UND92,96

Maybe Panoam?

So what are we thinking for a roster next year—Kraft, Wylee, Evanson, Hanson and…?

And yet somehow Carson Johnson is apparently returning to Denver next year. I don’t know how that’s possible.

I see Joe Hurlburt is in the portal again. His college career hasn’t really panned out considering his relatively high national ranking coming out of high school, but it will be interesting to see whether any Summit schools offer.

Sather’s team did pretty well on the road in Summit play this year, with presumably the same travel arrangements as the women. I also don’t recall reading any posts complaining about the method of travel or food from men’s team parents, so maybe it’s not that big of a deal in the scheme of things?

Anthony Smith is in the portal.

I definitely don't expect her to come to UND, but supposedly SDSU tends not to want transfers, and NDSU is going to struggle to come up with the money necessary to keep their current best players, so I'm not sure they're going to be able to offer much NIL money to anybody else. USD may be more realistic, if she doesn't get any power four interest.

Could be, but she could have left UMary for a division I program a year ago, so I respect the loyalty of staying with her hometown school for longer than many others may have. Just for the record, I've never met the guy. I just thought his daughter was a really good player in 2023 when Red River and Century played for the state championship, and was surprised she apparently didn't get much, if any division I attention. She seemed every bit as good as her high school teammate Logan Nissley IMO.

He knows his stuff. Pretty well-respected basketball trainer.

He shouldn't be fired after one season, but I will admit that I am curious about the details of his contract, specifically its duration and the salary, which unfortunately was never reported in the Herald to the best of my knowledge. That is pretty unusual for the coach of a fairly high-profile UND sport.

As a certain local columnist likes to say, "something that probably won't happen but if it does I'll look like a genius": If most of the younger players who played major minutes enter the portal and this becomes even more of a rebuilding job than it already is, and if it's true his UND contract is pretty short-term, Hutter will realize maybe division I isn't for him after all and will go back to his old Mayville State job, which just opened up last week after a one-win season by his successor.

In this scenario, what are the chances Moore requests a release from his NLI?

He’s apparently graduating and won’t be using his final season of eligibility.

Another 2026 running back has apparently been added. Owen Reynoso from Peoria, AZ recently committed per his Twitter.

I asked because I am curious whether a 3-guard lineup of Uelmen, Smith and Moore could work. Both Uelmen and Smith have experience at the 2 in high school, and Moore seems like a pure PG as far as being more of a distributor than the other two.

There's been some speculation about whether Omot would ever consider coming back, but what about Panoam? He's got a year left, and after playing only 42 minutes this season at Xavier, you kind of have to assume he may be moving on again.

Question--when Smith and Moore played together in high school, who primarily ran the point? I'm assuming Moore?

While the coaching and overall recruiting were poor under Mallory, I still maintain that UND was very close to being pretty good in 2024-25 despite her ineptitude. If this year's team still had Pemberton, Schiller and Ibrahim, along with Demers, Aumer, Hughes, Ava Miller, Piekny, Hillesheim and Harris, UND is probably no worse than third or fourth in the Summit. Splitting two close games vs. NDSU that season, and being far more competitive vs. SDSU than in the years prior, suggests that Hutter did probably have a pretty big impact in his one year as an assistant, and if he can figure out a way to add some talent close to the level of the top three players from 2024-25, there may be hope.

If you are a program with a minimal NIL budget, you can still be at least moderately successful, but you need to do it primarily via high school recruiting, since that's relatively inexpensive. I think we've started to see that with Sather. Obviously he faces the same issues with regard to facilities, NIL, etc., but he seems to have developed a potentially successful formula of recruiting MN quite well, and filling in the gaps with ND kids and one or two decent portal additions per year. Hutter may be able to do the same thing, but it's not easy to be immediately successful with high school recruiting. It's probably a fair criticism to say that Hutter may be a bit too enamored with his preferred style of play. It didn't work well this past season, and maybe he should have adjusted more (even though it probably wouldn't have resulted in many, if any more wins), but I watched enough Mayville State games to believe that his system CAN work, with the right types of players. Whether he can successfully recruit them remains to be seen.

I really hope Smith and the Curtises stay for another year. I don't see how any of them would improve their situation by leaving at this point. But I also realize that the chances of them leaving are probably pretty high. I also wonder if the Curtises' decision will impact what Bothun decides to do? Uelmen certainly will have offers, but I suspect he's smart enough to realize that chasing the money now might be a bit short-sighted, unless you don't mind running the risk of not playing much (see Panoam as an example).

Would either GF school even be AA in MN, without opting up? I'm pretty sure Mahtomedi is larger enrollment-wise than either Central or Red River.

UND was 4-2 against Denver and St. Thomas, and both those teams split their two games with NDSU during the season. Neither has a traditional big man. So hopefully now that Jones is back playing, that will be the difference from the last two disastrous meetings. Because I can't really understand what other reason there is that UND has struggled so badly against the Bison compared to the Pioneers and Tommies.

Four—Duchscherer, Fricke, Smith and Sonnenberg.

I’m not saying you’re necessarily wrong, but I think Uelmen, Smith and Moore could all coexist in the starting lineup, just as Wheeler-Thomas, Carson and Stefonowicz do for NDSU.

Courtesy of Zach Borg on Twitter: UPDATED-Oral Roberts destroyed Denver tonight 102-80 so Pioneers finish 8-8 Seeding 4-7 @ stake in season finales UNO finishes at St. Thomas. If UNO wins they’re the 4 (swept DU) If USD wins & UNO loses USD will be the 5 If SDSU wins they’re the 6 regardless