UND92,96

Not that it's any surprise since several posters had already shared this information, but the Herald confirmed today that both Ross Brennan and Carney are back:

I also have heard that UNC isn't interested in the Big Sky, which further supports my opinion that their administration is out of their collective minds. Any school that goes division I despite poor attendance overall and a horrible basketball program in a horrible facility, and then thumbs their noses at the ONLY conference that makes any geographic sense for them, has to be nuts.

I'm almost positive that Danny Freund is UND's number one quarterback target. There was an article in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel last fall in which he stated that UND, among others, was talking to him. His father is his high school coach, also. Freund was named first team all-state by the A.P. and sounds a lot like Keith Heckendorf in terms of size, mobility and production. It wouldn't surprise me at all if he and Kole Heckendorf end up at the same school, which would probably narrow it down to us and St. Cloud. The main strike against UND would be the opportunity to play sooner at St. Cloud since I believe their quarterback situation is pretty unsettled. Also, St. Cloud is obviously closer to home for those guys. Of course, UND has one or two things going for it, also. If we could land both of those guys, along with the players already committed and the ten or so others who are likely to sign, this could be one of the better classes I can remember, at least on paper.

A brief summary of the verbal commitments: Weston Dressler Bismarck, 5'7", 150 lbs., rb/wr/returns, 2139 yards rushing, 405 yards receiving and 40 td's as a senior; all state. Jake Caufield Minot, 6'2", 190 lbs., wr, 1074 yards and 9 td's as a senior; all state. Rory Manke Detroit Lakes, 6'1", 195 lbs., qr/wr/db, 1011 yards rushing and 16 td's, 1160 yards passing and 10 td's as a senior; 62 career td's; 12 career int's; 2nd team A.P. all-state as a quarterback; Fargo Forum player of the year. Mike Rohde D.C. Everest of Schofield, WI, 5'8", 178 lbs., rb, 883 yards rushing and 12 td's as a senior despite missing much of the season with an injury; 2nd team all-state by both A.P. and Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel; team won state title in Wisconsin's largest class and he was named player of the game. Reece Henrickson Stephen-Argyle, 5'11", 185 lbs., rb/wr/returns, 966 yards rushing and 18 td's; 800 yards receiving and 13 td's as a senior; 2nd team A.P. all-state as a returner. Mike Yilek Eden Prairie, 6'3", 265, ol, all-metro and 2nd team all-state by Pioneer Press; also excellent wrestler. Erik Moe International Falls, 6'4", 265 lbs., ol, 4th in discus at MN state track meet in 2003.

Those are the ones that I'm aware of so far. I suspect there are probably more we don't know about yet.

Pat Sweeney just confirmed that Rory Manke has committed to UND! Great news! Also, Reese Hendrickson of state MN 9-man champion Stephen-Argyle has committed. He was a second team A.P. all-state selection (all classes combined) as a returner, and was a good running back and defensive back also. Erik Moe, a 6'4", 260 pound offensive lineman from International Falls also committed.

That would be a fun series. I still remember when TAMUK (then Texas A & I) came to Grand Forks back in 1986, led by Johnny Bailey. UND was at the start of a rebuilding process back then and TAMUK won handily, although it was an entertaining game with something like 110 points scored. I will be interested to see the NCC schedule next year. According to the UND media guide, UNO comes here again next year. However, according the UNO site, we go there. I am assuming the schedule for all NCC teams will have three home and three road games. I'm pretty sure we'll be going to St. Cloud and Augie. I'm also pretty sure USD and Mankato will be coming here. The questions are Omaha and UMD. I'm hoping we get Omaha at home again, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's the other way around.

huskies679- How much of an impact do you think this will have on SCSU football attendance? It seems that low attendance has plagued the Huskies for a long time--even during the past couple of years when you guys have been good. The thing that drives me crazy about St. Cloud is the fact that there doesn't seem to be any local network tv stations, which means that when you watch the local sportscast, there are no NCC scores given. Everything is out of the cities. My sister lives in St. Cloud and whenever I visit, I have to wait for the morning paper to find out who won any of the NCC games. It's really frustrating.

According to allcanadagridiron.com, Mike Stadnyk is visiting Boise St. this weekend.

I agree. I half expected to see USD ranked too despite their long NCC losing streak which now stands at nine. Has Boots lost it? They returned virtually their entire team and were picked high in the national polls, but they are really struggling. If the NCAA hadn't gifted King another semester of eligibility, they would be even worse.

Eight teams make the regional. No more bye's in the first round for the top two seeds.

I agree that Rypkema was viewed as a project coming out of high school, although it seems strange in retrospect that he wasn't more highly sought-after since 6'11" guys with coordination and who averaged 22 pts and 12 boards a game in a pretty good basketball state (Wisconsin) are tough to find.

I don't know whether or not this is factual, but according to a poster on the wisconsinpreps.com board, running back Mike Rohde from D.C. Everest high school in Schofield, WI has committed to UND. He is pretty small (5'8", 175) but very fast. He was a second team all-state selection despite missing much of the year with a knee injury. He had 221 yards and four td's in the division I (largest class) state championship game.

From the Wisconsin State Journal (in Madison):

I respect your opinion, Corella, and again I'm not trying to bash the kid especially considering I've never seen him play, but I'm just curious whether there were other prominent midwestern basketball schools who were after the kid and if not, why not? If he had been offered by SDSU, SCSU, USD, UND, etc. but had chosen NDSU, that would be one thing, but I guess I just can't get past the fact that Northern St. was his other finalist. They have had some success over the years, but usually it seems to be with guys NCC schools weren't all that interested in.

I could be wrong, but I thought that since Davis went to Fargo this year, NDSU goes there next year.

I kind of figured maybe UND didn't recruit Lunde all that hard since the Forum reported that he chose NDSU over Northern St. No offense to Northern, and I'm not trying to rip NDSU, but it would seem that if Lunde was really a high caliber recruit, he probably would have had a better program than Northern as his runner-up. But then again, who knows, maybe he'll develop into a good college player.

There's more help on the way for the UND womens team. Recruit Danye Guinn from St. Francis (in the cities) is averaging about 23 points and 6 assists per game, and scored 42 points in a game this past weekend. She is currently the leading scorer in the twin cities metro area. She's 5'10" and can play any of the three perimeter positions.

Does anyone know whether UND ever recruited the Moormann kid from Dickinson? How about Lunde?

That was quite an effort for your first post, "ndsubison." I only hope we can look forward to more of these brilliant witticisms in the future. BTW, neither Montana nor Georgia Southern is on your schedule next year, but one of the teams you made a feeble attempt at belittling--Duluth--is.

So what do you guys think are the primary areas of need this year in terms of recruiting? I'm not sure there are any glaring needs, but of course there's always room for improvement. Here's how I see the state of the various positions, with names of those who have been recruited the past two years in parentheses: quarterback (Bellmore, Manke and possibly Groeschl) It wouldn't surprise me if we bring in someone this year, although it may be tough to get a blue-chipper considering there are two or three good quarterbacks already here who have three years of eligibility left. One guy who I believe UND has shown interest in is Danny Freund from Wisconsin, who was an all-stater this year. running back (Strouth, Sundby, Christensen and Stewart) Strouth was effective this year, and I see Sundby as being in the Roland mold. I'd love to see us get a guy with a combination of size and speed to potentially be an every-down back. Lumbala would be ideal if we could get him, but it will be tough. I'm sure there are a number of running backs being recruited this year. wide receiver (Presthus, Groeschl, Ott and Hegg) Caufield and Dressler are already committed. I'd love to see a deep threat a la Lueck. I'm not sure if Heckendorf is still a possibility but he would fit the bill. Also may be some Canadians who are being looked at. tight end (Thomas and Turgeon) While it would have been nice to have gotten the kid from Fargo South, I believe Thomas brings far more speed so that's a plus. I'm not sure if Jared Bardon from Wisconsin is still being recruited, but I understand he's pretty athletic and also an excellent basketball player. offensive line (Bauer, Bonnet, Braegelmann, Bronson, Hoffelt and Soll) This is an area where you need to sign some guys every year. I'm not really aware of any North Dakotans who are considered good o-line prospects, unless Samson from Cavalier would play offense instead of defense. defensive line (Cadwell, Muro, Richter, White and Wolff) I would think defensive end would be a position where we will see a few signees this year. Canadian Mike Stadnyk may be the number one guy here, but he's apparently receiving a lot of division I interest. Nose guard should be pretty solid with Muro in the fold and Wolff who can probably play either on the nose or at end. linebacker (Brennan, Ullsperger, Babington-Johnson, Meek, Reiff, Schmitz and Wise) Linebackers are signed every year, but if ever there was an area where you could get away with not signing anyone for a year, this would be it. There is obviously a wealth of talent here, so anyone who does sign will either have to be willing to wait several years to see the field, or be an absolute blue-chip player. defensive back (Hoffschneider, Alexander, Aagaard, Carmin, DeSautel, Greenwood, Guenther and Wenzel) Another position that appears to be very well-stocked for the future. However, it also appears that a number of defensive back prospects are being recruited including Rory Manke, Brandon Jordan and Matt Lien.

Last night's loss was very disappointing since the Sioux led for most of the game, and I don't think UNO is as good of a team as their athletic ability suggests that they should be. It really hurts that we allowed Tola Dada to score 20 points considering he has, bar none, the ugliest looking shot in basketball history. For those who haven't seen him play, he shoots a bizarre looking set shot that you don't even realize is a shot at first because it more closely resembles a pass. Where he learned to shoot that way, I'll never know. I doubt he'll ever hit three 3-pointers in a game again, but he managed to do so last night. On the bright side, Lindahl was again outstanding. He's now the leading scorer AND rebounder in the NCC through four conference games. Johnson was also very good, and Stoute played some outstanding minutes. He probably should have played more than he did in the second half since Ryp was struggling. Considering how balanced--and in my opinion mediocre--the NCC is this year, it is very unfortunate that UND doesn't have Parks and Nobles. I really think that the Sioux would have been right in the mix of things. But without another scorer (Parks) and a good point guard (Nobles), we're a little out-manned in most games. We just have to keep reminding ourselves that will we return virtually everybody next season, as well as getting back Parks and Nobles, and adding this year's red-shirts and Harkins. Knock on wood, depth and having too few scorers won't be an issue next year.