UND92,96

I had the opportunity to watch the 11-man Shrine game today, and I was extremely impressed with UND recruit Bobby Stroup from Fargo South. I think he was clearly the player of the game. He needs to put on about 20-25 pounds, but he looks like he could be another in the long line of great Sioux linebackers. He was all over the field, had a few highlight reel hits, made the play of the game when he sacked the quarterback, caused a fumble, and picked it up and took it in for a pretty long touchdown. Brandon Hellevang also looked good. He hit the crossbar on a 52-yard field goal attempt, but showed that he has great range for a young kicker. He made a 52-yarder in warmups, and his kickoffs were high and pretty deep. Ryan Chappell didn't get to touch the ball all that much, as the west wisely kicked and punted away from him every time. He did have a couple of nice runs, and had a touchdown reception that was unfortunately called back due to a hold.

I posted this in a different thread about a month ago, but here is some information about Jossy Bergan (and her AAU teammates) from an article posted in May: link. At Valley City last year, she averaged 16.1 points per game, and is a pretty good 3-point shooter.

Another article on how some UND recruits (Miller and Wayne) performed in the game.

The NCC is seeking help from the NCAA to partially defray the costs of travel which would be necessitated by the addition of the Washington schools. [url="http://www.in-forum.com/articles/index.cfm?id=98245

Whitney Ledger played very well in the Lion's all-star games this week. Last night she scored 15 points and had 13 rebounds to lead the Class A team to a win, and she also scored 15 points and had 10 boards in the Tuesday game. Here's the [url="http://www.in-forum.com/articles/index.cfm?id=98261

According to a report on the KVLY sports tonight, Central Washington and Western Washington will be added to the NCC as football-only members, starting play possibly as early as 2006.

There was a Fargo Forum [url="http://www.in-forum.com/articles/index.cfm?id=97890

UND recruit Tyson Heiser had two int's in the Wisconsin Shrine game yesterday. link

I mentioned Mooney's play above. He's living in the twin cities and has been back a few times. I talked to him briefly at a game at the Alerus last year.

From Frank Fee's weekly column:

It looks like four UND recruits will be playing in this game--Nolte, Andy Miller, Nate Wayne and Tyson Heiser.

"The play" against Grand Valley State in 2001, Mooney's stripping the ball and taking it in for a td against NDSU in 1993 and Riendeau's hit on UNC receiver Grable in 1999. Also, Glas's 52-yard field goal with 3 seconds left against SCSU in 2003 to complete a huge comeback was one of the most clutch plays I can recall.

With Bledsoe now in the fold, that means that UND got the two highest-ranking Minnesota players out of this top 30 list who didn't go division I. Bledsoe is ranked 10th, and Andy Wills 13th. With Blackwell also being pretty highly-regarded, and Probst perhaps being a project but one with a very accomplished high school career, this has the potential to be one of the better groups of high school recruits UND has had in awhile. Probably the best since the Mustard/Reinke/Travis group. Now if only a couple of talented big guys could be found next year...

This is kind of old news, but I see where one-time UND recruiting target Kori Vernon decided to stay close to home and attend Wisconsin-Whitewater. link.

Does anybody know whether Shawn Swan will be back this season? Have there been any personnel losses other than Wells?

Todd Olson has been hired as the new a.d. according to the WDAZ sports tonight.

I don't personally know whether Bruggeman does a good job or not. But when you consider that a big part of his job is understanding NCAA regulations and overseeing UND's compliance with them, you have to wonder how he got the job with the credentials he had at the time he was hired in 2001. link. There's also the question of whether it's really a good idea to have the spouse of a head coach at UND in such a position.

Apparently, Bruggeman DID get an interview, according to today's Herald. link.

If memory serves me correctly, it was something like $5,000, although I like ESPNInsider's answer better.

I hadn't heard about Wells--that's too bad. Regarding Probst, I'm definitely not expecting too much out of him, but my point was that a good case could be made that a 6'5"-6'6" wing player who is apparently a very good 3-point shooter, who averaged over 20 ppg during both his junior and senior years, and who scored more than 1,800 career points should be considered among the top-30 players in Minnesota's class of 2005. Any news on Bledsoe?

If you really think that, perhaps you should re-read this entire thread. Nobody has said anything about NDSU not playing quality opponents. I'm sorry I even brought up the issue of overpaying the Dragons, even though it's probably indisputable that paying anything over about $1.99 would have been too much. It's pretty sad when even Bob Entzion can't be criticized without somebody taking offense.

It's just one person's opinion, but here is a list of the top-30 players from the class of 2005 in Minnesota. I'm a little surprised that Probst didn't make the list.

Are you sure Bruggeman even got an interview? I've heard West, Todd Olson and Todd Selk (Brainerd a.d.--from EGF), plus two others whose identities I don't know.