UND92,96

I'm not expecting miracles, but there are some positives compared to last season. Adding Adam Jacobson to the staff, with his head coaching experience and ties to the region, is significant, and it's already paid some dividends with the addition of his niece and also one of the best players from his team last year at Western Colorado (Maves). I like the fact that unlike last offseason, where the only addition from the portal who had actually done much of anything at the college level was Hughes, now you add Wells, Maves and Green who have all shown that they can at least play at the division II and JUCO levels. Wells also really addresses one of the team's big weakness from last year--turnovers. Maves is a shooter and scorer, and shooting was a problem last season. Green is an athlete and a good defender at the 4. Piekny, Hillesheim and Harris all showed flashes last season, and I expect they'll all be in the rotation again. Duchscherer is a wildcard. I have no idea what to expect from her, but she's an athlete and it would have been a huge deal to have landed her four years ago. I'm sure she'll be in the rotation, but how effective she'll be is an unknown. Smith is the one freshman who absolutely has to play. Aside from Green and maybe Duchscherer, there's just no other size on the roster, so she absolutely has to be relied upon to play fairly serious minutes immediately. I do like this freshman class, and wouldn't be surprised if more of them than just Smith eventually work their way into the rotation. Fricke has had injury problems, but she's a tough kid and can knock down shots. Jacobson put up numbers in southern California, which is obviously high level competition, and Sonnenberg had a very impressive high school career at Frazee.

6th in the 10,000 meters and 15th in the 5,000 meters.

I don't recall whether this was discussed previously, but a somewhat similar thing happened last year when Kate Holmquist, the daughter of UND legend Jaime Pudenz and former UND football player Robbie Holmquist, signed with Montana. The difference is, I'm not sure whether UND even recruited Kate. For that matter, I have no idea how heavily Hutter actually recruited Christofferson, since I believe that offer was made a few years ago by Bernhard. But in any event, it's obviously not a great look when UND either doesn't recruit, or unsuccessfully recruits the division I prospect daughter of a standout player from the glory years.

I look forward to hearing what Roebuck has to say about this when Jenny is inducted into the UND athletic hall of fame this fall.

The interesting thing is that he visited UND in early April of 2025. Had he committed 13-plus months ago, he likely would have filled the roster spot that eventually went to Garrett Anderson.

Medical redshirt. Apparently he hurt his wrist several months ago.

He's primarily a 2 guard. This was from the Star Tribune state tournament preview: I also found this from Rodger Bohn on ballislife.com:

To the best of my knowledge, Ohnstad is no longer a part of the program, meaning there should still be one open roster spot. I realize she "withdrew" from the portal, but that doesn't obligate UND to take her back, and she hasn't been in any of the off-season pictures posted on UND women's basketball social media accounts.

Maves played for Jacobson at Western Colorado. 42.8% from behind the arc and 74 made 3s this past season is pretty impressive. Green shot 53.6% from the floor and was her conference's defensive player of the year.

Must be Gayner. Kladis and Canahuate both have very recent tweets about UND women’s basketball.

I believe three.

Cousins.

I have to think Jacobson's connections will be an asset in recruiting the portal.

As far as we know: Hillesheim Harvey Klosterbuer Reardon Piekny Harris Duchscherer Wells Jacobson Fricke Smith Sonnenberg

I’m not sure whether this was previously mentioned, but Thomas and Green were JUCO teammates. When Thomas committed, I assumed it was a very good sign. Not sure what went wrong. Oh well. Still a lot of good guards in the portal looking for a team.

Looks like Green committed to Lindenwood.

No.

New signee: https://fightinghawks.com/news/2026/4/20/womens-basketball-fighting-hawks-ink-mia-jacobson-to-2026-27-class.aspx

New commitment. Presumably Green?

Probably not coincidentally, Sather just announced a commitment via Twitter.

Kimbrough has committed to Northern Iowa.

Dissette committed to Duluth.

Minessale from St. Thomas went into the portal today, so they're pretty much as decimated as everybody else now.

Wow. I've posted some probably terrible takes over the years, but I would have never thought posting a link to a press release about a signing would be what warranted my first downvotes ever.

UND has signed PG Ciona Wells, a transfer from division II Western Oregon: https://fightinghawks.com/news/2026/4/10/womens-basketball-womens-basketball-announces-signing-of-ciona-wells.aspx