Big Eight Preview

The Big Eight conference is always the conference that I most closely follow. Reasons for this is that they play some of the best basketball in the state and they are fairly close to where I live. Year in and year out the Big Eight is a top notch conference and always sends one team to state and usually two, which will change this year now that D1 is only sending four teams to state. Usually you can go to at least two games a week and get some great basketball and typically the top five teams can all make runs at state and will provide entertaining games every single night. Well here are my preseason picks.

1. Madison Memorial- The talent at Memorial is never ending. They bring back seniors 6'4 Tre Burnette and 6'4 Miles Chamberlain who didn't start last year but, are both ranked in the top 50 seniors. Juniors 6'5 Junior Lomomba, ranked #2 in his class, 6'5 Jamar Morris a top 30 in the class, and transfer Iyad Assad whose 6'10 and also ranked in the top 30. Then their strong sophomore class highlighted by 5'11 Brendan Ortiz and 6'3 Jester Weah both top 30 players and haven't even mentioned Jordan Fredrick who was their defensive stopper a year ago. Memorial has the height and athleticism that is hard for any team to match up with.
2. Sun Prairie- Split with Memorial a year ago and bring back most of their team. They did lose a first team all conference performer in Michael Boos and they really played to their competition as they finished the season at .500 in conference. 6'5 senior Chris Hawkins is poised for a break out year if he can bring it every night and stay out of foul trouble, same can be said for fellow senior 6'3 Jordan Noskowiak who either seemed to be the best player on the court or completely disappeared. Their best player might just be 6'5 sophomore Nick Fuller who can do it all from running the point, shoot the three, battle on the inside, and defensively can guard anyone on the court. 6'0 senior Jaron Schaffner would probably be a star on a lot of teams.
3. Madison East- This pick may surprise a lot of people but, 6'0 senior Nimrod Hillard will be the top player in the conference this year and they also bring back backcourt mate 5'8 junior Rudy Bentley Jr. Through in another solid guard in 6'1 junior Demetrius Durley who looked very good after his midseason call up and they have 5'9 senior Arthur Adams and his great defense which adds lots of depth and East may have the best back court in the conference. Question will be how they will do on the glass with very little height and don't recall much on JV either.
4. Beloit- Always a very athletic team that plays hard but, not always the smartest. Lost their leader to graduation in KJ Evans but, bring back an all conference performer in 6'2 senior Leketreius Broomfield, who is one of three starters returning who started at least a portion of last year.
5. Middleton- Lost a lot to graduation but, Middleton always plays lots of players so their still return a lot as well. 6'6 senior Ian Joyce should step in as the go to player as well as their top five bench players from a year ago who all played decent minutes.
6. Verona- Lost all five starters and the majority of their scoring but, hard to imagine a Verona team falling that far. JV was pretty solid.
7. Madison Lafollette- Another team that lost all their starters from a very ago but, always seem to have some pretty good talent. Reggie Williams is a pretty good coach who gets the most out of his team.
8. Madison West- Another team that lost their five starters. Another team with lots of athletes but, doesn't always play the smartest.
9. Janesville Parker- Beat Craig twice last year only reason have them ahead of Craig.
10. Janesville Craig- Didn't win a game a year ago but, have already won two this year.

Predicted Conference Record
Madison Memorial 16-2
Sun Prairie 15-3
Madison East 13-5
Beloit 12-6
Middleton 11-7
Verona 10-8
Madison Lafollette 5-13
Madison West 4-14
Janesville Parker 2-16
Janesville Craig 2-16

1st Team All Conference
Nimrod Hillard 6'0 senior Madison East
Junior Lomomba 6'5 junior Madison Memorial
Chris Hawkins 6'5 senior Sun Prairie
Leketreius Broomfield 6'2 senior Beloit
Jamar Morris 6'5 junior Madison Memorial

2nd Team All Conference
Ian Joyce 6'6 senior Middleton
Nick Fuller 6'5 sophomore Sun Prairie
Jordan Noskowiak 6'3 senior Sun Prairie
Tre Burnette 6'4 senior Madison Memorial
Brendan Ortiz 5'11 sophomore Madison Memorial

Looking at my all conference you can see it's heavy on Madison Memorial and Sun Prairie but, I truly feel that these two teams talent wise will be above and beyond everyone else.