UND92,96

Mid-Con has announced the addition of IPFW. link. Supposedly they'll decide the fate of the SU's within a couple of days. It seems a little odd that they wouldn't have announced their decision one way or the other with regard to the SU's the same day as the IPFW announcement.

It's hard to compare the programs due to the doubleheaders or lack thereof, the differing schedules, and the vastly different seating capacities of the Betty vs. the BSA. However, IMO UND holds the advantage in women's basketball at present, while NDSU holds the advantage on the men's side. I believe historically it's probably the opposite, however.

According the WDAZ sports last night, it sounds like the offensive line is having some injury problems. Again. No names were mentioned, but Kusler has apparently moved back to guard, so I assume either Murray or Troen, or both, is injured.

Thanks, Jim. I'm now pretty excited about Youmans' potential. I would, however, be interested to know why he didn't end up at Mercer?

Actually, they didn't beat Omaha--they lost 28-21, and UNO was without Day and Denney in that game. They did beat a pretty good Washburn team in Ellensburg (44-41, I think), but that was their lone win which I would consider to be high quality. Their other wins were over Montana-Western, and two each over Western Washington (who we all saw was terrible last year), Western Oregon and Humboldt State. CWU's defense isn't very good, and they have no running game, but they will throw the ball well. However, as UND showed in the two games vs. UMD last year, that's not necessarily a recipe for success against the Sioux. I predict Reilly will throw for a lot of yards with short passes, but it won't result in more than 20 points. Barring a bunch of turnovers, I have confidence that the Manke-led offense, with some help from a defensive/special teams score, will score more than that.

It wasn't in the online edition of the Herald so I can't provide a link, but per today's Herald UND adds two juco players--5'11" guard Ervin Youmans from Eastern Arizona College, and 6'6" forward Emmanuel Little from Kaskaskia (Illinois) Community College. Youmans averaged 18.3 ppg last year, and was named all-region. Little averaged 19 points and 8 boards per game last year. Both appear to be fairly well-travelled, and any time you get players this late you have to wonder exactly why they're still available, but they do appear to be talented.

Here is the week one release. A few changes on the depth chart include Strouth moving into the starting tailback spot, Trenbeath being a starting receiver, Murray starting at guard, and ZBJ at weakside OLB. I can't wait to see the Dressler-Chappell combo returning kicks!

I haven't noticed much discussion of ANY basketball on either the basketball forum on d2football.com, or on d2basketball.com. Furthermore, aside from perhaps USD and UNO, do any NCC/NSIC teams even have fan sites? The point being, if you're basing your opinion on lack of message board discussion--and apparently you are--couldn't you make the exact same accusations of any NCC/NSIC program? Trust me, there is interest in UND men's basketball. Certainly not as much interest as there was in the early 90's, but long stretches of mediocrity have a tendency to cause interest to diminish. I'd be somewhat concerned if there was a lot of discussion right now, because that would likely signify that there wasn't much interest in the football team. The talent level appears to be better than it was last year, assuming players such as Koenig, Bledsoe and Harkins can get and stay healthy. Kruse, Dryburgh and hopefully Boyce should be nice additions. If the team can quickly adjust to the new offensive and defensive philosophies, they could surprise a lot of people around the league.

I had a vague recollection of that thread, but I thought this was noteworthy because this is the first time I've "officially" seen the capacity listed in the 12,000's. The capacity is still listed at 13,500 on the Alerus site. link.

Speaking of crowd size, I was just reading the new football media guide, and the Alerus is listed as having a seating capacity of 12,283. link. At what point was the capacity reduced from the 13,500 it used to be listed as?

It looks like backup corner Anthony Longe may be through. link.

Does anybody know whether pre-fall camp has resulted in any changes in the depth chart? Specifically, I'm wondering if Murray has moved into the starting lineup on the offensive line. I know that historically there has been a reluctance to put transfers ahead of players who have been in the program for awhile, e.g. Travis Lueck never technically having been a starter, but it seems like it would be tough to keep a guy with Murray's experience and all-conference accolades out of the lineup, especially since there's no returning starter at that position.

Somewhere around 10,000.

Absolutely, I have nothing but respect for a guy who sticks around and keeps working hard even after the starting job is no longer his. By the same token, I really respect that Manke didn't transfer a couple of years ago when it looked like he may never get to play here. UND should have the best quarterback situation in the conference in that there are two experienced, capable quarterbacks ready to play. Other teams may have as good or better of a number one guy, but have absolutely no experience should the starter go down.

Here's a Herald article on the quarterback competition between Manke and Belmore. I really hope Manke is the choice.

Both the NCC coaches and the media have picked UND to win the NCC. link

I agree. And as much as I appreciate having the Wednesday night coaches' shows, they are filled with too much inane chitchat and too little actual discussion of the sports, especially during the football and basketball segments. It's frustrating to listen to much of the time. As for Richie, we all can agree that he was and is a good guy, but the ONLY possible way he should still be at UND would have been in some sort of administrative capacity, which he apparently wasn't interested in. For Swyg and/or Tim to suggest that the fans' dissatisfaction with the men's basketball program was unwarranted, or that Rich SHOULD still be UND's coach, is beyond ludicrous.

The new roster has been posted. ZBJ is apparently back.

I'd love to talk about men's basketball every day, but if there's no news, what is there to talk about? There was all kinds of talk during the coaching search, but now that Jones is in place, how many times can we talk about the health of Koenig, Bledsoe and Harkins? How many times can we talk about how disappointing the past decade has been? The posts regarding women's hockey, for example, have to do with one topic. It's the same topic that dominated the men's basketball discussion until a few months ago. In addition to the obvious of the fact that women's program has been much better and more fun to watch for years, the other difference is that many of the prospects are local and regional players who some of us are familiar with, and as such, it's much easier to speculate on recruiting. On the men's side, as far as I know, there simply aren't many kids in our region who are legit prospects. I have no reason to know anything about a kid from Wisconsin or southern Minnesota or Iowa unless his name has been leaked on this board.

With a new coach, I suspect inside information may be more difficult to come by for awhile than it was during the Glas regime. I haven't heard anything regarding offers to high school players, although presumably there have been some. On the women's side, there are just two seniors this season--Jahner and Maffin. There are already two verbal commitments--Kirstie Gillet from Dakota Prairie, and Andrea LaFrance from Bismarck Century. I would strongly suspect that Jessica Kielpinski from Mandan has been offered, but there's not much of a history of Mandan players coming to UND for women's basketball so she may be a longshot. There are at least two outstanding local juniors in Kamille Wahlin from Crookston and Ashley Privatsky from Devils Lake who would be huge gets for UND. UND seems to have a ton of intangibles going for it with regard to Wahlin--three of her siblings will be at UND this year; her high school coach (Eric Schmidt) is now at UND; and it would allow her to play very close to home. With regard to Privatsky, UND has done exceptionally well with Devils Lake players (both DL High and Lake Region) during the Roebuck era.

Herald article on the start of practice: link.

8-2, with losses at Northern Iowa and Omaha. I don't necessarily think Omaha is going to be all that great, but we have a gigantic mental block when it comes to playing them.

It seems unlikely we'll be able to find anybody good, who doesn't have baggage, this late in the summer. However, a Koenig-Dryburgh combination inside is still a major improvement over last season, especially in terms of physical presence. Hopefully Gutter and/or Seckar-Anderson can provide some decent minutes off the bench.

I'm excited about the potential of the running game this year. Up front, the line has a lot of talent, with the addition of Murray, the return of Braegelmann, and another year of development by Troen, who was honorable mention all conference as a freshman. Hopefully Kusler can move back to tight end, which would also potentially really help the running game. Strouth should be back to close to 100% (hopefully), and Beatty and Brady should both be very solid. Throw in the constant threat of Dressler on reverses and end-arounds, and that should give defenses a lot to worry about. Manke also provides the threat of the option. While it's true that the receiving corps isn't really proven other than Dressler, I'm not worried about that as there shouldn't be any shortage of guys who can catch the ball, including younger players such as Caufield, Trenbeath, Wahlin and Rambeck.

The hiring of Schmidt is now official.