NewUndFan

I think I have a basic idea of how recruiting goes. I am not so ignorant. I watch enough basketball and follow all the teams in the summit league to know when we get good recruits and when we dont. I am comparing our recruits to the other schools in our conference and they dont measure up in alot of ways to the recruits from other schools. Where do you put the blame then? All other coaches in the conference seem to get better recruits going by records. I have more praise for Coach Sather's coaching then his recruiting. I am anxious to see how he does with these 3 scholarships he has. I was excited last year when we got Norman And T, and after a year of watching them I was very disappointed in their performance. You really wont know how a recruit does until after playing a year of division 1 ball. I am more then a casual fan I watch and follow this league very closely. In the end the record is all that counts. If you want fans to come you need a good record. Other then extreme loyalists no one wants to pay money to watch a team lose night in and night out. I get there are fans and I see them at the games that will come cheer the team on no matter what the record, but I came to almost all the games and talking with people beside me there was alot of unhappy people with our team. Will they be back next year?

Next year is year 4. I am not saying we should get rid of Sather now either. I see good qualities in his coaching, but I am saying if next year is the same as this year with losing and players leaving, someone should be looking at this. I am still hopefully with the 3 scholarships he has left we are going to have a team to cheer for and be proud of. You are right I have never recruited a player, but that is also not my job. A coach is paid to recruit and coach. Doesnt matter if I can recruit or not. But I can see a good team verse a bad team. And if you want new fans you better have a coach that wins at least as much as he loses to bring fans in.

Alot of band wagon people on this forum that really want the best for UND. I wonder how many are graduates of the school or local life time residents? Bruns was recruited here because he had no other offers and bolted as soon as he had another. Why was that? If we have a great coach to play for? Also Eaglestaff said in a interview that he was coming here because his uncle was a legend at UND and wanted to play for the same school. Not much recruiting done there. I also heard that the reason why we got Omot was alot to do with Eaglestaff, again no recruiting there. If UND alumni and lifetime residents love losing and giving coaches 10 years to finally decide if they can make it or not thats fine. But other new fans like myself want to see some sort of success before I am going to spend money on tickets. I dont expect championships, I just expect we are competitive and have a chance to win. We won 2 conference games this year! I still wonder how many years do you think a coach should have when after 4 years we have steadily sunk in the league. If we are at the bottom next year give a 5 year extension because we have a nice guy? Honest question please answer for me how many years would you give??? 10 ? 15 ? I know at my job if I didnt perform I wouldnt be given 4 years. I want Sather to succeed and I want UND to be successful. I just dont know how long you can give a program. My honest opinion is if next year we dont see some sort of improvement or if other star players transfer we move on.

I have no beef with Sather personally seems like a likeable guy and I like how he gets his team to play hard nose defense. He also seemed to get more out of his players this year then what was expected. That being said the players he has recruited mostly are not Division 1 players. This is where I am wondering if he has the ability to recruit the right players. This coming year will be year 4. How many years does he get because he is a likeable guy? Do we wait 10 years and consistently rank at the bottom of the summit because we have a nice guy that works really hard? He was the head coach of a powerhouse division 2 school that really didnt need much to get players to go there. We needed to hire a coach in my opinion that knows how to recruit and had division 1 connections. As far as facility, training rooms, locker rooms etc. I agree totally that we need to invest more into basketball to get the top recruits. BUT previous coaches had the same facility and they were able to win championships and compete at the top level of the Big Sky and Summit League. No body wants to see a coach lose his job and I wouldnt feel good about it either. I want him to succeed like everyone else, but if he doesn't at some point you have to cut your losses and move on. I am not a UND alumni and I am just not happy cheering for the old green and white and watch them lose every year. They need something that will draw fans to games not just alumni that dont care if we lose or win. Any other fan cares and the more you win the more fans will come. Look at the women's team. They had way more fans at games when they are winning then losing. Our volleyball coach got fired because he couldnt win. I guarantee there will be more people at volleyball games next year. We have 3 scholarships left to give out and in my opinion if we dont see improvement in year 4 it is time to look at someone who can.

Like you said all the other schools are facing the same portal transfer issues. Sather still needs to prove that he can recruit and play for championships in the Summit. The other coaches are facing the same issues. We cant keep using that as a excuse to stay at the bottom of the Summit.

I know Sather offered him. I thought we had him until South Dakota jumped in.

Obviously the latter, has nothing to do with the Credit Union

I watched the highlights looked like a alright player nothing that outstanding but the fact he has got this many offers makes me think there is more there . How can you tell he seemed pumped? His Twitter response was the same as all his other offers

Looks like he has 17 other offers from mid major schools. Wonder what our chances are ? Norman have any influence?

No I dont and I am sure we have to have interest. I am just saying I would love to see some more offers to North Dakota kids along with the Michigan kids. Thats it. We have several offers to young Michigan kids right now.

Did you watch any of the State A tournament? Both 8th graders made the all tournament team and the one was the MVP. I would say good chance they are going to be good players. One of the players she beat out for the MVP just signed with Nebraska as junior. If you wait until they are seniors you will be left way behind. But I guess we can keep offering scholarships to Freshman in Michigan. More butts in the seats with North Dakota kids is right. A freshman from Mandan was just offered by NDSU this week. We lost out on a recruit from Grafton that went to USD. Right in our backyard. I get there are alot of reasons why students choose where they go to school, just saying we need to have some interest in kids within our state too.

I hope we start offering some of these scholarships to North Dakota girls too.. We have two very talented 8th graders in Minot that we should be on ASAP.

Agreed. But those two would have been starters next year. I dont think everything is great in Bisonville either. I think some turmoil going on.

Jarius Cook and Harden Hayes. I wouldnt be surprised if Grant Nelson enters the portal too.

I dont know if anyone is Watching the class A championship but UND needs to offer both those 8th grades from Minot a scholarship now !! Not that I don't like all the Michigan girls but we need to keep the good talent here in the state too ! Those girls are going to be good!

Like I said I wish I could be that positive. At the time I didnt have issues with all these players leaving either. But what I am frustrated with is what we replaced those players with. In my opinion we have steadily recruited worse players then we were losing and the players we lost were not that great. But still better then what we have now. If our current players played the players that left who would win? Minus Rebraca.

I just need to get a better attitude and be as positive as you guys are. But this Bruns leaving really got me down. Since Sather took over here are the kids that have left. Moody, Eikens, Gertautus Urbanavicious , Altebauers, Marko Coudreau, Rebraca, Carlos Ramsey, Seybian Sims , Ihenacho and now Bruns. There was others that left that I feel were not D1 players so didnt include them. The ones I listed all I think are as good or better then the team we had out there this year. If players keep leaving are we just going to keep saying its just the way college basketball is? When do we find those players that want to play for Sather and UND? How long do we wait? And Yes I know Rebraca wasnt his decision to leave. I would take G & Marko over T any day as big guys. Ok rant over. I need to just get over it...

Maybe i am just gun shy after our last Brenden Howard experiment. I dont think he ever got picked up by a city team either.

Is this our best choice ? A senior from a bad division 2 school ? I'm having serious doubts now that Sather knows how to recruit a division 1 player

I agree 100% with this and was thinking the same thing. I get they put on a good tournament and better revenue. But at what cost ? To give advantage to two schools that the rest of the league has to compete against ? Having a home court advantage every year to get to the big dance is a huge advantage in recruiting. I think all summit teams should have the same advantage even if it is to the detriment of more income . NDSU usually has a big following and I seen very few NDSU colors watching the game last night. This tells me that their fans were not able to get tickets . SDSU fans swallow them up a year in advance . Yes anyone can but with the advantage in recruiting they have a good chance their team will be in the finals. I'm tired of seeing it too

I hope this isnt a dumb question, but how do we lose one senior spot and add 4 freshman? Who wont be on the team next year? Some of the walk on's dont make the team?

I dont see either of the next two games on ESPN + ? They have Bally Sports North as providing coverage. I thought all the home games if they were being aired would be available on ESPN +?

Who cares if its his wife. Its his program and he can hire who he wants as an assistant. With her qualifications we are lucky to have her as an assistant. Great hire for both of them and cant wait to see what they can do for UND volleyball and making it relevant again!

We did have Aanen Moody and Desean Eikens Looks like Aanen is having a decent year with Southern Utah this year. I know he might have had his issues, but still would have been nice to have a local kid that can shoot on the roster. I am looking forward to seeing Eaglestaff in a uniform next year!

One thing to switch topic on how bad we blew a 20 point lead last night... I seen A'Jahni Levias was dressed for the game for the first time last night. I dont think it has been talked about? I am sure he is still red shirting, but nice to see him on the court with the team. Its hard to tell if he will help the team or not. Anyone have any knowledge on his abilities ?