UND92,96

Not surprisingly, Mike McFeely weighs in on the challenges facing Buning. [url="http://www.in-forum.com/articles/index.cfm?id=91381

I think a key hire by Mr. Buning is going to be the open assistant/associate a.d. position. The reason being is that I think it's very important for an "outsider" to have somebody who knows UND and the Grand Forks community to help guide him around potential landmines that will inevitably pop up. My first choice would be Rob Bollinger, but it's probably very iffy that he would be interested under the circumstances. Another potential choice would be Rich Glas. Although I feel that Buning is more than qualified for the job, I'm going to be a little nervous if he doesn't have a right-hand man or woman who is familiar to the fans and alums and who can let him know in advance whether a particular decision could lead to a potential firestorm.

Obviously I was incorrect in my perception, but when I initially read the release in question, my interpretation was that the door was left open so that some "name" candidate could still interview if he/she applied at the last minute. I honestly didn't think it was likely that any other candidate who had previously applied would be invited to interview unless one or more of the other finalists dropped out for some reason.

I guess the problem is that the wording of this release said basically that three candidates would be brought in for interviews, and that "it is still possible that other candidates could be brought to campus for interviews." That, probably unnecessarily, created the perception that if Buning or anybody else who had previously applied was subsequently brought in to interview, they would be viewed somehow in a lesser light than Bollinger, McCarthy or Molde. To the extent that somebody screwed up here, I would have to say that it was Harmeson and/or the search committee for having allowed the release to be worded in such a way. In any event, it's unfortunate because obviously Buning is very qualified and has done nothing wrong here.

While I was rooting for Rob Bollinger to get the job, you can't help but be impressed with Buning's credentials. Maybe he can be the best of both worlds--Wanless's administrative abilities and RT's people skills. I wonder what the chances are that Rob would be interested in the vacant assistant a.d. position? That could go a long way towards smoothing things over with the numerous fans/alums who were backing Rob, plus I think he would do a good job in that position.

I'm not sure what's going on with fightingsioux.com, but they've been a little erratic lately in terms of putting out press releases after letter of intent signings. They STILL haven't posted one to announce the spring men's basketball signees.

Between the fact that the women should be a strong national title contender and that there are several players from within pretty close proximity to Grand Forks, it would seem that selling out the Betty at least a few times next year should be realistic. Players like Langen, Beck, Kimbrough and Bagaason should hopefully draw a nice contingent from their home towns in addition to the people from the Grand Forks area who historically have gone to the games.

As an aside, this is an interesting read as it shows that there are some people out west who actually have the audacity to suggest that EVERY state tournament should be held in a "central location," which I interpret as excluding Grand Forks and Fargo in particular. You have to scroll down to the District 15 notes. It would be hard to imagine the Dakota Bowl, for example, NOT being held at the Alerus or Fargodome, or the state hockey tournament NOT being held at the Ralph. I'm disappointed that the state track meet will now be held exclusively in Bismarck, as even though I would agree that their facility is newer and nicer, I feel that the impetus behind it had more to do with Bismarck being more "centrally located" than with the quality of the facilities. That's a slippery slope that I really don't want to see extend to moving other state competitions to exclusively Bismarck or Minot just because some people in the western half of the state don't want to travel more than a couple of hours for a state competition.

So can anyone else either confirm or deny that Greenwood is leaving? If a kid is going to leave, typically you'd think it would be in the first year or two since that's when he's most likely to be homesick or frustrated that playing time is still a year or two away. I don't recall UND losing a football player to another program who has played a lot and would likely continue to play a lot.

I didn't really think that these articles provided much, if any news, and probably didn't need to be written. By the same token, I've read countless articles and columns in the Forum portraying UND in a less-than-flattering light which I didn't feel needed to be written, either. This is a two-way street, and IMO both papers are equally at fault for trying to stir the pot at every opportunity.

I haven't seen this reported in the local media, but Grand Forks will be hosting some good basketball tournaments next year. Both the east regional and state class A boys and girls (combined) basketball tournaments, and the boys class B region 2 tournament will be in GF. link I realize it's not as big of a deal as the boys state B, but it's still a nice coup for this area. I don't believe Grand Forks has hosted the boys class A tournament in my lifetime, as it's historically been on a Fargo/Bismarck/Minot rotation.

I'm certainly no expert, but considering that Jake has spent his springs and summers playing baseball, and his falls playing football up to this point, he may have just scratched the surface of his hockey potential compared to a lot of other prospects his age who haven't devoted so much time to other sports.

I understand what you're saying, but personally I'm just giving credit to the coaches for seemingly doing a nice job recruiting. I definitely don't have any particularly high expectations for next year, but with the league seemingly being very balanced, anything is possible. I don't intend to belabor the point about coaching since the a.d. change/search probably means that there will not be any major changes in any sport prior to next season. Certainly there is disagreement among the basketball posters on this board about coaching, but hopefully we can just agree to disagree and hope for the best next season.

Just speculation on my part, but since Gags is something like 77 years old, I'm not sure how much recruiting he personally does anymore.

IMO, Duluth may actually have the most returning. I believe they return four players who averaged double figures in scoring this season, and recruited a pretty good big kid this spring, as well. They're certainly not the most athletic team, but they should be pretty tough. USD returns the league MVP in Trofholz, plus a good outside shooter in Nour, but not much else. Whether they're strong again will likely depend on who they add between now and August. St. Cloud loses Miller and Trull, but should be decent if they add a few newcomers who can play. Siegle and Hanson give them a nice frontcourt combo. Augie returns almost everybody, so they should be better than they've been, but I still wouldn't expect them to be better than about 5th or 6th at best. Mankato returns Anderson, but lost a lot, including Staten and Moeller. I think they'll fall off quite a bit from where they were this year. UNO returns all-conference players Curtis and Kapels, and always seems to find some good transfers or jucos. They did lose a lot of talent so I don't necessarily expect them to be quite as good as they've been the past couple of years, but if they find a couple more transfers they could be strong again. I don't think anybody will necessarily have significantly more talent than will the Sioux, but that was probably the case this past year, too. Much will depend on how the newcomers do, and whether players like Lindahl and Nobles can play at a more consistent level. They both are as good as anybody in the league at their positions, but must play up to that level all the time.

One of the best recruiters in dII football: link.

Granted, not all NCC schools are done recruiting as USD and St. Cloud St. haven't announced any spring signings yet, but it would appear that at least arguably, UND will have the best influx of new talent next season, particularly when you factor in Harkins who red-shirted this year. Harkins, Koenig, Gutter, Miller and Phillips, at least on paper, should all contribute immediately. I'm certainly not predicting a conference title by any means, but at least we should be far more competitive next year than it appeared we might be immediately following this season.

I would think Chris Kuper would have a decent shot at being drafted next year. Digger should at least get a shot as a free agent, as could Glas.