The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

[Augie Boy]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Josh Morton has been announced as the new AD as I made my previous post. Gotta keep up with the times

[MSUMavMan2009]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Josh Morton has been announced as the new AD as I made my previous post. Gotta keep up with the times

Previously the Assistant AD at Michigan State for Development. The guy is a fundraiser.

[Augie Boy]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Previously the Assistant AD at Michigan State for Development. The guy is a fundraiser.

And he was at UND during their transition to D1. If that's the route Augie goes, awesome. If we remain a D2 powerhouse, awesome.

[simple as a $3 bill]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Augie has a tough double-header against St. Cloud this afternoon (weather permitting). Hopefully Northern remains the only strike on our record after today. The baseball program has been on the upswing over the last few years. Coach Huber has really knocked it out the park (end of puns) as far as getting talented players and developing a perennial competitive squad. Our pitchers are absolutely filthy this year, Seniors like Flattery and Blank just doing what they do. Even when we did lose to the Wolves (7-3) Northern only managed 5 hits.

Sounds like a couple of pretty good games today. 2-1 Huskies in Game 1, 1-0 Vikings in Game 2.

[MrAugustana]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Cool story about Jordan Spencer playing in an exhibition game in London last weekend against the Ball Brothers (LaMelo and Liangelo). Dropped 32 points and 8 assists coming off the bench.

http://goaugie.com/news/2018/4/3/men...xhibition.aspx

Spencer Shines in Professional Exhibition

[vikingfaithful]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Sounds like a couple of pretty good games today. 2-1 Huskies in Game 1, 1-0 Vikings in Game 2.

Pitching was the word in both games today with 29 strikeouts total in the twin bill. After looking at a good amount of snow on a SCSU webcam, I assume the Huskies have an indoor practice facility.

[vikingfaithful]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

It's been a long, long time since I've posted. Those that know me know that I've moved on but still follow the conference closely. But the recent situation with Augustana intrigues me and has me asking...

Augie has narrowed down the AD search to 4 people. Slade's departure hits a very volatile time for Augie athletics. The rumors are rampant. "Augie is going D-1." "Augie is NOT going D-1." Ultimately, President Herseth will make the AD hire fit her own agenda. The Summit League Tournament is in Sioux Falls until at least 2022 (I can't see the tournament ever leaving unless they want to rotate between Sioux Falls and Fargo), your first year of playoff eligibility would be 2023 if the move happened immediately.

So, how do you feel about the possibility of moving Division I in athletics? Do you think the money is there to fundraise and increase your budget 100%? Do you see any benefits of making the transition? I'm really interested in hearing your thoughts on the situation.

Edit: I don't know if this post gets more traction on the football half of the forum. Seeing that everything purged with the move to CR4, it might be worth the discussion since Spring Ball has started.

Listening to an interview of President Stephanie Herseth by voice of the Vikings Jeff Fylling after a women's central region game, she did not come across enthusiastic about a D1 move and talked about the need to grow enrollment to around 3,000 as a priority before considering moving on from the NSIC. Raising an additional 10 million dollars a year to compete in the summit league would be a monumental task. The Summit league is not a robust conference with turnover and teams looking for a better league. I'm sure NDSU and SDSU would be gone in a heartbeat if a better offer came along.

As a 30+ year follower of AU I have enjoyed the NSIC where Augie has been very competitive versus the old NCC years. The NSIC is gaining traction as a premier D2 league, judging by all the National championship hardware in the trophy cases. Augustana would be out of their minds to move to D1, especially to the shaky Summit league.

[simple as a $3 bill]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Pitching was the word in both games today with 29 strikeouts total in the twin bill. After looking at a good amount of snow on a SCSU webcam, I assume the Huskies have an indoor practice facility.

I think that the bubble is still up over the football field. Word is that unless there are some drastic weather improvements in St. Cloud, they may not get any home games in this season.

[MrAugustana]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Not sure if I already posted this somewhere, but a couple of updates on Augie's incoming recruits:

In the South Dakota Basketball Coaches Association awards, incoming Viking AJ Plitzuweit was named 2018 Player of the Year as well as 1st Team All-State, while fellow incoming Vikings Dylan LeBrun and Trevor Hanson were also named 1st Team All-State.

Also, in the KELOLAND/Sanford Pentagon Player of the Year awards, Plitzuweit and LeBrun were two of five nominees, and AJ ended up winning Player of the Year for that as well.

Finally, I think I posted this already, but Plitzuweit and LeBrun were also two of the Argus Leader First Five award winners, and Trevor Hanson was on the Second Five team. Interestingly, SDSU-bound Aaron Fiegen ended up making the Second Five. That's about the only way the Vikes can beat the Jackrabbits in anything anymore (unless President Herseth Sandlin leads us into the Division 1 ranks in a blaze of glory), but it still made me smile.

Congrats to the incoming Vikes on their various awards. Looking forward to their continued success into next season and beyond.

[laker]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Jeremy Hoeck
?@jhoeck
3h3 hours ago
More
Today's project: The Cody Schilling effect at Mount Marty College

Men's hoops coach has secured 15 commitments for the 2018 class (currently 13 guys on the roster), with 8 recruits from South Dakota

3 recruits today raved about Schilling's vision for MMC. Full story later!

[Stanger86]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Jeremy Hoeck
?@jhoeck
3h3 hours ago
More
Today's project: The Cody Schilling effect at Mount Marty College

Men's hoops coach has secured 15 commitments for the 2018 class (currently 13 guys on the roster), with 8 recruits from South Dakota

3 recruits today raved about Schilling's vision for MMC. Full story later!

Here's the article: https://www.yankton.net/sports/artic...2f1403d0e.html

[MrAugustana]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Here's the article: https://www.yankton.net/sports/artic...2f1403d0e.html

Good for Cody. Now we just need to make sure he doesn't steal away any Augie recruits in the future. :)

[MrAugustana]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Northstar Hoops released their Senior All-State team. Michael Schaefer of St. Cloud Cathedral made the 2nd-Team and Eric Tiedman made 4th-Team. Schaefer in particular was given a spot above 4-5 D1 players, including kids going to Denver, Wofford, NDSU, Navy, and the 2nd-Team had two mid-major D1 kids on it and Minnesota commit Jarvis Omersa.

Not saying it guarantees Schaefer will be a superstar, obviously, but it's interesting to see him make the cut as 2nd-Team Senior All-State while a guy committed to NDSU ended up on the 5th-Team. I think he and Tiedman are going to be HUGE parts of a really, really special core by the time this 2018 class graduates.

[vikingfaithful]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Northstar Hoops released their Senior All-State team. Michael Schaefer of St. Cloud Cathedral made the 2nd-Team and Eric Tiedman made 4th-Team. Schaefer in particular was given a spot above 4-5 D1 players, including kids going to Denver, Wofford, NDSU, Navy, and the 2nd-Team had two mid-major D1 kids on it and Minnesota commit Jarvis Omersa.

Not saying it guarantees Schaefer will be a superstar, obviously, but it's interesting to see him make the cut as 2nd-Team Senior All-State while a guy committed to NDSU ended up on the 5th-Team. I think he and Tiedman are going to be HUGE parts of a really, really special core by the time this 2018 class graduates.

Vikings incoming class have made a lot of news and all of it is good. Certainly going to be a fun upcoming season.

[MrAugustana]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Again, only Augie fans will care, but all three of Augie's 2018 commits from SD made 1st Team Senior All-State via the Prep Hoops guys. Other NSIC-ers of note include Lincoln Jordre (NSU) on the 1st Team, Gus Reede (NSU) who landed on the 4th Team and, interestingly, D1-bound (former NSU commit) Cole Bergan ended up 4th Team as well.

Future Augie baseballer and footballer Peyton Zabel was 4th Team Senior All-State as well.

Congrats to those incoming freshmen on great seniors seasons and great careers.