SWSiouxMN

I will never understand this sudden obsession of Augie....

I would guess Dozier will be next. Question is will be be traded before the team gets back home?

The selling begins, Escobar traded to Arizona for 3 prospects. Of course fans hate it and accuse the FO of quitting on the squad again.

I'll give my way-too-early thoughts for the team, provide there isn't another surprise roster addition/subtraction upcoming. -UND only returns 5 players that have significant playing experience from the previous season. The good news is that 3 of these players are in the starting lineup in Avants, Seales, and Stewart. The other two: Brown and Walter, are expected to take on greater roles from the bench. -My feelings are that this team is going to go as far as how this junior class will preform. There is no doubt in my mind that the 2 senior captains, Avants and Seales, will make another step in their progressions in their final years and a few of these newcomers will play very well in their first year. The three Juniors in Stewart, Brown and Walter need to take significant jumps if this team want to do something this year. Marlon needs to take a jump similar to what Hooker did between his sophomore and junior year. He has had a year of playing time to knock off any rust he might have had. Billy needs to do better than 32% from 3 and Walter needs to have more games like he did against Weber, SUU last year. Given he is the only forward that has experience outside of Avants. -Losing Geno hurts, there is a lot to replace with him. Don't have any questions on the leadership of this year, they have it with Avants and Seales, but who will replace the production? This is where Marlon needs to step in, maybe Seales and Avants pick up the slack here as well. -So who starts in the other two spots? I think you start Jal, he is the big recruit coming in and he should get the majority of the starting minutes. The other positions is up in the air. If Jones wants to go with his usual 3 guard lineup, he probably plugs in Panoam. However, there are a few other options to go with and I say Saddler should start to give UND something they haven't had in the starting lineup in a while, a true 3. -I give Jones a lot of credit in adding more size with the 8 newcomers. There are a lot more players that are in the 6'6 to 6'10 range on the team than last year. The question is now, what is the quality of this quantity? How many of these players can come in and make an impact from day 1. Interested to see the play of the 3 international recruit and how they fit into the equation. Hoping that Saddler and Panoam are the exception and not the trend of Jones' JUCO recruiting results (i.e: they play and make an impact). -UND lost their 2 best 3 point shooters from last year. Can't shoot 34% from the 3 like they did last year, that needs to improve. Hopefully this is where Moody can make his mark on the team, alongside Brown, Walter, Marlon and any newcomer. I would also like to see if Seales can shoot 2-3 3's a game, but given he has only attempted 67 3's in his first 3 years, I don't know if that will change. -Summit is a tougher league, but outside of SDSU, there really isn't an established 2nd team (you could make a case for USD, but I think with Moody gone they take a step back towards the pack). WIU will be sneaky good, Denver will be up there near the top of the standings). Right now in my head I have UND 6th. I really don't have a feel for this team with so many question marks that this team has. They could surprise and end up a top 3 team in the Summit, or they could massive struggle and end up near the basement. I'm optimistic and I think they will a few more games than they did last year, around 13-15 wins. I expect a bigger move next year, provide the team stays together and nobody flies the coop. Summit Predictions 1) SDSU *They run the table in conference play 2) USD 3) Denver 4) WIU 5) NDSU 6) UND 7) ORU 8) IPFW 9) Omaha

We have the two games from the Summit-Big Sky in Idaho and MSU, dates TBD. I haven't seen anything else right now.

Well at least UND won't have the issue of playing a rival over the winter break.

I guess that is one way to save on costs. How much is that by choice or by the fact there is 9 teams in the Summit I wonder?

Twins had too many things go wrong early and had 2 really bad losing streaks and their inability to beat up anybody else but Cleveland in their division has cost them. #1 and #1A for this organization is figuring it out what to do with Buxton and Sano. I think they have enough in-house to solve the rotation problem outside of Berrios and the bullpen.

I do see where you are coming from with this, it could also have been possible for some of those players to leave and go elsewhere. Honestly, I think he would have stayed.

Here is the Summit League Schedule for the Women: http://www.thesummitleague.org/sports/wbkb/2018-19/schedule?teamId=s4qpwnk0cz6rjnff 12/30 Fort Wayne 1/2 @ ORU 1/5 @ Denver 1/9 Omaha 1/13 WIU 1/18 SDSU 1/20 @ NDSU 1/24 USD 2/1 @ WIU 2/3 @ Omaha 2/7 NDSU 2/9 @ SDSU 2/16 ORU 2/23 Denver 2/28 @ Fort Wayne 3/2 @ USD Looks like there is a trip to Rhode Island in the schedule on Nov 27th as well for non-conference

Hark! The Summit League Schedule is here! 12/28 Fort Wayne 1/3 @ ORU 1/5 @ Denver 1/10 Omaha 1/12 WIU 1/16 SDSU 1/19 @ NDSU 1/23 USD 1/31 @ WIU 2/3 @ Omaha 2/6 NDSU 2/9 @ SDSU 2/16 ORU 2/23 Denver 2/28 @ Fort Wayne 3/2 @ USD http://www.thesummitleague.org/sports/mbkb/2018-19/schedule?teamId=yqmcb6ovwrh2w6l2

The same people that complained how badly the nickname vote was run? In how they changed the rules after the first round and was okay with a plurality winning the vote until a mountain of criticism changed their minds to make it right? Can you blame Schafer for doing that? I don't, I didn't want to go through another vote on the logo after how badly it was botched. He wanted it done before Kennedy step on this campus, a vote would not have accomplished that. That con is pretty huge given that the university is going to have to cut things again it appears, that isn't a good look, and oh... that WIH lawsuit is still sitting out there and why would the university do anything to give that longshot lawsuit any chance of breathing room. "So the University can spend hundreds of thousands of dollar on replacing an unpopular logo and marketing of said logo, that money could have been used to save the program." The University has bigger fish to fry right now. Right now the only winning move is not to play.

https://fightinghawks.com/news/2018/7/25/kaeding-hired-to-fill-mens-basketball-operations-role.aspx We have our DOBO

I'm sure Jim is saying that because that is the only way that Michigan could ever get into the playoff.

Because they don't want to kill the golden goose which is March Madness. And why would the mid-majors accept that when they know they get this kind of impact when they pull upsets. This right here is why UND, as much as I love the FB program, needs to emphasize basketball more. https://sports.yahoo.com/publicity-umbcs-upset-generated-worth-staggering-amount-money-054324907.html The NCAA will never admit it, but they love when the upset happens. I'm not ready to say this is a negative because this is a 2 way street. Imagine the year that UND went to the NCAAs, and with Marlon involved, wouldn't that have been a better team? Imagine Nash playing right away with Huff and company? Maybe they get to the dance a few years early? Mid-majors will be fine, they will adapt and find a way around and beat the system. The one-and-done rule didn't kill the mid-majors, this won't either.

Imagine if Shirley had cut WIH, the outrage would have been 100x worse How dare a UND ALUMNI do that! He was one of us!

I'm hoping these international players can have an Harald Frey, Venky Jois, Bogdan like impacts and careers here. verses a Rolls-Tyson

I mean its not like they have a former player running one of the better programs in the state that Jones couldn't reach out to...…..

Doing about the same as Kennedy is doing right now.

With so much roster turnover, this puts pressure on all the returners to collectively to take the next step, especially from the 3 juniors on this squad.

So I had to guess who plays this year from the incoming class, I would say everybody but Schmidt and Hazekamp. Those two would be the most likely to redshirt

The minute that happens, the majority of the people complaining about the logo will then complain about the $$$$ being spent to change it. I can see it now: Now they have this money to change the logo huh... they could have used that to save ___________!

Cleveland's moves yesterday should signal to the Twins that they should start to sell. Rumors of Dozier being traded are starting to heat up

I'll put better odds in UND adding Men's soccer over reinstating baseball. I'd also argue if the Summit really wanted UND to have baseball they could have said something, or you know... added them when UND still had it and was looking for members?

https://www.grandforksherald.com/sports/basketball/4474847-und-mens-basketball-continues-european-trend-two-international-additions#.W1DydoBeM8I.twitter Article also mentions McCauley has been ruled medically disqualified.