UND92,96

I'm with this guy (Brian MacPherson of the St. Cloud Times) when it comes to the name change from I-AA: If you're going to change a name that has been in use for a long time, you'd better be prepared for a lot of people to ignore the new name for a long time.

I realize there was a Herald article on Saturday, but the fact that none of the sportswriters has done a blog entry on the Lennon issue is perplexing to me. You know for a fact that Kolpack/Hallstrom would have written several entries by now if Bohl were a finalist elsewhere.

I realize being in charge of an athletic department isn't a popularity contest, but to have this many coaches--including the three highest-profile ones--being seriously unhappy tells me there's a problem. A big problem. And as we know, some of those coaches have friends who have a bit of influence...

The thing that I personally don't like about Ralston's position is that she's married to somebody who holds a pretty high position at UND--Don Kojich, whose title is Executive Assoc. V.P. for University Relations. Maybe this doesn't give her more power than her job warrants, but on the other hand, it could. From the outside looking in, she certainly appears to wield a heck of a lot more power than her predecessor did. Let's be honest here, the fact that a seemingly unqualified candidate made the list of finalists for the men's basketball job due to Ralston having once worked with him at Eastern Illinois certainly didn't make her (or by extension the LTC) look very good.

I think it would go 1. Tibesar; 2. Bubba; 3. Mussman or Hedberg. The "x" factor in my mind is this--if the perception is out there there Lennon left primarily due to not wanting to work for Buning anymore, how likely is it that any of his friends and/or current or former colleagues would really want to try work for somebody if Lennon couldn't? And regardless of what Lennon says publicly, I firmly believe that if Wanless or RT or Rob Bollinger or any number of other people were a.d. right now, he would have said "thanks, but no thanks" when Montana State called.

Lennon is a finalist for the Montana State job. [url="http://www.grandforksherald.com/articles/index.cfm?id=39681

I believe he took a job with Bankforward, a new bank in Grand Forks.

Has Jeff Bowen's old job with the alumni association been filled yet? If not, that would be a possibility.

Idalski names his first assistant.

I was in Tavern United last Friday, and I was pretty impressed with it. The beer was surprisingly cheap ($1.50 for a bottle). From what I saw of the hotel--which was really just the lobby/restaurant/water park area--it looks very nice. Despite not having done any sort of marketing yet, I was told the hotel was about 80% full for this past weekend.

If I'm not mistaken, he's a former UND basketball letterwinner, as is his brother Pete.

Herald [url="http://www.grandforksherald.com/articles/index.cfm?id=38599

I have to think that quite a lot will be expected from Derek Benter next year. He was listed as 6'8", 225 this past year as a red-shirt, so hopefully he'll be up to 235 or more by October. He was a good tight end/wide receiver in high school, so I assume he has above-average athletic ability for a big kid. He also apparently has some shooting range, so hopefully he can create a matchup problem for many teams. I'm still concerned about how the Sioux will be able to defend bigger teams like USD, but I also foresee the Sioux being very difficult to guard.

I believe only one thrower in North Dakota history (Howard Hausauer) has thrown farther than Quesenberry's best of 62'3". Jim Kleinsasser's class B record is 62'2".

link

Lots of information in this Herald [url="http://www.grandforksherald.com/articles/index.cfm?id=38198

I don't foresee him playing football again, but congrats to him for winning the NCC title in the discus this past weekend!

Yes, it's the same guy. My guess is that Ms. Stone's assets were primarily in a trust, with the UND Foundation acting as trustee.

He wasn't in uniform for the spring game, but I believe he's expected to be ready to go this fall.

That playoff game attendance vs. Winona State is a non-issue. Early round playoff games rarely draw well, particularly when you factor in that it was against a team that you had beaten badly earlier in the season. The playoffs sometimes are a different animal when it comes to attendance, due to short times in which to sell tickets, holidays, unattractive matchups, weather (for travel), etc. Look at Grand Valley State as an example. They averaged 11,800 during the regular season, but only 4500 for three playoff games. I don't necessarily think the Alerus needs to expand its seating, but it has nothing to do with past playoff attendance.

Apparently Johnston isn't leaving after all. link. I still think he's a good coach, but I really hate it when coaches do this, i.e. announce they're taking a job only to reconsider after a day or two.

I have to give Johnston a lot of credit for what he accomplished at SDSU. He really brought that program to another level from where it was under Nancy Neiber (sp?).

I think Freund will be fine. Over the years, it seems like quarterbacks who had to wait several years to get their shot (e.g. Wahl, Greenwaldt, Stein and Manke) generally did well, and I didn't see anything in the spring game to suggest Freund won't be successful, as well. I have no idea what kind of cover skills Weigelt has, but he seems to be a very sure tackler. Holinka and Malner both played quite a bit last year, so I'm not worried about either of them. At this point, my biggest concern may be backup quarterback. It's been awhile since we've gone through an entire season with the same quarterback starting all the games, and whether anybody besides Freund is really game-ready is a question.