UND92,96

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.

I wouldn't consider him a particularly reliable source, but Frank Fee of KROX radio in Crookston had this to say:

Do you suppose it was entirely a coincidence that a Moorhead State grad decided that his alma mater merited a $50k guarantee (twice)? I hope he got a nice thank you letter from Moorhead State for his generous "donation."

I can't help but wonder how Grandall has been spending that $2,500? So long as he's the coach, maybe that money should be re-allocated to baseball and swimming, since those coaches actually recruit. I don't mean to belabor the point, but the idea of a coach who apparently does very little (if any) recruiting really irritates me.

I applaud Gene Taylor if the Arkansas-Monticello guarantee is in the $30k range. I seem to recall a few years back when NDSU was reportedly paying guarantees in the neighborhood of $50k for games against some pretty bad teams, e.g. MSU-Moorhead, which seemed like a huge waste of money considering the quality of the opponents. I don't recall whether that was the work of Taylor or Entzion, however.

I don't mean to be argumentative about this, but is it really possible to predict what the net proceeds of this game (Arkansas-Monticello) will be? Did the season ticket price go up as a result of this 6th home game? What was the guarantee given?

The class A all-star team, including Kimbrough and Bagaason, won the annual tournament of all-star teams from Minnesota's four classes of basketball. link