NDSU grad Posted March 31, 2004 Share Posted March 31, 2004 I really can't say who will pan out and who won't, but I would have to think Woodside is probably a can't miss with all the accolades he's received. But I agree with 92,96, this class would be excellent if NDSU were still a DII school, but I don't know how it stacks up as a DI class. Still, I think it's something we can build on for the future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BisonMav Posted March 31, 2004 Share Posted March 31, 2004 Something about the Nelson kid from Madison that no one realizes is that he really won the Mr. Basketball by default. Wisconsin's best player is Greg Steitsma, a 6-11 kid from Rudolph who was one of the top 20 in the country until he got hurt and missed 2/3 of the year. One of my Dad's former colleagues and good buddies is one of the editors of the Madison Cap Times. He compared Nelson winning the Mr. Basketball to Jeff Boschee getting hurt his SR year and someone else winning it. He also said that Nelson was at best the 3rd best player on his team. Again, he is obviously a good player, but to get him out of that state, which has become a literal basketball hotbed the past 5 years, the award makes him seem like a player that he really isn't. Because of winning Mr Basketball there, Bison fans, I would guess, would expect something more then he will bring. There was an article posted on Bisonville the day after he won the award. The article mentioned the top two guys were injured. Maybe there were only two good players in that recent hotbed in Wisconsin Nelson did make first team All-State to backup his Mr Basketball. Only the future will tell how good he will be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
legend334 Posted April 1, 2004 Share Posted April 1, 2004 also heard that the best player in the state played on the same team as the kid who got mr. basketball in WI but he is a junior and that the state of Wisconson does not give their mr b - ball award to juniors....their two juniors have already had offers from marquette, wisconson and other d1 prominant schools..so take that for what its worth..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UND92,96 Posted April 1, 2004 Share Posted April 1, 2004 Here's a Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel article regarding the recruitment of Wisconsin high school players this year and how it's a bit of a down year. Speaking of Wisconsin Mr. Basketball winners, does anyone remember Greg Timmerman who played for UND back in the mid-90's after transferring from Wisconsin? Wasn't he a former Mr. BB? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
choyt3 Posted April 3, 2004 Share Posted April 3, 2004 I see that Aliou Kane is transferring somewhere from the U of M. Just wondering if UND is a possibility as it seemed he was talked up a little bit coming into college initially. He, of course, would be able to play immediately at a D-II school. Or maybe he just isn't worth a crap and Monson "asked" him if he wanted to transfer? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UND92,96 Posted April 3, 2004 Share Posted April 3, 2004 I see that Aliou Kane is transferring somewhere from the U of M. Just wondering if UND is a possibility as it seemed he was talked up a little bit coming into college initially. He, of course, would be able to play immediately at a D-II school. Or maybe he just isn't worth a crap and Monson "asked" him if he wanted to transfer? I read somewhere that he's going to transfer to a juco, and then hopefully catch on with another dI program the following year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corella Posted April 5, 2004 Share Posted April 5, 2004 I read somewhere that he's going to transfer to a juco, and then hopefully catch on with another dI program the following year. I would guess that Kane will end up at a JUCO somewhere also. Minnesota thought he was one they could build a program around, a top 100 recruit, but he turned out to be a huge bust. It sounds like the visits last week went extremely well. The late signing period begins on April 12 I believe, expect a new signing right around then. I haven't heard anything new on Koenig. It is the time of year when all the players leaving are officially granted their release, don't know if a lack of word on Koenig can be interpretted as good or bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
legend334 Posted April 5, 2004 Share Posted April 5, 2004 90 percent sure Koening is staying put....from the boss recruiter himself..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
huskies679 Posted April 5, 2004 Share Posted April 5, 2004 I am shocked that Winkleman is going to NDSU. The people I talked to said that it was UND or SCSU and honestly I felt SCSU was a lock. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UND92,96 Posted April 6, 2004 Share Posted April 6, 2004 With Koenig apparently staying at Green Bay, I would think it's imperative to sign another low post scorer soon. Ryp is obviously gone after next season, which will leave a huge hole in the middle. Gutter would be the only inside player remaining, and he's completely unproven. Have any big guys visited recently? Is the plan to either hope for an incoming transfer or sign some juco big guys next spring when more scholarship money is available? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UND92,96 Posted April 11, 2004 Share Posted April 11, 2004 Here's a list from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel ranking the top Wisconsin senior basketball prospects. Harkins went from being ranked 10th as a junior to 11th as a senior. Considering his stats were up this year, I'm not sure why he "only" got 4th team A.P. all-state after earning the same honor as a junior, considering how few returning all-state players there were this year. He appears to be the top-ranked Wisconsin player not going division I (or to a juco in order to become eligible for division I). Mr. Basketball winner Michael Nelson was ranked 7th. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UND Fan Posted April 12, 2004 Author Share Posted April 12, 2004 I am often the one providing inside info into UND recruiting, etc. but I haven't been able to talk to anyone recently. Do any of our GF/UND posters have any info about who we may be signing this week? I know who we were after but don't know what has transpired in the last couple of weeks. Bison fans will say that this is sour grapes but regarding Winkelman, the UND coaching staff had some real concerns about his not playing hard much of the time. He would take a night off or a quarter off too often. That being said, they did want him - he has great ability! I would assume that the laziness habit could be easily broken. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corella Posted April 12, 2004 Share Posted April 12, 2004 I am often the one providing inside info into UND recruiting, etc. but I haven't been able to talk to anyone recently. Do any of our GF/UND posters have any info about who we may be signing this week? I know who we were after but don't know what has transpired in the last couple of weeks. The 6-7 kid from Wisconsin who was in a few weekends ago seems to be a done deal, if I remember right he is going to get some limited scolarship $$ right away also, so he should be an LOI guy come this week. The Juco kid from Ohio who was here a few days after the previously mentioned kid is going to take at least one more visit, sounded like to Northern Kentucky, but UND's chances of getting him appear to be better then 50-50. From what I could gather, a Juco big man is what is desired at this point. I have no idea of any specifics, but I will try to get some info out of those who are finding the talent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UND Fan Posted April 14, 2004 Author Share Posted April 14, 2004 As the Herald pointed out this AM, it appears our only signee today will be Dane Seckar-Anderson, a 6'6" forward, out of Oshkosh West. I don't think he got much scholarship $ but some was available after Winkleman didn't commit. Apparently he has some good potential but wasn't All-State or even first Team All-Conference. He is a friend of UND recruit Daniel Harkins. I haven't watched it but apparently you can get "streaming video" of a couple of Oshkosh West games by going to wisconsinhoops.com. Hopefully, we can land the very good JC recruit that visited 2-3 of weeks ago. He is still looking at a couple of schools. They were attempting to get a fairly talented a power forward, about 6'7", out of Illinois to walk-on. Don't know if that is happening or not. Of course, they can not announce walk-ons. It appears that Keonig is staying at UW-GB. We should still have the better part of two scholarships available - depending on how much $ we gave Seckar-Anderson. If anyone else has any recruiting info, let us know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corella Posted April 14, 2004 Share Posted April 14, 2004 I was told all along that Seckar-Anderson flew below the radar most of his SR year because, despite being the leading scorer at right around 13, his team was very balanced and started 4 guys 6-6 and above, 3 of them essencially PFs. His team was pretty good though, their starting "PF" signed at Lewis, a D2 school in Illinois, and they either went to state or lost out in the state qualifying game. He was getting interest from D1 schools though, so I think UND is lucky to get him at the "price" that they did. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UND92,96 Posted April 18, 2004 Share Posted April 18, 2004 Thus far, it doesn't look like any of the seven schools who will be playing NCC basketball next year has had an especially successful late signing period. USD probably has the top high school recruit among the late signees with the Becker kid out of Osseo (MN), plus a couple of transfers including one of the Greens from NDSU, but without Tommie King they don't look very strong on paper, especially since the Sioux were able to beat them twice last year even with King. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UND Fan Posted April 18, 2004 Author Share Posted April 18, 2004 It looked like Billeter and Augie had some good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UND92,96 Posted April 18, 2004 Share Posted April 18, 2004 It looked like Billeter and Augie had some good luck! We'll see. Augie has been poor for so long in men's basketball that it's almost a foregone conclusion that they will finish near the bottom of the NCC every year. They haven't had a sniff of a conference title since 1977-78. They're likely always going to be, at best, the fourth-best college basketball program in the state of South Dakota (after SDSU, USD and Northern St.), which makes it awfully difficult to be any good since SD is obviously not a very big state. Billiter has shown an ability to win with all or nearly all-transfer teams, but that's apparently not an option with the administration at Augie judging by his first couple of recruiting classes. If we at UND have had trouble winning with mostly high school recruits even with our facilities, fan support and tradition, I don't see how Billiter can do it at Augie, even if their geography is a little more advantageous, unless he's getting the pick of the litter of regional dII players. Again, considering Augie's reputation as an also-ran among South Dakota college basketball programs, not to mention the rest of the NCC and NSIC, it would appear unlikely that they'll ever be in a position to be getting the best dII talent from the SD/MN/WI/IA region. Is Billiter a good enough coach to win with inferior talent? I'd say no, but time will tell since I have a feeling that's what he'll have to do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doclenz Posted April 19, 2004 Share Posted April 19, 2004 Augustana won the NCC in 88-89 with UNC. They went to three regionals in the late 80's. I will be surprised if they're not challenging in two years for the conference title. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UND92,96 Posted April 19, 2004 Share Posted April 19, 2004 Augustana won the NCC in 88-89 with UNC. They went to three regionals in the late 80's. I will be surprised if they're not challenging in two years for the conference title. You are correct with regard to '88-'89. I missed that one. I'm not saying that Augie will finish last each and every year, but obviously somebody has to finish last in every league, and among UND, SCSU, MSU-Mankato, UNO, UMD, USD and Augie, who would be the odds-on favorite to be last in any given year, at least judging by what has transpired over most of the past dozen-or-so years? I know I would vote for Augie. If Augie rises to the top of the NCC, which team(s) will take their place as the doormats of the league? It's kind of like with MSU-Mankato and UNO in women's basketball. I know they aspire to get out of the basement, but the hard part is that that would mean that one or more of the stronger programs would have to falter. Who? Again, somebody has to be last. I guess some of you guys have a higher opinion of Billiter's coaching ability than I do. I don't mean to say he's a bad coach--I just don't think he's going to turn Augie into something any better than an average dII program. As of now, they're well below average. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UND Fan Posted April 20, 2004 Author Share Posted April 20, 2004 I did not say that I thought Billeter was a great coach. I simply siad that it appeared that Augie had a pretty decent recruiting class coming in. They have signed 7 HS seniors. They signed the 6'8" Ver Douw kid from Bismarck early. Who knows how he will be - UND backed off of him after being very interested when he was a sophomore. They also signed the 6'7" Klepatz forward out of WS early. UND looked at him hard as a QB. Last week, they signed three guards - from SD, WS and IA. They averaged 18, 25 and 28 - all decent size. The Keller kid (6'7" forward) from WS was rated the 13th best senior BB player in the state. Finally, they got another 6'6" all-state forward from IA. Who knows how good of NCC players these guys will be, but they are quite impressive on paper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UND92,96 Posted April 20, 2004 Share Posted April 20, 2004 I did not say that I thought Billeter was a great coach. I simply siad that it appeared that Augie had a pretty decent recruiting class coming in. They have signed 7 HS seniors. They signed the 6'8" Ver Douw kid from Bismarck early. Who knows how he will be - UND backed off of him after being very interested when he was a sophomore. They also signed the 6'7" Klepatz forward out of WS early. UND looked at him hard as a QB. Last week, they signed three guards - from SD, WS and IA. They averaged 18, 25 and 28 - all decent size. The Keller kid (6'7" forward) from WS was rated the 13th best senior BB player in the state. Finally, they got another 6'6" all-state forward from IA. Who knows how good of NCC players these guys will be, but they are quite impressive on paper. I don't mean to seem as though I'm arguing with you, or that I'm putting words in your mouth. I am just skeptical that signing 7 high school players and no transfers is the way to win in division II basketball in this day and age when you're coming off a 6-21 season and you have practically nothing coming back in terms of proven talent. Even IF this class turns out to be good, they will likely struggle badly for at least two more years. I guess I'm also a little skeptical that some of their guard recruits are as good as their 20-something per game scoring averages would suggest. It would be interesting to know what other schools offered them. Typically, I don't think Augie wins many recruiting battles in basketball over more prominent basketball schools, although they do in football sometimes since they are far more likely to offer full rides than most other NCC schools (which of course really hinders their depth). The real question is this: if UND were coming off a season like Augie had and was in need of a complete rebuilding job, would you be satisfied with this class? I would not be, but that's just my personal opinion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doclenz Posted April 20, 2004 Share Posted April 20, 2004 I guess satisfied is based on if you are trying to do it the right way or if you're in a hurry. Since he has no pressure to win right now it looks like he is building a program. He had five freshman of which two redshirted last year and these seven and who knows if he is done. By the way, I have a friend that used to coach at Augustana who has told me that they have no fulls in football. All partials and many of the players qualify for academic money to get them closer to full equivilants. (surprising that the academicians that go there didn't go to NDSU with their history of Rhodes Scholars on the football team. Was it Lamar Gordon or Keontay Jackson that discovered the Theory of Relativity) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corella Posted April 20, 2004 Share Posted April 20, 2004 I always thought that Billiter was a pretty good coach. It must be darn near impossible to get 5-7 tranfers in every year and still win, and Billiter did that. I never respected his recruiting methods, bringing in that many transfers year after year, but I doubt many coaches would have the success he did molding that many new players together, all while having good success. When I saw him sign at Augie last year, I have to admit the first thing I said was shoot. The guy looks like a sleezy used car salesman, but I think the guy can coach. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UND92,96 Posted April 20, 2004 Share Posted April 20, 2004 I guess satisfied is based on if you are trying to do it the right way or if you're in a hurry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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