UND92,96

According to today's Herald, 6'5" 285 lb. Will Kusler has moved to number one on the depth chart at tight end. Ben Murphy has moved back to the offensive line, where he is better suited, in my opinion. Cody Saunders, an all-conference kicker from Minot St., has transferred to UND and will challenge Jeff Glas for the starting kicking job.

I read in the Greeley paper that they have received private donations for an additional 70 scholarships, but it's unclear whether that's 70 scholarships for one year, or 70 scholarships per year. In any event, scholarships are only part of the equation. If I'm not mistaken, they have a terrible basketball/volleyball facility which needs addressing, they will have additional travel expenses, coaches' salaries will be on the rise, and at some point they need to start drawing some fans for basketball, as well as getting football attendance to a more respectable level. I would be shocked if donations can overcome their lack of ticket revenue over the long haul, unless Monfort and/or Coors make an Engelstad-sized donation. Barring that, I think that they are going to be in some serious financial trouble in the near future.

This was his bio when the 2002 recruiting class was announced: Zack Babington-Johnson, 6-2, 195, Outside linebacker, Minneapolis, Minn. (De La Salle HS) Named team

My understanding is that renovating the old Ralph would be far more costly than what was originally thought, and the odds are that it is probably going to be torn down in the not-too-distant future. I think that most people agree that using the new Ralph for basketball is a bad idea. Those of us who follow the basketball teams closely (most of us anyway) feel that the Ralph is too big for hoops and thus there's no atmosphere or home court advantage. Those fans who are exclusively interested in hockey don't want the quality of the ice jeopardized. So while we're not looking at it from the same perspective, we're probably mostly in agreement that having basketball in the Ralph is not a good idea. By the same token, Hyslop is so old and decrepit that playing any sport there much longer isn't really an option. I think that the proposed construction of a basketball/volleyball facility adjacent to the Ralph is a great idea if the money is there (which it apparently is), so long as it's built with a big enough seating capacity that it's not obsolete immediately (e.g., the womens basketball facility at Minnesota). A new facility in the 5,000 seat range would be about right. If it is built in the 3,000 seat range as proposed, it's a terrible idea and a big waste of money.

Not that it's unusual in this day and age of college football, but that's going to be a huge offensive line, averaging 6'5 1/2" and 308 lbs. I think the line is going to be the big key as to whether the offense can regain its form and score some big points this year. In 2000 and 2001, UND had the highest-scoring offense in the NCC, despite running a pretty conservative (some might say very conservative) scheme. Obviously, that sort of production did not happen again last year. As I recall, the line play was fairly inconsistent in 2000, but it returned intact in 2001 and performed extremely well. I'm hoping for the same kind of improvement by this year's line, as it returns virtually intact. I think Kuper in particular has the potential to be very good.

There was a brief feature on the WDAZ sports last night, and Lennon mentioned that the safeties have been very solid this spring. No names were mentioned, but presumably he was referring to Stratton, Gagner and Brandsted. Also, he said Manke and Franklin were playing very well at the corners, but that there have been some hamstring pulls limiting some of the other corners, presumably Hoffscheider among others. Just one week left until the spring game.

The one guy from the Cities who didn't go division I and who I really wish UND would have tried to recruit is Kyle Marxhausen. I haven't seen him play, but I have heard he is very good. Maybe he would have gone to Mankato anyway, but I would have to think UND would have had a fighting chance considering Mankato isn't generally considered one of the better NCC programs, despite having pretty good talent the past few years. On the other hand, maybe UND is going to sign some juco players who are even better prospects. Hopefully we'll know within the next week or so.

I certainly hope Perrizo returns and that she can have better success at the wing than she did at the point, but her shooting percentage must improve dramatically. 35% overall and 28% from 3-point range is really bad. Maybe not having to be the primary ballhandler will help her, but if not she may see her playing time diminish.

Scott Howe, Air Force Joey Gasparini, Vermont

The one consolation is that St. Cloud, another team that loses a large majority of its scoring from this year, hasn't announced any signings yet, either. Nor has USD to my knowledge. At least UND already has a pretty good class with Austin, Doyle, Gutter and Jacobson. Not that they don't need at least three more good players, but that's a pretty good start.

DMB- Should we be concerned that nobody has signed yet? I know you said Ferguson probably wouldn't sign with anybody this week, but I figured one or two others would sign within the first couple of days of the signing period. Any new info?

I see where Josh Johnson is going to be joining Jeff Brandt at Minot State next year. If UND plays them again next season, it should be pretty interesting to see what the fans' reaction will be to their return.

I agree, and would add Megan Glynn to the list of possibilities. However, she is very tall so she may eventually become a decent defender, and in particular as a shot-blocker, if she were to stick it out for five years. I have wondered the same thing about Perrizo. I am by no means saying that she should leave, but with Mahlum clearly being a better pure point guard, the addition of Jahner and Maffin who can also play the point, and the fact that it would be tough to play Perrizo much at the wing considering her very low shooting percentage, I have to wonder about her playing time next year.

I think it's safe to say that there will be a few womens basketball players who will not be returning next year. There are 12 players on the roster this year with at least one year of eligibility remaining, plus the five new recruits. I suspect at least three players will not be back.

The UND women have added two more basketball recruits: womens basketball recruits With this five-player recruiting class along with red-shirt Jami Glick, next year's team will certainly have a different look. Hopefully Val Sannes can recover from her knee injury. If so, this could be an excellent class.

Erbes is a guy who has apparently gotten pretty much the maximum out of his ability, and that's admirable. But the Forum seems to be portraying him as a potential star, and I don't believe that's accurate nor fair to the kid. There have been a lot of North Dakota kids in the 6'5" to 6'6" range who have been very good interior players at the high school or even junior college or DAC-10 level, but I can't recall any who were or likely could have been much of a factor in the post at the NCC level or above. If Erbes is the exception, more power to him. But I personally would expect him to struggle guarding bigger and/or quicker players, not to mention consistently scoring inside at his size. As far as Ferguson goes, I imagine most college coaches would feel that his upside is much higher because of his physical strength and leaping ability. As for the Williston kid, I know nothing about him, but I don't believe anyone is portraying him as a potential star. He's apparently 240 pounds so at least he could potentially be the physical interior player UND has lacked since Mustard.

Here's a Forum article on some local basketball prospects: recruiting article With regard to David Erbes, I realize he had a very nice career at NDSCS, but I have a hard time believing a 6'6" post player with fairly limited athletic ability is much to get excited about.

Did anyone hear how Ferguson's visit went this past weekend? Were there any other potential recruits visiting?

According to Sunday's Herald, Jerome Beasley was named MVP of the Portsmouth Invitational! Also, according to this ESPN article, Jerome definitely made a name for himself at the tournament (scroll down a little ways): Beasley article Way to go, Jerome!

I wasn't born yet when Jackson played, but based on what my dad has told me, those were some really outstanding teams. Back to back semi-final appearances (college division) and a third-place finish in 64-65. Phil had quite a supporting cast, as those teams had four all-NCC players for two years in a row. Jackson was actually only the third-leading scorer on the 64-65 team as a sophomore. UND even beat DePaul in one of those years. Beasley is unquestionably the most talented basketball player ever at UND, particularly offensively. It is unfortunate that due to circumstances beyond his control, i.e. Lollar's disinterest in attending classes and Allen's ineligibility, he didn't have the supporting cast which would have enabled UND to potentially do something in the tournament this year comparable to what the Jackson teams did.

If he's from Trinidad, I'm going to throw out a wild guess that he played at Williston. They have had a number of Trinidad natives over the years and I believe two starters from this past year's team.

As Jim said, I think we all agree that if UND is going to get good non-conference opponents to come to the Alerus, they will have to pay the going rate, whatever that happens to be these days. I think it's safe to say that the money is there to at least bring in one ranked non-conference opponent per year. Unfortunately for NDSU, they have not always gotten what they paid for. It's hard to believe Moorhead and Western St., for example, actually warranted $50K, if that's what they got. Those games weren't any better to watch than UND's games against Crookston or Mesa. In recent years, even the supposedly good opponents like TAMUK and Angelo have turned out to be duds. That's the risk, I guess. Just because you pay out the big bucks to bring somebody in doesn't mean you'll get a game any better than what an NSIC opponent would give you.