2025-2026 Recruiting

[EternalOptimist]

14 minutes ago, GoodGood said:

Not sure why the talent level would be expected to fall off. Look at last years all conference team and where they started their careers at. 10 out of the 11 were transfers into the Summit League. They came from JUCO, D3, D2, D1 mid major, and D1 high major. The transfer portal goes both ways 

Teams with NIL $ may not fall off that much, but there are a lot of lower D1 teams out there that don't have the NIL $ - or they may choose to spend it on a different sports (Hockey/Football). Many of the Summit League teams will fall into this category. Those teams will inevitably loose their best players every year and won't have a shot at the best portal players because they will be leaning towards $$$. Most of the transfers out of UND last year are making over $10k (and several significantly more), and they didn't move to bigtime programs (Eaglestaff is the exception).  Heck we lost one to Omaha - who is now getting $30k or so. There will be exceptions of course, but overall those that put the $$ out there will get the higher quality. It's not easy to put out the $$ for all the sports - Hockey, football, Basketball, or any other sport.

[MoSiouxFan]

2 hours ago, sioux24/7 said:

They’re here. 

Thanks.  Looking forward to seeing if one or both can crack the starting lineup this year.  What do you think?

[EternalOptimist]

36 minutes ago, MoSiouxFan said:

Thanks.  Looking forward to seeing if one or both can crack the starting lineup this year.  What do you think?

It will be interesting to see, I don't think they hit the starting lineup, but possibly get some time in the rotation. A redshirt year would actually be the best thing for them, but I'm sure they would disagree.  Athletically, they can jump out of the gym.  I've seen a lot of dunk highlights and a few 3s, but they are highlights, anyone can put a good highlight reel together. It will really depend on where their heads are at, if they can adjust to the speed of the D1 game, and if they can play defense at all. 

[UND92,96]

20 hours ago, EternalOptimist said:

It will be interesting to see, I don't think they hit the starting lineup, but possibly get some time in the rotation. A redshirt year would actually be the best thing for them, but I'm sure they would disagree.  Athletically, they can jump out of the gym.  I've seen a lot of dunk highlights and a few 3s, but they are highlights, anyone can put a good highlight reel together. It will really depend on where their heads are at, if they can adjust to the speed of the D1 game, and if they can play defense at all. 

I would be shocked if both aren't in the rotation, and I would guess that Micah will be in the starting lineup by the time conference play starts, if not sooner. Considering all the front court minutes gone from last year between Kuljohovic, Woodson, Mayar, Mara and Mathews, and with Natsvishvili being in all likelihood the only returnee with much of a chance of getting serious front court minutes, by process of elimination you almost have to assume both Curtises will play a lot.

[HoopsFan03]

57 minutes ago, UND92,96 said:

I would be shocked if both aren't in the rotation, and I would guess that Micah will be in the starting lineup by the time conference play starts, if not sooner. Considering all the front court minutes gone from last year between Kuljohovic, Woodson, Mayar, Mara and Mathews, and with Natsvishvili being in all likelihood the only returnee with much of a chance of getting serious front court minutes, by process of elimination you almost have to assume both Curtises will play a lot.

If both of them aren't playing heavy minutes, especially Micah, then we are even more screwed than we already are. 

[McBuckets]

And if both Curtis aren’t in the rotation next year I would imagine they are playing somewhere else their sophomore year 

[F'n Hawks]

5 hours ago, McBuckets said:

And if both Curtis aren’t in the rotation next year I would imagine they are playing somewhere else their sophomore year 

Likely won’t be playing here next year either way. Sather has to be gone right?

[HoopsFan03]

1 hour ago, F'n Hawks said:

Likely won’t be playing here next year either way. Sather has to be gone right?

Never know with our AD unfortunately 

[UND1983]

UND likes to make sure programs are COMPLETELY stuck in the mud before they think about making a change.  Even then its tough

[UND92,96]

On 7/25/2025 at 10:02 AM, EternalOptimist said:

I'm going to try and put a little silver in the lining.  I think with the advent of NIL and unlimited ability to hop around, the Summit league and most of the lower D1 programs are going to have to understand the talent level is going to diminish from what we are used to.  So, it will be interesting to see the product of UND and the rest of the Summit, it may not be as bad as you think?  I could be wrong, but I have some hope.  That's the good news, the bad news is, any good or even OK player is going to want to leave for $$$.  Obviously, the teams that can give NIL $ will be better off than those who don't/can't.  Every player on the St Thomas team gets NIL $$ (and it's in the thousands at the lowest).  Most do in Omaha, and SDSU. Unfortunately, there is only $$ for a couple players at UND, and it's a very small amount.  Tough to keep good players around now days when there isn't any $$.  The ones that do stay, may know they can't get it elsewhere and are content with free education.

 

I realize St. Thomas has pretty deep pockets, and SDSU historically draws very well for basketball and probably gets a fair amount of money from Sioux Falls businesses, but where does Omaha get its NIL money? They are literally the third-most popular division I program in their own city.

[SIOUXFAN97]

1 hour ago, UND92,96 said:

I realize St. Thomas has pretty deep pockets, and SDSU historically draws very well for basketball and probably gets a fair amount of money from Sioux Falls businesses, but where does Omaha get its NIL money? They are literally the third-most popular division I program in their own city.

great question....

[HoopsFan03]

7 hours ago, UND92,96 said:

I realize St. Thomas has pretty deep pockets, and SDSU historically draws very well for basketball and probably gets a fair amount of money from Sioux Falls businesses, but where does Omaha get its NIL money? They are literally the third-most popular division I program in their own city.

Omaha has a couple business owners/retired business owners that support them (specifically Men’s basketball) very well. 

[SiouxFan100]

Oh to have a lot of money. Will be hard to compete without it.

[SIOUXFAN97]

22 hours ago, HoopsFan03 said:

Omaha has a couple business owners/retired business owners that support them (specifically Men’s basketball) very well. 

wish wes and arch were more bball fans than hockey!

[nodak651]

23 hours ago, HoopsFan03 said:

Omaha has a couple business owners/retired business owners that support them (specifically Men’s basketball) very well. 

They didnt opt in, however.

[EternalOptimist]

I hope the Twins adjust to D1 play and are able to contribute. That said, to my knowledge and according to verbal commits, they only received one D1 offer and it was UND.  If they are good enough to play, then great, but it's a lot to ask of them to contribute major minuets. I'm also not as sold on all the current redshirts being bad. I'd like to see them play meaningful minutes before casting them aside.  They really haven't gotten a chance (and garbage time doesn't really count). They should have been given some time in the pre-season last year, just to see what they can or can't do.  Many of the games we lost we would have lost even if we would have let a couple of those guys play a few meaningful minuets.  Unfortunately, because they were glued to the bench, we are in a situation where they haven't played meaningful minuets for a couple of years. A slow start should be expected, which will fuel critics, but I think there is some talent there, it just needs some time.

[McBuckets]

2 hours ago, EternalOptimist said:

I hope the Twins adjust to D1 play and are able to contribute. That said, to my knowledge and according to verbal commits, they only received one D1 offer and it was UND.  If they are good enough to play, then great, but it's a lot to ask of them to contribute major minuets. I'm also not as sold on all the current redshirts being bad. I'd like to see them play meaningful minutes before casting them aside.  They really haven't gotten a chance (and garbage time doesn't really count). They should have been given some time in the pre-season last year, just to see what they can or can't do.  Many of the games we lost we would have lost even if we would have let a couple of those guys play a few meaningful minuets.  Unfortunately, because they were glued to the bench, we are in a situation where they haven't played meaningful minuets for a couple of years. A slow start should be expected, which will fuel critics, but I think there is some talent there, it just needs some time.

They committed early in the AAU season before their senior year so I imagine they would have got some more offers if they waited till right before the school year to commit.

And what games would they have played in besides the Dickinson st game to start the year? There wasn’t many games were you could play the bench and give guys a chance where it makes sense especially when you are trying to build chemistry with all the new transfers.

Who’s minutes last year would you take away to give to the redshirt squad?

[EternalOptimist]

14 hours ago, McBuckets said:

They committed early in the AAU season before their senior year so I imagine they would have got some more offers if they waited till right before the school year to commit.

And what games would they have played in besides the Dickinson st game to start the year? There wasn’t many games were you could play the bench and give guys a chance where it makes sense especially when you are trying to build chemistry with all the new transfers.

Who’s minutes last year would you take away to give to the redshirt squad?

Chemistry is generally built in practice and in off-court activities, it's usually displayed in games. Chemistry usually relates to how well players like each other and understand each other. As far as minutes taken away from last year's players for the redshirt guys, that's more of a culture thing in my opinion - and I'll try and explain what I mean. Last year, they were all eligible to play, but played very little, even when the top 8 guys were struggling (which as we are all aware, happened a lot. I would encourage you to look back at the schedule, the scores, and even the posts on this forum regarding those games as there were several. In the pre-season, there were 9 games where the final score (and most of the game) were lopsided. Easily could have used some of those games to provide 2-4 minutes to a red-shirt vs continue to watch a rotation player struggle. Even in the conference games, there were a few that were really bad. Easily could have inserted a RS in those. 

Why play those guys, especially early in the season?  It promotes a culture of competition. It allows the top rotation guys to understand, if I'm not playing hard or am struggling in practice or games, I could see the bench - so what do they do, they usually focus more and go 100%. As far as the RS players, it teaches them that if I work hard in practices and games, I could get a shot, so they play hard in practice, which is exactly what is needed. You now have a positive culture of competition. A team either has a positive competitive culture, or not. If your top half of the roster knows that they won't get replaced even if they are struggling or giving partial effort in practice and your bottom half believes they will not play even if they work hard in practice in games that are out of hand, you've just created a non-competitive culture.  In addition to a poor culture in that season, you have no idea who is ready to go next season or when an emergency happens. 

[HoopsFan03]

18 minutes ago, EternalOptimist said:

Chemistry is generally built in practice and in off-court activities, it's usually displayed in games. Chemistry usually relates to how well players like each other and understand each other. As far as minutes taken away from last year's players for the redshirt guys, that's more of a culture thing in my opinion - and I'll try and explain what I mean. Last year, they were all eligible to play, but played very little, even when the top 8 guys were struggling (which as we are all aware, happened a lot. I would encourage you to look back at the schedule, the scores, and even the posts on this forum regarding those games as there were several. In the pre-season, there were 9 games where the final score (and most of the game) were lopsided. Easily could have used some of those games to provide 2-4 minutes to a red-shirt vs continue to watch a rotation player struggle. Even in the conference games, there were a few that were really bad. Easily could have inserted a RS in those. 

Why play those guys, especially early in the season?  It promotes a culture of competition. It allows the top rotation guys to understand, if I'm not playing hard or am struggling in practice or games, I could see the bench - so what do they do, they usually focus more and go 100%. As far as the RS players, it teaches them that if I work hard in practices and games, I could get a shot, so they play hard in practice, which is exactly what is needed. You now have a positive culture of competition. A team either has a positive competitive culture, or not. If your top half of the roster knows that they won't get replaced even if they are struggling or giving partial effort in practice and your bottom half believes they will not play even if they work hard in practice in games that are out of hand, you've just created a non-competitive culture.  In addition to a poor culture in that season, you have no idea who is ready to go next season or when an emergency happens. 

I hate to break it to you but this is college basketball we’re talking about here. Not high school. Not everyone gets a participation trophy.

[McBuckets]

18 minutes ago, EternalOptimist said:

Chemistry is generally built in practice and in off-court activities, it's usually displayed in games. Chemistry usually relates to how well players like each other and understand each other. As far as minutes taken away from last year's players for the redshirt guys, that's more of a culture thing in my opinion - and I'll try and explain what I mean. Last year, they were all eligible to play, but played very little, even when the top 8 guys were struggling (which as we are all aware, happened a lot. I would encourage you to look back at the schedule, the scores, and even the posts on this forum regarding those games as there were several. In the pre-season, there were 9 games where the final score (and most of the game) were lopsided. Easily could have used some of those games to provide 2-4 minutes to a red-shirt vs continue to watch a rotation player struggle. Even in the conference games, there were a few that were really bad. Easily could have inserted a RS in those. 

Why play those guys, especially early in the season?  It promotes a culture of competition. It allows the top rotation guys to understand, if I'm not playing hard or am struggling in practice or games, I could see the bench - so what do they do, they usually focus more and go 100%. As far as the RS players, it teaches them that if I work hard in practices and games, I could get a shot, so they play hard in practice, which is exactly what is needed. You now have a positive culture of competition. A team either has a positive competitive culture, or not. If your top half of the roster knows that they won't get replaced even if they are struggling or giving partial effort in practice and your bottom half believes they will not play even if they work hard in practice in games that are out of hand, you've just created a non-competitive culture.  In addition to a poor culture in that season, you have no idea who is ready to go next season or when an emergency happens. 

Im looking at the results from last year and Im not seeing all these lopsided loses to but the end if bench players in. Yes a couple 20 points games they could’ve came in at. But clearly games are different then practice so you need the guys who will be playing minutes on the court to build chemistry together. Off the court stuff and practice is great for culture but that isn’t play in a game together where you can control what is happening like practice and have actual stakes on the line.

Most of what your saying works great for a high school team but this is college basketball and if we want to build that competitive culture seems like we need to do a better job of recruiting guys who are D1 players then and can push the first 8. I do think that would help push those top players but last year just didnt have the bench to do that and will always be tough to have a deep bench in the Summit.

Sather should be coaching for his job (probably has a secret extension we dont know about) and this forum would have been at his throat even more if he did that. Still curious though where those minutes would come from

[McBuckets]

Just to note UND played 10 players 10+ minutes last year as well. 

[EternalOptimist]

48 minutes ago, HoopsFan03 said:

I hate to break it to you but this is college basketball we’re talking about here. Not high school. Not everyone gets a participation trophy.

HA!  Thank God too!   I'm really not interested in participation trophies, I'd just like to win games. I assume you'd like to win more games as well? How we get to that level we may or may not agree on, but we have the same end result in mind.

[EternalOptimist]

44 minutes ago, McBuckets said:

Im looking at the results from last year and Im not seeing all these lopsided loses to but the end if bench players in. Yes a couple 20 points games they could’ve came in at. But clearly games are different then practice so you need the guys who will be playing minutes on the court to build chemistry together. Off the court stuff and practice is great for culture but that isn’t play in a game together where you can control what is happening like practice and have actual stakes on the line.

Most of what your saying works great for a high school team but this is college basketball and if we want to build that competitive culture seems like we need to do a better job of recruiting guys who are D1 players then and can push the first 8. I do think that would help push those top players but last year just didn't have the bench to do that and will always be tough to have a deep bench in the Summit.

Sather should be coaching for his job (probably has a secret extension we dont know about) and this forum would have been at his throat even more if he did that. Still curious though where those minutes would come from

Colorado St (-26), Notre Dame (-17), Bethune Cookman (-12), Southeastern Louisiana (-16), Utah Valley (-23)... for Non-Conf.  Denver (-25), SDSU (-36) St T (-15).

I don't agree about it only working for HS teams, but we can disagree, I actually think it works all the way to NBA level and you sometimes see NBA stars being sent to the bench or get sent to the 2nd squad - It's the nature of competitive sports - if you're not producing, you sit. I don't see that as a HS thing. I guess when it comes down to it, last year I found myself wondering why some of the rotation guys were left to struggle for so long, especially when the team was struggling. Now I'm looking forward to this season, and I wish we had seen more of the returners play last year rather than just instantly discard them as being no good. 

[UND92,96]

The guy I'm kind of interested to see if he can surprise some people and get into the rotation is Uelmen. Seems like he was kind of a late bloomer in high school, but he was the leading scorer as a senior for Minnetonka, who won the MN AAAA state title that season. He was actually a bigger scorer than his high school teammate Andy Stefanowicz, who played quite a bit as a freshman at NDSU last season. 

[UNDDOM]

1 minute ago, UND92,96 said:

The guy I'm kind of interested to see if he can surprise some people and get into the rotation is Uelmen. Seems like he was kind of a late bloomer in high school, but he was the leading scorer as a senior for Minnetonka, who won the MN AAAA state title that season. He was actually a bigger scorer than his high school teammate Andy Stefanowicz, who played quite a bit as a freshman at NDSU last season. 

I agree, he brings some potential for this year.