UND92,96

I believe it closed somewhere around 1994. I know it was still open during the 1993-94 school year, but I don't believe it was open the following school year.

Per today's Herald, Jones is retaining Chris Johnson as one of his assistant coaches.

Herald article on the Jones hire. He stated one or two players could be added--I suspect possible transfers from one of the Iowa dI schools--and that Toronto could be a future recruiting territory for UND. Not a bad idea, IMO.

I'm willing to give Jones a chance. My big concern was the apparent demotion, but supposedly there is more to that story which mitigates things somewhat. If Mac and Jake vouch for him, then that's enough for me to give him a fair shot to prove himself. I'm not a big Alford fan as a coach, although I liked him a lot as a player, so the fact that Jones was an assistant (apparently a ways down the totem pole) on Alford's staff is not, in and of itself, all that impressive to me, but Jones is the new coach and deserves the support of the fans. It will be interesting to watch what happens with the Bemidji State opening. I have a feeling one of the coaches not selected for an interview at UND could get that job (Smith? Olson? Irwin?), which will make our games with them the next few years quite intriguing.

I wanted Smith, but would have been satisfied with anybody who has been a successful head coach at any level of college basketball, or a highly-regarded assistant from a good dI or dII program. For that reason, I am not opposed to Brown, but would have big problems with a Weemer or Jones hire. Most of the people I've spoken with feel the same.

I don't think any fans will direct their displeasure at the new coach. I can't say the same for Mr. Buning, however. If you hire a popular choice and it doesn't work out, then the a.d. shouldn't be and probably wouldn't be blamed. If you go against the wishes of most fans and alums in your hire and it doesn't work out, you've got big problems.

An Army man not taking a call from Robert Montgomery Knight, who got his coaching start at none other than West Point? But hey, who cares what the General has to say when you have Betty Ralston around to give advice? I don't think Knight has his Masters, either, so that could have played a role in not taking his call.

Unless somebody else gets selected for an interview, it appears a trend in hiring head coaches for major sports at UND will be broken. I believe you have to go back at least 36 years (Dave Gunther?) since a head coach with no real connection to the immediate area was hired in football, basketball or hockey. One could argue that there were a couple in women's basketball prior to Roebuck, but that wasn't a major sport here until he built it into one.

This quote was briefly discussed earlier today, but I'm surprised it hasn't drawn more discussion: Unbelievable.

Conducting a national search--good; Offering job and then retracting said offer to Herbst--bad; Strictly interpreting one of the "preferred" criteria so as to all but eliminate any candidate with strong local ties--bad; Choosing to interview a candidate who was apparently unable to find a collegiate coaching job last year, and who has a history of being a part of losing programs--bad; Choosing to interview a candidate who was recently demoted--bad. My expectations were to hire somebody who has either proven to be a successful college head coach (at any level), OR somebody who was an assistant at a highly successful program (preferably dI but can accept Brown because of Winona's recent success).

That's been attempted. Hence, the statement in today's Herald article by Wayne Nelson about the controversy of the process. I'm sure you read Buning's response.

Weemer's credentials consist of seven years as an assistant at Eastern Illinois, during which time they had a losing record for five of those seasons. Last year he was the head coach of a 13-15 high school team. I find it outrageous that somebody with those credentials could possibly be our next head coach.

If Buning meant exactly what he said, that's an insult to the vast majority of fans and alums who clearly disapprove of the candidates who were selected for an interview. What an embarrassment this process has been. I do want to give credit to Wayne Nelson for continually bringing up the support Craig Smith has in his articles. link. By essentially labeling Smith's backers as "not looking at the best interests of the university, the players and the future players we want here," Buning is coming across as either very arrogant, or very ignorant (or both).

With nearly 300 votes so far, 65% have chosen "someone else."

I agree 100%. If I were Buning, I'd politely tell Betty Ralston that her services are no longer required on this committee, and replace her with Steve Brekke and Dale Lennon. I trust those guys to not steer us wrong.

Here's a new poll at the Herald web page. Probably not surprisingly, "someone else" is the current leader by far.

This was in the Forum today, and although it doesn't tell the whole story, it at least gives some indication of what happened:

Herbst pulls himself out of the running. link. Hopefully, this could open the door for Smith or one of the other local candidates to get an interview.

Nothing, really. But if I feel like the a.d. has made a grievous error, and I know Kupchella isn't overly concerned about athletics, who am I supposed to contact? Harmeson played a major role in hiring Buning, and acted as the interim a.d. It seems to me that it makes a certain abount of sense that he be the one to field the complaints. And I'm quite sure I'm not the only one who is concerned enough to have contacted him and/or Kupchella regarding this matter.

As expected, my e-mail to Mr. Harmeson was probably a complete waste of time. His response: He forwarded my e-mail to Kupchella, who likely won't ever read it, and to Buning and Ralston, who likely won't appreciate what I had to say about the performance of the search committee. Oh well.

In case anybody is curious as to how Weemer's high school team did this past year, their record was 13-15. I have to think that even the Herald was shocked when he was named a "finalist", as they had pretty thoroughly reported any application they considered notable. They never included Weemer's name in any of the practically daily reports of new applications.

You just knew this was coming. [url="http://www.in-forum.com/articles/index.cfm?id=126814

I have written an e-mail to Harmeson about my concerns about the hiring process and the list of interviewees/finalists. I doubt it will do anything, but I think it's important that he know how many people are upset about how things have been handled up until now. Even if we are remaining in division II, I think we could have done much better, and the omission of Smith is appalling considering the current state of the careers of Weemer (couldn't find a college job last year), Jones (recently demoted) and Herbst (mediocre recruiting and associate head coach of a struggling program).

Just for the record, Johnson, Jaskulski, Gillespie and Fuller all have Masters, in addition to having more than five years NCAA experience. I noticed there is no mention of Herbst having a Masters in his bio on the official UND athletic web page. Whether he actually has one, I don't know.

I believe what happened is that longtime Eastern Illinois coach Rick Samuels was fired after the 2004-05 season, meaning all of his assistants were also let go. Weemer was unable to find another college job, so he took what he could get--a high school job. Eastern had one pretty good season while Weemer was there (21-10 and an NCAA appearance). Other than that, the records ranged from 6-21 to 17-12. I believe his inclusion as a finalist is difficult to justify, to say the least. But for Ralston, I'd say the odds of Weemer getting an interview would have been somewhere between slim and none.