Not the February game that anyone wants them to make but the week started with Danielle Hunter being named to Sunday's Pro Bowl. The Team also announced another futures contract signing, DT Sheldon Day. If he makes it through training camp the Purple will be his fifth team since being drafted in the fourth round by Jacksonville in 2016.
The latest salary cap was also announced, a record $224,800,000 - up from $208,200,000 this past season. Still means there is a lot of work to do to avoid being way into the luxury tax but as willing to spend as the Wilfs have been, perhaps the increase will allow the team to retain some of the veterans despite their high salaries.
Some of those answers are on hold until they get a defensive coordinator under contract. Saturday brought a ray of light to that end as Denver permitted Ejiro Evero to interview for the same role with Minnesota. He was considered the front-runner for the job but reportedly took the position with Carolina instead. When that domino goes the succession of other moves should happen fairly quickly. As the wheel turned, Sean Desai withdrew his name from consideration for DC with Minnesota in favor of the job in Denver. That leave Brian Flores as the most recognizable, desirable name on the market. As he is still in the running to be the head coach in Arizona, they better pull the rolodex back out and make some more interview-request calls.
While Cody Mauch was continuing the trend of success in Mobile, things were less upward-trending in & around Fargo.
Women's matched the big-man's level of success with their second win over South Dakota this season! For context, the last time they swept the Coyotes, people were still getting over Y2K panic. The men were not so fortunate as they dropped another game and lost Damari Wheeler-Thomas to another injury. They did get a break before Saturday in Brookings as DW-T was able to start & play 34 minutes but any issue to their only point guard at this point in the season is a significant concern! That good news wasn't enough to propel them back into the win column as SDSU took them down again. The women had a rougher go of it against the Jacks at the SHAC.
🤼 helped turn the tide in Colorado with another win.
Back at home, men's & women's 🏃 once again showed they're among the best during the Bison Open. It fell in line as alumni Erin Teschuk was announced as a representative at the World Cross Country Championships!
Moorhead State started the week with the latest polls as men's checked in at 17 & 19.
The outside the lines news continued as preseason 🎾 info was released by the Conference. Junior Shaelyn Johnson was tabbed as the Player to Watch while expectations remain low for the whole.
When the competition commenced 🤼 dropped a 29 - 8 decision to Northern State.
Friday/Saturday competed in the Bison Open and held their own in several events.
On the 🏀 court, Friday was a double bust against Duluth. They came back Saturday against St. Cloud State with a pair of closer games, with each finishing in favor of the Fire-breathers.
The week of competition started early but saw an end to a five-game losing streak by men's 🏀, 81 - 76 over St. John's as they tied a record from the FT line. That night saw a continuation of the women's great season as they have yet to lose their fourth game of the season, 67 - 56 over St. Benedict! The 16 - 3 record is the best since a decade before most of the players drew breath! The women had their second of three games Wednesday versus Macalester, a 73 - 57 victory. That victory secured them a spot in the conference tournament for the first time since 2016! They kept it rolling with a trip to St. Paul for a Saturday tilt against St. Kate's. They got all they could handle but in successful-tournament-fashion, found the way to win for the 18th time! With four games to go & three at home they are looking every bit of a Conference contender & national tournament qualifier that should get good crowds!
The guys aren't likely to have any of those experiences but were able to keep the chance at a .500 conference season alive with their own victory Wednesday against Macalester.
That night also included a trip to Jamestown for 🤼 as they continued their own quality Winter with a 50 - 0 smackdown!
Men's took their own four-game winning streak on the road to Minneapolis and showed continued improvement against Augsburg - just not enough to stretch it five or six. The ladies also had a pair of tight skates back in Moorhead, falling two goals shy Friday but winning with that many Saturday as Kiana Flag went 41/41 between the pipes!
As another sign that Spring is crawling closer, 🎾 got underway with both the men & women in Owatanna for competition Saturday.
Tell me if you've heard or thought this before - it was a weird week for the Howl. They started with back-to-back OT games, the first finishing as a loss to Sacramento on the back-end of a home back-to-back. Then, in enigmatic fashion, they lost to another lottery team. Yes, Orlando is ascending but should still not have been a defeat for the Dogs. Perhaps the result would have been different if not for a scrap in the second half but the five ejections lead to three suspensions & a fine for Jaden McDaniels. It just adds to the larger story of this season, that the whole of the roster isn't going to get nearly enough time together to know what they can be before the offseason. Even without Towns and despite the migraine-inducing outcomes they've forged enough chemistry to put together one of the best records since the start of the year. Much of the credit can go the way of Anthony Edwards who continues to do things rarely done and continue his pace towards being the best player in the franchise's history. That may mean more by the time he's of age to rent a car.
Another week has past with the Bolts gaining little separation from Waterloo as only the loss-column is preventing a tie at the top. It could have been a different story as the teams faced-off Friday & Saturday but an overtime loss negated the impact of a 7 - 4 win in the opening contest.
The results were enough to put them atop the League standings with 54 points. In an effort to maintain & extend that advantage the team traded with Muskegon for forward Owen Mehlenbacher to skate alongside record-setter Kyle Smolen & Forward of the Week Cole Knuble! It's going to be a dramatic final 2.5 months of the season!
Haven't so much as opened their Spring Training but Fargo has already added to it's Major League roster with a transfer of the contract rights for 27 year old relief pitcher Joe Jones to Boston.
Reminder that scores and recruiting news are updated regularly so check back often!
Now for this week's highlights
In just the second year of official competition Central Cass won the East Region girls 🤼 tournament over Carrington 54 - 27. Fargo's representatives bounced-back from their opening round defeat to Carrington, 42 - 40, to take third place 60 - 24 over Grand Forks. They will be the 1 & 3 seeds at the State Meet in two weeks against yet-to-be-decided opponents from out West.
Some of the boys also got loud on the mat this week. West Fargo handled Devils Lake 70 12, Monday. Sheyenne took care of Davies 54 - 16, Tuesday. WF & Davies then each won by 46+ Thursday against GF Central & Wahp/Breck respectively while North won 54 - 23 against Red River. Sheyenne closed out the week with a 52-point win over GFC.
As big as that all is, there was a whole lot more!
Owen Leach started the week with a 42-point performance to lead D/G/F at Oak Grove! One night later Halle Crockett set the Northern Cass scoring record to crack 2,000 points and beat Lisbon by 31. Fast-forward to Saturday and she broke her own record with a 52-point performance against Maple River! Down at Shanley Conner Kraft notched his 1,000th point in a win over Devils Lake Tuesday as well.
Davies boys also had the offense going with two 100+ point performance, the second of which included Mason Klabo also going for a school record! Down in Enderlin Carson Bartholomay also punched the 50 mark with a school record made in 1991! It came in a loss but South's James Hamilton also chipped-in a 42-spot against Central!
As if that wasn't enough, Hankinson's Cruz Hernandez & Hawley's Anna Steer also crossed the millennium mark!
The team results also continued to come. North's boys were pushed into overtime for the third time in the last three weeks, this time by Red River, and remained undefeated in such instances! Friday night West Fargo came out with a 91 - 56 win over Valley City.
On the girls side, Davies took care of Sheyenne by 39 while West Fargo beat Horace 98 - 69 Tuesday. WF came back with an 88 - 48 romp against VC as Miriley Simon & Chloe Pfau went for 23/12/8 blocks & 19/12/6 steals. Any way you slice it, with the other contributions that WF can get, they're going to be TOUGH to beat at the SHAC! Sheyenne also sent the week out with a 53-point win over South. To the East, Ulen/Hitterdal handled Win/E/Mac by 36 while Fertile/Beltrami put a 26 on Bagley as they inched closer to a 20-win season!
Bagley's boys also finished with that deficit to Lake Park/Audubon on the heels of a 62-point drubbing by Fertile/Beltrami. The Falcons then proceeded to come to Moorhead & beat Park Christian by 38. Barnesville also made a theme of winning by 26 as Menagha rolled-in Tuesday. Ada/Borup rounded it out with a 33 over Ulen.
Back in ND, Thompson's boys added a 54-point win over Drayton/V/E Monday while their girls did Midway/Minto by 57 Tuesday. Oak Grove's boys proved to be 42-points better than Enderlin Thursday, their girls got the upper-hand in overtime Tuesday against Maple River & were able to hang on. May/Port/C/G's girls checked-in with a 33-point victory over Larimore and then Kindred took care of Stanley by 26. In another memorable meeting between the Squirrels & Vikings Decontee Smith scored 31 to lead CC to another win!
On the ice Davies boys ripped West Fargo for 10 goals, including a hat-track by Grant Matter!
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