bincitysioux

I don't have a problem with play by play crew. Hammer is comparable to Sweeney to a casual hockey guy like myself. I just grow tired of Hammers nicknames for all the coaches, but it is not a big deal to me. The few broadcasts I've seen have improved from the beginning of the season, but it is a fact that Midco's SD picture is not as clear as FSSN/WDAZ's was. But it is fine. SD is what it is. It is great that the games will be in HD next year. Woo-hoo for the Wall Drug Power Play clock. I rarely noticed it wasn't there before but that's just me. I also understand that losing FCS coverage next season has nothing to do with Midco, but UND should be held somewhat accountable for that. The most marketable member of the NCHC should have had enough pull to avoid the atrocity that will be that conference's TV deal. I don't have a problem with Midco producing the games, so much as I do with UND's apparent willingness to rely predominately on often unreliable web-based platforms to deliver programming to its fans. Unless you are one of the FEW Midcontinent subscribers, a person can't even watch the weekly coach's show on local TV in North Dakota or NW Minnesota anymore. IMO, it's just been a huge step backwards in the TV marketing area compared to what were huge strides in the preceding 10 years for UND.

I took the liberty of moving the last 15 posts that dealt with TV coverage to here, since it was more related to TV coverage in general rather than the UW game.

Big Sky Midseason Review

I'd gladly swap out the power-play clock for the ability to view the game.

Weber definately has the bar set as far as basketball pedigree goes for the Big Sky. I fully expect North Dakota to join the Wildcats and the Griz as the third conference power sometime in the next few years! Question for you Wildcat, what is the overall concensus as to how most Weber fans feel about North Dakota and SUU joining the Big Sky?

By my count, Weber has 8 NCAA tournament appearances with the last one coming in 2007. They've one the regular season title 18 times.

Wish I lived closer to GF, I'd be there. I had this game and Montana circled on the schedule since it came out as Thursday games that I wanted to attend, but kindergarten is kicking my son's butt so I think his teacher would frown upon me keeping up until midnight on a school night. I plan on making it to the rest of the Saturday games though. I wonder if my wife wants to celebrate Valentines Day at the Sioux Center? Then I could make 4 of the last 5 home games.

Wildcats look to rebound from back-to-back losses up north You can't convince me that the North Dakota-Northern Colorado road trip is more difficult than flying to Sacramento, then flying to Phoenix and having to bus 2-3 hours up to Flagstaff to get to NAU, and then back to Phoenix again..................

I've never understood why some feel that state funding should be equal between the schools.

I can't emphasize enough how impressed I am with Troy Huff this season. He has really grown as a player and improved in some key areas. In addition to the increased scoring output, he's doing it more efficiently as well. Last season he shot just 39% from the field and this year is shooting 45%. A career 63% free throw shooter, he's shooting 76% from the charity stripe this season. From beyond the 3 point arc, Huff was a career 26% shooter coming into this year and was an abysmal 19% last season. This season he's hitting at a 35% clip from 3 point land, and seems like he often hits them in critical situations. And I've said a couple times this season, even when he is having an off night offensively, the kid works so hard defensively and on the boards. He just flat out hustles every game. It is apparent that he put in alot of time in the offseason to improve his game and become a better player. Too bad he missed pretty much the entire non-conference slate of games. Several games could have potentially turned out differently had he been on the floor, specifically UMKC, SDSU, and Hawaii off the top of my head.............

Game Notes

Here's a look at all the known Big Sky non-conference games............... Cal Poly: San Diego, @ Fresno St., @ Colorado St., Yale EWU: @ Oregon St., Western Oregon, @ Toledo, @ Sam Houston St. ISU: Dixie St., Western St., @ Washington, @ BYU UM: Appalachian St., @ UND, Oklahoma Panhandle St., @ South Dakota MSU: @ NDSU, @ Stephen F. Austin UND: Valparaiso, South Dakota St., Montana NAU: @ Arizona UNC: CSU-Pueblo, @ Wyoming, Northern Iowa PSU: @ Cal, @ UC Davis SAC: @ San Jose St., @ Arizona St. SUU: @ Washington St. UCD: @ South Dakota, @ Nevada, Portland St. WSU: Stephen F. Austin, @ Utah, @ Utah St., @ McNeese St.

Apparently, Gopher fans are nearly as distraught over the Herald's reporting as Fargo U fans are. Here is Schlossman's rebuttal: Gopher Puck Live

Where is the Big 10's tournament going to be held?

YAY!!!! Actual football talk rather than "North Dakota-FU Newspaper-Gate" discussion!

One of the many things that I think makes the Big Sky rather exciting is the unbalanced schedule, and the potential advantages/disadvantages it may create for the teams in the conference. Based upon 2011 win-loss record, Cal Poly had by far and away the easiest schedule in 2012, and they rode it to a 7-1 finish, a share of the conference title, and a playoff berth. Here is how the toughest schedules shake out for the upcoming season, based on 2012 opponents winning percentage: Montana (.594) Weber St. (.532) Northern Colorado (.532) North Dakota (.516) Northern Arizona (.500) UC Davis (.500) Montana St. (.500) Southern Utah (.485) Idaho St. (.485) Cal Poly (.485) Portland St. (.469) Sacramento St. (.469) Eastern Washington (.438) For teams that had identical opponent W-L records, I took the liberty of ranking them based on my own subjective standards. For example 3 teams have schedules with .500 win percentages (NAU, UCD, and MSU). However MSU only plays one of last season's co-champs, while NAU and UCD both play two of the co-champs. NAU has to travel to both games, while UCD gets one of them at home, so I gave NAU the nod as the team with the most difficult .500 opponent schedule, yadda, yadda, yadda............... Couple interesting points: EWU has the easiest schedule in 2013. They had the toughest in 2012 and still managed to go 7-1 and win the conference. Montana and Weber are the only teams that play all three 2012 Co-Champions Just something kind of fun to consider when making predictions about how the conference race will shake out as the off-season progresses.

That is par for the course with this crew: Kober, Hak, Muss, Brew, etc................... It is very irritating.

Idaho St filled out their 2013 schedule. They'll play 12 games. Their OOC games are against 2 non-DI schools in Dixie St. and Western St., and 2 FBS schools in Washington and Brigham Young.

I have always had trouble with UND Insider, probably due to my Internet service. I can stream perfectly from virtually any site except FightingSioux.com for some reason. I was very happy when the rest of the sports made the switch to Big Sky TV this year, because that works flawlessly, and it is free besides. The only thing I use UND Insider for this season is for the UND Sports Extra show, but that still buffers so bad that it takes me 40 minutes to watch the 24 minute show. If the hockey webcasts were in HD and they streamed uninterrupted like Big Sky TV does, I'd happily re-subscribe to UND Insider.

Obviously, I'm just speculating, but in the off-chance that DirecTV did pickup Midco, I assume they could have the games on their sports tier, since Midco would be considered a Regional Sports Network whereas CBS Sports is a national network ala NBC-SN and ESPN.

I've emailed DirecTV many many times asking that they consider adding Midco Sports Net to their sports tier ever since UND signed the debacle that is their current TV deal. I suggest that anyone else who has DirecTV or Dish do the same. More off topic: Does anybody have experience with Slingbox? I am one of the 95% of Sioux fans that don't have access to Midco cable, so I'll be one of the tens of thousands not watching next year. However I do have a business property in a town that is served by Midco, so I was considering subscribing there and setting up a Slingbox so I can watch at home. Would the quality be decent TV-like or crummy webcast-like? It is hard enough for me to watch hockey that is not in HD, so I am not at all interested in watching hockey webcasts on UND Insider.

I'm not going to pretend that North Dakota was a very good team last year, obviously they were not. They were a middle of the pack team in arguably the best FCS conference in the country. They showed promise and they showed glaring deficiencies over the course of the season. But................... That is just an ignorant statement. New England got blown out by Baltimore. Notre Dame got blown out by Alabama. North Dakota lost to four Top 25 FCS teams, an FBS bowl team, and then crapped themselves against Northern Colorado................

Do they have parameters as far as how they match teams up? Do they do it regionally or based on RPI? If those are the guidlines, I'd think that Summit, MVC, Horizon, WAC, or MAC teams would all be candidates. Did we ever find out if we will get a return game from the opponent next season since this is apparently the last season of the Bracketbuster?

When is signing day? Next Tuesday?

Well, as excruciating as it was to watch the Sioux fall apart against Sacramento St., they dug in and came away with a gutsy win against Northern Arizona. After a dubious start, they played some excellent basketball the final 30 minutes against the Lumberjacks, salvaged a road split, and have won 4 of their last 6 games. Weber St. is coming in reeling a bit, in the midst of a 4 game road trek, and having lost two straight. I think Weber is a far superior team, but if ever they were ripe for the picking, it is now. UND has played well at home of late. This can be a big statement game, and as we have all seen, it is very important to protect your home floor in this league.