iramurphy

I met that guy in the parking lot before the game. He is huge. He has some sort of thick metal wire holding the bolts to his neck. It looked like the wire that is used to make Christmas wreaths. He also has extra pockets in his jacket and they were all filled with beers. Reminded me of a guy named Wes Hanson who used to wear a Racoon Coat to the hockey games in the old barn (the unheated quonset, not the old Ralph) and had multiple pockets sewn inside the coat to hold the beers he used to chase the Mad Dog 20-20 wine he drank.

Cancer of the testicle is a young man's cancer. If you are a man between 16 and 45 the next time you decide to "choke the bishop" (please pardon the phrase) check you testicles for lumps and if you think you find something unusual go get it checked out. Cancer of the testicle if found early can be cured by the surgery alone without going through chemotherapy or radiation therapy. If you are taking more than a few minutes to do this, then you are no longer doing something medical and might go blind. ( I learned that from the nuns at Cathedral of the Holy Spirit in Bismarck many years ago).

Your favorite hockey team doesn't suck, they aren't playing very well right now. There is a difference. I don't think those of us who don't want to fire the coaches, Buning, Kupchella and send the goalies, and everyone but Oshie and Toews down the road are unrealistic or blind. For crying out loud, put it in perspective. Sioux MD took his little girls to the game last week and we got beat by the Badgers but they had their cheerleading outfits on and the Sioux cheerleaders talked to them and they had the time of their lives. More importantly their Daddy is home for Christmas and he is in one piece. That in a nutshell is why I can't get so upset about getting swept by MT. We have two of the best forwards in college hockey. Oshie is one of the most creatvie hard working kids I ahve seen in a Sioux uniform since 1970 when I started watching Sioux hockey. He is a bright kid, a great leader and has been playing with a broken thumb. I think he, more than anyone, will pick the team up when he gets healthy. Duncan is is also a very good forward and works his butt off. I am not going to pretend the team is playing well, but I won't abandon the coaches or the kids, many of whom were an important part of the Frozen Four team last year and some from the year before when noone expected us to get there. Many of the others are freshman. We are very young Some are wishing for Smaby who was not very good as a Freshman, OK as a Soph and pretty darn good as a junior. Give Finley the same time and I bet he will be pretty good by next year. Watch how he moves his feet which I think is pretty good for a big guy. Our forwards have good speed and quickness. It is reasonable to criticize their play but I don't think it makes any sense to want a new coach or dump the goalies or rest of the team just yet. I think what Bobby Knight lectured to his kids when ESPN filmed his prctice session applies. We have to play smarter. We have plenty of talent, we have to play smarter. That should come with experience. I also find amusing to think that those who still support the kids and the coaches are thought to be living in a fantasy world. This team is younger than the last two years and we were young then. It took until the last half of the year to come around. We may not make it back to the Frozen Four this year, but don't forget how many times recruits talk about how impressed they are with the Sioux fans and the atmosphere when they talk about why they choose to come here. They won't want to play for fans who abandon the team so quickly. They won't want to play for fair weather fans. Don't make everything so personal. We can disagree as to how upset you want to get about the teams poor play, but I am amazed at how personal some people get over a website about a college hockey team. If you are that frustrated get out and ring the bell for the Salvation Army. You will feel better, I guarantee it!

Red, You are right but if you turn the bass up on your right speaker and the down on your left speaker, I am pretty sure the refs hear us so I usually will yell at them. I have no idea how to make it work if you have surround sound. It doesn't work on TV. Ira

That is exactly what I was trying to say. What we say on this thread is reviewed Sunday after church by the coaches, communicated to the team when they watch film and the adjustments are then made. We really need to step up the criticism. It obviously makes someone feel better. Fans don't skate, shoot or play defense, but they can improve the atmosphere and the envoronment in which the game is played. The guys we have are the guys who will be here the rest of the year and have to improve their play and the coaches we have are going to be here. We will not continue to be one of the best teams in college hockey if we were to dump a very successful coach because a team this young is struggling. As a former coach and college athlete, I can tell you the fans that abandon you when times get tough are not the ones the players and coaches want anything to do with. Any rube can jump on the band wagon when we win. There are valid criticisms of the teams play on these threads but some of it is way out of line. There is no one kid who is responsible for giving up a goal. There is no one element that explains the teams poor play. I will take my chances with these kids and these coaches.

Hakstol has a great group of kids committed for the next two years. This team will be OK. Oshie when healthy is one of the top forwards in the country as is Toews. Amazing how a coach can be good enough to develop two young teams and get them to the frozen four both years he coaches and all of a sudden he knows nothing. I would hate to go to war with some of the fans who have jumped ship. Not saying they are playing well but we are younger this year than the last two years. Finley is a huge kid who moves his feet pretty well and is getting better. If he was already as good as some expect him to be he would be in the NHL. We have some rubes who want to cut him. There aren't many college teams in the country who wouldn't love to have him on their team and bring him along. Give Oshie time to heal and the defensemen time to mature and these guys will be OK. For a self proclaimed bunch of "best fans in college hockey" we aren't sticking with our team and coaches in tough times. I am not blind I can see they aren't playing well but you fans who abandon these kids when things are tough are not the fans who the players talk about when they talk about the great fans at UND. The fans haven't done their job either. I have been going to UND games for 36 years and our fans are less creative and quieter than I have seen in many years. As fans get to the games and cheer and make the atmosphere as good as you can. That is what the fans can do. Do that first and if the team doesn't respond then come back and complain. UND fans lately need the team to do something first and then respond to the team. If UND fans want to be a factor they need to step it up a bit too.

Sioux got a commitment from Drew Daggett of Frazee, Mn. this week. He is a 6'5" 205 lb receiver with a great upside. Also plays BB and went to the state track meet in the high jump and the hurdles. He has very good speed esp for his size and is an excellent student with very good ACT score. Great work ethic. Stayed under the radar of many colleges because Frazee wasn't very good in FB and they didn't have a QB who could get him the ball. He was at UND's summer camp and did very well. Played last year with a cast on his wrist and missed last game this year in Fargodome with sprained knee. Will be much stronger with college strength program. He was offered a 1/2 scholarship in track by NDSU. Both parents went there but were impressed with the coaches, the quality of the players, and College of Business. First blue chipper from Mn for this years group.

No. Not to say he wouldn't have listened if they called, but he is a Sioux hockey guy. Very few coaches won't listen to a great job offer. The Mn college job is one of the best.

Dale doesn't want to play night games. We need to at least try it during the hunting season to see if it makes a difference. The AC does a much better job of maketing their athletics as well as the school. They simply declare themselves better and in the sports that they are they focus on thsoe and in the areas they aren't they sell the public on the idea that they are and enough people buy into it. Their attendence figures this year certainly was boosted by their success and the increased visiblilty of playing the Gophers and winning their conference. They beat a couple of pretty good team in Cal Davis and Cal Poly. They beat Ball State which was a decent mid-major and with comparitive scores were able to back some of their crowing with good performance. Their mens BB team has helped sell the FB team and vice-versa and they have done a nice job of using that success to sell the college and other sports. Chapman has done a good job of selling himself to the Alumni and the state and has performed well for them. UND doesn't have the same community fan base and needs GF, EGF to support the teams and University if for no other reason than it is so improtant to the area economy. The kids from our area who go there love the school yet UND does very little to publicize that and get the word out to the public. UND also fails to capitalize by recruiting the areas where they have done well in the past. Detroit Lakes sent 27 kids to UND 5 years ago from that graduating class. (>10% of the class). This past year it was around 8. I have offered to help the recruiters when they come to DL and also take them to lunch and the answer is they don't recruit here any more. The group the AC uses to do their marketing, uses the athletic success and D1 issue to sell kids on the school and to sell the state and Fargo Moorhead community on the school, and athletics and they do it very effectively. UND has gotten a little better but needs to pick up the pace.

For what it is worth, Manke played with a broken collarbone. The injury kept him from having the best year statistically in UND history in almost every passing category. His 19 TD passes, 2198 yds, 193 completions and 281 attempts were very impressive considering he missed 4 games. Most of those numbers place him in the top 10 in the UND record books. Despite only starting less than one season, he will also finish in the top ten in most UND passing lists for a career and at the top of the lists for post season statistics. I have watched UND FB since the mid 1960's and he is as good as we have had. He ranks with Kelby Klosterman (won a national championship), Todd Kovash, Kevin Klancher and Corey Colehauer. Reed made a huge difference with his leadership. It would have been fun to have watched him start for 3 years. What is also impressive is that Belmore will also finish in almost every top 10 list for career and season passing categories. If you put their numbers together for this year they would have shattered most of the season passing records. Manke handled playing behind Belmore with a lot of class and once he was given a chance he showed why he was the QB the so many schools wanted badly 5 yrs ago. Belmore handled playing behind Manke this year with a lot of class. Both of these guys did what they did on good teams with good RB's so their stats weren't padded by being forced to throw all of the time. They also led this class of players to the most wins by any group in UND history. They were throwing to some of the best receivers UND has ever had including Dressler who thus far is the best I have seen and benefitted from great defenses and O-lines who gave them good protection. Congrats to both of these QB's. They are also both excellent students and from now on will only be better with time, stories and talk over beers.

I would play U of Mary if we can't get anyone else for that reason. I would also use the game to get other kids playing time. If it is a matter of a bye week vs playing them I would play them. We also need to develop depth on defense and will need to get kids experience.

I think UNDsportsfan brings up reasonable points. I have emailed private communication and I agree with her that the name will likely change and if that is what she strongly believes in, then keep working to make it change. I think the reason the other boys made fun of the child with braids was because he was different and they didn't understand. The Sioux logo doesn't have braids so I think the child may have been mistaken in associating the logo if that is what he did. This is not unusual behavior for children. It also occurs both ways from American Indian kids toward blacks, causcasions and hispanic kids. I think this is a good example of how almost anything negative directed at American Indians can rightly or wrongly get associated with the logo issue. I also think the multiple examples of hostility and racist behavior at Dartmouth is evidence that the negative or racist behavior here at UND, when it occurs, would very likely occur regardless of the logo. It occurs because of ignorance and bigotry rather than the logo. The use of the Fighting Sioux name could be used to bridge our differences and make things better, but I don't think there will be any compromise on behalf of the opponents. They are very close to achieving their goal of forcing the change and unless the many American Indians who support keeping the logo are willing to put up with the abuse and harrassment they will get from the opponents of the name, UND will change the name at some time in the future. I will predict there will be no improvement in the lives of our American Indian students just because the name changes and likely there will be negative backlash for quite some time. It is too bad that people on both side of this issue weren't smart enough years ago to do whatever necessary to have prevented this from becoming such a contentious issue.

The purpose of this thread was next FB season. UND 92,96 sums things up pretty well. The big question offensively will be who replaces Manke. Freund should enter spring ball as No. 1. Landry is big strong and one of the best athletes in the state of ND his senior year. It is tough to be ready as a freshman. I don't know much about the other returing QB's. We will likely run more with the experience at O-line and the depth at RB and athleticism at QB. The contributions of Reed were tremendous and it will be tough to expect someone without experience to be able to run that short passing game as efficiently and still have the abvility to throw deep. Had he not been hurt I think he would have broken most single season passing records. (It would have been fun to see how good we might have been with him at QB as a Soph and Jr). Defensively, the corners should be good and Manke at safety should be one of the best we have had. Line and linebackers are good athletes. We might even be better at LB next year but it will be tough to replace Wolf and Enger. We have number of promising DL who are good athletes. It will depend on what kind of work they do in the off-season. We need to replace Greenwood and Desuatel. It will be tough to find someone as smart as Greenwood to help get people in the right spots but Rory Manke is also one of the kids with or close to a 4.0 GPA and knows the game . Depth at DB and Dline and the QB situation are the biggest questionmarks. We should have great RBs and good depth there. We have great receivers and good depth there. We have a great O-line with good depth there and 3 great tight-ends coming back. One of the improtant things we have had and will need to maintain are the kids like Beatty, Loegering etc. who have been willing to play their roles so when they were needed we were able to insert them and didn't seem to miss a beat. Championship teams have those guys and their teamates know how valuable they are. Beatty always came in and ran hard and stayed positive. Strouth got himself healthy again and was playing well when he got hurt. Loegering made some key blocks against UNO and a great catch against GVSU should have had a lot more playing time this year but didn't complain and went about his business as a pro but delivered whenever they called on him. The media and many fans don't realize how much those guys contribute over their careers by making others around them better and those ahead of them on the depth chart better. The contribution of Belmore can't be over looked. He was beat out by Manke yet stayed postive and filled in when Reed was hurt and did enough to win. He seemed to handle the situation with class. One area I would like to see improved is getting these guys more playing time when the situation allows. Loegering played a lot last year yet didn't get on the field until the end of the year. He is an excellent student and works hard. He was a senior and the coaches need to reward that or those kids won't stick around in the future. I ahve a lot of respect for him for hanging in there. Beatty and Brady needed more reps but with Stouth and Chappel doing well I know it is hard. Belmore could have gotten earlier time in the early games. When Manke broke his collarbone he should have been on the sidelines drinking Gatorade and checking out the co-eds rather than running from the fat guys when we were ahead by 30+. (he also shouldn't have let those fat guys catch him). On the positive side we usually get kids in on defense with the rotating system and that is one reson I think we have been so good defensively. You can't do that with the QB or O-line but should be able to with the backs, TE's and receivers and they ahve been doing that pretty well the last couple of years. Lastly, we still have great coaching and hopefully we can keep these guys around to take another run at a National title next year and then transtion to D1AA.

That is why I said points well taken. (maybe you missed that part). I don't know how many programs will struggle at UND and for how long. What difference does it make at this time? Why would anyone want to waste their time speculating? Anyone can figure out we will struggle with baseball, track, VB etc. As I said we will need to get better. UND will put the necessary resources into making this a successful transition and time will tell. Our transition has to do with UND doing it the best way we can. If someone wants to compare with you guys or SDSU more power to them, but most of us will focus on what we are doing and the things we can control. For those of us who are alumni and boosters, that means writing a bigger check and making an effort to get to the games. For students, it means get to the games and take some friends to the games. For the coaches and athletes it means keep getting better. For the president and faculty it means continuing to make UND the best intitution of higher learning in this area and getting even better. Those are the same things all schools that are trying to move up need to do. The AD and school officials and coaches need to work out the details but the mission is clear. If someone feels better because they made the move sooner or think they will be better than someone else, then go ahead and feel better and have a Merry Chritmas.

I disagree that the WBB team there is "getting a slower start". These last two years are some of the worst teams they have fielded in the last 15yrs. Baseball learned the difference between D1 and D2 pretty fast. They have a good coach and a great facility but the best kids are almost always going to go somewhere that they can play year round. MBB and FB are both far exceeding expectations. FB should remain a D1AA power. MBB will do well as long as Miles is there and then it depends on the next coach. BB can change so fast with injuries and a kid getting homesick. WBB will improve. Wrestling should be OK but Minnesota's emergence as a national power has slowed them a little. Other points well taken. There is no excuse for UND's traditional poor showing in track, VB, Women's hockey. MBB should get better but it isn't as easy to turn things around once those bigger programs slip. It will come. The poor showing in track has been a cultural attitude that we don't have the resources and we make some sort of half hearted effort to recruit a few kids but no one is going to bust their butts to improve things. They work hard with the kids they have. Right now there are enough kids on the FB team to make them a decent track team. Womens hockey needs to get better fast. That is too much money to spend just to meet title IX requirements. They swimming teams are D2 powers but will struggle to compete at the elite level of D1. They will need to get nearly every D1 kid in this area. UND's D1 move will go well and it will take time. The traditionaly poor programs will either need to improve or changes will have to be made. That should have happened regardless of the D1 move. The learning curve should be improved based on the lessons learned in Fargo and SDSU.

I don't think he would go to Sac State unless it was a lot more money. He definitely is not going to take a step back and go to the AC. Bohl has earned consideration as the Gopher coach.

The hotdogs are first then you get the gas.

Thanks, good luck and Go Sioux !

Froggy, How difficult will it be to get tickets? Can we get them at the game?

I know, but UND should be the school by which the others measure themselves and that should include attendance. How do we compare with Montana, Montana St, UNI, uur pals from the south etc.? I know we are OK but we need to step up to that next level as fans with our support by putting our butts in the seats as well as the extra $$$. These kids and coaches have worked too hard and deserve no less.

Frankly, based on the poor attendance at the Winona State game, the fans don't deserve a home playoff game. 5000 and change was pathetic. Where were the students and where were the people of Grand Forks? That alone should have been enough to fill the Alerus. There have been too many playoff games in GF in the last few years where the attendance has been poor. Any thing less than 12000 is not acceptable for a team that is planning to move up a division. The team deserves a home game but until the community of GF/EGF appreciates the economic impact of a home playoff game and works to get the Alerus filled I can't whine when we get screwed by the NCAA. I wouldn't be mistaken for a Bison fan but they get the seats filled for the big games.

ACL on the other knee. He would be a 6th year senior and with the emergence a Chappel, And Beaty and Brady back, I think he will elect to pass up his final year. Tough kid, had a good career. By the way his brother was averaging 25ppg for Moorhead State. How did UND mens BB miss on him?

The tailgaters report there is no wind and the sun is trying to break through. Mid 40's already (they have been drinking so they may not be able to tell the weather). Sioux have a mobile Manke and he should be able to run. He couldn't last game against UNO because they were trying to protect his shoulder. He might be hard pressed to start as well as he did last time when he completed his first 15 passes, but he is the most accurate QB in UND history with a group of very good receivers and a good O-Line and the fastest RB UND has had. The key will be if we can contian the UNO QB, give Manke time and give Chappel room to run. I don't think we will have that group of clowns from St. Cloud reffing this time because it is a playoff game.

The Benedict kid is tough as nails with good speed. I don't know what kind of 40 time he has but he is also a very good hockey player although undersized. He is very strong. The TRF lineman mentioned elsewhere on this thread is a project. He doesn't seem to punish opponents like he could. His footwork is OK but needs to get better. He leans on kids rather than drive them and doesn't explode off of the line of scrimmage. He won't get away with that in college. The wrestler who was hurt part of the year was a better HS player and Mumm said he was their best lineman. He was about 6' with spikes on and 270 lbs. He is one of the best heavyweights in the state.

NDSU still has a big advantage this year because they should have more money (63>36). They will maintain an advantage for another 4-5 years because of the play-offs. I think you mistake kids getting a letter from the PAC -10, Big-10, and Big-12 with being recruited. If they are offered scholarships from a D1A school that means it is a full ride. There are not 15 kids who committed to NDSU then or now who are turning down scholarships at the big schools. That is nothing against NDSU, it is just reality. Also doesn't mean the kids are good recruits. UND's maintains the academic advantage and will have a lot more scholarship money after this years class because of the move to D1. Both schools will continue to do well because of the tradition of the programs and the quality of education they can get. NDSU will need to transition through a new coach when Bohl leaves. This may or may not be the year. Because of those factors I think the advantage might not be as big as some think. Time will tell.