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It's a pretty sad commentary on the basketball program when we're legitimately concerned about losing to a 2-2, traditionally terrible, 4-scholarship program, in an empty gym, having to travel for all of a half hour. I'm really not a pessimist by nature, but that Bemidji loss has absolutely killed my enthusiasm for the season. I'll still go to all the games, but the excitement just isn't there since the team doesn't have any fire or emotion. No matter how loyal a fan someone is, you can really only take so many of these losses to programs with a fraction of the talent, scholarships and resources that UND has. Thank God for the women's program. Even though I expect this to be something of a down year by Roebuck's standards, they'll still probably win close to 25 games.

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Don't be so quick to judge both UND and Bemidji. Bemidji has a good team again, anyone who was at that game can attest to that. They are extremely athletic, have shooters, and have fair enough height to give teams good runs. For them, as was said by some of their staff at the game, the UND game is the one of the 2 biggest games of the year. The new staff there brought in a ton of new JUCO players that may or may not come back to haunt them. #12 for them, Muse, is an extremly good player. He would start and star for any team in the NCC. And the reffing down there was amongst the worst I have seen in quite a few years. Countless missed obvious carries and travels to go along with the hacking down low.

I wish people would not be so quick to write the men off either. There has been a lot of progress made. Think about this, what everyone expected out of this team was one that could get 90-100 points a night, and at the same time give up about the same. Instead, the defense has been, except for the 2nd half against Kearney, extremely good and the staistics only back that up. They are not giving up many points at all. That, to me, is an excellent sign. Adam Jacobsen who had been complained about quite a bit in the past by most, has been playing very well. Steven Bradley has played his roll well. Keith Parks has improved defensively by leaps and bounds. The bench, which had given UND next to nothing the past 5 years or so, has been great. If and when Evan Lindahl gets his stroke going again, the Sioux will be very tough to stop offensively. The PGs play has been spotty, but a lot of that, IMO, can be chalked up to the fact that the 2 guys manning that spot have not, over the last 2 years, spent very many minutes on the floor and playing with the guys they are now. I see progress being made, and Thurs night will put that progress to a definate test.

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Don't be so quick to judge both UND and Bemidji.  Bemidji has a good team again, anyone who was at that game can attest to that.  They are extremely athletic, have shooters, and have fair enough height to give teams good runs.  For them, as was said by some of their staff at the game, the UND game is the one of the 2 biggest games of the year.  The new staff there brought in a ton of new JUCO players that may or may not come back to haunt them.  #12 for them, Muse, is an extremly good player.  He would start and star for any team in the NCC.  And the reffing down there was amongst the worst I have seen in quite a few years.  Countless missed obvious carries and travels to go along with the hacking down low.

I wish people would not be so quick to write the men off either.  There has been a lot of progress made.  Think about this, what everyone expected out of this team was one that could get 90-100 points a night, and at the same time give up about the same.  Instead, the defense has been, except for the 2nd half against Kearney, extremely good and the staistics only back that up.  They are not giving up many points at all.  That, to me, is an excellent sign.  Adam Jacobsen who had been complained about quite a bit in the past by most, has been playing very well.  Steven Bradley has played his roll well.  Keith Parks has improved defensively by leaps and bounds.  The bench, which had given UND next to nothing the past 5 years or so, has been great.  If and when Evan Lindahl gets his stroke going again, the Sioux will be very tough to stop offensively.  The PGs play has been spotty, but a lot of that, IMO, can be chalked up to the fact that the 2 guys manning that spot have not, over the last 2 years, spent very many minutes on the floor and playing with the guys they are now.  I see progress being made, and Thurs night will put that progress to a definate test.

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Believe me, I want to believe that the program is on the right track. But I was kind of shocked when listening to a post-game interview with one of the players after the Colorado-Pueblo game, I believe it was Ryp, and he said something to the effect that the team was a little over-confident going into the Bemidji game. How can that be after we lost to them last year, and considering all the struggles in recent years against teams not considered heavyweights by any means? UND is not in a position to be over-confident against anybody, and the coaching staff needs to make sure they remind these guys that they're not good enough to just show up and expect to win, particularly on the road. When they actually show up and want to play, they can sometimes beat good teams on the road, i.e. at USD and Northern St. last year. But far too often, we seem to just sleep-walk through road games against poorer teams and lose.

I realize Bemidji brought in a bunch of jucos, some of whom I'm sure can play, but it's still essentially a brand new team, playing against a comparatively veteran team in UND. Plus, with presumably well under 10 scholies, if the jucos really are talented, how in the heck is Bemidji getting them?

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The bottom line to me right now is that there is definate improvement being shown where it was most needed, the defensive side of the floor.  To be 6-2 right now after a very difficult 1st 8 games is very good.  It could be better, yes, but I think that Northern game will tell us a lot.  Northern has a veteran club that very small in the backcourt.  They are disciplined and well coached, and were ranked #16 but Mankato beat them by 10 last weekend.  They have some big players on the inside that will test Ryp.  I am looking forward to it.

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I'm actually pretty confident that UND will win all the remaining home games, with the possible exceptions of Mankato and UNO. But as stated before, the road may be a real adventure...

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If and when Evan Lindahl gets his stroke going again, the Sioux will be very tough to stop offensively.

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GRAND FORKS, N.D.- Evan Lindahl scored a team-high 16 points, including hitting on 4-of-5 from three-point range, to lift UND to a 85-58 win over Upper Iowa at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center on Tuesday. The junior found his stroke early as he helped spark the Sioux to a 10-1 lead it would not relinquish.

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Nice win for the men tonight. Northern is a good team. Now the big test will be whether the Sioux can follow up some good home performances by going on the road and beating a team they should be able to handle in Moorhead.

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It was a nice win...the Sioux looked fired up and ready! - SUPER great play from the bench!! (Jared Welles especially!) Played with lots of emotion to topple a very good team...WHY CAN'T THEY DO THAT ALL THE TIME!!! For every game like this...they take a crap to some inferior program down the road...that's the BIG FRUSTRATION with Men's BB!! NO CONSISTENCY ???

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Heard Glas on kfgo 790 tonight. Basically said that when you sit down and look at UND's place in athletics you have to ask does UND belong with NDSU, SDSU, Montana, etc. when looking at what level of play and athlete we are trying to attract at UND versus and there is nothing against them, but do we strive to be on a level with Moorhead st., bemidji, crookston, etc. From his tone there is no question that he is leaning toward moving towards moving the UND athletic programs in the D1 direction. He did say that everything was great as far as BB was concerned until the bison and jacks chose to leave D2 and he is of the belief that in order to maintain fan interest and a better quality of ball that UND should probably follow suit. :silly:

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Roebuck on the radio this morning with Hennessey and Swyg pretty much said he was against the move up. He figures there is no way he would get the same recruits as he does now. The logic being that players like Kimbrough and Decker that were offered full rides by established DI schools like Iowa St and Wisc-Green Bay would not come to lower DI team like UND and take the bigger offer. Whatever level they are at...players want to compete for the playoffs. He thinks the UND women can do better by being a big DII than a lower DI. He also stated that if UND were to move...go all the way with DI-A football and join a conference like Mountain West.

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okay...found out why Bemidji beat the Sioux back in November. You know...Bemidji State - Northwest Minnesota - small school - probably lots of HS players from Bagley, Fertile-Beltrami, Bemidji itself....NOT!!!! They've loaded up with more JUCO's than I've ever seen in my life!!! Almost their ENTIRE ROSTER is made up of transfers ;) from Chicago, Los Angeles, Florida - et al!! A couple token guys (1 from Bemidji and 1 from Bagley) but ALL the others are ringers (probably with SERIOUS academic faults because, REALLY, if you could play on the DII level - why in hell would you be a BEAVER???) Watching them tonight...they'll make some noise in the Northern Sun early but ultimately SELF DESTRUCT because the culture shock moving from Chicago or Los Angeles to BEMIDJI, MN!! is just a BIT of a CHANGE!!

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A great win tonight!! I listened to it on the Mankato station. It was interesting that they commented late in the game that, despite such a close game and a decent crowd, the place sounded like a mausoleum (sp)!

Is the UND feed working? I haven't been able to get BB or hockey on it lately!

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Ryp played like he did for most of last year, and was huge tonight. Lindahl was outstanding until the last 8-10 minutes when he went ice cold. Nevertheless, a heck of a win. I think this win supports the theory even further that while USD beating UND may not necessarily have been a fluke, the margin of victory was a largely a function of tired legs on UND's part. I definitely think Mankato is a better team than USD. For that matter, UNO beat USD tonight in Vermillion. There's just a lot of balance in the NCC among the top five teams.

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... despite such a close game and a decent crowd, the place sounded like a mausoleum (sp)!

The box scores say about 3300 for the women and 3600 for the mens game. Both of those would have been cozy :huh: in The Betty. Well, "cozy" for the home team; down right cramped for the visitors. :0

Big congrats to the men on the win.

But only enjoy it until noon today because it won't mean squat if you don't take care of business against SCSU.

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