The Sicatoka

General Sun Tzu advanced the theory to appear weak when strong, and to appear strong when weak. I wonder if Gene Taylor has read The Art of War by Sun Tzu.

"I think it's an absolute wonderful representation of a proud tradition, one that honors a people and their contribution and their fighting spirit. I think the school has done a wonderful job in passing that on to their student athletes." -- Tom Buning, speaking about the Fighting Sioux moniker and logo. http://www.in-forum.com/articles/index.cfm?id=91434

That'd be great! How do we convince "The Red Star" to do it? (The corrected statement wasn't a quote from Buning but apparently an error by the paper.)

That's not what I'm saying. In the eyes of the person responsible for the hiring the best man for the job was hired. (Clearly not everyone agrees with the man doing the hiring and I'd be shocked if there ever was any "everyone agrees" person.) "You make the appointments and you live with them. You don't make wrong decisions intentionally." -- Gino Gasparini To believe that Dr. Kupchella hired who he hired for any reason but to get the best available person for the job is to believe that the system has completely broken down. If you believe Dr. Kupchella hired Buning to not hire someone else is to believe that Dr. K made "wrong decisions intentionally." (See above.) My point now and then is this: The new AD has been named. Now we have to work to keep a top-shelf fundraiser in a key position, namely supporting UND.

What kind of bling-bling are they asking for those seats?

Found this at UNDAlumni.org: UND Alumni Association is an independent corporation that supports UND. As an independent corporation their employees don't work for UND. PS - That means that Jeff Bowen couldn't have applied for Blais' job a year ago.

http://siouxsports.com/forums/index.php?&showtopic=4356 http://www.fightingsioux.com/sports/news/r...RELEASE_ID=3900 http://www.UND.edu/stratplan2/draft3.html#section2 then scroll down to "Goal 5". If we can keep a top-shelf fundraiser in a position where he can focus on what he does very, very well, namely fundraising, UND Athletics seems very well positioned.

At the risk of repeating myself:

From the heading of "good advice": Don't ignore warnings from, or continue with the smack toward, the guy who can post as "administrator".

As with anything in life, it won't be the decision, it'll be how one responds to it and what is made of the situation. Some examples: http://www.in-forum.com/articles/index.cfm...18&section=news

Isn't "friendly librarian" an oxymoron like "jumbo shrimp"?

Stories on the hiring: http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/sports/11606865.htm http://www.in-forum.com/articles/index.cfm...&section=sports

Fixed it. PS - You should have hit the main IAC page (top-most link). All the minutes have links there.

I never said you did.

I went to Army's webpage and found the list of athletics they offer. It has a "+" if UND also offers it: + Baseball + Basketball-M + Basketball-W + Cross Country + Football + Golf Gymnastics + Hockey Lacrosse Rifle Sprint Football (<--- max weight 166 pounds) + Swimming/Diving Soccer-M + Soccer-W + Softball Tennis-M + Tennis-W + Track + Volleyball Wrestling Seems like Buning's seen everything UND does and then some.

Disagreeing with the committee's recommendations or Dr. Kupchella's choice is one thing. Claims that Buning was a second cut choice are patently false (despite perceptions otherwise) and needed to be called such.

The guy with no hockey or football (UND's revenue generators) experience being forwarded in the final four seemed out of place to me.

I'm probably lumped into "some people's". UND, and Dr. Kupchella specifically, have really fouled up in my eyes in the past on a couple of issues. But guess what: I've told those who I believe have erred directly. A message board on the internet means zilch. If you really have a problem, go to the source and tell them in person.

I wonder if this was pure speculation or if star2city knows something that they daren't say. I'm sure neither West Point Athletics nor the US Army are exactly doing cartwheels at the departure of a Lieutenant Colonel with his credentials and position.

Talk about "Scylla and Charybdis": Less than a year ago some folks were second-guessing UND (namely Kupchella and Harmeson) hiring internally and not looking at a bigger list of names. Now they look externally, at a bigger list of names, and again comes the second-guessing.

Yup. http://www.fightingsioux.com/sports/news/r...RELEASE_ID=3775

That's not a tip. This is a tip: The first bold statement is truly interesting. The second should make a couple of coaches happy.

From http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/s...ta/11497932.htm First submittal (aka "cut"): four names.

What "cut" are we talking about here exactly? TIMELINE: The committee interviewed three guys in quick succession, and then a fourth, and then submitted four names to Dr. Kupchella. Lt. Col. Buning was on the list of four finalists submitted. As easily as some may spin this late interview as "missed first cut" (when there wasn't one) others could spin it as "first three didn't have it so the committee looked some more" (and this is also patently inaccurate). I'll stick with the actual timeline (see above). Four names; Dr. Kupchella chose a man with outstanding credentials from the four. Congratulations Lt. Col. Buning. Welcome to UND and the community of Grand Forks and North Dakota.

The UND Intercollegiate Athletic Committee minutes made for some interesting reading over the rainy weekend. That one really caught my eye and is from January 25, 2005. The other that is noteworthy came on February 15, 2005: