UND92,96

Lest anybody thinks there's ANY chance Rich isn't leaving, his house just went up for sale today. I certainly hope Buning has been on the horn the past few days calling prospective candidates. Northern Iowa may have to wait until the formal hiring process has been completed to announce Glas's hiring, but UND certainly doesn't have to wait any longer to start its search.

I'm assuming the key distinction is that if a kid is essentially cut, which is what apparently happened here, it wouldn't be fair to force him/her to sit out a season. If a kid simply decides to transfer because he/she isn't satisfied with playing time, etc., then the rule requiring the sitting out of one season applies. But I haven't researched it, so I can't say for certain whether Hallstrom is correct or not. EDIT: Maybe it's semantics, but I probably should have said that her scholarship wasn't renewed, as opposed to being released from her scholarship.

Normally, yes, but because she was released from her scholarship, she wouldn't have to sit out a year, according to Steve Hallstrom. link.

Since she's apparently going to be visiting UND, I assume Roebuck must be interested, and could free up the necessary scholarship money. I guess I'd question how much we "need" another player at the 3/4 positions, but who knows? If she wants to win a lot of games, she'll come to UND. If she is mostly concerned about playing division I for her entire career, she'll go to NDSU.

From today's Herald: I'm sure the holdup is that since Northern Iowa isn't hiring from within, they need to go through the formal process, which will probably take a few weeks. I doubt very much that Rich is actually considering staying at UND. However, that period of time is going to make it very tough for UND to recruit. I can live with that, so long as Buning actually looks to hire a permanent replacement as opposed to naming Herbst interim coach. I think fans will be understanding if next season is a struggle, given the timing of the coaching change, but I believe that understanding will only extend to a completely new regime.

St. Cloud State has fired their coach (or technically, "didn't renew his contract"): link.

With the implosion that seems to be going on at Minnesota (multiple players transferring), I wonder what the odds are that a player like Broback could end up in the NCC for her senior year? She's officially left the program as of yesterday. I wonder how happy Roysland is? Granted, she only has one year left, but it sure doesn't look like the Gophers will be very good next year, and there seem to be some problems there.

I know it would be a longshot since he's from Winona and is coming off a national championship season, but I hope Buning contacts Mike Leaf. I can't imagine he makes much money at Winona State, and with the probable division I move coming, maybe he'd be interested?

She averaged 15 ppg, and made a ton of 3's. She was named all-state, but since Iowa has separate all-state teams for all the different classes, I'm not sure how prestigious that really is. In any event, I expect she'll provide some good outside shooting.

We should know whether Huse gets the Montana State job within the next few days. link.

I thought about that, also. Would NDSU give strong consideration to Koering? I assume he played a big role in recruiting most of the current players. Or perhaps he would follow Miles to Wilmington?

My big concern is that due to the fact that the start of the late signing period is so close, Buning will name Herbst interim coach or, worse yet, name him as Glas's successor! If that happens, there will be a lot of ticked off fans. I'm hoping for Craig Smith. If not Smith, I'm hoping for anybody besides Herbst.

I assume Jake is at the final four right now. Is Glas there? I have to think there may be something to this rumor. Jake has never been a head coach before. He's talked often in the media about how much he respects Rich and how much he learned from him. Wouldn't it stand to reason that Jake may want a veteran coach (particularly one he knows very well) on his staff? Obviously Rich knows that the majority of fans would like for UND to go in a different direction, so what would keep him here, particularly now that Jeff's football career is over?

Has anybody heard anything further about this rumor?

Here's a Tom Dennis column on current and future Red River flooding. It's quite disconcerting that the river will get to the 46-48 foot range despite a winter in which we didn't have a tremendous amount of snow.

Mesa State confirmed: link.

Forum Communications is apparently quite interested in buying the Herald. link.

Per the WDAZ sports last night, Lennon has named Mannausau and Kelling co-defensive coordinators.

Yes, he was hired after the 88-89 season, which led directly to that outstanding recruiting class.

Of course I'd love to see a repeat of the 1989-90 season--Vonesh came back from an injury; Guldseth and Burkett transferred in; Jacobson and Robertson were recruited (along with Gardner who red-shirted); and together with holdovers Boschee and Ayinla, a team which was terrible the season before became great. However, I can't help but notice that the two teams that played in the region title game a few weeks ago--Winona State and Northern State--were comprised almost entirely of high school recruits. I guess my point/question is: how realistic is it that a large group of newcomers, no matter how talented they may be, will be molded into a good team? It rarely seems to work (see recent Bemidji State teams as Exhibit A), but anything is possible I suppose. I fully realize that the staff no longer has the time to recruit and develop high school talent. They need to win big next year, and bringing in a bunch of transfers is probably the only way that can happen in such a short period of time. I'm just skeptical because there have been so many talented transfers in recent years (Lolar, Austin, Allen, Swan, Phillips, etc.) who haven't panned out.

I had heard Mertens was going the juco route also, but it's hard to explain why this would have been in the Herald a couple of weeks ago if he was so sure he was going to a juco:

Are all three offers to jucos/dI transfers?

With the apparent departures of Blackwell, Probst and Wills, I would think that signing Travis Mertens would be a good idea. Additionally, I suspect the signing of a juco guard is a must. Besides Doyle, and perhaps incoming freshman Rayfield, the pickings look pretty slim since it appears unlikely Bledsoe will play any time soon, if at all.

I'm just going by the fact that traditionally, that league isn't very good (Bentley is generally the class of the conference and they've never won a title or really come all that close), and AIC only got THIRD in the conference! AIC wasn't even ranked in the last poll, and probably rightfully so given their record and the conference they play in. There's no question in my mind that they were nowhere near as good as SCSU (who wasn't as good as UND), but sometimes strange things happen in sports, and this was one of those times.