Jenna Lemnus leaves

[bisongirl]

Announced today that she is leaving for personal reasons.

[Yo]

Hey Bison Girl she played Basketball not Volleyball.

[bisongirl]

Hey Bison Girl she played Basketball not Volleyball.

I knew that! Just clicked the wrong button I guess...must be time to quit working and enjoy the weekend!

Can one of the mods move it?

[aces1180]

Seriously, what the H is going on? Very disappointing, that's for sure.

[heymch86]

Lemnus was very overrated coming out of highschool i felt. There were 3 girls in Region 1 that were better athletes and basketball players. Louisville found out that she wasnt that great, now here at NDSU, we've found out she was never that great and her dedication was never there

[Bison What?]

Lemnus was a great post and a great athlete. Lets face it, You have to have talent if you are recruited by Louisville.

[sambini]

Lemnus was a great post and a great athlete. Lets face it, You have to have talent if you are recruited by Louisville. If she was that great why did she quit?

[MHDBisonfan]

Lemnus was a great post and a great athlete. Lets face it, You have to have talent if you are recruited by Louisville.

I had a chance to coach against her when she was at Enderlin in a summer tournament. I'm sure she's a nice girl and all that, but she is NOT a good basketball player. When you are Louisville and you have scholarships, you can take a chance on a big girl in hopes she will develop into something, but I could have told you 6 years ago she would never be a good college player. What scares me is why she was on the team right now to begin with. Is that where our talent evaluation is at? Yikes. We need to be able to recruit PLAYERS not just big girls who can't move and are unmotivated. Where are the Jayne Evens or Amanda Gehrkes of the world? Just pure basketball players? Right now they are all either at the other university or leaving the state (Kielpinski) We missed out on Whalin from Crookston and Jacobson from Moorhead - they would both look pretty good in green and gold. Instead we get girls who don't even last the season. Yuk.

[Bison What?]

I had a chance to coach against her when she was at Enderlin in a summer tournament. I'm sure she's a nice girl and all that, but she is NOT a good basketball player. When you are Louisville and you have scholarships, you can take a chance on a big girl in hopes she will develop into something, but I could have told you 6 years ago she would never be a good college player. What scares me is why she was on the team right now to begin with. Is that where our talent evaluation is at? Yikes. We need to be able to recruit PLAYERS not just big girls who can't move and are unmotivated. Where are the Jayne Evens or Amanda Gehrkes of the world? Just pure basketball players? Right now they are all either at the other university or leaving the state (Kielpinski) We missed out on Whalin from Crookston and Jacobson from Moorhead - they would both look pretty good in green and gold. Instead we get girls who don't even last the season. Yuk.


wow. you have some really great insights...why arent you coaching at Duke or UNC right now? and you must have had a great college basketball career to come up in here and tell everyone about what a terrible basketball she was or is.

[DIBISON]

I had a chance to coach against her when she was at Enderlin in a summer tournament. I'm sure she's a nice girl and all that, but she is NOT a good basketball player. When you are Louisville and you have scholarships, you can take a chance on a big girl in hopes she will develop into something, but I could have told you 6 years ago she would never be a good college player. What scares me is why she was on the team right now to begin with. Is that where our talent evaluation is at? Yikes. We need to be able to recruit PLAYERS not just big girls who can't move and are unmotivated. Where are the Jayne Evens or Amanda Gehrkes of the world? Just pure basketball players? Right now they are all either at the other university or leaving the state (Kielpinski) We missed out on Whalin from Crookston and Jacobson from Moorhead - they would both look pretty good in green and gold. Instead we get girls who don't even last the season. Yuk.

The state's best, a PG from Devils Lake, ND also is going to the other university.......

[UTH]

Seriously, what the H is going on? Very disappointing, that's for sure.

I see two things happening...


http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff311/indio_rojas/nooooo.jpg


and


http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff311/indio_rojas/gobacktosleepyourgovernmentisinchar.jpg


*still think everything'll be ok.

[WYOBISONMAN]

It seems like we have some serious issues with the Womens BB program. Defections, not getting the top players in North Dakota and a marginal record showcase the problems. We need to get this fixed and return the Women's program to a winning track. If that means a coaching change.......then maybe it is time.

[MHDBisonfan]

wow. you have some really great insights...why arent you coaching at Duke or UNC right now? and you must have had a great college basketball career to come up in here and tell everyone about what a terrible basketball she was or is.

WTF are you her mom or what? why are you ripping on me for telling it like it is?

[Bison bison]

I am far from being a great basketball mind, but I have never been impressed with Lemnus. Here recent games at home were her best, imo. Good, but not worthy of a starting spot. What stinks about this is that as a senior, we basically loose a player on the bench for the rest of the season.

I am far from throwing the towel in on Amy. But as a fan, I'd like to see more wins (imagine that!).

[Mr. Burgundy]

Where is the photo of the guy pissing in the urinal? Rock bottom anyone?

Serious question....I have no idea. WIth three girls leaving....and a batch of girls graduating....how many scholarships will Amy have to recruit with next year? It has to be more than half the roster....That is scary.

[ndbisonfan]

I am just in awe after reading this post. This isn't the first time I have had these thoughts either. People write on these posts about athletes at NDSU as if they aren't even human. (This isn't just about womens basketball either, it happens in every thread, for every sport!!) I'm not writing this to take sides of the players or Amy Ruley, I'm just writing this to try and spark some objective thinking and replies by other members.

First, I'm just amazed that situations like these are always put back on the players as not being dedicated and not giving the effort. No body really know what kind of effort was put in by the players in any sport, what their lifting schedule is, practice time, individual workouts, film, etc... I know these are all things that Ruley is saying in the paper, but lets be honest, what else is she going to revert to. She's not about to take the blame for any of the situations, or why these three athletes decided to stop playing.

My only point is this....
There needs to be a high level of dedication at this level, that I agree with 100% However, there comes a point in time in which these athletes need to make decisions that will make them happy as individuals, and apparently playing basketball for Amy Ruley isn't doing it. The bottom line is that the three women’s basketball players that left this season were not happy with the situation that they were in and decided to walk away for their own sake and well being. From an outsiders perspective looking in, it's really easy to immediately place blame on the athletes.
Could there be something more to it? I think the biggest problem is that Amy Ruley is viewed as a legend in the Fargo area, that no one looks at these situations objectively. Also, Ruley is always able to defend her position and get her opinion out in the news paper and throughout the rest of the media. These girls never have a chance to explain their side of the story.

Finally, no one really knows what it is like to be apart of the NDSU women’s basketball program except for past/current players, their friends, and their families. Last year when Lemnus was giving significant minutes, starting, and producing fair numbers there was never a question about her dedication. I attended an NDSU women’s game earlier this month and was amazed at the comments by some of the fans. When things were going well, everyone was in support of the bison. They go on a 2-5 minute cold streak, and everyone is ripping on them. Almost as bad as Viking fans.
Talk about dedication…..

[OldBisonFan]

I had a chance to coach against her when she was at Enderlin in a summer tournament. I'm sure she's a nice girl and all that, but she is NOT a good basketball player. When you are Louisville and you have scholarships, you can take a chance on a big girl in hopes she will develop into something, but I could have told you 6 years ago she would never be a good college player. What scares me is why she was on the team right now to begin with. Is that where our talent evaluation is at? Yikes. We need to be able to recruit PLAYERS not just big girls who can't move and are unmotivated. Where are the Jayne Evens or Amanda Gehrkes of the world? Just pure basketball players? Right now they are all either at the other university or leaving the state (Kielpinski) We missed out on Whalin from Crookston and Jacobson from Moorhead - they would both look pretty good in green and gold. Instead we get girls who don't even last the season. Yuk.

I remember asking some players, who played against her in high school, what Lemnus was all about and they said a lot of the same that MHDBisonFan has said. We had no chance of getting Jacobson from Moorhead, she wanted to go to a place WARM. I believe the whole family is moving to FLorida. At least last I heard they where things maybe have changed since.

With all the players leaving it does make you raise an eyebrow at the Women's program.

[02Bison]

I am just in awe after reading this post. This isn't the first time I have had these thoughts either. People write on these posts about athletes at NDSU as if they aren't even human. (This isn't just about womens basketball either, it happens in every thread, for every sport!!) I'm not writing this to take sides of the players or Amy Ruley, I'm just writing this to try and spark some objective thinking and replies by other members....


Well said ndbisonfan! Its easy as fans to rip on a program and players for leaving. In any program, any given year, there are going to be players who aren't happy because there isn't enough playing time to go around to keep everyone on the roster happy. Until you've walked a day in Amy's shoes or the shoes of a players like Jenna, Georgia, and Ms. Wilka (something none of us can ever do) its best for us to just accept things as they may happen. Now if we had every player on the team that had significant playing time during the season just up and quit, it may be a whole different story. But when its players sitting on the end of the bench not getting playing time to balance out the practice time, well then some of this is to be expected every year.

[UTH]

Where is the photo of the guy pissing in the urinal? Rock bottom anyone?

Serious question....I have no idea. WIth three girls leaving....and a batch of girls graduating....how many scholarships will Amy have to recruit with next year? It has to be more than half the roster....That is scary.

To find rock bottom, you need to go here... [linky (http://www.bisonville.com/forum/showthread.php?p=171158&highlight=RockBottomyoullknowitwhenyougetther#post 171158)] in another thread about another program that has earned failure status.


*i wouldn't use that pic to describe the bison

[MHDBisonfan]

Just to be clear - I was not saying anything bad about Jenna as a person - I don't even know her. I believe I said in my original post "I'm sure she is a nice girl" What I was disputing was the quote "she is a great athlete". She was not a great athlete. Neither are 99.9% of all high school basketball players - thats not a slam on Jenna, how many kids get a chance to play DI basketball? Not very many. My concern was more towards the recuiting itself. How are we going to reach the top of the Summit league and get to the post season if we keep losing kids internally and are losing all of the best local talent to other schools?

[Wacker_in_the_Hall]

"Those that stay will be Champions"


Those that quit have made a decision that will make it easier to quit, anytime things do not go the way they want

[ndbisonfan]

Just to be clear - I was not saying anything bad about Jenna as a person - I don't even know her. I believe I said in my original post "I'm sure she is a nice girl" What I was disputing was the quote "she is a great athlete". She was not a great athlete. Neither are 99.9% of all high school basketball players - thats not a slam on Jenna, how many kids get a chance to play DI basketball? Not very many. My concern was more towards the recuiting itself. How are we going to reach the top of the Summit league and get to the post season if we keep losing kids internally and are losing all of the best local talent to other schools?


MHDBisonfan - didn't want to make it seem like I was singling you out. This has been a popular theme/growing trend among other threads on this message board.

[spiritbzn1]

Whacker............... your comment says it all..............

[spiritbzn1]

I also remember watching a Bison VB team that had 6 people quit/transfer after one season, go onto place 3rd in the nation the next year. 2 yrs later, there was 4 people (you need 6 people to field a team) at spring practice due to grads/quitting/transfering and that team ended up 2nd in the nation the following fall. Pruning can be a good thing.

[bisonpride2k]

I also remember watching a Bison VB team that had 6 people quit/transfer after one season, go onto place 3rd in the nation the next year. 2 yrs later, there was 4 people (you need 6 people to field a team) at spring practice due to grads/quitting/transfering and that team ended up 2nd in the nation the following fall. Pruning can be a good thing.

You need to be able to recruit to make that happen though and Amy's ability to recruit has been the main contention for years on an even playing field financially. On a vastly uneven one she proved successful (who wouldnt go to the place where they got a much larger scholarship offer).