UND92,96

If what siouxrunner has posted is true, and I have no reason to dispute it, I would hope Mr. Buning would not tolerate any program being run in this manner. It's incredible that a college coach could survive at a school for more than 20 years while doing minimal recruiting. Where is the accountability? How has Grandall basically flown under the radar during the tenure of four or five different a.d.'s?

Kraft is going to Mary. He was a very productive high school back, but I don't believe he has much speed. In terms of size, he's somwhat similar to Adam Roland, but I think he's quite a bit slower than Roland was in high school. I'm not sure where or even if Englehardt is playing college ball.

I understand that Roebuck is recruiting point guard Jossy Bergan from Valley City. Here is some information about her from a recent AAU tournament: link. With Amy Mahlum being done after this season, I think it's safe to say another point guard will be brought in for the '06-'07 season, and Bergan is apparently the number one target. With most positions well-stocked for the next 3-4 years, signing a quality point guard who can distribute the ball to all the scorers the Sioux will have will be crucial.

Here is the women's schedule. The home non-conference schedule isn't the greatest, although it will be good to have a rematch with Concordia-St. Paul. The Disney tournament will be interesting, as UND will open with Elite 8 team Merrimack, and potentially play Southern Indiana in the semi's.

I would think that the odds are that this is a home-and-home. Metro only averages about 725 fans per game, and are not known as an athletic department with deep pockets, so I doubt they could afford to be paying guarantees very often.

The reason I'd be surprised if he has any problems being admitted is that I know UND's goal is to promote and improve the cultural diversity on campus. Even putting aside the fact that Bledsoe is an athlete, he's apparently an honor roll student, and he's a minority. I would have to think the admission standards are not rigid in situations involving otherwise qualified minority students who perhaps don't have the minimum ACT score that the new standards call for.

I would certainly hope Bledsoe would be admitted. This blurb from a state tournament preview would suggest that he's a decent student:

Here it is: link

Chris Kuper has been getting some recognition as a potential draft pick next spring: link.

Here was the North Dakota roster: It appears Schaley from Larimore was the only UND recruit from North Dakota who wasn't on the team.

I am curious as to why it's been several years since the men's track and field program has announced any signees. Obviously there are newcomers every year, but either they're not signing letters of intent, or else that information isn't released by the athletic department for whatever reason. It seems that for the most part, the better men's track and field athletes at UND have either been from this immediate area (Brad Lies, Jeremy Zimney, Aaron Berndt, Marc Sondreal, Mike Backes, Matt Gerszewski, Matt Litzinger, etc.), or else they came to UND primarily for football (Jason Cook, Drew Thomas, Donovan Alexander, Erik Moe and starting next year, Ryan Chappell). I know there are one or two current or ex-UND track athletes who post on this site. My question is, does Grandall do much recruiting? Does the lack of facilities make recruiting nearly impossible? I realize scholarship dollars are probably quite limited, and we all know that the facilities are sub-par, but I can't help but wonder if perhaps it's time for Grandall to hand over the program to someone who's a little hungrier.

Here's a little more information on Hellevang.

This was a nice accomplishment by the North Dakotans, especially considering how Montana has dominated this series. Several UND recruits apparently played very well, including Tim Oksendahl, Jeff Tescher, Ryan Chappell, Nick Farstveet and Brandon Hellevang, among others. Hellevang set a Badlands Bowl record for longest field goal by making a 45-yarder. Here is an article on the game from the Bismarck Tribune.

I might actually have some sympathy for Manitoba if this were primarily a matter of passing on a flood from one area to another. But based upon what I've read, the volume of water really isn't their beef. Rather, it's some hypothetical threat based upon foreign biota and how that would supposedly affect Lake Winnipeg. Never mind that there seems to be little, if any scientific evidence to back this theory up. If this were, in fact, an issue with the volume of water being transferred from Devils Lake into the Sheyenne, it would seem that we in Grand Forks should be more up in arms than anybody considering what happened in 1997. And yet, there seems to be practically no vocal opposition whatsoever from this part of the state. What little empathy I had for Manitoba's position evaporated once star2city posted the link regarding raw sewage being dumped into the Red in Manitoba. Talk about having mixed-up priorities. Thank God the Red flows north or we would have a heck of a lot more of a legitimate concern compared to what Manitoba currently has.

According to a poster on the minnesotapreps.com message board, Bledsoe will be attending UND. Of course, I can't vouch for this, but hopefully it's true.

star2city: What is the maximum number of schools you would foresee being in the Big Sky at any given time? Would USD be a candidate for a dI move and potential Big Sky membership? I suspect there would be a lot of pressure for them to move if they were the last of the big four Dakota schools to remain in the NCC and dII. For that matter, would UNO ever consider seeking to remain with its traditional NCC rivals in a Big Sky eastern division instead of remaining dII and going to the MIAA, or going dI and trying to get into the Missouri Valley/Gateway conferences?

I had heard through the grapevine that a dI transfer running back was coming, but I didn't know his identity until the Herald article. Had UND signed Brady out of high school in the spring of 2004, it would have been a huge coup as he was definitely one of the top backs in Minnesota. The Sioux may finally have the combination of size and speed that has been lacking at the running back position for quite some time. From what I've heard, Mussman is very excited about this kid's potential.

This column from the Yankton paper says that Winona St., Concordia-St. Paul and St. Thomas have been contacted regarding possible NCC membership, and "haven't said no."

Should they expect it? Probably not since it's not newsworthy 99.99% of the time. The point remains, however, that it can be done, and if one is a high enough profile person, perhaps it would be. Probably not, unless Joseph Chapman or somebody else who would make it newsworthy applied. I'm not condoning this type of thing, but I'll reiterate my point that since Kupchella has been burned before, he should have been more careful with exactly what he wrote. He wasn't. We'll have to see what, if any consequences there will be.

I agree that he should have known the letter might become public. And let's not forget his letter to UND football alums that was obtained by the Forum via open records laws. Kupchella clearly never expected that to be publicized, either. I don't begrudge him for applying for other jobs, but in the process he really shouldn't put anything in writing that he wouldn't be comfortable with if it were printed in the Herald, Forum, etc.

Sure there would be a lot of fans and alums who would be uncomfortable being in the same division as the soon-to-be-former DAC-10. But it's not like those schools are going to be in the NCC. Every division has its members who don't belong, division I included. I think it would be a mistake to focus in on schools joining or potentially joining dII and who really aren't our peers anyway, instead of focusing on how great it is playing the schools that ARE our peers, like UNO, St. Cloud St., USD, Grand Valley St., Pitt St., etc. I don't think anybody would be disappointed with Winona St. joining the NCC, if it ever happens. Concordia-St. Paul has potential. Northern St. has potential. And even if we can't find any other all-sports members, I'd still rather be in a strong seven-team league in dII than go dI and have no conference at all.

I'm afraid you've lost me, Sic. I don't know what Morningside supporters think. I don't know what Augie supporters think (except for the two who have posted on the d2football.com board who apparently want to stay in the NCC), although I have a hard time believing a majority would support a move away from a conference in which they've been a member for over 60 years if the primary reason is the ability to win a few more football games per year (again, I can only speculate as to what role football would play in such a move). I freely admit that I don't want them to leave the NCC for purely selfish reasons. I want UND to remain in dII and the NCC, and I'm not sure that will be possible if more members are lost considering how difficult it's turning out to be to find new ones.

From a competitive standpoint, they've actually done quite well since leaving for NAIA link. To this day, I still don't entirely understand their motives for leaving aside from the fact that they were very poor in football. They were very good in men's basketball, and apparently their women's basketball program is far better now than it used to be. If you could simply eliminate football from the equation, I'd love to see them back in the NCC, although admittedly that's highly unlikely to ever happen.