Bison Womens BB Recruiting Update
Spoke to Carolyn DeHoff today about her spring recruiting.
She told me that no junior college players have visited campus since she took over for Amy Ruley, and no visits are planned. She says she has spent most of her first weeks on the road recruiting high school players that will be juniors and seniors this fall. She says she has spent very little time even looking into junior college players and transfers. She says she continues to be impressed with the returning players (none of which have given her any indication they wish to transfer or leave the team) and is comfortable going into battle next season with the players currently in the program.
She says Molly Marrin was retained as recruiting coordinator because of her extensive ties in the midwest and her high-level people skills. She still needs to hire two assistant coaches, and says one of the postings closes on the 15th and the other one on the 22nd. She says she's keeping her options open and has not made up her mind about who she wants to bring in.
DeHoff says her early conversations with high school players have been very positive and in her words "there has been large interest of some very talented players."
Posted by: Steve Hallstrom on 5/08/2008 at 2:50 PM | Comments (10) | Permalink
Will Gateway change its name?
The name change possibility in the Gateway Football Conference is a month away and there's no real clear indication of how it will go. Spoke with Gateway commissioner Patty Viverito today and she said she would be OK with it no matter the outcome.
The proposal is to change it to presumably the Missouri Valley Football Conference, which would more closely align the football league with the Missouri Valley Conference. (The Misouri Valley runs the Gateway -- Viverito is senior associate commissioner of the Missouri Valley).
It would take affect immediately. One of the reasons to immediately address the issue, Viverito said, is so new members NDSU and SDSU don't have to throw anything Gateway-related away after just one year.
My guess is it won't pass. It has to have the support of Gateway schools and Missouri Valley schools. That's a whole lot of presidential agreement that has to happen.
Five schools in the Missouri Valley play football in the Gateway: Northern Iowa, Indiana State, Missouri State, Southern Illinois and Missouri State. They are the ones that are said to be wanting the change the most. The rest of the Missouri Valley schools don't play football.
"The presidents will decide," Viverito said.
Posted by: Jeff Kolpack on 5/07/2008 at 7:40 PM | Comments (6) | Permalink
Softball rocks Summit
Track and field still has a lot to say about this, but after covering the Bison women's softball doubleheader sweep of Southern Utah today, softball can make a claim as the best NDSU performance in the Summit League.
It won the league by five games in the loss column and finished 14-2 -- 37-17 overall. The coaches have a nice formula going: a good recruiting pipeline from California complemented by some Minnesota kids. They lose a couple of good pitchers in Allison Bakke and Bekki Rasmussen, but everybody else is back.
The team quickness is the best I've ever seen at Ellig. At this rate, NDSU is in position to dominate the league for the next several years in the same way Oral Roberts baseball handles the Summit competition.
Track and field won the Summit men's and women's indoor titles and the outdoor meet is a week away. If they repeat their indoor feats, NDSU's Summit spring will be quite impressive.
Posted by: Jeff Kolpack on 5/03/2008 at 9:14 PM | Comments (11) | Permalink
Bison to play hoops at USC
Posted by: Kevin Schnepf on 5/01/2008 at 2:07 PM | Comments (22) | Permalink
Hill declares for NBA Draft
George Hill, the Summit League men's basketball player of the year, has declared for the NBA Draft.
Hill, a 6-foot-2 guard for Indiana Purdue-Indianapolis, will not hire an agent, so he has until June 16 to withdraw his name from consideration and could return for his senior year. The draft is June 26.
Hill, who led IUPUI to a school-best 26-7 record last season, averaged 21.4 points, 6.8 rebounds and 4.3 assists. In IUPUI's home win over North Dakota State, Hill had 22 points, 8 rebounds and 2 assists. In IUPUI's win at NDSU, Hill had 33 points, 6 rebounds and 7 assists.
Posted by: Kevin Schnepf on 5/01/2008 at 11:49 AM | Comments (3) | Permalink