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2004-2005 MBB and WBB Schedules


The Sicatoka

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The men's schedule is the best that I can remember as far as nonconference games go, as at the Disney Classic there will likely be at least 2 ranked opponents. Not to give up on this year, but next year looks like it should be the deepest and best team since the glory days of the early 90's. The rotations will be tough

PG-Nobles, Doyle, and Leikas

SG/SF-MJ, Jacobson, Parks, Austin

PF-Lindahl, Gutter, Wells

C-Rype and Stoute

Add to that the 1 or 2 JC kids the SIoux will I'm sure get, things look great. This year is far from done yet though, so I'll have to curb my inthusiasm.

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What the hell is going on in the ad's office? Too many games in the Ralph....tell me one person, especially a fan, who wants ever play in that hell hole(for BB) again. After that travesty on Sat., it is quite obvious things have to change. The womens game was very quite except for when Ms.Knucklehead got her T and of course when the Bison women were "singing" after the game. That was one of the greatest games ever. If that was in the 'Slop, the sound would of have been deafening. During the mens game, one could hear a pin drop, but I suppose that isn't that unbelievable since at least 1/3 crowd left by early second half. Don't even get me started on the student seating in that place. There was room for a couple of hundred students on the ends on the metal bleachers...and they were forced to sit because the people sitting back in the boonies in the chairs couldnt see when the students stood up. The rest of the students were themselves exiled to the far end of the rink. Way to create a home-field environment,morons. And how about the way the players parents are treated at the Ralph, on the corner and way past the end baseline.

If they give all the good seats to the corporates at the Betty too, well that is pretty self-explanatory. None of them ever come and we will be sitting there with the best seats 3/4 empty. No one cares about the people who have had season tickets for the past 20 years. Whoever is in charge had better wake up before everyone loses interest in BB altogether.

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Part of building The Betty included a new floor and new ice level seating for The Ralph. That'll be better.

And personally, the best seats to watch a game (hockey or BB) from in there are in the upper deck.

As far as why move into The Ralph at all, I posted this in a different thread:

Money.

To pay for college athletics you have to have money, you have to generate revenues.

REA creates more revenue for UND Athletics than any other possible venue. The suites, Club Rooms, broadcast facilities, the Pro Shop, various concessions and "beverage" sales: you have to create traffic in there to fund the athletic programs.

A multipurpose facility is working just fine at Kohl Center (Wisconsin) and "The Schott" (at Ohio State).

Alternatively, remember, they did put TV and radio broadcast capabilities into The Betty too. I'm sure they're looking for the right mix.

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The upper deck might be the best seats, but during the non-conference schedule they had them closed off, which isn't a bad idea so that everyone huddles together to make it look like there are at least 1,000 peeople there to watch another great edition of Glas' boys.

-As far as the suites, they are half empty for BB anyway and people are not going to drop them just because they don't have access to see all the bb games...those corporates don't care about BB.

-The Betty will have broadcast capabilities also.

-People can also consume beverages in each facilty.

So we are missing the club rooms and pro shop so far and I never see that many in the bars anyway during BB. In this day and age of a shortage in government funding, how can one defend a $8-10 million facility for a few games a year. Oh yeah, we can't forget about VB :silly: !

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Maybe it's a concession that the Betty was foolishly underbuilt with a seating capacity of only 4000. If they could have gone 5500-6000 it would have been perfect. Unless it's a game of Kansas-like magnitude, hoops in the Ralph just doesn't make sense. With complaints about atmosphere for hockey, it seems like the Ralph will be morgue-like for games against what will be left of the NCC.

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Maybe it's a concession that the Betty was foolishly underbuilt with a seating capacity of only 4000.  If they could have gone 5500-6000 it would have been perfect.  Unless it's a game of Kansas-like magnitude, hoops in the Ralph just doesn't make sense.  With complaints about atmosphere for hockey, it seems like the Ralph will be morgue-like for games against what will be left of the NCC.

I completely agree. From the time it was announced that the seating capacity for the Betty would only be in the 4000 range, I kept hoping that common sense would prevail and another 2000 to 3000 would be added to the capacity, but no such luck. I think the Ralph is good in terms of a recruiting tool, but it provides no atmosphere at all for basketball.

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The original capacity of the Betty was to be 3,200 as most crowds have been less than that.  Only at the last minute did they agree to increase it to 4,000.  In other words, it could have been worse!

Was it REA management or RT who made the ultimate decision as to the capacity? All they had to do is look back about 10-12 years ago when the average crowd was just under 5000 to see that with good teams, people will come out in bigger numbers.

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Maybe it's a concession that the Betty was foolishly underbuilt with a seating capacity of only 4000.  If they could have gone 5500-6000 it would have been perfect.  Unless it's a game of Kansas-like magnitude, hoops in the Ralph just doesn't make sense.  With complaints about atmosphere for hockey, it seems like the Ralph will be morgue-like for games against what will be left of the NCC.

I think one of the issues for going to a 5500-6000 seat arena is that design scaleup is not linear in terms of cost/seat. A 6000 seat arena would probably be nearly double the cost of the Betty, so a $16-20 million expansion was too much of a stretch for the REA to finance at this time. With next year's men's team as deep as it will, a much more successful winning season with higher attendance also probably played a part in choosing venues. Also, with the 2005 championships at the Ralph, having more game experience within the Ralph may also have played a factor. I do wonder, however, if the Betty's ends could be expanded to make a horseshoe or true oval at a later time.

From a non-UND basketball view, the Betty will be used for other events, like smaller concerts, exhibit space (i.e. during the World Juniors), and high school tournaments (with the Ralph/Alerus). I'm sure the REA management knows of ways to turn a buck. ???:silly:

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They released the 2004-2005 womens and mens basketball schedules along with the 2004 football schedule.

Official Release at FightingSioux.com

How about that WBB exhibition opener ....

A regular season women's BB Gopher vs. Sioux game in 2005 or 2006 would have a decent chance of exceeding 10,000 at the Ralph, IMO. It would be a Kelly Roysland vs Ashley Langen repeat of Minnesota Region 8 finals of the last three years. If UND could sign Kayla Bagaason of Fosston next year, that would make it even more interesting.

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If building a 5500 seat arena wasn't economically feasible right now, perhaps waiting would have been a more appropriate course of action. Hyslop certainly isn't falling apart, and it's obvious that at least Roebuck finds it a much preferable venue. Basing a move on the 2005 Elite 8 is even dicier, as the Sioux men have shown no indication of being near that level.

Nodakvindy:

You make some good points. Since the Alerus can be variously configured up to 10,000 or so for basketball, with curtains for noise containment, I've wondered if that wouldn't be a better venue for higher attendance conference games. Politically, building the Betty larger probably wouldn't have been popular within the city as it would have been considered duplication.

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start2city - I know Baagason has scored more than 2,000 points in her career so she must be good. How good is she? Are we recruiting her, is DI courting her?

UND92,96 or Corella probably can give a much better answer than me. I would expect her to receive some Div I interest, but probably not at a Big 10 or Big 12 level.

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Wow, people are complaining about a brand new state-of-the-art facility that isn't using public funds to build. Then they complain about not wanting to play in the Ralph because it doesn't offer an intimate setting. 4,000 sounds pretty good to me, considering we average less than that, but yet people want it bigger. IMO, its a win-win situation, you can play your "lesser" games in the nice 4,000 seat Betty and when a "bigger" game comes you can play in the nicest facility on earth (unbiased :silly: ). Which will only help recruiting and make money (alcohol).

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I don't know if people are necessarily complaining but more trying to make sense of things. Let's face it, the atmosphere at REA for basketball is TERRIBLE. After the women's game on Sat, I talked to one of the Bison players I know pretty well for 5-10 minutes, she said that they consider the REA to be a neutral court at best. They would so much rather play at the REA then Hyslop. Part of it is the student situation there. On Sat, the students were not allowed to stand because the Bison fans couldn't see, which may be true but to what extent, but where else in the country is that the case. Not in Fargo, where the students were right in front of me, and I couldn't see a thing offensively in the 2nd half. I am not complaining about not being able to see in Fargo, that is how it should be. In the Betty, the atmosphere would be so much better, fairly large bleachers for students behind both baskets where they cannot "obstruct anyone's view". Students are key to every homecourt in college basketball, and when that is taken away like it is at the REA for basketball, there is no enthusiasm at all. A 5000 seat Betty would be almost the perfect situation for a college hoops team, but the current Betty will seat about 4200 as told by someone who works at the Ralph, that could be great, but it needs to be utilized, and I think it should be utilized for every home game. My $.02.

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UND Fan,

I know that the Gophers are talking to the Baagason girl, but she is only a JR so that really may not mean much. I was told that she isn't close to a Kelly Roysland, though, and is kind of a tweener right now in that she is too small for the post and night quite quick enough to play on the perimeter in college. Once again though, still being a JR, things can change quickly.

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This exhibition with Minnesota, will it be an exhibition like when UND plays Bemidji St. in Men's basketball and they don't keep score? Or a normal game with the crowd, like Men's hockey? Doesn't the Big 10 have a rule where the teams can't play teams outside the conference with controversal nicknames?

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Build The Betty at about 5500?

It already exists in Grand Forks.

It's called the lower bowl of The Ralph and it has suites and two Club Rooms.

Um, no. That's a half filled hockey facility. One of the selling points of the Ralph when it was built was that it would be hockey only. Its sightlines are for hockey. The Betty is a basketball/volleyball facility and it is designed as such. We've had separate facilities in the past and that should continue. The multipurpose facilities at the pro level that were built in the 70s were an absymal failure and we should take note of that. And if we already have the Ralph, again what is the point of the Betty. Building a 4000 seat practice facility is simply idiotic. If there isn't some master plan, like getting a pro training camp here, I just don't understand this.

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