UND92,96

UND reportedly has a press conference scheduled for tomorrow, apparently to announce its inclusion in an all-sports Great West (as reported on the 5:30 KXJB sports).

Confirmed I'm excited about what this could mean for recruiting.

Hockey--arena full nearly every game. Football--coming off the best regular season average attendance ever. Women's basketball--consistently one of the top-drawing programs in dII and voted "best fans" by the WBCA. Al Davis said it best: "just win, baby." Besides the opportunity to see Jerome Beasley for two years, it's been a long time since the men's program has given the fans much reason to get excited.

You never hear comments like that from anyone associated with the women's program. The obvious reason? Everybody loves a winner. In the early 90's, the men's program was the toast of the town. If you don't consistently win, eventually the interest goes away. Frankly, I think that was kind of a stupid comment by Johnson considering he'll now clearly be playing second-fiddle to Augie in the city of Sioux Falls.

It's interesting that Mannie formerly worked under Rocky Hager at Northeastern.

Another assistant coach has been added: link

I'm not trying to take anything away from the recent women's program recruits--I just think there's been a pretty noticeable lack of impact players brought into the program since the recruiting class that included Kimbrough and Bagaason. I think Privatsky has a chance to fit into that mold if she can recover from her injury, and Youngblut certainly showed some signs this past year, but I'm just a little concerned that the recruiting in Minnesota--and pretty much anywhere besides North Dakota--has really fallen off (IMO) over the past three or four years.

No--I think all the AAA all state offensive linemen last year were seniors.

I would guess that Grand Forks Central offensive lineman Kyle Graham will be looked at pretty closely. He was listed at 6'6", 275 last season.

Jeff Dodson has been named as UND's head baseball coach: link

That is true, but to be fair I think a pretty good argument could be made that the men have done a better job recruiting than the women the past two years. I doubt that will translate into the men having anywhere near as good of a record as the women, as the depth of dI men's basketball is far better than on the women's side, but I wouldn't be surprised if the fortunes of the men's program improves modestly, whereas the women may fall off a bit unless another Langen or Kimbrough-type talent joins the program soon.

So, is anybody buying this statement?:

Langen is going to be playing professionally in the Netherlands. link

Brown won, according to the Herald results. The big surprise to me was Grand Forks ward 1 voting in Terry "I'm gonna vote no on everything" Bjerke.

Some very sad news to report--the mother of incoming freshman Seth Wisthoff (and former Sioux fullback David Wisthoff) passed away on Thursday: link My deepest sympathies go out to the Wisthoff family.

I believe a new position was recently created, so I don't think anyone is necessarily leaving. If this turns out to be true, I can certainly understand why he'd come back. I'm sure he wants to be a head coach, and conventional wisdom is that the UND job will be open within a few years. It should help his chances to be chosen to succeed Roebuck if he's on the staff when that time comes. He's a proven recruiter, and also a likeable guy from everything I've heard.

Roebuck's heir apparent in a few years? If so, it would be a wise move. Brewster can flat out recruit.

Later in the thread linked above from the dyestat site, somebody posted the applicable USATF rule, and apparently the meet referee does have the discretion to order a race to be re-run, although from what I've read I'm surprised the referee chose to do so under these circumstances. While it was an unfortunate decision from Mersereau's perspective, I must say I'm pleased to see he has that kind of speed. In my mind, he was the biggest unknown amongst this year's Wisco signings.

I know for certain that you can take a red-shirt season even after your freshman year. Particularly in basketball, I can think of several instances in the past at the major college level at schools like Kentucky where a kid took a red-shirt year after his sophomore or even junior year. Had Chappell not already red-shirted, he would not be losing a year of eligibility.

I think for the most part, it has stayed fairly consistent. In actuality, last year was the best regular season average ever, at 10,790/game. In 2005, 2006 and 2007, the playoff games killed the average.

I must reserve judgment until the full schedule is released, but one would think this would have been an area where Betty Ralston should have been an asset, as she was a long-time dI volleyball coach and presumably still has a lot of connections.

By way of comparison in terms of first-year transition schedules, UND's is far better than NDSU's was, as they only played five dI games (including SDSU twice). SDSU had fewer dI games, although they did have several major conference opponents (Rutgers, Kentucky, Oregon St., USD, Purdue, Oklahoma St. and Alabama). It will be interesting to see what USD's schedule looks like.

A few changes based upon departures and the depth chart in the spring game program (denoted in bold).

I don't think Borman is around GF anymore. The Village Inn on 32nd Ave. S. is owned by some people from Minot. Does this look about right for the history of the Overtime building?: 1. Red Barn 2. Toppers 3. BBQ place 4. 42nd St. Eatery 5. Dagwoods 6. Overtime