UND92,96

The qb apparently has at least a fairly serious knee injury, so my guess is that even if he does play, he's not going to be very mobile. Judging by their stats, they're a run-first offense as they are averaging something like 280 yards per game running and about 180 passing. UND has, of course, traditionally done very well against primarily running offenses, with the exception of UNO. Weather will probably be a big factor which will likely limit both teams' passing. I suspect this will be a low-scoring, defensive game, and UND thrives in that kind of situation. UND will almost certainly have a special teams edge, although yesterday was certainly not the special teams' best game by any means. Hopefully Tech will not be able to punt away from Dressler like St. Cloud did. My logic is this: I'm willing to bet anything that this year's Michigan Tech is not as good as last year's Grand Valley team, and we certainly weren't overmatched in that game. I think we're basically the same as last year--worse on offense but better on defense so those two basically cancel each other out. Playing on the road instead of a neutral site certainly plays a factor, but Michigan's Tech's complete lack of playoff experience and having either a hobbled or a very inexperienced quarterback negate that advantage somewhat. A close game favors UND because of the experience factor both in the playoffs and in close games. Now that the road playoff monkey is off our backs, I think the Sioux pull this one out by a score of somewhere in the neighborhood of 13-10.

Since nobody else has commented on it, I guess I will--congrats to the Sioux men for making it to the championship game of the Disney tournament! On paper, those were two pretty good teams UND defeated. The best thing is, the defense must have been far better than what it was in the two exhibition games. UND vs. Barry (Florida) for the title today at 5:00 cst.

Do you ever get tired of making predictions that turn out to be wrong? UND may not win, but if you think a team like Tech--with no playoff history, injury problems and coming off a lop-sided loss in their last game of the season--is going to pummel them, you have another thing coming. If the weather is really bad and the passing game is largely negated, I wouldn't want to be the team that has to make a living running the ball against this defense.

I don't mean to suggest that I'm writing anyone off. However, having followed UND women's basketball since Roebuck got here, it seems as though that in the vast majority of cases, the players who ended up being starters or at least meaningful contributors were playing extensively by their second year in the program, and in most cases in their first year. That's why I get concerned when players are still deep reserves in their second year (regardless of whether they red-shirted or not). If it's due to injury, then they should be cut some slack. But with new talent coming in every year, it generally doesn't get any easier to break into the lineup as time goes on. I don't think I'm going too far out on a limb by speculating that at least in the case of Kimbrough, she'll easily be playing significant minutes immediately, just as Langen, Boese, Boll, Crouse, Winger, etc. have done. Regarding the whole out-of-area issue, it's just a dollars and cents thing. Since a scholarship for somebody from Iowa or Illinois is far more expensive than one for somebody from ND or MN, and especially when there is such an abundance of quality girls basketball players in MN, a program like UND should probably be selective when recruiting these out-of-area players. IMO, if an out-of-area player is not going to make an impact on the court fairly early on, then it probably doesn't make much sense to sign them. With that said, I very much hope that Maffin and Werdell can be impact players at some point.

Kleinsasser made it as a sophomore, but not a freshman. According to the online NDSU media guide, Scott made it in 1996, which I believe was his sophomore year also (not sure whether he red-shirted). Technically, I suppose USD's Stefan Logan qualifies, but I would put a pretty big asterisk there since he was a 22-year-old freshman last season. I suppose the better question is when is the last time a true freshman of normal age (18 or 19) was selected first-team all-NCC? If it has happened recently, it was probably a punter or kicker.

UND lands seven first-teamers: Kuper (most valuable o-lineman), Anderson, Hermes, Gagner (most valuable d.b.), Manke, Glas and Dressler. Second teamers were Smith, Roland, Johnson, Duchscher, Peterson, Brandsted and Halfman. Lennon was also named co-coach of the year, along with Behrns. That's kind of a surprise considering the jobs the USD and Mankato coaches did. I wonder when the last time a true freshman made first-team all-conference?

Some of the media members must be absolutely clueless when you consider that somebody picked Mankato 6th, and somebody picked UMD 2nd! I have to think USD and St. Cloud were picked that high on reputation alone. With the talent UND has this year compared to everybody except Mankato and UNO, anything lower than 3rd will be a huge disappointment. Even 3rd would be a disappointment to me, but UND has had so much bad luck recently (Allen, Brandt, Austin's personal problems, last year's injuries, etc.) that it's hard to be too optimistic.

No big surprise, but UND is picked as the pre-season NCC favorite. link.

I was unaware of her injuries. Thanks for the info.

It's good to see that what is apparently going to be a weakness this year--quality depth on the interior--should be a big strength next year. With Boese, Langen, Kimbrough and Ledger rotating inside, that's potentially as much quality depth as I can recall. I would say that players like Glynn and Draayer had better elevate their play this season or they may not get much p.t. next year. Does anybody know what the deal is with Sannes? Still injured? She was a pretty heralded recruit a couple years ago, although I know she had a very bad knee injury as a sr. in high school. I know it's still quite early, but among the recruiting class of two years ago--Jahner, Sannes, Draayer, Maffin and Werdell--only Jahner has clearly shown that she can play at a high level. I wouldn't think Roebuck would give scholarships to players from states without reciprocity very often due to the higher expense and the fact that there are so many good players in Minnesota, so you would think Maffin (from Iowa) and Werdell (from Illinois) were thought to be potential impact players.

Wow. This is quite a class Roebuck and staff have put together, needless to say. With Guinn and Langen already starters as freshmen, and with this group coming in, UND should be well-stocked for several years.

Here's the official press release regarding the signings of Blackwell and Wills: link. It sounds like both should be very good additions to the program.

It looks to me like there may be some positive signs regarding Kimbrough's decision. One, there was a recruiting article in the Des Moines paper in which Iowa division I women's programs' recruiting was discussed, and her name was not mentioned as being part of the Iowa St.'s expected five-person recruiting class. Two, there was a list of expected dI signees from the state of Minnesota in the Star-Tribune, and although there were a couple of Iowa St. commitments, she was not listed as one of them. Hopefully we get some good news in the next couple of days.

It appears we can expect LOI's from Blackwell and Wills for the men, and Kayla Baagason for the women. Still no word on Kimbrough's intentions. Any word on other potential signees?

I figured he might surface closer to home, such as Concordia-St. Paul, but I don't believe he's played anywhere since 2002. Ditto for Jamel Alkins.

You make some great points here, Bob. I would only add that I think the scheme would work even better with a little bit better running game. I wouldn't want to completely rely on the running game like UNO does, but I would like to have a back who can make some big plays now and then. Again, I mean no disrespect to Roland or even Strouth. I just think Dressler might be able to give the running game a little different dimension than what it's recently had by bringing both elusiveness and breakaway speed.

There was a post in a different thread also about Vernon not wanting to be this far from home. I can't help but wonder why he bothered to take an official visit to UND if that's the case?

They throw the ball quite well and they have an excellent receiver. When they run, they use a lot of misdirection to compensate for the fact that their o-line is on the small side. Defensively, it does appear that they are quite a bit weaker this year than they were last season. I suspect Grand Valley will try to run the ball and control the clock, and I think they will have success doing that. It would be a mistake to try cover the good receiver, Samp, one on one. He's not far below Kircus was in ability. I'm not sure they have enough offensive weapons to pick up the slack if GVSU puts their top cover corner on Samp and rolls a safety to his side on every play. I don't believe Winona will be able to run very effectively on the Grand Valley defense, so how much the Lakers can keep Samp under control will be a huge key.

I would think that had Boese scored around 20, which is probably about what she'll average this year, the final score would have looked far more respectable. She's too big a part of the offense for this young team to be able to overcome an off game on her part against a really good team.

After watching Day, Logan, Birkel and to a lesser extent Treasure, I really think UND needs to upgrade its talent level and speed at the running back position. I have nothing but respect for Roland, how hard he runs and what he's given the Sioux the last two years. But there's just no substitute for having a back who can take it 60-70 yards on any given play. We haven't had that since Phillip Moore. I think Logan showed that a very small back can be effective, even against the UND defense. That's why I'd like to see Dressler get a shot next season as the featured back. He's the same size as Logan, and while he may not be quite as fast, they're in the same ball park in that regard.

She still has an ankle injury, I believe.

It would not have been a problem. There are four high school championship games, with the 9-man and A games being on Friday. The AA and AAA games are later on Saturday, so if the Sioux had hosted, the game would have been played at about noon on Saturday with no conflicts.

Parks, Swan and Stoute all played well tonight in UND's win over Pulley. Pulley only dressed 7 players, so it was surprising to me that they were able to keep the game close. It appears that the Sioux will have a lot of offensive ability this season, but defensively they are really poor right now. I'd like to see an eight man rotation of Ryp, Lindahl, Parks, MJ, Nobles, Doyle, Swan and Stoute. Anybody know who the kid was who was apparently on a recruiting visit?

I'm pretty sure that UND would have had to get USD's permission to move the game to a day other than Saturday, and USD would have no incentive to oblige. Plus, I suspect that Dale Lennon himself would not have been in favor of moving the game to a different day.

It would appear that UNO hit the jackpot with Day kind of like UND did in basketball with Beasley. Day's juco stats were good but not spectacular. The fact that he didn't even start or get that many carries early in the season would also suggest that they didn't really know what they had until four or five games into the season.