While I haven't been as invested in the boards recently as I have in past years, we're getting to that point where the preseason coaches' poll is probably only a few weeks away.
With that in mind, I figured it was an ok time to start the thread for how we all think the preseason rankings' should be.
As usual, I know very little about what's happening besides what those of on the boards have already talked about some. For example, I know Moorhead should be the best team in the country, Wayne should continue to be good because they basically have everybody back, and Winona lost very good players in Lo Biondo and Taylor, so they're really hoping Owen King and Alou Dillon step up this year.
The rest of this is based on my random guesses. For example, I have no idea what to expect with Northern, but I know that until Augie reclaims its hold over NSU, Wolves fans will refer to the Pentagon as Wachs South at least a handful of times. I don't know what to expect with Duluth because Wieck has gotten some of the highest-ranked D2 recruits in Minnesota the past few years and I would assume they'll finish toward the top of the conference, but I also would've thought that last season and they finished 6th. In the North Division. I know SMSU will pride itself on hard-working players with a coach they adore, but I have no idea what to expect from them talent-wise. And I know Augie should be good, but the Vikings are very untested guard-wise and only have a few bigs with in-game experience (Dykman, Riemersma, and Tiedman), despite having several seniors on the roster. So we'll see on that.
So here are my mostly-un-thought-through rankings, which will almost inevitably be proven to be alarmingly inaccurate by the end of the season and will probably receive some level of "what are you thinking?!" from at least a few people in this thread.
1. Moorhead
2. Wayne
3. Mankato
4. Northern
5. Augie
6. Duluth
7. USF
8. Upper Iowa (who always seems to finish higher than their preseason poll position, so they'll probably end up, like, 4th or whatever)
9. St. Cloud
10. Winona
11. Bemidji
12. SMSU
13. CSP
14. Mary
15. Minot
16. Crookston
With that in mind, I figured it was an ok time to start the thread for how we all think the preseason rankings' should be.
As usual, I know very little about what's happening besides what those of on the boards have already talked about some. For example, I know Moorhead should be the best team in the country, Wayne should continue to be good because they basically have everybody back, and Winona lost very good players in Lo Biondo and Taylor, so they're really hoping Owen King and Alou Dillon step up this year.
The rest of this is based on my random guesses. For example, I have no idea what to expect with Northern, but I know that until Augie reclaims its hold over NSU, Wolves fans will refer to the Pentagon as Wachs South at least a handful of times. I don't know what to expect with Duluth because Wieck has gotten some of the highest-ranked D2 recruits in Minnesota the past few years and I would assume they'll finish toward the top of the conference, but I also would've thought that last season and they finished 6th. In the North Division. I know SMSU will pride itself on hard-working players with a coach they adore, but I have no idea what to expect from them talent-wise. And I know Augie should be good, but the Vikings are very untested guard-wise and only have a few bigs with in-game experience (Dykman, Riemersma, and Tiedman), despite having several seniors on the roster. So we'll see on that.
So here are my mostly-un-thought-through rankings, which will almost inevitably be proven to be alarmingly inaccurate by the end of the season and will probably receive some level of "what are you thinking?!" from at least a few people in this thread.
1. Moorhead
2. Wayne
3. Mankato
4. Northern
5. Augie
6. Duluth
7. USF
8. Upper Iowa (who always seems to finish higher than their preseason poll position, so they'll probably end up, like, 4th or whatever)
9. St. Cloud
10. Winona
11. Bemidji
12. SMSU
13. CSP
14. Mary
15. Minot
16. Crookston
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