UND92,96

I was looking for relatively impressive non-conference wins for Summit teams, and they're pretty few and far between. Denver actually has by far the best win, at #89 Colorado St. They have also beaten #149 Montana St. and won at #188 Northern Colorado. The next best after Denver's win at CSU? Believe it or not, UND with its win over #123 Winthrop. NDSU has wins over #136 Southern Illinois, #151 Montana and #156 Drake. St. Thomas doesn't really have any particularly good non-conference wins, with their best being over #188 Northern Colorado and #192 Portland. Omaha won at #153 Portland St. ORU has wins over #149 Montana St. and #165 Kennesaw St. USD and SDSU haven't beaten any non-conference opponents ranked any higher than the low 200s.

Here is the difference between this year's (so far) Kenpom rankings vs. last year's end of the season rankings for the Summit: 2025-26 132. St. Thomas 140. NDSU 185. SDSU 259. Denver 269. UNO 282. USD 290. UND 317. ORU 346. KC 2024-25 130. St. Thomas 135. NDSU 137. SDSU 165. UNO 238. KC 240. USD 265. UND 311. Denver 330. ORU

Doesn't Sacred Heart co-op with Crookston now? I don't know how many boys from Sacred Heart actually play, but I believe there have been several on the girls side in recent years.

I would be fine with bringing Sather back if it means Uelmen, Smith and Guga come back. I am assuming the ND kids stay/come in regardless. But I don't see why UND would offer a multi-year extension to a coach with (probably) a sub-.400 record after seven years. It's not necessary, and it's probably unprecedented at the division I level. Offer him a one-year extension. If working on essentially a one-year deal were a dealbreaker for Sather, he'd have left on his own after last season. He has a lot left to prove before a multi-year deal is even a consideration IMO.

He took unofficial visits to UND and NDSU last year, but I think at this point he has division II offers. I could see him maybe going the NSIC route for a year or two, and then transferring to a division I program if he can put up big numbers.

On the one hand, yes, this season has been pretty much a disaster. And Hutter is ultimately responsible for both the players that were brought in, and in keeping some of the returnees who realistically aren't legitimate division I players, which clearly he knew from having coached them for a year. On the other hand, last year's team was actually very close to being quite good. They split two close games with NDSU, and were far more competitive vs. SDSU than in the previous years. IMO, the two biggest reasons for the improvement were the addition of Schiller, and presumably at least to some extent Hutter's coaching, since those were really the only major changes from the year before. The bottom line is that he couldn't adequately replace Pemberton, Schiller and Ibrahim from the portal, and without difference-makers it's extremely difficult to win. Will he fare any better in the portal after this season? He's going to have to, because realistically the incoming freshmen plus Duchsherer may be able to replace the production of Demers, Aumer and Hughes, but I'm not sure it's realistic to expect much more than that from freshmen and somebody who hasn't played serious basketball in four years.

Article about the Micah Curtis situation: https://www.grandforksherald.com/sports/college/und-freshman-forward-micah-curtis-likely-to-miss-remainder-of-2025-26-season To summarize, he's very likely out for the season due to injury.

Disappointed to hear about Grace. I thought he’d play a lot in 2026.

Former UND player, and current Omaha assistant coach.

I haven't seen enough games to comment on how he's doing defensively, but I feel like Anderson has been mostly decent on offense, aside from his FG percentage being too low. 9 points and 4 boards per game isn't bad for a guy who averaged 14 ppg last year for dII Central Washington, but I guess I don't know exactly what the expectations for him were.

Nguyen is definitely saying the right things as far as recruiting philosophy: https://www.grandforksherald.com/sports/college/new-und-volleyball-coach-ready-to-tap-midwest-recruiting

It looks like UND's receivers coach from 2019 to 2024--Sam King--will be looking for a job. Wasn't retained when Schmidt took over, and was at Washington State this past year, but like Freund, it doesn't appear Rogers is bringing him to Iowa State.

New coach hired: https://www.grandforksherald.com/sports/college/und-hires-david-nguyen-as-volleyball-coach Definitely wasn't expecting UND to hire a current division I head coach, particularly one who has actually had some success.

The volleyball situation was pretty similar to men's basketball, and that's how I see this most likely playing out.

I think Theo Grace will make an impact at LB next year. Same high school as Noland and the Beavers. Was the KC metro defensive player of the year in 2024.

You have to hand it to USD--they seem do a good job of identifying RB prospects. Phillips wasn't even supposed to be the starter this year.

I know Avery Scott is still hoping to get an additional year. In 2022 he apparently played in three games for West Virginia State, and under the current rules that would not have resulted in losing a year of eligibility, but at the time it did result in losing that year.

I have no idea whether he still wants to coach, but Craig Smith is available after Utah surprisingly let him go late last season. It would be incredibly ironic given he could and should have been hired instead of Brian Jones to replace Rich Glas 20 years ago. UND grad from Stephen, MN. Still only in his early 50s.

Looks like UND has its first portal addition of the year—Marquis Edmond II, a safety from Virginia St.

Last offseason USD lost three starting offensive linemen, a starting receiver, a starting DB and a LB who was their leading tackler to the portal. Then their leading rusher went down with a season-ending injury in September. And obviously now they're the last Dakota team standing. You just never know.

UND has offered Wayne State (NE) defensive lineman Carter Sitzman. He has a pretty impressive list of offers, including NDSU, SDSU, USD, Wyoming, Tennessee Tech, Indiana St., Incarnate Word, Tarleton St., Kent St. and Buffalo.

I'm very curious to see if incoming freshman Tyler Zdon can get into the mix early on, also.

O.K., my mistake.

SDSU is currently at three players leaving via the portal, per the Jackrabbit_Illstrtd twitter feed.

He was apparently one of about 36 nominees in 2014.