Rick

As much as I like baseball, I think Northern schools like UND would be much farther ahead if they dropped that sport and added LAX. I was out in Oregon last week and went to the University of Oregon Ducks baseball game against Arizona State. The Ducks have a very nice baseball stadium and they will be doing a major upgrade to it this summer. It will be the nicest baseball park in the PAC 10. But they are losing money. The Ducks have big money donors like Pat Kilkenney who's donating $5 million towards PK Park (baseball) and Nike's Phil Knight who is donating $100 million towards a $200 million basketball arena named after his late son. Read the following link, it's quite interesting: http://blog.oregonlive.com/behindducksbeat..._at_oregon.html Here are a couple of quotes: "Experts snickered at Kilkenny's assertion that Oregon would make money on baseball, which turns a modest profit at only a few warm-climate schools." "And baseball is ahead of projections this season, losing about $200,000 but on track to turn a profit in five years rather than seven, Kilkenny said." If baseball only turns a modest profit at only a few warm-climate schools, what chance does a school like UND have of getting close to a breakeven point with the sport? I wonder how much we lose on baseball each year? We could just as well give lax a shot since we already have the facility.

You forgot one.......Brad Berry.

In addition to what Ira stated above, there are already reports coming out that there are a lot of ballots with hanging chads. They'll probably have to bring in the cross-eyed guy from Florida to look at the chads.

Well, now I'm a little upset with the coaches. Either they've misled us with their assessment of LaPoint or else they're not very good judges of hockey talent. Not only that, but I've talked with a former Sioux coach who was also singing the praises of LaPoint. We need to get some coaches in here that can evaluate defensemen. Our coaches need to realize that this isn't a recreational league we're playing in. We should all be thankful that we have some very knowledgeable message board posters who can keep us informed on player talent. Many of us (including current and former Sioux coaches) don't have a keen eye for defensive talent. So it's really nice to be able to quickly go to the Early Departures thread and find out who's good and who isn't. Now, if we could get the coaches to regularly check the board so they'd know who should be playing defense on the PK, PP & five on five.

If he was going to enroll at another school to the Southeast, it's probably not necessary to have the diploma.

The University of North Dakota and the Fighting Sioux Hockey Program has seen a lot of great hockey players and class acts go through the system.....and they don't come any better than Big Joe. It's really unfortunate for him, and for all of us Sioux fans, that we didn't get to see him at his best this year. First he had the concussion that kept him out the whole first half, and then the separated shoulder that certainly must have bothered him for a good portion of the second half. A lot of players coming out of Edina have the term "cake-eater" attached to them. Big Joe is not one of those. Even this year with the unfortunate injuries, he gave it everything he had, and despite the injuries the coaches had him out there in the critical situations. I'm sure he could have signed the same contract a year ago, but like many other Sioux greats he wanted to come back for another year. One of the things that makes Fighting Sioux Hockey so special are the young men that the coaches recruit to UND. Year after year we hear about players at other programs wanting to get out and even leaving at mid-year. We also hear them ripping the coach and/or program when they leave. When's the last time we've heard one of our #1 draft picks, or any player, say anything negative about the Fighting Sioux program? It's guys like Joe Finley that keep Fighting Sioux Hockey the best in the country. I don't think there's another program that's even in the same ballpark. Thank you Joe Finley for helping to keep it that way during your four years. Big Joe and his teammates went to the Frozen Four his first three years. Then, this year, they won the the WCHA regular season championship and hung another banner in the REA rafters. Since they didn't get to the Frozen Four and win a NC this year, we tend to look at it as a disappointing year. This was a dream year for most programs....but not at UND. I'd much rather have it that way than to just be satisfied with getting home ice and then maybe a NCAA invite. The expectations for Sioux Hockey are very high. The guys who play at UND have to have tremendous skills, a big heart and great character. Joe's been leading the way for the last 4 years and every Sioux fan shoud be very happy that the coaches won the recruiting battle for him and that he chose UND. He'll be missed.

I also think the extra year will do him well, but he isn't small by any means. I would say he's around 6' and maybe around 180 lbs. I haven't seen him in about a year but I doubt he's gotten any smaller. He can hit a golf ball while sitting on a chair farther than a lot of people standing up.

I think he is.....we'll most likely find out at Homecoming.

There isn't a better coach than Brad Berry. We've seen him develop some of the best defensemen in college hockey, but even Brad couldn't get dagies off the double runners and skating backwards. Stick to your day job....pro hockey isn't in your future.

I believe Bryan signed after his junior year. He'd played on some very successful teams at UND and his signing value was at it's peak so he took advantage of the situation. He can't really be blamed for signing because if he had waited another year it's doubtful that he could have topped that offer.

I wonder if they'll have the Sioux logo on it?

Yes, that is quite enlightening....a real quick read.

You and the rest of the Chapman cronies are the only ones that talk about UND's poor leadership. People in the know like Potts, Dunn and the NDUS presidents didn't have that opinion. They only talk about Chapman being the problem. You must know more than all these people and most of the state legislators. The only inequities are that made up in your mind. If you think NDSU should be on par with UND, you're more delusional than I first suspected. That would be like Moorhead Tech College thinking they should be on par with the UofM. You've got to remember, you don't have a School of Medicine, you don't have a School of Law, you don't have the top Aviation program in the country, you don't have a good Business School, you don't have the Liberal Arts, you don't have one of the top Entrepreneur programs in the country. You're an Ag School....that's all you have to remember.

Since Robert Potts, Eddie Dunn and all the presidents of the North Dakota University System felt that Chapman was undermining the system and poisoning all the relationships within the system, I'd be more worried about your own house. I haven't seen where any NDUS Chancellors had problems with Kupchella or Harmeson. JQ Paulson tried to convince a few people that Kuphella was a problem, but that didn't fly either. Actually, it turned out that Chapman's lap dog was the problem and now he's on his way out also. Three people have come and gone from the NDUS Chancellor position in a short time. Two of them were good men with lots of character and great integrity. But those characteristics aren't a good fit for someone like Chapman so his lap dog was brought in to do as much damage to the system as he could before they finally voted him out. Now the blindly led NDSU alums are worried about Kelley being poisoned....give me a break.

It would be great to have Joe back for his final year. He would be one of the best defensemen in college hockey. I believe he was leading the team with about a plus 22 in early March. I'm not sure his plus/minus ended up. But I'll take a 6' 7" - 250 lbs, 1st round Senior defenseman any day. Come back Joe, we'd love to have you.

Actually, he coached the Beetles of the Northwoods League right here in Alexandria for a couple of years so he's very familiar with the weather.

I went to the WDAY TV News website and watched the coverage they had on UND grad Karen Nyberg's shuttle mission. As you watch the whole piece, you'll notice that not once did they mention that she was a UND grad and all the things she accomplished at UND. Or that she was taking a UND flag and other artifacts with her into space. I wrote WDAY an e-mail stating that it was very disappointing to watch that report without one word of her North Dakota connection. I asked them why a Fargo based TV station would miss an opportunity to highlight that a mission specialist like Karen Nyberg received her education at a North Dakota university. I wrote the e-mail to the reporter covering the story and I copied the GM and all directors and managers. Do you think this was just an oversight? Or are they this paranoid in Fargo about saying anything that's UND positive?

Is there another Wheeler out there that I'm not aware of? The Wheeler I watched was one hell of a college player and a thorn in our sides for exactly one game. Your love for Blake Wheeler is clouding you judgement of his college career. I'm glad your not recruiting hockey players for UND because I'd hate to have 23 Blake Wheelers on the team. Maybe he could have been a good player in the Sioux program, but 90% of the time he didn't show up for Gopher games. He rejected the Coyotes offer because for the next three years he was going to get paid $65K per year because they were going to keep him in the minors and not give him a sniff of a NHL contract.

The point isn't that he left. He was ready for the next level. But, he left taking shots at the program and at Lucia. He was interviewed and talked about his "development" suffering at Minnesota. Then, when he left, POI'ers were taking shots at him and saying he wasn't ready for the next level. Comments like "he hasn't showed anything here, how can he think he's ready for the next level", "good luck traveling around in the minors for the next couple years". Do you remember all those posts from the Gopher faithful? If you don't, you can probably still go back in the Gopher Puck archives and find them. It wasn't Sioux fans ripping him, it was your POI'ers. Then, when he made the big club right off the bat, amnesia set in and everyone suddenly was saying that he was clearly ready for the next level and that's why he left. The Sioux have a long list of high profile players that have left early, but the difference is that guys like Toews & Oshie stayed an extra year even when their NHL clubs were doing everything possible to get them to sign. It's impossible to find a Sioux player who's left while taking shots at the program and head coach. It's common to find a Gopher player leaving while taking shots at the program and head coach. There are just too many of them to ignore.

Nobody has control over where they're taken. Toews had no control over where he was taken, Drew Stafford had no control over where he was taken, Brian Lee had no control over where he was taken. How do you know he shouldn't have been taken where he was? Are you smarter than Gretz and the Phoenix organization? Maybe he was taken exactly where he should have been, but he wasn't developing under Lucia just like other first rounders Okposo, Chucko, Johnson, etc.

I think you're having trouble understanding what exactly took place. Yes, he got the max offer from Phoenix, but Wheeler, his agent and Phoenix all knew he wasn't going to collect on that contract. He was going to be sent to the minors and wouldn't get a sniff of the NHL contract. So, Phoenix offering him the max didn't mean anything.

I didn't even notice the ref's in any of the other games. Then, when we had a full WCHA crew in the championship game, we started seeing the camera on the ref's as much as it was on the players. I mentioned that to Bruce McLeod and told him the CCHA and Hockey East have passed us by. He told me I have a perverted view of the WCHA. I'd suggest you send him an e-mail if you think he and Shepherd are taking the league in the wrong direction. bmcleod@du.edu

The difference is that Oshie is a junior in college because he wanted to stay with his friends at the premier college hockey program in the the country. He turned down St. Louis' best efforts to try and lure him into taking a few million dollars, but he thought more about being a Fighting Sioux hockey player and a University of North Dakota student than about being in the NHL and getting a huge paycheck. Wheeler, on the other hand, had no choice. Phoenix didn't want him. His choices were going back to school or going up to Canadian Major Juniors like other Gopher 1st round choices. When this season is over Wheeler will be pulled out of college because Phoenix will want to know if they made a major 1st round blunder, or is Wheeler not progressing in the Gopher system, much like Okposo and others weren't.

The problem is.....the Doc put the 36DD's on his back.

In addition to being one of UND's great football players, Fennell also has been a very successful businessman. He recently sold one of his goldmines for $1.5 billion. http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/minewe...6&sn=Detail