St. Cloud to me.
In other news, former Ellsworth, MN, high school star Cody Schilling assumes the role of head coach at Augustana. How the hell did we ever let this guy get out of Minnesota?
Summary Forecast Minnesota Men in the NSIC
1. Minnesota State Moorhead 19-3
2. Minnesota State Mankato 18-4
3. UMinnesota-Duluth 16-6
4. Southwest State 14-8
5. Bemidji State 13-9
8. St. Cloud State 11-11
10. Winona State 9-13
11. CSP 8-14
14. UMinnesota-Crookston 4-18
Top Minnesota Players in the NSIC
C-John Sutherland, Bemidji State 6-7 sr 20 ppg-8 reb-4 ast last year
PF-Charlie Katona, UMD, 6-7 sr 13-5-2
SF-Austin Andrews, UMD 6-6 sr 10-5
PG-Jacob Beeninga, Moorhead State 6-0 sr 16-2-3 my pick for PoY
SG-Kyreese Willingham, Mankato State 6-5 sr 14-5