The Sicatoka

You had to remind me ....

Believe it or not, I feel sorry for George Ellis because of his good work for the NCC. And the thought of "As the Bison Turns", on a spit, is always pleasurable.

It happened again! A big pat on the back to the Sioux mens hockey player who got a 4.0 GPA in spring semester! Also, a big pat on the back to the womens hockey team for raising the team GPA by 0.6 points, more than half a letter grade, from fall to spring.

Intimidation? I'd hope that to be completely bogus as well. However, do Ellis and Taylor see eye-to-eye on DI? That we may well find out ... "As the Bison Turns".

Anchorage? Glencross turned pro. Reiter and King, the goaltenders, were seniors.

Carl Spackler, "license to kill gophers by the government of the United Nations, man, free to kill gophers at will," driving the Mariucci Zamboni. Brilliant! Frank: "The period's not over. Why is the Zamboni coming on the ice." Doug: "That's Carl Spangler the new ice man. Why is he headed for the Gopher bench at high speed?"

The Vast Fighting Sioux Conspiracy has an "inside man" too. We set him up in the perfect position to achieve our goals: Carl Spackler is the new Zamboni man at Mariucci.

So, on a board on a site called "SiouxSports.com", that features primarily Sioux Hockey and Sioux Football, you wanted to know if there were primarily Sioux fans. As Bill Engvall would say: "Here's your sign."

Shantell Rivard has experience as a Division I head coach. Doesn't that mean she has the best resume on campus? What if she applies?

Maybe some day Don Lucia will end up coaching beyond the second level and in the NHL. I'm sorry; I couldn't resist.

I think Cratter was merely pointing out the eerily strange similarities in posting styles between this and this.

Lube job and rotate the paws? How about Roger Thomas sits down with someone, explains the formal process he has to go through (being a bureaucratic institution like an American university there must be one), and we get the story straight once and end all this rumor and speculation.

"The bottom line is that they're saying they have a good candidate or candidates on campus." Lucy Ganje? Then again, I know of a UND employee who is (a.) a guy who played hockey at his collegiate alma mater, (b.) good with the media and PR, and (c.) familiar with the program ... but his office isn't in Hyslop or REA, but it's close. ;)

Glad to see you snapped out of your "Craig Dahl moment" there.

His official title is reported as "Associate Head Coach". That is the same title Dave Hakstol had under Dean Blais.

I caused it by losing that information in the shuffle. Sorry.

Upon further review, they did.

ScottM used a phrase like "transparent process" earlier. If they did put out feelers we'll never know because that's not transparent. A national search would be. Instead we're left to wonder what really was the process. I don't want those types of questions swirling around a new head coach. The job is tough enough without them.

If Hakstol is the best man for the job, of all the possible candidates, after you look at them all, including possible surprises, which there always are, so be it. The internal hire approach will leave too many folks open to question. But let me be clear: If the job really is his, I hope Hak shuts us all up (or would that be has us all cheering?) in April.

I forgot to mention the name of this approach: Don't ask, don't know.

In a Leinenkugel's fueled haze last night, I came up with a couple of good reasons why you should ALWAYS open a position like this externally: What if (and I did say "if") this former UND national champion or this person with ties to the team had shown some interest in the position (for whatever personal or professional reasons that we may have no idea about)? Remember, I did say "if" and a big if at that. Say it's completely impossible? Haven't NBA or NFL coaches made the pro to college move? However, unless you open it up you'll never know. DISCLAIMER: I posted this same thought on USCHO as well.

Even with Blais' endorsement, Hakstol will have to fight this perception (and I use that word because I hope it's not reality). Hakstol, because of the internal hire ... : Shortest. Leash. Ever.

That story is a total jumble: OK, so no national search or no decision on that yet? Sure, UND prefers to hire from within and I prefer winning PowerBall tickets .... And no national search yet list Midwestern candidates? Midwestern? No John Marks? I'm siding with PCM on this one: This looks like UND open position standard operating procedure. They'd be crazy not to look.

John Marks Ho-o-o-o-old it. If I read Marks' and Hakstol's HockeyDB.com biographies correctly, Marks was Hak's head coach in the IHL for two seasons at Indianapolis.

Of the names being tossed about only two of them have won championships as head coaches, and only one of them was at a level higher than NCAA play: Steve Johnson, in the USHL John Marks, in the ECHL