UND92,96

This article makes it sound likely Kelley will accept the job.

As far as we know, the only definite offers to Wisconsin kids that were turned down were by Ewing and Cavil. So I tend to agree that many of the kids who UND was reportedly interested in were never actually offered. I suppose it's hard to say for certain, though.

I can't help but be a bit suspicious of how Mankato is getting all these commitments while simultaneously trying to get down to 24 scholarships? Plus, they didn't even have a coach for most of recruiting season. One would think that players like Bauer and Campbell (and probably Lyght) would have had better options. Something doesn't quite add up.

Until we actually see the full list of signees, it's of course premature to make any judgments. But from what we know (or strongly suspect), I think we have potential impact players in not only Sutton and Rosario, but also Heimler (third-ranked receiver prospect in WI per wissports.net); Wisthoff (possibly the top overall prospect in ND); Watkins (reportedly one of UND's highest-priority db prospects); Brennemann (very impressive at Kansas Jayhawk camp last summer); Benjamin (multiple all-state teams and one of the top linemen in MN); and Magstadt (top-25 prospect in MN per ESPN).

I wouldn't worry about that. He hasn't been listed on that particular site at all at any point. I suspect it's more a matter of certain players only speaking with one of the recruiting sites, but not the other. In this case, we know Heimler has been covered regularly by wissports.net, and unless something new is posted there, I'm still pretty confident that his commitment is solid.

UND has reportedly offered Port Washington (WI) safety Erik Mersereau. link

Mitch Sutton article. link Don't worry, it's not bad news.

Losing a kid to Southern Illinois and Dale Lennon is somewhat understandable. Losing a kid who decides he wants to stay close to home and probably play much earlier is somewhat understandable. Losing a kid to an FBS school is somewhat understandable. But losing a kid to SDSU when he previously chose us over them? That, to me, is not so understandable. That's just kind of strange.

Sioux finally get their first NCC win over Augie. I suspect this was what the staff expected from O.J. Harrison all along (18 points).

There were six to eight prospective recruits at the basketball game today. I have no idea as to who any of them were, however.

I agree that it's premature to really judge Jones and staff. I guess what disappoints me is the fact that no immediate-impact scorers were brought in for this season. And while I certainly don't pretend to know the circumstances surrounding Mike Gutter's departure from the program (he's still apparently in school at UND), considering the complete lack of post scoring right now, I kind of wish he was still on the team.

With regard to possible future recruiting, it appears Durene (Heisler) Frydenlund's daughter (and Steve Brekke's niece) is already a good player for EGF as a 9th-grader. Also, they have a 6'2" sophomore post who has already put up a number of 20-point games this year. I suspect both will have the ability to play college ball at some level.

Randy Hedberg has been named quarterback coach at SIU.

Per a poster on minnesotapreps.com, Ethan Magstadt has committed to UND. Here's some info on him. Although he played exclusively running back, I think he's possibly projected as an outside linebacker in college. The ESPN recruiting site projects him as a fullback. link. According to scout.com, he received "medium interest" from the Gophers.

According to NCAA rules I believe schools still can host prospective recruits on official visits through Feb. 2, but whether UND has anybody else coming in, I don't know.

According to the boxscore, Langen played 36 minutes last night. That must be a career high? Pretty impressive. Also, more impressively, she's within striking distance of Jenny Crouse's career rebounding record, and is just 26 points behind Sheri Kleinsasser for number two all-time in career scoring. In my opinion, her career has exceeded all reasonable expectations.

Metro definitely had a number of foreign-born players, but I believe Winona has had mostly high school recruits. I suspect the past few years have been similar for them to what UND had from 1989-93. I don't think they'll be able to sustain it after this year, but it's been a nice run.

I guess the downside of getting a lot of early commitments is that it means there's a lot of time for other schools to swoop in. Ultimately, I still feel like this class has the potential to be very good. We did well in North Dakota, and players like Rosario, Sutton, Heimler and Watkins look very good. I also strongly suspect that there are several commitments from the past couple of weeks that simply haven't been "leaked." We wouldn't know about Watkins, for example, but for the stories from the Texas newspaper(s). I tend to believe the report from the minnesotapreps board that Benjamin committed, as well. We will be just fine.

You can add Dylan Grimsley of USD (ex-UNI) to that list, as well. Our high school recruiting just hasn't been very good for the past several years. The last high school recruit to make the all-conference team was Evan Lindahl, and he was recruited in 2001 or so? How much, if at all, did we recruit players such as SCSU's David Dreas (Winona), USD's Tyler Cain (Rochester), UMD's John Veaudreuil (Bloomington) and MSU's Jake Morrow (somewhere in Wisconsin)? How about transfers such as Jared Nuness (Minnesota), or any of the really good transfers Mankato has had over the past five years or so (Jamel Staten, Luke Anderson, Paris Kyles)? I do know we tried unsuccessfully to get Brian Sykora, who is having a nice season at UMD after playing at an Arizona juco last year. Fargo North's Eric Erdmann at Mary is another player who seems to be able to score who would probably be a welcome addition to this team. In fairness, we seem to have an inordinately high number of players who have had much of their ability taken away by injuries (Koenig, Harkins, Doyle). That certainly hasn't helped matters, but it's not enough to completely explain the team's struggles, either. I can accept not being very good, but being the worst team in the conference in any sport is difficult to accept, and right now it appears we are the worst.

For what it's worth...like Rich Glas, Brian Jones seems like a very nice guy. He's done a better job than Rich did the last few years of his tenure against the DAC and lower level NSIC teams (so far). But 3-15 vs. NCC opponents is pretty disappointing, to say the least. Granted, 3-15 was also Rich's record in his first year in a then much larger NCC. But that was a team with its best player out for the season (Vonesh) and very little else in terms of talent. And obviously things were much different his second year. I think most people had much higher expectations for this year's team than what has been shown from the Iowa State game forward.

I think you're being too kind. I'm not sure this team will win another game this year.

I agree that Walrus brings up a very interesting point. I would be very hesitant to believe that O'Keefe was behind any sort of anti-Smith or anti-Elbert agenda, however. He strikes me as more of a so-called "good old boy" (and I mean that in a positive sense) who would be supportive of "UND guys," which clearly Smith and Elbert are.

Here's confirmation of the Watkins commitment: link Not sure why they have him listed as a receiver when he apparently only played corner.

Three more applicants: link

Some possible good news? link