UND92,96

I'm afraid it's too late to add anybody who would be good enough to actually contribute for the 2009-10 season. We'd probably be better off holding onto the scholarship for somebody to come in for the 2010-11 season. I think Nick Haugen is considered a combo guard, so by default he may have to run the point next year. I really don't like the idea of converting Bledsoe for his sr. year, and Monsebroten is a walk-on (and a sr.) and IMO just doesn't have the quickness to play a lot at this level.

Did you get that from fightingsioux.com? I couldn't find a spring roster there, but I may have missed it.

From today's Fargo Forum:

I think Monsebroten can continue to contribute off the bench due to his outside shooting, but I really hope he isn't considered a true option at the point. Personally, I'd like to see us go with a young player. He may struggle at times, but we really need to be building for the future. The thing is, besides May I'm not sure that there's another point guard on the roster.

I am absolutely sickened that nickname opponents would sink to these depths. Truly pathetic.

He never ran track at UND.

Not surprisingly, the anti-nickname people are doing some campaigning on Spirit Lake: link Let's face it--these tactics worked in the past when lobbying all the various tribal councils. Of course, the difference may be that the other side actually has a chance to be heard this time.

Wayne Nelson blog on the now nearly-completed schedule: link

Is Bledsoe going to have to play point guard next year? I know it's not his natural position, but besides Jordan May, who wasn't able to practice this year, what other options are there?

It was in yesterday's Herald.

I couldn't help but chuckle when I read on the anygivensaturday.org board that Idaho State is apparently still looking for an 11th game. It would be poetic justice if they only end up with four home games.

We're near the late signing period for 2009-10. I believe the early signing period for 2010-11 will be in November.

It would be nice to have a 4 or a 5 with some beef, a la Vonesh, Gardner or Mustard. It's been difficult for us to find those types of players over the past 12-15 years.

There should be either two or three scholarships available for the class of 2010-11. Doug McDermott has apparently been offered, but I haven't heard of any other offers yet for that class. I would think point guard is a priority.

I don't know what he's doing now, but I hope Murray doesn't repeat the mistakes Ryan made and throw away two years of what could be a brilliant career.

I'm just curious--what did Walaker say? Obviously he's already shown he's quite capable of putting his foot in his mouth. EDIT: Never mind--just saw the Forum article.

As of 1 PM today, the Red at GF-EGF officially surpassed the level of 1979, making this the third-highest level since records have been kept. On the bright side, it looks as though the crest predication has again dropped slightly, down to 50.6.

IMO, given what's gone on over the past couple of weeks, e.g. the large majority of UND fans being at least somewhat supportive of NDSU basketball, and particularly the support and help UND students gave to the F-M flood fight, anybody who would celebrate a loss by a UND team at this point due to the UND-NDSU rivalry is pretty pathetic.

To be fair, while I only browsed that particular thread, Tony did acknowledge that most UND fans were quite complimentary to NDSU basketball, and he was hoping we'd bring home a title. There are most certainly some rather demented posters on bisonville (just as there are a few on here), but just as there are some Sioux fans on this site that many of us would probably prefer to see go away, there are some on bisonville such as lakesbison who aren't necessarily representative of the average NDSU fan. Of course, I quite possibly would be more in agreement with you if I actually frequented bisonville on a more regular basis. I don't typically go there because lakesbison, etc. make me want to vomit...

I don't think too many people honestly expect that he'll stay in ND for college.

Although UND men's basketball doesn't have any scholarships left as far as I know, I'd love to see him come here for hoops, perhaps with the promise of a scholarship for the 2010-11 season. I unfortunately didn't get a chance to see any of the state tournament, but I'm very impressed with his accomplishments.

I guess I look at Mankato possibly in a similar light to USD from 2007-08--a team who historically struggled against UND but who returned their whole team and exceeded all realistic expectations. I strongly suspect UND would have won in GF, but winning in Mankato may have been tough. Hard to say for sure.

Not sure how official this is, but if you look at the National Weather Service river level chart linked at the Herald site, it's now showing a likely crest of 51 feet (rather than the 52 it previously showed) for Grand Forks.

IMO, football success can't be maintained because of all the additional scholarships the Dakota schools have, and the self-imposed ceiling the NSIC has. UMD basically returned all of their team, and added a stud running back who few schools wanted to take a chance on due to his past, and made the most of it. But you can't possibly re-load or sustain national success with so few scholarships and so many FCS schools picking off the best regional talent. Just as Winona State fell back down to earth after a couple of really good teams in the early 2000's, so too will UMD in another year or two. Not sure about women's basketball, but with Minnesota and several other Big 10 and Big 12 schools picking off the best players, and 60 dI scholarships among the Dakota schools, I suspect you'll see fewer and fewer really good Minnesota players falling through the cracks and ending up at dII schools. The NSIC has always been pretty good in men's basketball, and will likely continue to be, although the group Winona had for a three or four year stretch was probably just as unusual as UND's group from the early 1990's. In other words, while the NSIC will probably send a team to the Elite 8 most years, I doubt they'll have national championship-caliber teams very often. Volleyball is probably the sport in which the NSIC will continue to be very strong on a national level.

Seems there are some parallels between Mankato's women's basketball team and UMD's football team. Both were essentially middle-of-the-road NCC teams last year (although Mankato did manage to sneak into the regional and surprisingly advance all the way to the title game) who returned essentially their entire teams. I suspect UND and Mankato would have probably split had they played a home-and-home this year.