AJS

Kudos to the defense in the 2nd half! For the first time since Week 1 (first half), they actually played well. Hoping this is the turning point!

Per Miller it was Kilty. His normal jersey ripped.

He has them at 4th.

Craig Button (TSN) released his Top 32 this morning and Strathmann was #29 on his list. There are 3 players already playing college ahead on the list, but only two college commits listed before Strathmann. Perron not listed.

Per 360, on the year UND has allowed a 59% conversion rate on 3rd downs. No surprise, that is the worst in the MVFC. One week at a time, Missouri State's % this week will be the difference in the game. If they are <50% UND wins.

This is year two of the new NCAA hockey recruiting rules, but here's what happened last recruiting cycle (not counting transfers). August 21 - 3 Recruits (Strathmann / Perron / Livanavage) October 21 - 2 Recruits (Slipec / Klee) November 21 - 1 Recruit (Wiebe) December 21 - 1 Recruit (McLaughlin) April 22 - 1 Recruit (Croal)

Let's call it brand recognition. I'm not saying what I'd chose as a fan, I'm saying national eyeballs. What would be the biggest on any given year? Making the Men's NCAA Basketball Tournament Winning the Frozen Four Winning the FCS Title Game Am I off base here? It's definitely making the NCAA Basketball Tournament. Which do you think it is?

Who cares if neither UND or NDSU will ever be a contender to win it all in NCAA Basketball. Just making the men's tournament will give you more press then winning the NCAA Hockey or FCS Football National Championship. Make it to the 2nd round and it's X5. The NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament it's all about just getting in. NDSU over the past decade has had about a 50/50 shot each year of making it. They play in the Summit League final virtually every year. There's no comparison between NDSU and UND in the NCAA's biggest tournament.

This, not much elaboration needed. Just win.

This very well could have been a Shaugabay situation. What that would be is UND is interested, but would like to see more before an offer is extended. I don't know if they offered Zellers or not, I'm guessing not, but they didn't offer Shaugabay when he committed to Duluth. Obviously there are select players that will get offered before they play Juniors (Boisvert / McInnis / McMorrow). Those all will be playing Juniors this year though. Time will tell with Shaugabay and potentially Zellers if that was a mistake to take the wait and see approach.

Well that’s enough for today. Good news is realistically it can’t get any worse than this defensively. We are watching the absolute worst of something. 2017 was worse or no?

This defense is 2017 level bad.

No injury report this week from them.

Is state funding strictly tied to total enrollment? That would be UND: 13,876 / NDSU 12,242? The number that really stuck out to me was first time freshman. NDSU: 2,513 UND: 1,753 On Campus Full Time NDSU: 9,608 UND: 7,664 (or 8,457) Clearly with all the improvements made around campus that there is still very much an emphasis on on campus learning. Hoping to see those numbers tighten between the two.

https://www.grandforksherald.com/news/local/und-enrollment-up-for-fall-2022

Yes. I'll update stats about once a month.

BCHL Hedquist - G - ('03) - Alberni Valley: Wiebe - D - ('03) - Chilliwack: USHL Benoit - D - ('02) - Omaha: Croal - F - ('03) - Muskegon: Dunbar - D - ('03) - Muskegon: Panzer - F - ('04) - Sioux Falls: Singleton - F - ('04) - Green Bay: Livanavage - D - ('04) - Chicago: Ausmus - D - ('04) - Madison: Perron - F - ('05) - Chicago: Strathmann - D - ('05) - Youngstown: Slipec - F - ('05) - Chicago: Klee - F - ('05) - Waterloo: McInnis - D - ('06) - Waterloo: Boisvert - F - ('06) - Muskegon:

What I would consider the biggest unknown current recruit David Klee (May '05) is on the Waterloo opening day roster. He is the 2nd youngest player on the roster, with defensive recruit Keith McInnis being the youngest. Klee is going to be an interesting one to watch. He's listed at 6'3". USHL season starts tomorrow.

To SIU's defense, Incarnate Word looks like a legitimate Top 5 FCS team. The SEMO game would be the head big head scratcher for them.

This game has a different feel then the first three to me. I had UND going 7-4 on the year, starting 2-1. UNI / NAU I had as "must wins". One of the four loses I predicted was @ SIU. This game feels like "the opportunity game" to me. What I mean by that is this week, a win and you'll see an energized fan base. I don't want to understate how important that opportunity is. Reasons why I feel this is a winnable game. Lost a 50/50 game @ SIU just last year. Sticking to last years game, that was one of three games (Utah State / Missouri State being the other two) where UND's defense was awful. Very familiar place for this team. Rare going on the road to the same place in back to back years If UND's offense plays clean (which it did not against NAU), they can be tough to stop. UND's defense has struggled overall, but I genuinely believe that is mostly inexperience. Why not this week to really see improvement? UND's defense although it has struggled, has played pretty good red zone defense. As bad as some of the stats look, their points given up hasn't really followed that trend.

Miller mentioned four guys. Coley and Krzanowski returned. Schultz / Ball was on the 2nd to last drive. “UND safeties Ethan Ball and Jayson Coley, linebacker Devon Krzanowski and defensive end Casey Schultz each needed extra time to get off the field”

UND 27 NAU 13

Yes, usually about 24 hours before the game.