ND-fan

They need another big front line person for next year also as much as they need point guard. They need that big man who can create his shot inside on one on one basis and score from that 75% of the time. If they don't get that guard play and other offensive talent can be limited and you're forced to shoot from outside that will be contested most of the time or pretty much shut off even for guard that can drive because there will always be help on the inside to prevent that. This past year was prime example of that when we were limited two big men on the front court to finish the season. yes i believe with talent coming and talent getting healthy they could reach as high as 3 or 4 in conference for the tournament. Most of the Summit teams have been hit hard with Transfers this off season with exception of SDSU but with right year we could see where we could qualify for NIT or CBI post season tournaments. This is only going to be possible if he can get this team put together have very good offseason practices to build team chemistry. I am always optimistic in the off season so i may be way off on reality but in basketball one or two players can turn around whole team that's what i am hoping for the coming season.

I can see that but my hunch will be Grant as the point guard for the coming year. We got to see flashes that he can create his own shot and he can shoot and score. He has ability to dish off but if he shows he can score he becomes more of complete package. Also his defense improved this past season and if this improves again as much as last year he could become very good point guard in the Summit Conference.

South Dakota lost Watson and Krull to the portal and this will mean they will have whole new starting 5 come next season plus whole new coaching staff. The only two programs that are remaining pretty much in tack are SDSU and WIU and up till this past week we would have been considered with these teams. The loss of Lane now puts into question where we stand on front line for the coming season. We have recruited some talent to help on front line with the girl from Wisconsin (Nakiya Hurst) looks to be force inside from recruitment videos. The question they will have scholarship now to pursue another player and wonder if go for transfer or another high school graduate. I wouldn't be surprised if they used on high school talent like Demers from Grafton. They also have McCarthy and Vanderwal freshman with Vanderwal redshirting and McCarthy playing limited minutes. This has to be big concern for Bernhard coming into this next season without any proven talent on front line now and not alot of depth at that area It still surprises me that Lane left when she was going to be front line person to go to for this coming season. Also this team will have very good chance to play in post season next year. The final issue will be with so many transfers what type of offers she will get and i wouldn't be surprised she may have drop down to division II and if she will get full ride for the coming year. I might be wrong on this but i have my doubts especially if you want to place close to family and etc. This off year is going to be critical developing this team by adding new players and getting them to mesh together and find their team roles for this coming year. I believe this team could establish itself behind SDSU in the Summit Conference and build foundation to where it can become competitor to them in coming years after that if they can retain and continue to add talent to this team. But key to that is retaining their talent and building program to where recruiting becomes a choice of talent wanting to play here from our recruiting area.

I really doubt if they will do anything especially to big time large schools look at North Carolina on their scandal few years ago nothing was done there but Minnesota they threw the book at them. This is about the money and if they come to hard down on these big university they are afraid they will just leave the NCAA and do their own deals cutting out the NCAA. TV wants these schools competing and playing on television and money talks its been like this for years. Look back at history number of big schools got a way with murder on different violations even going back to UCLA and John Wooden so why would anything change now.

I thought i would look up our transfer since Sather has been see what has happened to them. Shockey left UND for Quincy University a division II school and there he mostly started and averaged 10 pts. per game; Tyree Ihenacho went to James Madison was hurt at beginning of the year but he was starting at the end year and he ended up starting 14 games and scoring 3.7 points per game; Sebian Sims went to Northern Kentucky played in seven games and started in 2 games but played total of 48 minutes for the season and averaged 1.6 points; Filip Rebraca went to Iowa and started and played in all their games and average 5.78 points and rebounded 5.6 per game; Aanen Moody went to Souther Utah University in 35 games and started 7 games and averaged 19 minutes a game with 6.5 points per game. He was 3 point specialist for the team; Urbonacius went to University of Mary a division II school where he played in all games and started all games with 10.3 average; Dean Sean Eikens went to University of New Orleans where he played in 14 games and started 7 games and averaged 5.9 points but missed games to do injury; Carlos Ramsey Jr. went to Highland community College a two year college where he played in 25 games and started 24 games and averaged 17.4 minutes. He was name MVP of his team and is being recruited by division I schools; and finally David Atellbauers went to University of Mary and he played 19 games and started 12 games and averaged 8.0 pts per game. I guess the good thing for these athletes is they are all still playing basketball but with each of them having different levels of success. Sims seems to me his transfer did least for him with limited playing time and team that was not much different to UND i believe in long run, The players that drop down to division ii improved there playing time while still being on scholarship money; Rebraca had best success of the group playing on power 5 team, the rest are playing and filling roll on their teams which may have not been a fit with UND. Finally Ramsey moving back to Jucco was probably right move for him to continue to play basketball. I guess we will see how this plays out over the next few years but for most part these players move either moved them laterally or they moved down to be able to get playing time.

I have my doubts when power 5 school like LSU is looking for the coach. A new coach will have extreme of setting his roster for next year with all the people in the portal right now and he can still choose high school players he wants to sign. I wouldn't be surprised the next coach has them in sweet sixteen for next year. The top power 5 schools have been winning now for years with one and done players and few transfer players added to the mix. New coaches today don't fear this like in the past.

I was thinking similarly but with loss of Olivia Lane and transfer portal this may have become a larger goal than i thought. Even when you do good job of recruiting and develop players if you can't keep them build on that it becomes very big mountain to climb. Yes i know all other schools are dealing with the same and i believe that is true for 8 of the teams in conference but i don't think it is quite the same for the two South Dakota schools. With Conference tournament in Sioux Falls and both Schools close to the venue and it is there prime recruiting area its perfect fit for recruiting and retaining their recruits. They are close to home for parents to come and see them play at schools and then again for the conference tournament which like playing at home in front partisan crowds. Bernhard appears to have done good job recruiting talent but if that talent leaves early we are in this vicious circle of getting over hill because we never get to the last steps of winning and dancing to big tournament. We will see how this play itself out over next few years will we become power in the Summit or Bernhard if has some success moves on like the coach at KC.

This really surprises me but i think it has something to do with Erica her sister since she leaving. Erica did give up her senior come early and wasn't offered scholarship this year so i have to believe that may have something to do with this. We will never know the reasons but sure hurts us for next year because she was our only big girl with experience returning next year. I would think we will need to go to the portal and find big girl with experience if we want to this team to compete next year to earn post season spot. I think the rules need to be changed some on the portal transfer because it is becoming increasing difficult for small mid major schools to develop a team when players are using them as stepping stones or other schools are behind the scenes recruiting your players after you have developed them into quality player. Otherwise small mid majors are going to be nothing more than farm system for the larger schools. I believe then we will see very few four year scholarship players at most universities because the schools will only want players that can produce from day one and if not scholarships will be pulled on nonperforming athletes. Another possibility will be scholarships will become contract and when you sign length and commitment will be contractual agreement with penalties if voided early by either party.

This off season has seen many changes already for the Summit League with three coaching changes already and over 20% of players transferring this year. The next thing will be if there is additional transfers with Dawn Plitzuweit leaving South Dakota for West Virginia. You have to wonder about Aaron Johnson now at South Dakota State if somebody comes calling because Plitzuweit nearly tripled her salary with this move. He probably would have to look seriously if he got similar or even better offer because that is life changing money. I wonder now if Aaron Johnson will now make a jump with them reaching WNIT championship game and would leave the program in great shape to win the conference next year.

Lots of activity in Summit League today KC hired new coach today Dionnah Jackson Durrett from Texas and was Associate Head Coach . ORU let go of Misti Cussen after 10 years and are now looking for new coach. Then there are rumors that Dawn Plitzuweit was interviewing for the West Virginia job opening and on their fan forum that this was something they were worried about that she might leave. There have been a number big changes already in Summit with loss of players and schools making coaching changes for next year. It will be interesting off season and then trying to figure how the teams stack up against each other.

I see in Womens transfer portal is showing that NDSU has just about been gutted with last transfers of Ryan Cobbins to Alabama and Skibiel transferring this makes number transfer from the team at 5 and you can add addition of girl left program in season from California. The drain of talent from Summit conference continues with the transfer portal for women's basketball. The Summit has lost Boyd, Ezeudo, Cobbins, Deaton, Filer, Bradford, and Alnatas all these players have made impact in this conference and if this continues the gap between South Dakota Schools will even widen further this coming year. Then you add in the number of graduates this year from the league it is quite list of top players in the conference that half left.

South Dakota State just won to reach final four of WNIT with a win over Alabama. The game was very entertaining with both schools having leads of 10 or more for the game. South Dakota State will now host UCLA on Thursday a team they played back in November in Florida and beat by 10 points. This should be good game again and i would think they have good chance of winning again to reach the finals of WNIT. This is surely getting Summit more recognition in women's basketball for the future and i sure hope this will help other Summit schools in recruiting for Womens basketball. South Dakota just came up short yesterday by one play from advancing to elite 8. It has been good year for Women's basketball in the Summit.

Is it me or where is the NCAA on recruiting in college sports used to be we had limited contact with future college recruits and now were starting to recruit down into the grade schools or middle schools. This seems to me if recruiting starts this early it opens the door to violations and tampering by alumni especially from big power schools that have big time donors. I wonder what this does to these kids in long term and letting them have normal childhood and development and how many of these kids get burned out long before they are ready to even decide what they are going to do in the future. I may be all wrong here but i think childhood is short enough and something you can never get back and this does not only effect the child but whole family dynamics. Also most schools or prospective recruits don't finalize their recruits until their junior or senior years in high school.

Your right about this if our women's and men's basketball teams were to get their programs built where we were competitive and with right one or two players make run in the NCAA tournament where they reached final four in the tournament it would be awesome. UND would get more recognition nationally than winning FCS championship and even DI National Hockey championship. I look at last year what ORU men did in the Tournament and they were shot away from elite 8 appearance and all national recognition they received. I don't think people here realize basketball is the big sport and you can have great success if your good enough to just get couple elite players recruited to get you upper tier of teams. Hockey and Football take major programs and you need high number of players to reach the upper tier in both sports. It also doesn't cost as much to build big time basketball program as it does for other sports.

(NCAA Womens basketball transfers portal) show all movements for all schools in division I. I hadn't looked for a week and just saw Ally Van Loo name under North Dakota. I also felt for her she was to red shirt and then they pulled her red shirt her freshman year because of injuries and then either didn't get much playing time or was hurt i wish her luck to where ever she moves onto. Has been quite a bit of movement with all Summit schools with exception of South Dakota Schools and i expect more with coaching change in KC. Denver lost their two big stars in Boyd and Ezeudo, and see Filer from Omaha and there are number of other names also transferring.

South Dakota State just reached the elite 8 in WNIT last night winning by 19 over Drake and will now face Alabama next on Sunday to get to final four of that tournament. South Dakota will be playing Saturday to advance to Elite 8 in NCAA tournament. There is possibility that both of them could reach final four in both tournaments. It is show casing the Summit conference but it also showing how far we have to go to get to next level of basketball if we are going to have chance of playing in the post season. The next question is when will the new recruits be here for summer basketball with the team. If were going to make the next jump we will need these girls in the mix and contributing this coming year. Finally has it been officially been announced that Orth and Daninger are coming back i see where they have gained extra spot with announcement that Ally Van Loo will be transferring out. I also see that Wallace is transferring to ST. Louis where she can use her remaining eligibility up.

I think the AD needs to also address the number of transfers from the program and I would be surprised its because of the head coach. I think there have been number of reasons but if i was managing athletic department i would want to address it and find if there are reasons were loosing players now for the last two season. Without knowing what the problem its hard to fix the problem and if its reasons like funding, facilities, travel, and even better or more personal for conditioning, trainers, diet, or total health management these are things that can be address and come back to fans, alumni, and community to get more support. I believe number of fans just want to help this program progress but administration has to be active and communicating to the public needs they may have instead of not hearing anything from them. I believe this why we have so much criticism on fan forum. The fans care but you need to communicate to fans and community how your addressing it other than wait to next year when we have seen no improvement for three years based on their records. The local media and UND need to put some importance on the other sports beside hockey and i think it has effect why were seeing transfers athletes and recruiting they to want to be recognized. Its one of the big reasons athletes compete and especially if they want to play on after college and last few years all other sports at UND seem to be after thought behind hockey. Just my opinion but i hear from other people too!

I hadn't looked at the verbal commits today and i was surprised with that transfer especially him being South Dakota kid. New coach at South Dakota will have his work cut out for him if looses all these kids in transfer portal. Also will be interesting if we see some changes in coaching staff as well or Lee will be only one paying for irregularities.

I agree with you basketball you get two talented players and the whole team can change in short order. I look at the current Summit we have nine teams that are in flux one way or another so we could move up in conference quite quickly if we find that that talent in the next year. South State if they keep their current team which like it sounds and the recruits coming in should be head and shoulders above the rest of the teams in the conference. There problem will be keep that team sharp and playing for ultimate goal of going back to NCAA to make run in the tournament. The Bruns thing stinks in that we had again developed player into talent that could have provided team with one future top talented players for this team. So no use going over spilled milk but now were looking again players that are elite talent to build this program off setting us back year to develop them. Looking at the Summit by teams NDSU has the most returning of core even with large number of transfers, South Dakota if the new coach can retain number of players in transfer portal they could be big factor and i don't think Bruns fits in other than depth because they have AJ coming back and Archambault already head of him, ORU can be effective but loss Abmas reduces to them one star player left in McBride, Western Illinois who knows what they will have could be good or very bad have gone the route of putting team of transfer together, KC could be contender for one of the top spots behind SDSU, St. Thomas will be building and may be factor later in the season, Ohama has Filder but will have new coach so i bet it takes year before we get a direction of that program, and Finally we have Denver could be sleeper if they get another good recruiting year they were competitive down the stretch this year.

The assistant coaches salary is sure not going to attract any experienced candidates for the position. Only way is somebody looking as starting position to open the door for something elsewhere. Hard to keep a staff together when you know got to move on as soon as better position opens up. Not even 10% of Barry salary as coach of the hockey team . Hard to build a program with this all the budget allows.

It takes experienced teams to be effective and this constant turnover of players does nothing to build the conference stronger and i don't care how you spin it were becoming conference of rebuilding teams with the exception of South Dakota State so far. In truth we are farm system for other conferences above us and when you start having loosing teams anybody that has shown they are above average player is going to move to better team. This may not always work out but this is perception these young players are under. I look at Bruns we offered him scholarship at D I level when all he had was D II offers and as disastrous season we had he got more playing time quickening his development but when season was over he wanted to move to more winning program. He got to be FOY in the Summit and this one time happening i would write it off but this second year in row with Freshman recruit earning FOY in the Summit and he too moved on greener pastures. Now tell me how were going to build this conference who is Mid Major conference if we can't keep out young talent here in the league. I know this is the case college basketball but how are we build quality teams that compete against power conferences if talent we develop is not there when they are ready to compete with the talent of these power conferences. I think there should be some compensation for smaller conferences like this as there is professional sports like giving extra scholarships from the schools that are recruiting these transfer players and awarding them extra scholarship roster spots. Just quick thought but this would still allow players to transfer and help smaller conferences compete against the power conferences.

So what's rumors for Freidel, Bruns, Eady, Harden Hayes, Cook, and players from South Dakota after coaching change. I see Griesel is heading home to Nebraska. If this transferring keep up Summit conference will be further weakened for the coming year. Looks like South Dakota State if keeps it core and group coming in will dominate the conference again next year.

South Dakota had sweet win on Baylor's home court. South Dakota State also had good day in WNIT with win against University of Minnesota today by 21 points reaching the sweet sixteen in that tournament. The Two South Dakota schools are making good showing in the post season tournaments. I hope we can start making progress with our women's program where we are playing post season too in the near future. This going to help both these schools in the recruiting battles in next few years.

I can argue both sides of summit conference tournament but my gut feeling it's too much of advantage for the South Dakota schools because of recruiting and retaining players. I hear people talking about how UND travels with hockey team and it's going to happen with basketball program but basically most of North Dakota citizens will not travel that far for basketball if that was the case their should have been thousands of NDSU fans at Summit conference championship with the success they have had in basketball but that is not the case. Hockey has number of fans that will travel but it is usually destination with exception of regional hockey tournaments which have been close last few years but these are two day tournament over the weekend much less of commitment to go watch. Now the Summit conference tournament starts Saturday and runs through Tuesday a four day tournament and if your distance from the tournament you can add two extra days for traveling quite a commitment to go spend watching midmajor conference tournament. Not something unless your die hard fan that is hard to commit too and plan a year ahead when your going to use four days of vacation and spend 5 days in hotel room. This is not the case for the South Dakota Schools fans when majority live in two hours or less from Sioux Falls where there costs is the cost of tickets. Like I have stated here before its to big recruitment advantage for South Dakota schools and no matter how you spin it the other 8 schools at disadvantage and i believe over time will spell problems for retaining number of schools in the conference. I agree playing front of full house is exciting but if it leads to the two schools dominating the conference i think its to big price. I believe its not going to change because of the money and politics. I also know majority of on board think differently but i wanted you think about some reasons why number fans may think and they just choose to watch the games on Tv instead of making the trip.

Then if UND basketball staff in not loosing sleep over loosing Mcgrath why then did we not pull his redshirt when we were playing short at front line on this team durning the season. We had several games where we were in foul trouble needing additional height and he surely could have full filled that roll and if not then our problem is much bigger than i think on recognizing talent. I don't believe the former so i have to think we have other problems like i have said before and i wonder where the AD and administration is on this and like usually we hear nothing. Where are the alumni and booster club they usually are weighing in on things behind the scenes. Usually somebody takes hit on what we have experienced in last two seasons and so far nothing has changed.