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After months of speculation and weeks of waiting for the decision to officially be announced, Grant Nelson decided to take his game to Tuscaloosa.
Think what you will about the program, that university and personally, not a fan, but he will go against some of the top college players in the country every day in practice and on most game nights from November through The Tournament. With the objective being to reach the best League in the world it's a no-brainer decision and anyone who might grumble about him leaving needs to get their head out of the Dakota Prairie soil.
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Off the Nelson news came another endorsement for Dave Richman's recruiting and development as Rocky Kreuser & Vinny Shahid each each signed deals overseas. The MN big man will head to Belgium for his second professional season, proof that they have more than flowers & waffles, while the dynamite PG will move from Iceland to the top league in Italy - perhaps the D-League isn't out of the question for him just yet! That could be where Sam Griesel finds himself as he has a chance to go with Boston's Summer team, your guess is as good as mine about what will happen after that!
As for NDSU MBB, they've made the tournament, they've been in contention many of the other years and the best team of the Richman era got t-boned by China.
And then there was this week.
It's not a stretch to think that this was the best out-of-season week that the men's basketball program has had so far!
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That was culmination of years but wasn't the only thing to qualify for "Best of" as three Red Dogs of Spring qualified to compete in next weekend's Under-20 Outdoor National Championships, including Kindred's own Paul Olson! Field has broken-through nationally far more often in recent years but those three could spell a balancing of the scales from the Track side.
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Local hockey fans also got paid-off this week as two members of this past season's team were drafted in the 100s, along with incoming goalie Hampton Slukynsky so the stream of victories could continue at a similar clip in upcoming seasons!
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The Howl also made some waves as the free agency frenzy opened. They started by getting a deal done with Naz Reid which did precisely zero to clarify the situation with Towns & Gobert but should have happened on merit. They then proceeded to work on two-way contracts with Luka Garza & Matt Ryan while also locking McLaughlin in for the year before getting options to help space the floor once free agency began. There was one roster casualty as Taurean Prince was let go, but it's a better roster than the one that got 42 Ws without one of it's top players for 53 games.
No matter how much those players help, for them to get into the 55+ win stratosphere they will need Ant to take another step - which could begin in the Philippines in late August as he's among the headliners of the Team USA squad.
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Already touting one of the best seasons in the League, Sonny Gray got another morsel toward Top Pitcher voting as he was named an All-Star.
At some point, maybe, the offense won't stink to high heaven but even as they do the pitchers continue to pull way more than their share of the weight!
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On the second day of July West Fargo's legion team took another step in the journey, winning Post 2's annual tournament in unblemished fashion.
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That's a good week!
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