[BasketballAlum] 11/1 newsletter

[James Kuronen]

Dear Basketball Alum-

We open the 75th year of UMD Basketball tomorrow night (Wed. 11/2) with 
an exhibition game vs. Athletes in Action. If you're in Duluth game 
time is 7:00 p.m. and tickets are discounted to $5/adults and $1/high 
school students.

AIA has played 7 games going into tonight's game with Augustana College 
in Sioux Falls, SD. On their roster is 6'8" Eric Brand who played 
against us last season and led them in scoring with 20 points. Also on 
the roster is 6'10" Jarrod Lovette who had a very successful collegiate 
career at Marquette. Athletes in Action defeated us last season 76-73.

Practices have gone well so far. We suffered our first injury last 
Saturday during our intra-squad scrimmage when Brian St. Peter 
(So.-Menominee, MI) sprained an ankle about 4 minutes into the day. He 
should be close to being ready by our season opener at Bemidji St. on 
Nov. 15. This team has practiced hard and, so far, has been very 
coachable. We are emphasizing an improvement in defense, particularly 
off the ball and in the post, and we've seen a big improvement through 
our 15 practices. We feel our offense will be able to generate enough 
points to win, but it'll be if we can hold teams scoring and shooting 
percentage down which will determine our success. Being defense is our 
biggest area where we can improve we've spent more practice time and 
energy there. We are somewhat thin in depth in our interior defense so 
we've been emphasizing trying to keep the ball out of the post to 
reduce our exposure to foul trouble. It'll be key tomorrow night to see 
the carry over from practice into on the court against an opponent 
who's led by their two big post players.

Next week we travel to Minneapolis to play the Minnesota Gophers at 
Williams Arena on Thursday, Nov. 11. Game time is 7:00 p.m. and tickets 
are available by calling 1-800-UGOPHER. Request tickets in the UMD 
Section which is #211. Tickets are $15.00 each. We hope to see many of 
you at the game. Please stop by and say hi.

You'll be receiving your ballot to vote for the UMD Basketball 75th 
Year Anniversary Team sponsored by Jostens soon. It is leaving in the 
mail tomorrow, please look over the nominees and return the ballot to 
us on or before December 1st.

We've determined to red-shirt four players on this years team
Jordan "Spud" Schade, Fr. Oshkosh, WI
Steve Jamnick, Fr. Tower, MN
Jared Sodahl, Fr., Duluth, MN
Ryan Meissner, Jr. Osseo, MN (Mpls Community & Technical College)
We had contemplated red-shirting seven-foot Mark Bauch, Jr., St Paul, 
MN (Mpls. Community & Technical College) but he will see action 
tomorrow night.

Our website  www.umdbulldogs.com will have the complete game results 
following games.

As always we love hearing from you and if you're in Duluth, please stop 
by practice or games and say hi.

Butch Kuronen
Assistant Basketball Coach
University of Minnesota Duluth
218-726-6199 (office)
218-591-7618 (cell)
jkuronen at d.umn.edu