UND92,96

I think the problem with UND's recruitment of juco players since the late 90's is that very few have actually turned out to be impact players (all conference types), and furthermore, the number of wins really hasn't gone up during that time. By my count, there have been approximately 13 jucos brought in since 1999--Munlin, Beasley, Lolar, Porter, Allen, Franklin, Stoute, Jenkins, Nobles, Parks, Swan, Austin (local kid but still technically a juco), Phillips and Miller. I probably missed one or two, also. In any event, just seven of them actually lasted two full years in the program, and only Jerome turned out to be an all-conference player. I'm sure several of the aforementioned players are good guys, and certainly not all of them were expected to be stars, but we're not exactly doing well in terms of signing players who stay for two years, nor are we doing well in terms of finding players whose on-court results match their expected (or at least hoped) level of play.

I would tend to agree. Not to say it's impossible that he'd go to Minnesota, but if the Gophers are really interested, it would have to be a recent thing (within the past month), since Anderson himself told the Herald about a month ago that UND and NDSU were the two schools he's considering.

I'm curious as to whether anybody thinks we should consider Craig Nelson from May-Port as another "miss" in terms of ND kids who UND probably could have had? He's only a red-shirt sophomore for Northern, and is already starting for his second year and is averaging a very respectable 9.7 points and 4 assists per game.

Regarding Bagaason, what surprises me is that she's actually been playing some at the point. I had thought her role would be as a zone-buster (we all know UND will see a lot of zone this year) as she's a very good shooter. Langen hasn't had the best of starts, but how much of that is due to other teams focusing their defense on stopping the inside game, I don't know. She's missed a lot more easy shots than she did last year, but she's still shooting a very high percentage from the free throw line so I have to think her field goal percentage will start going up soon. Ledger definitely had her best game of the year yesterday. I can see her being a Kami Winger type player for the next four years. You don't find big, physically strong girls who can jump like she can very often. At the point next year, I would look for Jossy Bergan to have a good chance of starting there. She's a true point guard--something none of the returnees next year will be.

Here's kind of an impressive stat for Kimbrough: 13.6 points per game in just 16.5 minutes per game! Starter or not, is there any doubt she'd be in the game in crunch time if UND absolutely had to have a basket?

He's 6'3" and somewhere in the 210 range. His top-end speed is very good, but I doubt his 40 time is anything spectacular judging by what I saw of him in the 100 meters last spring. He'd invariably be last or at least close to last for the first 20-30 meters, but then run down everybody by the end of the race. As far as his recruitment is concerned, let's hope Oksendahl, Trenbeath and Sundby are very persuasive.

Although the on-court success was relatively modest, I think UND was on the right track in terms of recruiting high school players in the mid-90's when Mustard, Reinke, Travis, Larson, Behrens and Tom Jacobson were all brought in. I'm not sure why we got more heavily into juco recruiting after those guys graduated. Maybe because the 1999-2000 season, which on paper should have been the best team since the Elite 8 teams of the early 90's, didn't do quite as well as hoped and it was thought that the only way to get over the hump was to roll the dice with talented--but in many cases undisciplined and/or academically challenged--juco players. In any event, I think that unless there's a Rico-type kid out there, or perhaps somebody who is playing at Wahpeton, Lake Region or Williston and knows what he's getting into with regard to the ND winters, recruiting jucos probably isn't the best idea.

I think he was from Crary.

If he's a 4.0 student, I would think UND could put together an offer that would be at least very close to a full ride between football scholarship money and academic scholarship money. Being able to offer a full football scholarship is the one area where being I-AA really gives NDSU a distinct advantage. I'm surprised SCSU would even bother recruiting in this neck of the woods as it's almost unheard of for a high-quality local kid to go anywhere but UND or NDSU unless he's going I-A.

I agree that it's extremely difficult for an NCC school to win a national title in men's basketball. That makes our failure to do it in the 1990-91 season all the more painful because we probably had the best team that year. I feel that region titles are a more realistic goal for NCC teams than are national titles, but with Metro's success with Australian and other foreign born players, even that will be difficult--at least until their coach decides to move on. I think we're better off just recruiting the best high school talent possible from ND, MN and Wisconsin, plus the occasional dI bounceback kid (Guldseth, Jacobson, Koenig, etc.), and recruit only juco kids whose character is very high, e.g. Rico Burkett.

I believe UND and SDSU both have eight.

It's not easy to stay interested, but I'm trying. I thought it might be interesting to compare Rich Glas's record during the five years with Greg McDermott, to his record since Mac left. Here are the numbers: with Mac overall record 126-37 (.773) NCC record 65-25 (.722) NCC titles 2 (both outright) NCAA appearances 5 Elite 8 appearances 2 since Mac left overall record 192-123 (.609) NCC record 98-88 (.527) NCC titles 1 (shared) NCAA appearances 3 Elite 8 appearances 0

There was a short article on UND football in the Herald today (not available online), and listed as "newcomers to watch" for next season were offensive lineman Kyle Bondy, running back Ryan Chappell, receivers Brady Trenbeath, Kenley Wahlin and Nate Rambeck, tight end Marcus Tibesar, defensive linemen Chris Nelessen and Nate Wayne, linebackers Bobby Stroup and Andy Miller, and kicker Brandon Hellevang.

Not to overlook tomorrow's game vs. UMC, but the game on Tuesday should be a big challenge. Northern State is off to a 6-0 start including a 20-point win over USD. On paper, they really don't have anywhere near the talent of the Sioux, but I'm sure they'll be confident considering last year's debacle at the Betty (UND blew a 20-point lead in the second half and lost). I have to think UND will be extremely fired up for this one, and will hopefully send a message that everybody else in the region will be playing for second place this year.

That does seem like an odd way of going about things--not red-shirting him so that he doesn't get disillusioned with the program, but then not giving him any p.t. (not that he deserves any if he can't defend). If that story is true, I don't like the odds of this kid actually lasting four years here.

I can't help but wonder what the point was to taking the red shirt off Blackwell. If he's not ready to play now, and he's only the 11th man (12th if Lindahl starts playing again), it seems that this year will be a complete waste of a season of eligibility for a guy who was supposed to be one of our best recruits.

Not that they're an either/or proposition by any means, but among prospective local recruits, I wonder which one the UND coaches consider more of a "must have"--Matt Anderson or Matt Gratzek?

I agree that if healthy, that wouldn't be a bad group--if they were actually motivated to play hard all the time. However, I'm not at all convinced we'll see Koenig this year. I have no inside information, but the fact that it said in the Herald article today that there's still no timetable for his return doesn't give me much confidence.

I think he's supposed to start practicing as early as today, according to the Herald.

I believe red-shirt players are allowed to have a little bit longer holiday break. I seem to recall past years where the red-shirts weren't on the bench for games immediately before or after Thanksgiving.

Sioux win, but have to be about the most unimpressive 4-1 team in dII. I'm not seeing a whole lot of likely wins on the schedule barring a major turnaround.

At least the Sioux are consistent--playing close games against all three DAC teams we've played so far.

UND is currently up 1 with a little over 7 minutes to go.

5 of 8 three-point shooting by Franklin Pierce kept them close for most of the first half, but ultimately UND just had much better talent and depth. Certainly not one of the best Sioux performances I've seen, but not bad.

I thought Gratzek from Stephen-Argyle looked very impressive today. The commentator for KMSP even mentioned that UND has been recruiting him (didn't mention any other schools). Hopefully he signs with the Sioux as he definitely looks like a player. Congrats to the Storm on yet another state title.