Nov. 11—GRAND FORKS — The UND men’s basketball team will enter Saturday’s home opener against Montana with a 1-2 record and potentially without one of its starters.
Tyler Wagner, the 6-foot-6 sophomore guard who transferred from Austin Peay, suffered an upper-body injury in the season opener against Minnesota.
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Wagner made his first career start against the Golden Gophers and played 12 minutes.
There is no clear timetable for Wagner’s return, though head coach Paul Sather said the team should know more soon.
“I think we’re going to know more in a week,” Sather said, “we’ll know more as far as how close he is. But at this point in time, we’re probably not quite there yet. But all signs point (that we are) really fortunate, really lucky. We won’t have to go without him too much longer. But you just want to make sure you’re smart about it, like you don’t want shoulder injuries or injuries like that where you just don’t want to come out too soon and re-injure stuff. You want to make sure he’s coming back in a way that he’s ready to go, because we have a lot of season left.”
With Wagner out, the Hawks thrust freshman Carter Evanson into the starting lineup against Winthrop and Clemson.
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The 6-foot-3 guard from Horace, N.D., has shown an “Eli King-ish” ability on defense in his first two collegiate starts, according to Sather.
“We don’t want to do things that create offense, we want to be great at what we do,” Sather said. “I think he’s really learning that fine line. It’s a little Eli King-ish, the ability to live on that fine line of what’s a little bit of a gamble, but being in the right position. And his hands — he can create deflections, man. He has the ability to get deflections and make plays. If he doesn’t get the steal, there’s a lot of times where he got his hand on the ball and caused a turnover. Happy with the progress he’s had.”
Evanson has eight steals through three games, averaging 2.7 per game. That ranks third in the Summit League.
Evanson has also flexed some offensive potential. He shot 3-for-5 from 3-point range and finished with nine points against Clemson on Monday.
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Evanson is averaging a team-high 29 minutes per game as well.
“Both (Evanson) and Jayden Moore are getting awesome opportunities,” Sather said, “and they’re just taking advantage of it. When that opportunity comes, be ready for it. A few weeks back, you probably weren’t necessarily looking at Carter as a heavy-minute rotation guy. But what he was doing in practice every day was starting to tell us that he’s getting there. The opportunity when a guy like Tyler goes down — what (Evanson) was doing in practice put him in a position to do what he’s doing right now.
“It’s a credit to him and his buy-in. He’s one of the best talkers in our practices. Defensively right now, he has some of the best feel of what we’re trying to do, and that’s with everybody, returners and new guys. So his complete buy-in is awesome to see. He’s a great teammate, he makes it about the team and what he can do to help the team, and he’s doing an awful lot on the defensive side of the floor. But you can see some of the offense come out with him. We let guys play with some freedom, but there’s responsibility with that freedom, and I just think he really handles that pretty dang well.”
Note: This page will be updated as players sign throughout the day.
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Both UND basketball programs added Class of 2027 recruits on Wednesday, National Signing Day.
Listed below are the new additions.
Kyson Keller
Kyson Keller is a 6-foot-7 guard who plays for West Fargo Sheyenne.
Keller earned all-state second team honors last season, when he averaged 15.5 points and 7.1 rebounds per game as a junior.
Prep Hoops has Keller listed as the third-ranked recruit in North Dakota.
Bryce Gaustad
Bryce Gaustad will enter his senior season at Anoka High School with more than 1,000 career points.
Gaustad, a 6-foot-9 forward, was named Northwest Suburban Conference all-conference last season.
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Addison Bjorklund
Addison Bjorklund of Brainerd, Minn., verbally committed to UND in February 2025.
The 6-foot-1 forward made it official on Wednesday.
Bjorklund reached 1,000 career points as a junior last season. She averaged 18.1 points, 9.8 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 1.2 blocks per game.
Bjorklund has received all-conference and all-area first team honors four times. She has been named to the 2026-27 Minnesota Miss Basketball watch list ahead of her senior year.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: Sports.yahoo.com
