[BasketballAlum] newsletter 3/7/06

[James Kuronen]

Our season came to an end in Mankato this past Saturday with a 77-71 
loss to MSU-Mankato. The game did not start as we'd hoped with us 
coming out strong and controlling the tempo. MSU got a quick lead but 
we kept fighting and playing hard and smart cutting the lead to 6 with 
1:31 left in the half but two quick scores had us down 10 at the break. 
To start the second half we came out with a better mental attitude and 
was successfully getting the game to our tempo and cutting MSU's lead 4 
a couple times during the first five minutes of the half, but the MSU's 
credit we could get no closer eventually falling behind by as much as 
19. As our guys have done all season though we would not quit and 
started scrapping and pressing and finally hitting a couple of 
perimeter shots we played hard until the end and gave MSU  something to 
think about. losing by 6.

MSU went on the defeat St. Cloud State in the Finals on Sunday by a 
score of 78-69. Both of those teams advance to the NCAA North Central 
Regional along with the NCC's 3rd place finisher the Univ. of South 
Dakota. Three teams from our league is a little bit of a surprise but a 
testament to the strength of the NCC.

John Emerson (Sr.-New Richmond,WI) was named to the all-NCC team and 
John Vaudreuil (So.-Bloomington Jefferson) was picked as an Honorable 
Mention all-NCC. Both players are very deserving of those honors.

We return a strong nucleus for next year and had four players 
red-shirted, 3 of which we believe will help make a difference for us 
next season. Ryan Meissner will be a junior from Minneapolis Community 
College and will add greatly to our perimeter players depth and 
defensive prowess. We believe he will be our best perimeter defender. 
Steve Jamnick (Tower, MN) will be a freshman and is as big a body as we 
are going to get. He's 6'10" and about 280 pounds and made some huge 
strides in practice this season. He takes up a tremendous amount of 
space in the lane and we look for him to continue to make improvements 
this off-season. Spud Schade (Oshkosh, WI) will also be a freshman next 
year and is one we are excited about. Spud is only about 5'8" but is 
truly a "basketball" player. His dad is a very successful, long time 
high school coach and Spud is really a coach on the floor. He see's and 
understands the game at a level above his age. Jared Sodahl (Duluth 
East) is the fourth player we red-shirted this year and he too made 
great strides during the season. He must continue to improve his 
strength but has a very high up-side. Our task is to keep showing Jared 
how really talented is. The sooner he figures that out the sooner he'll 
help our team during games. He's about 6'7" and very athletic, 
reminiscent to us of a young David Thompson.

We will stay in touch with some recruiting news when things get closer 
to finalizing. We really do appreciate your support and all you 
positive comments from these emails and believe we are running the UMD 
Basketball program in a way to make you feel pride.

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