UND92,96

Interesting that former UND football player Mac Schneider is getting some mention as a potential Democratic candidate: http://prairiefire.areavoices.com/2011/01/19/if-conrad-isnt-running-who-will-be-north-dakotas-2012-u-s-senate-candidates/

Valley City has produced some very good players--Mike and Jeff Boschee, Justin Anderson, Rory Beil, Kraig Rowekamp, etc.

I believe Qvale's dad played football at NDSU. While we probably did recruit him, it was likely an uphill battle. I once played on a summer league team with Krajewski. He was a high school teammate of former Sioux player David Robertson, although they were a few years apart. Those were the glory years for Grafton basketball at the class A level.

Some may be familiar with the weekly live chats covering SDSU and USD sports that the Sioux Falls Argus Leader does. The Herald is now doing the same for UND sports on Wednesday afternoons at 3 P.M. Here's the link: http://www.coveritlive.com/index2.php/option=com_altcaster/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=f91dd1421a/height=550/width=600

Welcome to the board. I wonder whether Lindahl is expected to grow any more? His father is 6'10" or 6'11", and I believe Evan is 6'9" or so. Is he willing to play inside, or is he more of a tall kid who likes to shoot from the perimeter? I recall watching Kueber at the state tournament a couple of years ago. He was pretty raw, but has long arms and did seem to play bigger than what he is. I agree he may be worth a look due to his shot-blocking ability.

With the departure of Kuehl and the opening of a scholarship, I wonder if Caitlin Farroh from Grand Forks Central is an option? She's an outstanding rebounder, averaging more than 16 per game.

To the extent anyone is interested in what the grades are supposed to mean, here's an explanation: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/recruiting/basketball/mens/news/story?id=2639514 Schuler's relatively low grade was apparently the result of concerns about his athletic ability. His shooting ability was definitely not an issue. The reality is that if he were a bit quicker, we likely would not have gotten him, particularly considering our conference situation at the time. If you compare the grades of the recruits in UND's last three classes to those of the other Dakota schools, UND is actually doing fairly well all things considered.

Article on signee Brianna Williams: http://minnetonka.patch.com/articles/hopkins-girls-basketball-star-brianna-williams-leads-the-top-team-in-the-state#photo-4506133 Didn't realize NDSU db Marcus Williams is her brother. She's also currently ranked as the 8th-best senior in Minnesota by gprep.net.

The ESPN database for UND only goes back to 2009, but here's a complete list of the grades of the players in the last three classes: 83 Huff 82 Benton 79 Anderson 77 Gentry 72 Schuler 40 Webb NA Brekke

No question the sophomore class has suffered a ridiculous number of serious injuries. However, I think it's fairly safe to say that Webb, Huff, Anderson, Schuler and Brekke have all looked better as freshmen--whether true or red-shirt--than any of the sophomores looked last year as red-shirt freshmen. Unless the next group of newcomers doesn't pan out, or there are defections from the current group of freshmen, it's a little difficult for me to foresee any of the sophomores other than Allard and Wilmer ever becoming significant on-court contributors, even if they fully recover from their injury problems. I suspect the five current freshmen, Mitchell, Allard and Wilmer, plus maybe a juco transfer interior player if that's the route Jones goes with the last remaining scholarship, will get the vast majority of the minutes next year.

Agreed. I've been pretty down on Jones for the past few years, but this group of true and red-shirt freshmen appears to be legitimately good. Not sure why the group of sophomores Jones had touted so much hasn't panned out for the most part, though. Allard and Wilmer may yet be able to do some good things, anyway.

While obviously he wouldn't be a candidate to replace Carey, it would be great if a place could be found for Brooks Bollinger on the coaching staff: http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/190348/group/Sports/

For some reason, I had always thought Nielson was quite a bit older than what he actually is. At 50 or so, he may yet be interested in moving on to a higher level.

UND shot 28% from the field.

Completely agree. As we've seen, it's probably much more difficult to restart a series once it's been put on hold than it is to simply keep it going in the first place. I will be very disappointed if USD isn't still on our schedule in 2012 and beyond.

Agreed. I really think we should keep the series with USD going on a yearly basis.

I think they're both very impressive. DeBoer was smart to take the SIU o-coordinator job to get himself some different experience, as it would have been all but impossible to maintain his winning percentage at Sioux Falls with the impending dII transition. IMO, either would be an excellent choice for any midwestern FCS head coaching job.

With regard to Leipold, he has quite a bit of experience with recruiting scholarship athletes from his time as offensive coordinator and associate head coach at UNO. I think the route he's taken is similar to what Dale Lennon did back in the mid-1990's--go from a coordinator at a dII national power to the head coach at a lower-level program. It worked out well for Lennon, and I suspect that if Leipold wants to pursue opportunities to be the head coach at a higher level, it would work out well for him, as well. My concern with focusing too much on a candidate's alleged recruiting ability, and not enough on his actual coaching, is that you could end up with another Tim Brewster.

I certainly hope UND isn't looking for a new head football coach anytime soon, but I would think it's only a matter of time before a dI program takes a serious look at this guy: http://www.uwwsports.com/coaches.aspx?rc=451&path=football 57-3 and three national championships in four years is pretty amazing, regardless of what level it is.

While it certainly won't be easy, I think UND needs to win all the home games next year. And UNC could be a winnable road game, although it's very difficult to project how improved they might be with a new staff.

Tom Miller blog on 2011 schedule: http://gfsports.areavoices.com/2010/12/17/sioux-football-schedule-draws-criticism/

I wonder if USD is also eventually getting a home game against Montana State? They played at Montana State in both 2008 and 2009, which may suggest that was a 2-for-1, but I don't know that for certain. Aside from McNeese State, which I believe bought out their contract and never played in Vermillion, it would appear USD has had, or will possibly get return games against all the FCS opponents they've played on the road thus far. Granted, some have been 2-for-1's, but I'd rather have a 2-for-1 than a contract which doesn't result in a return game at all.

USD has gotten UNI, SE Louisiana and UNC at home so far through home-and-home deals. That was kind of why I'm a bit irritated that we haven't had similar success in that regard. I assume they've had some buyouts and road-only deals too, but it does seem like they've done a little better than we have scheduling-wise.

I'm just going off memory, but my recollection is that SDSU wanted a 2-for-1 (which was what USD agreed to with NDSU), but UND held out for a home-and-home and SDSU agreed to it. I don't have any proof of this, however.

I agree that it's a mistake and a waste of money to attempt to get home FCS non-conference games by paying a guarantee. I'm just wondering why we haven't had a bit more success scheduling home-and-home's? Off the top of my head, we've played at SIU, SE Louisiana and Stephen F. Austin and won't be getting a return game from any of them. We never got Idaho State here due to a poor decision by a certain former administrator. And although it's nobody's fault, we gave Montana a free game. Now, we're apparently doing the same to UNC. So we're now four seasons worth of schedules into the dI transition, and the only home-and-home's we've managed to schedule that have or will actually result in a home non-conference return game are 1) Northwestern State; 2) Central Arkansas; and 3) SDSU. Have I missed any?