UND92,96

I only saw him play a little bit at the state tournament last year, but I thought he looked like he had some potential. He certainly has the size. Wasn't he kind of a late bloomer? A big late growth spurt or something?

I can't help but be a little frustrated that Augie's Tom VerDouw of Bismarck is averaging roughly as many points per game as Benter, Koenig and Lehnertz combined. Regardless of whether it's a 6'5" or 6'11" guy, we absolutely need to find somebody in the off-season who can be both a scoring threat and a physical presence in the post. Benter could get there in a couple of years, but we clearly need some help in the meantime.

UND out-rebounds USD by 21, AND shoots a higher percentage from the floor, and loses? Stat of the day has to be USD only turning the ball over four times. I'm not sure I've ever seen that before.

Hartzell would be an outstanding candidate.

Former UND player Harry Boyce has transferred to MSU-Mankato. link

I'm not a rivals subscriber, so I can't read this entire article, but I don't like the sound of this...link As some may recall, UND had a verbal commitment from a kid by the name of Cody Rose last year, but then he ended up going to Wisconsin as a preferred walk-on. Hopefully history isn't going to repeat itself. EDIT: Never mind--false alarm.

New commit--Jason Obarski, kicker, Apple Valley. Named all state by the Pioneer Press and "special mention" all state by the AP. EDIT: Does this count as confirmation so as to add his name to the wiki list? link

MSU-Mankato names four finalists for its head football coaching job: link UND co-defensive coordinator John Kelling had been mentioned as a possible candidate.

Concordia-St. Paul's next five games are on the road, including games at Wayne, Moorhead and Bemidji. If they get through that stretch unbeaten, their only realistically losable game prior to the conference tournament is at Winona, who recently took them to OT at CSP.

Herald confirms Rosario commitment. link Also, UND is apparently recruiting Germantown (WI) db Ryan Jefferson. link

Benjamin made multiple first team all state teams this year as an offensive lineman, but he was a very good defensive lineman as well and I'm fairly sure he's being recruited as a nose guard. At least in terms of size, he appears to be exactly what you want at the nose (6'2", 285).

Among those visiting this weekend were apparently Osseo RB Marcus Sims, Maple Grove RB-LB Ethan Magstadt, Minneapolis DeLaSalle DL Devin Benjamin and Jon Heimler, who has been discussed previously on this board.

Unfortunately, his most recent postings were an argument with me that was the result of what I believe was simply a misunderstanding regarding the intent of one of my posts. Hopefully that's not the reason he ceased posting, and he harbors no hard feelings about it. I certainly have no hard feelings towards him.

There is a UND connection to Cal State Fullerton. UND grad Gene Murphy coached here and then at Fullerton.

Sioux lose again--71-66. I only watched about the last five minutes, and UND didn't play very well down the stretch. When I started watching it was 58-54, UND.

I think that so far, this class appears quite good. Last year's was very impressive on paper as well, and three players from that class actually played as true freshmen, which is quite unusual at UND. I would love to see a few more commitments from some of the high-end talents such as Damon Campbell, Tyrell Rosemeyer and Jon Heimler, plus a few more offensive linemen (Andrew Anderson from Crookston, perhaps?) and also a couple of immediate juco transfer defensive players. If that should happen, this class has the potential to be special.

I believe this is the first recruiting weekend since before Christmas, so I wouldn't be at all surprised if we hear of some more commitments in the next few days.

On paper, this was likely either the most difficult or second-most difficult road game of the year, so this was a very nice win. Mankato was rated 12th in the most recent top-25 poll.

Wayne Nelson blog on the start of the NCC season and the disappointing performance by the Sioux vs. SCSU.

Sioux up 38-25 at the half.

Another interesting thing from the above-linked column is that Kelling's name isn't mentioned as somebody who has been interviewed via phone. I wonder if he's still in the running?

I'm not sure whether this has been posted elsewhere, but here's the job announcement for the a.d. position. I have a feeling there are going to be a lot of applications submitted on February 5-7. The reason? The new president is supposed to be announced February 5. Applications for the a.d. are going to start being reviewed February 8.

Just a guess on some of these positions, but here goes: QB-Danny Freund* RB-Ryan Chappell* FB-Marcus Tibesar WR-Brady Trenbeath* WR-Alex Nicholas TE-Blair Grover LT-Kyle Bondy LG-Brian Troen* C-Mitch Braegelmann* RG-Erik Moe RT-Keith Queoff DE-Jeff Richter NG-Nate Wayne DE-Nick Farstveet OLB-Bobby Stroup* ILB-Brett Holinka* ILB-Ryan Kasowski OLB-Jeff Tescher CB-Drake Otto FS-Rory Manke* SS-Derek Malner CB-Delano Saporu K-Brandon Hellevang* P-Derek VanZee *-denotes returning all-conference or honorable mention all-conference players

Interesting column in the Mankato paper bemoaning the fact that Mussman isn't going to be the next MSU-Mankato coach.

Oops...sorry. Anyway, I guess the point is still the same. SCSU has essentially the same team as last year. We should be better. Not sure what happened last night.