The Sicatoka

Hyslop is about 50 years old, in need of repair and upgrade, and seats roughly 4500. Somebody explained the size of The Betty to me this way: You need a big-time college basketball arena? Play in The Ralph (Kansas at UND -- 13000 plus). You need a 9100 seat basketball arena? Play in The Alerus in basketball configuration. You need a 5500-6000 seat basketball arena? You play in The Ralph (but only open the lower bowl and club rooms). You need a 4000 seat arena? The Betty. Looking at UND's game attendances over the last few seasons, The Betty at roughly 4000 seats would have handled all but two or three home attendances per team per year. Those games that it couldn't have held were being played in The Ralph anyway. There's an undercurrent here that kind of surprises me: If any other university in the state or region were getting a new basketball arena, at no taxpayer expense, of the size and caliber of The Betty (and does UND really need bigger when an objective view shows it is very comparable seating-wise to Hyslop and has a $104 MM, 13000+ seat for BB arena hooked to it) there'd be nothing but hootin' and hollerin' over the greatness of it. All I ever seem to read here is what's wrong with it (before it ever opens).

A state senator believes that some organization ("them") in the state higher education system is not following a deadline. It would be very surprising to find that he is the only state legislator with that interpretation. The "them" won't matter when the political ramifications start to come about, and as everything does, it will turn political.

You forgot the part about "able to play baseball in it" in there. ;)

Is the issue the width of the seat or the width of the ..... ;) The lower bowl does seem to have better space between both seats and rows. The upper bowl does feel tighter relative to that but the viewing angles are great and for being in the upper deck of an arena you are very close to the game. But hey, you're at a hockey game! If you wanted to lounge why didn't you stay home in the overstuffed rocker with the remote and watch on Fighting Sioux Sports Network.

Would they have been able to have both mens and womens basketball and volleyball practicing all at the same time in a "full bowl" design?

From USCHO Magazine: http://www.uscho.com/news/2004/06/21_008548.php

It all carries the same degree of difficulty to watch for me. Then again, if you're winning and it ain't broke ....

Put a couple of 6'3" WRs who can block out with him in a three-wide and you could almost get me to like watching the bubble screen.

Here are the guys UND listed as coming in this fall at RB: Some of those numbers are just mind-boggling. Link to press release.

A little cut-and-paste action from the UND recruits press release and ... U2Bad1 is correct: Dressler was a WR his sophomore year and, based on the above, was noteworthy (how's that for understatement?, sophomore 1st Team All State) at that position as well. He had 40 TDs his senior year. There are teams in the state that didn't have 40 TDs all season!

Rick has seen more levels of hockey in more different places and made more hockey contacts than most of us could ever dream of. Plus, you'd be amazed who he loses money to on golf courses.

How many of Brad Miller's former teammates (from Georgia) are playing junior hockey? How many of his Shattuck teammates will go on to junior hockey? I think I can state with great assurity that he didn't have the caliber of teammates in Georgia that he had at Shattuck. Apparently he needs more time surrounded with Shattuck-like guys (who dream of playing Division I college hockey) somewhere in junior hockey so he can keep building his game.

Shame on me. I gave Dressler and Caufield their due but missed one. From the link Corella provided above:

Those quotes are from the Bismarck Tribune story on the Montana/North Dakota game. Yet, somehow, even against all that defensive speed, Weston Dressler was able to get 22 carries for 153 yards to set a new Badlands Bowl mark. I'll never question Dressler's speed. What concerns me is his ability to take punishment against larger competition (beyond high school). Then again, I seem to recall a few "too small" but quick backs fairing well in NCC backfields (Philip Moore, Josh Ranek).

Tell Governor Tim that he has to wear his old-school Sioux jersey or no ride.

Too bad the former Governor is no longer in St. Paul. You might have been able to convince him of the need for a high-speed light rail line from the Twin Cities to Whitey's* in East Grand Forks. ;) * Ride the shuttle bus to the game from there.

RD17: I'm going off of the shape and colors. Plastic seating is normally one color. Those are clearly two and the color alignments are the same as in The Ralph (dark green backs and seats, you can just see the edge of the seat, and black under seat structure pieces). Plus, those seats look thicker than standard plastic. I base that off of the renderings of the arena found on the Icon Architects' page for The Betty. UND Fan: I've seen numbers from 3300 to 4000. I wish I knew for sure also. I go off of the same information (web, newspapers) that you read.

That's not really all that far-fetched: The Betty's almost ready.

A quick trip back to "conditioning techniques": Three words: retaining wall block. Oh my achin' everything ....

I know that a couple of months back Earl Strinden (as the face-man for UND Sports Facilities Inc.) was asking for about an extra $500k in donations to finish The Betty off in the same high caliber way that The Ralph is. Everything I'd read about The Betty to this point said "plastic seating". But look at this picture: http://www.ralphengelstadarena.com/images/...04/DSC06912.jpg Aren't those the same leather seats that are in The Ralph? Did they raise the money? That picture makes me think they probably did. That photo is a part of this gallery: http://theralph.com/construction/Jun1.htm The whole construction progress gallery is here: http://theralph.com/construction/ The project description is here: http://theralph.com/new2/Arena_Info_Sectio...ioux_Center.htm When the construction crews are done there, I guess they move across the street to the new Wellness Center.

aff: Does either "them" matter when the person making the statement is a part of the group that ultimately controls the purse-strings (i.e. the state senate)? The statement shows what is on the mind of some of those in the SD legislature. 'star2city' hit an issue that matters: Media. Conferences want exposure. Denver is one of the fastest growing areas into the country. What conference wouldn't want to tap into that population base. That's a big advantage to the Denver and Northern Colorado. There is probably some merit to the hypothetical timeline put forth by 'star2city'. I could easily forsee the 2004 and 2005 suppositions. The rest? Too politically charged. I'll leave it alone. What I don't see in there is the shake-up in the NCAA that seems to be looming on the horizon.

From the link (UND recruits in bold): Montana had two 100-yard passers!

Yup. You said "cash" as if you meant some sort of underhanded dealing were going on. Nope. They have a system and have it posted. I'd suspect that airmail's hypothesis isn't off by much.

'Bypass' with cash? No. Move up the list by "adding points"? Probably. Preference points: http://www.undalumni.org/fsc-priority-points.htm I have tickets and wanted to get a couple more. I'm sure there are other folks like me out there also. I'm not able to get them either. Maybe they should have built the arena the size of the one in Tampa.

To me it is clear: The level of ND HS hockey competition doesn't prepare you for the rigors of the WCHA. Coming right to a top tier Division I program from high school is a rarity any more. The Zach Parises and Drew Staffords are exceptions, even from preps like Shattuck-St. Mary's. The best example I could give to try to convince someone: Quinn Fylling. He tried coming from the US National Development Team. He ended up leaving UND for a year to play in Sioux Falls. He's a much better player for it and able to contribute more at UND now.