UND92,96

This was in a Herald article a couple of days ago: It doesn't confirm the Mesa game, but since it says there are 10 games so far, odds are that the Mesa game is probably happening and it's just the August 26th date they're still trying to fill.

Getting talent and developing/utilizing it are two very different things. UND has had at least a couple of very talented teams in the post-Mac era, but not much to show for it. 20-22 wins and a 3rd or 4th place finish in the NCC seems to be about the ceiling for a Rich Glas team without Greg McDermott on the staff.

Here's a Herald article on the start of spring ball.

I wouldn't be all that surprised if Grand Valley is on the schedule next year. UND played them in the 2003-04 and 2005-05 seasons (both were Sioux wins).

Upon further review, Henderson is a Creighton transfer. He was Winona's 5th leading scorer on the season. In any event, the point still stands that it shows that relying on juco and dI transfers is not the only way to put together a nationally competitive dII team. I know UND recruited Jonte Flowers for football, but did we recruit him for basketball, as well? He is a good player.

I don't know about anyone else, but based on what I saw in the national championship game, I don't think either of those teams could have stayed with UND had the Sioux played an average game.

Congrats to Winona State for winning the dII title today. It should provide a certain amount of hope for a lot of teams in the NCC and NSIC as Winona won without an especially athletic backcourt or a great deal of size. They were well-coached, they could shoot the ball, and they played solid defense. I don't believe any of their main contributors were juco or dI transfers, either. Nice job, Warriors.

I suspect that the vast majority of the fans who want a coaching change wouldn't be happy if Herbst replaced Glas. I don't see what Herbst has done at UND to possibly be considered a candidate for the head coaching job. And if he has, indeed, turned down dI jobs to stay here, what was he thinking? Would Ben Jacobson be where he is today had he stuck with Richie? People can say what they want about Jake's loyalty, but in retrospect, he was extremely smart to dump Richie in favor of Mac. I can think of about 150,000-plus reasons why it was a good idea.

Antes' opposition to the Fighting Sioux name has always surprised me to an extent because unlike 99.99% of the other vocal nickname opponents, he actually is a sports fan and regularly attends UND games. I even recall seeing him at the women's elite 8 basketball tournament in Pine Bluff in 1998.

When you look at the original bracket, it's unfathomable that American International, the third-place team from an average league (NE-10), has managed to reach the title game. I'm sure nearly everyone assumed it would be the North Central vs. the South Central region champions (and likely UND vs. Washburn) in the semi's. This is roughly akin to the third-place team from the NCC in men's bball making it to the title game.

I doubt Kolpack did a lot of research on this. I don't believe Rob's departure had anything to do with whether UND is or is not going dI. IF UND doesn't go dI within a few years, then yes, Lennon would quite possibly look at other opportunities. But the signs all still seem to be pointing towards a dI move.

I heard SCSU had a lot of problems with Augie's zone in the NCC tournament, as well. UND probably wouldn't need to use zone all that often, but it sure would be nice to have that option when the situation calls for it.

Even with Minnesota's perennially awful defense, I don't foresee them ever losing to NDSU once, let alone consistently.

Is Braegelmann taking part in spring ball?

Maybe, but it appears that this season, the last thing any team should want to be is the favorite. I expected Emporia State would be a big factor, but they promptly lost yesterday. Grand Valley looks to be the biggest threat to St. Cloud State. I think the Huskies would have to really lay an egg to lose to American International in the semi's.

Here's a Reusse column on Minnesota a.d. Joel Maturi's curious decision to retain Dan Monson despite heavy pressure from fans and alums to fire him after several sub-par seasons in a row. link. While the circumstances aren't identical to the UND situation, there are a number of parallels.

It looks like Monson is out at Minnesota. link. I suspect Mac would have been a strong candidate there, as well. EDIT: Or maybe Monson's NOT out? link

SW MN State fired very successful women's coach Kelly Krueger after last season (I never did hear why), and now after one year, fired his replacement Mike Power link, apparently in large part because he had asked several scholarship players not to return next year. I can't recall a school firing its coach, and then firing the replacement one year later.

UND recruit Rion Rayfield led his team to the Wisconsin division 4 state title: link. Rayfield was also named third team all state (all classes combined) by the AP. Under the right coaching, he and Bledsoe could be an outstanding backcourt combination in a few years.

It's certainly no surprise, but both Alys Seay and Jossy Bergan were named first team class A all state: link.

I have no doubts that REA management hasn't been very helpful, particularly under Berning's regime, but from the outside looking in, UND's athletic budget seems to be growing exponentially the past few years. I have to think RT had at least some responsibility there. I question how often he ever said "no" to a request for more money from the various programs? For example, I posted a few months ago a comparison of all the men's basketball budgets in the NCC and NSIC, and UND was by far the highest-spending. Assuming those numbers were even remotely accurate, perhaps we shouldn't be surprised by the deficit? I don't mean to be too critical of RT because again, I have always liked him very much. The bottom line is that being a.d. is more akin to being the CEO of pretty big corporation than it is to being a coach, and being a coach doesn't necessarily qualify a person to be a good a.d. I believe as time goes on, you'll see it less and less often for somebody to go directly from being a coach to the a.d.

As much as I like Roger as a person and appreciate what he did as football coach, he was in over his head and needed to go. Per the minutes from the September IAC meeting, the 2005-06 budget was projected to result in a $680,000 deficit. That's absolutely inexcusible, and the buck had to stop with RT. I understand all the challenges the a.d. faces with REA management and having all revenue producing sports being played in non-UND-owned facilities, but the a.d. needs to have a much better handle on the budget than that. He also made some curious hires, and was evidently unwilling to ever make any tough decisions in terms of getting rid of coaches in under-performing sports.

Maybe either Mac or Ben will hire Rich Glas as one of their assistants.

This was in the minutes from a recent iac meeting:

Presumably Jahner will have to play a lot of point guard next year. Jossy Bergan will likely be the backup. I would hope that Roebuck doesn't try to convert somebody else into a point guard (e.g. Bagaason or Guinn), because that very rarely works. Jahner was a point guard in high school, so that's not a huge stretch.