DamStrait

I'm not going to make any specific predictions as to where the Sioux will finish in the league or nationally, but I will predict this: They will be very good in 03-04, NC capable good. Brady Murray is the real deal (maybe not Zach real, but real nonetheless). The defense will be solid. The Sioux will get goaltending this year. Can I defend any of this? No. I've just got a feeling.

2000 WCHA championship game vs. Wisco at the Target Center in Minneapolis: Go to the game with a friend and two of his friends. His friends have never seen a live hockey game, and are not up on the sport or any of the players. After the game I ask, "Did any player on the ice seem to stand out from the rest?" They say, "Yes, #17 from UND" (Jeffy Panzer).

'87 NCAA championship game vs. Mich State at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, MI: Hrk behind the net with the puck, looking to make a sweet pass. MSU skater seems to be thinking "I'm tired of that so-and-so dangling that puck, making us look like fools. We need to quit giving him respect and room and get in his face and make him pay every time he touches the puck." The MSU skater then goes after Hrk with a vengence. Hrk flips the puck at the back of the net, stands up with his back up against the boards, and the hard charging MSU skater misses both Hrk and the puck and goes out the other side. Hrk gathers the puck and makes a sweet pass to the spot the MSU skater just vacated to go after Hrk. The whole episode probably took place in less than a second. Don't remember if it resulted in a goal though.

IMHO, Mr. Anthony Hrkac. Why? Because he was obviously always just toying with the oppositon. Never have seen such a dominant player at the college level. He never seemed to be rushed into anything he didn't want to do. He was always in control of the game when on the ice and everyone on and off the ice knew it. Phenomenal anticipation. Everytime #21 in green and white stepped onto the ice, everyone watching leaned forward, expecting something mind-blowing to happen.

Charley Walters (Shooter) of the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports in his column today that UMN is pursuing 15 year old right wing Dan Bertram from Calgary, AB. He further alleges that the kid is interested in UMN. Anybody got the skinny on him? If he's a 'blue chippah' maybe someone (say...Brad Berry?) should pay him a visit and show him the light. Or at the very least, show him the historical difference between UMN and the Sioux in roster makeup (by nationality, of course).

CRH, Those in the NCC that need to go (IMHO) are: NDSU, SDSU, UND, UNO, & USD. UNC too, but they're already gone. Notice that I have not included MSU-M or SCSU. I don't do this out of spite, it's just that in MN, UMN will be king, and will brook no competition. Also SC is really just a suburb of the TC and Mankato is not big enough on its own to support a DI school so close to UMN, ISU and now SDSU. UNO is different because Omaha is a large enough media market, IMHO. What went on between the administrations of NDSU, SDSU and UNC and the administrations of the other NCC schools? I don't know, I wasn't there. Maybe you were. If so, then I accept your characterization of the discussions. If not, then it's very possible that there were a wide range of positions. Some may have had no interest in moving up at all. Some may been willing to go if all agreed to go together. Still others may have felt it was a good idea, but that a well planned path needed first to be found, agreed to, and then implemented. As an outsider looking in, it is clear only that NDSU, SDSU, and UNC felt that they were ready and willing to move now, and that they were willing to do it alone, if necessary. I too think that UND will move up at some time. They appear to be putting themselves in position to do so without announcing that this is their intention. Why would they want to keep their intentions undisclosed? Maybe they want to keep their options open. Maybe they feel with recently opening two new facilities and plans to soon open a third that their plate is full now and they want to be able to give the issue the attention it deserves. I don't know, as I say, I am an outsider looking in. It is my opinion, however, that it is in the best interests of each of the schools mentioned above to move together. The window of opportunity to do so is rapidly shrinking. In order for it to happen, each of the schools must be willing to work towards it, putting aside any bad feelings that may have been created in earlier attempts. I wish I had influence to help make it happen, but I don't. Maybe one of you reading this board does. If so, I encourage you to do all you can to make it come to pass. I think it's that important.

Bison Kent, Don't you think NDSU would be better off during their probation years as a part of a DI NCC? Don't you think that a DI NCC, after its members pass their probation, will have more clout with other conferences in arranging non-conference scheduling and in possibly becoming a part of another DI conference (for the purpose of becoming a 10 member conference, so that they may hold conference tournaments)? Yes, the next 4-5 years will be tough regardless, but why make them tougher than they have to be? Also, by going DI, revenue streams will have to increase. That will be hard to do if fan interest wanes. A DI NCC will help to keep fans interested.

Thanks for the answers!

As I've stated before, DII is falling apart. The problem is, DI isn't exactly welcoming new members in with open arms, no matter how non-threatening they may be to current DI media markets. The solution? A DI NCC. It is imperative that it be given serious reconsideration now. It solves scheduling, funding, rivalry and post-season problems. United we stand, divided we fall (into a long period of increasing oblivion). Obviously, there are barriers to be overcome, but as I see it, it's the only way out for the 5-6 NCC schools that need to go DI.

Chris, I've noticed on the dataflix website that the free demos (hockey vs. UMD & football vs. UMC) are free only to the first 300 viewers. Will they be available for purchase after the first 300, or will they not be available period? This seems to be a rather low number. I can see this being reached almost immediately, probably with just those that frequent this board. Will there also be a 300 viewer limit to the pay events? Again, if so, that would seem to be a major concern. Also, can you explain why the live (streamed) events will have better quality than the demo? Is not the demo a streamed digital recording? I understand why the current game demo is better than the original one (vs. SCSU), as the original was not a digital source recording, but I'm still not clear why the current demo does not give an accurate sample of what can be expected for the live events. Thanks

The Sioux doubling the number of Parises on next year's team (or, as Little Caesar's might say: Parise, Parise).

Jeffy netting the last goal in the final NCAA game in the old Ralph.

'86-'87 Tech home series. Bobby Joyce needed a point to tie (or was it set?) the league (or was it NCAA?) record for points in a series. Gino puts out the top line late in the game (may have been on the PP). Hrkac, just before taking the faceoff to the left of the Tech goalie, gives Bobby J a look and a nod. A second later, Tony wins the faceoff cleanly, putting the puck right on Joyce's stick. Bobby does the rest, slamming it home past the Tech goalie, tying (or was it setting) the record. Anyway, it happened right in front of me, and it was a great moment, even if I'm a little fuzzy on the details. Somebody less lazy than me can do the checking to see whether it was a team, league, or NCAA record in question, and whether it was for points or goals.

I ignored the message because it wasn't worth responding to, as it was laced with knee-jerk anti-UND paranoid spin. Now that I think about it, the messenger wasn't worth responding to either.

...and you have no credibility to lose.

Ummm, no. As I recall, at that time UMN cheerleaders usually traveled with the team up to GF without much incident. You're right though, UND officials should have known they couldn't trust UMN cheerleaders to act with class. And they didn't unfurl the banner before coming out onto the ice (not even UMN cheerleaders are that stupid ). Instead, I seem to remember that one of them skated out with it still folded up , and then when out on the ice they pulled it end-to-end. Ummm, no, I clearly state that it was premeditated. I don't think that they could have created the banner quickly enough if Woog had come up with the idea mid game. Ummm, why do I find that not hard to believe? I never claimed that UMN had a monopoly on classlessness. I'm not very keen on 'USA' being chanted when U Manitoba visits. This is being done by the fans, not official representatives of the school, however.

This is why I'll never root for UMN in anything. When they came up to GF to play the Hrkac Circus, they pulled the most classless act I have ever witnessed. I can't remember whether it was the first or second game of the series (I think it was the second) or whether it was the first or second intermission (again, I think it was the second). As I recall, the Sioux had the game well in hand. Anyway, at one of the intermissions of the series, the UMN cheerleaders took to the ice with a huge banner (it seemed to stretch from blueline to blueline, although that might be a bit of an exaggeration) and said, "University of Minnesota Golden Gophers --- America's Team". A near riot in the stands ensued almost immediately. This would have been a classless act had they done it in their own rink, but to do it in the opposition's rink was just pure crap. To my knowledge, no one was hurt. Despite that, I think this is the most classless act I've ever seen because it was obviously premeditated, it was done in the opposition's home rink, and was carried out by official representatives of the school. I've got to believe Woog knew about in advance. He may have even came up with the idea himself. He just couldn't stand that his team, which was very good that year by the way, was clearly being dominated. Yes, the UMN fans are disproportionally arrogant, but the arrogance of the program is what I find to be the most distasteful. I also found quite amusing last year's comment by Lucia on UND and Zach. It went something like, "We don't need a freshman to carry the mail for us". I'm curious where he thinks his team would have ended up last year without leading scorer Vanek, who just happened to be a freshman (and a non-American). I mean, all he did was score the game winners in both of their games in the frozen four. Maybe his definition of "carrying the mail" for the team differs from most people. Or maybe he just has a double standard.

Matt Henderson's shortie in the '97 NCAA final.

The Hrkac Circus in their home whites.

A Curtis Murphy hip check.

Haven't received mine yet either. Maybe it's because I've already subscribed, sight unseen, so they think I'm easy to please (or hard to piss off).

Wow, how do you get that out of what I wrote? I think maybe you need to reread my post.

Sorry, I guess I should have been more clear. I realize that it was attempted before, but I think that with the recent developments further watering down DII and the less than satisfying results of NDSU's conference search that it needs to be reinitiated (in earnest) now that perhaps both sides are (or should be) more desperate. The time for temper tantrums has passed and now cooler heads must prevail. As far as SDSU is concerned, if I were running the show down there, I would be reluctant to jump into the proposed conference just to be able to go DI. I have to believe that this is not what they had envisioned when they announced they wanted to reclassify. In fact, I have to believe that if they had been presented with this proposed conference as their new home back when they were studying the issue, they would have said something like, "If that's the best we can do, well then, no thanks, we'll stay put until we can arrange something more to our liking (like a DI NCC)". My impression of UNO when I lived in Omaha in the early 80s whas that it was a fairly prominent institution locally, and that with the size of the local community, it could easily move to DI (especially DIAA in football) and not necessarily threaten the supremacy of UNL. It's been a long time since then, and politics can always run counter to common sense, so I may be all wet on UNO joining a DI NCC. But if five former NCC schools can be brought into the new conference, then one of the existing non-tournament eligible independents could make the sixth. Maybe one of the the Utah schools. I fully realize that there are some high hurdles to clear, but I think that the idea merits a full effort. If it fails to come to pass, then it is as it is now. If it succeeds, then it will be a much improved model for the future for all involved, especially NCC schools needing to reclassify.

Perhaps this isn't the right thread for this post, but I've been thinking about posting something like this for quite some time, and have finally decided to go ahead with it. UND and NDSU need to start putting aside all the childish behavior and start working in their mutual best interests instead of each cutting off their nose just to spite the other. Specifically, UND needs to admit that DII is going down the toilet and that they need to get out. NDSU needs to admit that going DI is much more of a challenge than they expected. They need to work together to convince at least SDSU, USD, UNO and UNC to form a DI NCC. Others from the NCC would be also invited, but if they don't want to go, don't waste too much time trying to change their minds. Perhaps a DI independent here or there would also be interested in joining the new DI NCC. This will allow everyone who wants (needs) to move up to have something to play for (conference titles) until they are eligible for NCAA tournaments. It will also solve SDSU's problem of finding a DI conference before they reclassify. If a DI NCC is formed, I can see that it would be an attractive target for the Big Sky to absorb, forming a Big Sky East (DI NCC) and Big Sky West (core of current Big Sky). The only way to mitigate the unpleasant road ahead for those NCC schools that need to reclassify is to stick together. If they insist on standing alone, it's going to get ugly.