Early Favorites 2012

With 2011 season coming to an end, time to look ahead to next year. It's never too early to look ahead and makes some picks for next year. This is without a whole lot of research just the first teams that jump to my mind when I think about the top teams from last year. The teams are listed in no particular order just when they come to mind.

Division One
Might be the return of the Milwaukee dominance as three teams from Milwaukee will have a legitimate chance to win a state title. That is off course if the prep school doesn't hit the City hard again.

Milwaukee Hamilton- Lost in the final four this year and bring back four of their five starters that played the entire game at state. Three of those starters were freshmen so Hamilton will be a contender for three years if all the kids stay.

Milwaukee King- Have one of the best coaches in the state in Coach Gosz and return the majority of their team including 6'5 junior Arroyo Edwards and possibly the return of 6'6 junior Cimmeon Bowers who is no longer on the roster. Had only three seniors on an extremely deep team that lost only three games this year.

Milwaukee Riverside- Only lost to one team in Wisconsin and a total of three teams overall, while winning the City Conference. Graduate their best player but, return everyone else that was on the team as he was the only senior on the team.

Madison Memorial- State champs bring back three starters including Mr. Clutch 6'1 sophomore Brendan Ortiz, their best player during the regular season, 6'5 junior Junior Lomomba, and big man 6'6 junior Jamar Morris who missed the majority of this past season. They have two capable starters in two 6'4 players off the bench sophomore Jester Weah and junior Ngijol Songolo who started much of this year anyway and have a very strong sophomore class as a whole.

Germantown- Lost only two games all year and had only two seniors that actually played significant minutes. Had plenty of sophomores and even freshmen are varsity that will be a year older. 6'2 junior Zak Showalter should once again have a huge year.

Menomonee Falls- Have one of the best players in the country and the best player in the state in 6'7 junior JP Tokoto. If he transfers to prep school will struggle to be a .500 team.

De Pere- State runner ups bring back 6'6 junior Brett Vanden Bergh who will be a 20 a game scorer and a handful of sophomores and will once again be tough in the Northeast sectional.

Oshkosh North- Return about half their team and should be very long and athletic.

Division Two
Just like every year in D2, we should see a completely different set of teams at state as all the teams were very senior dominated.

Madison Edgewood- Juniors 6'6 Austin Arians and 6'2 Spencer Brink will be back for their third year starting and return fellow starter 6'4 junior Jack Zwittler as well as the majority of their bench.

Onalaska- Will easily be the favorite in D2 as they return a pair of D1 college recruits in 6'8 junior Nick Arenz and 6'1 sophomore Matt Thomas.

Wauwatosa East- Lose only three players from this years team and bring back their top scorers in 6'6 junior Darrell Bowie and 6'1 sophomore Anthony Carroll.

Rice Lake- Will have an extremely strong senior class highlighted by 6'5 Wally Ellenson and 6'2 Alex Cuskey. Only had two seniors this past year.

Division Three
D3 will once again be the deepest division and you can nearly take this years top 10 and pencil them in for top 10 next year.

Lacrosse Aquinas- State champs bring back super sophs 6'2 Bronson Koenig and 6'6 Mike Conway.

GET- Lost only one game this year and only had two seniors. Bring back their star 6'3 junior Riley Bambeck.

East Troy- Bring back most of their scoring and size with a front line of 6'7 junior Tanner Plumb and 6'8 sophomores Brett and Alex Pahl. 6'3 sophomore Nate Dodge should really improve next year as well and he was great this year.

Brillion- Will be lead be lead by their backcourt in 5'8 sophomore Eric Kittel and 5'9 junior Tevor Krizenskey. Have experience success as of recent and it should continue.

Whitefish Bay Dominican- Will have one of the best back courts in the state with 6'1 junior Jamall Taylor and 6'1 sophomore Duane Wilson.

Racine St. Catherines- State runner ups bring back their top player in 6'5 junior Jordan Fouse and they are St. Cats.

Lodi- Showed some strong success behind an incredibly strong sophomore and freshmen class.

Wisconsin Dells- Won their conference this past year and didn't have a senior on the roster.

Division Four
Honestly don't know much here and no one really stands out too much.

Cuba City- One of the best coached teams in the state and lose only three seniors from this years team.

Colfax- Only other team that sticks out to me and they return most of their team and seem to have a lot of youth.

Division Five
Another one I really don't know other then just saying Randolph and your basically right every year.

Randolph- Have a pair of possible stars next year in 6'7 junior Cody Reuter and 6'3 sophomore Aaron Retzlaff. Not to mention they are Randolph.

Sheboygan Area Lutheran- 6'7 junior Sam Dekker is the best player in this division and could possibly carry his team to the title.

These are my early picks for top teams next year. I will try to possibly rank the teams I have seen this year, not sure if I will or not because you can basically see where everyone finished and one was the real #1 and so on. I will try to rank the players I have seen but, it has been so long since I last ranked them it will be difficult to do. One thing I will be doing is looking at my predictions from the beginning of the season to now and see how close I was.