bincitysioux

Overall Record: 8-18 Great West Record: 5-3 RPI: 327 Last Action: 90-78 victory over New Jersey Tech North Dakota Website North Dakota Audio---FREE vs. Overall Record: 7-20 Great West Record: 2-7 RPI: 347 Last Action: 60-74 Loss to North Dakota Chicago St. Website

Since when did we become so desperate to play NDSU? Up until this past season that had a very counter-productive home schedule (2 NAIA's, no September games, and all 5 games in a 6 week span), attendance had risen every year since we stopped playing them, hitting an all time high in 2008. We had 4 games televised last season, 3 of them nationally. Star & 82 have laid out alot of reasons that this game would be financially beneficial to NDSU. But I'm not interested in helping them, certainly not until Gene Taylor moves along. Why should we share the limelight with them? Besides we don't have an autobid, so when we are playoff eligible, playing them will hurt our Strength of Schedule. Sign them up in everything........except football. That program at both schools will be just fine. Where these two schools CAN help each other in a mutually beneficial way is in basketball (especially women's) and all of the olympic and non-revenue sports.

76 North Dakota 90 SIUE final

63 North Dakota 74 SIU 4:00 2nd half

51 North Dakota 64 SIUE ~8:00 2nd half

43 North Dakota 60 SIU 11:42 2nd half they were back within 9 at one point, but the Cougars aren't missing much

Wayne Nelson's blog

Now my video died............

30 North Dakota 47 SIU Halftime

28 North Dakota 38 SIU 3:30 1st half Cougars shooting 66% from 3. 61% overall

SIUE has hit 7 3's already...........one guy has 5 of them

20 North Dakota 27 SIU 8:00 1st half

14 North Dakota 14 SIU ~11:00 1st half

Game Notes

UND basketball doubleheader with NJIT rescheduled for Feb. 23

Sioux, Bledsoe look for a strong end to season

May be easy to schedule but not necessarily in the best interest of either school to play each other twice in the same season right now, considering the quality (or lack-there-of) of basketball that both teams are playing right now. The RPI is a big thing to consider at this level of basketball. Sure, North Dakota has no shot at post-season play, and NDSU's only shot is to win the Summit tourney but there is more to it than that in the big picture. Right now, North Dakota playing NDSU doesn't do much to help our RPI. We need to move up in the RPI rankings, because the big schools from Big 10/Big 12/Pac 10 etc. won't easily schedule a school like us because of our low RPI, which is a factor when selecting at-large teams to the NCAA tourney. When Texas A&M and Iowa St. throttled us this year, it actually lowered their RPI just because they played us, basically because we have poor team that struggles against other poor teams. If the big schools from the power conferences won't schedule us, that hurts our pocketbook in a big way. Same goes for NDSU..........they need to build their RPI up in order to get guarantee games against schools from power conferences. Playing North Dakota doesn't help them do that. They'll make a nice profit from the 7,000-8,000 that come to the Dome for this game, but it is probably not worth the RPI hit the both of us would take for playing each other twice in the same season when we are in different conferences. I would hope though, that this game is part of a longer term agreement that calls for NDSU to play in GF the following season, and then UND back in Fargo the year after that, and so on.......

Overall Record: 6-17 Conference Record: 3-3 RPI: 317 Last Action: 74-60 win over Chicago St. North Dakota Website North Dakota Audio---FREE North Dakota Video---$5.95 Live Stats vs. Overall Record: 3-21 Conference Record: Independent RPI: 328 Last Action: 50-57 loss to North Dakota SIUE Website SIUE Audio---FREE SIUE Gamenotes

That would be awesome............... Thrashers new Jets? Group wants to move Atlanta NHL team here

I think alot of next year will depend on Patrick Mitchell's continued growth as a player. He has size and athleticism and the potential to score in bunches, but has been largely inconsistent at times through his first two seasons. With his size and physical abilities, he needs to become a 15 point 7 rebound type of guy next season. Alot will have to be asked of Clausen and Benter as well, although I think they are both now contributing as much as they can be expected to. Who will be the starters next year? Mitchell, Benter, Clausen, Goodman, Haugen?.......................

Flying Sioux? Hostile and abusive? I think not................

Hoeven's also spent a number of Saturday evenings in Grand Forks during the course of his 2 and half terms. Having said that.............. Let's keep a lid on the political talk per the Forum Terms and Rules.

Men ended up winning 74-60. Probably one of their best played games as a team of the season. Mitchell had 17 and Bledsoe had 16.

It is hardly a lateral move: Valparaiso pretty much dominated the Mid-Con before they left, now they struggle in the Horizon Since 2005 the Horizon has finished in the RPI as high as 10 and no lower than 16, the Summit has finished anwhere from 16 to 25, usually in the 20's 7 of the 10 current Horizon members are FORMER Mid-Con members (that's alot of lateral movement) It is a much more stable league having lost just 1 member and adding two in the last 13 years; on average, the Summit experiences member turnover every 2 years It would give geographical bliss to a school like Oakland, IUPUI, or IPFW If the Summit ever does become a 2 bid conference, as you say it will be due to expansion, and that would likely mean the Horizon beoming a 3 or 4 bid conference because of the higher level of play When the Big East splits and loses member/s to the Big 10, thier primary hunting grounds will be C-USA, the Missouri Valley, and the Horizon......

So you think it is absurd that the Big 10 could take one or more Big East schools who could then take a Conference USA school who would then raid the MVC who would probably look to the Horizon for a replacement who would just have to leave the Summit alone, because no Summit schools have ever moved on to the Horizon, nor would they want to........... You really don't think that schools like Oakland, IPFW, or IUPUI wouldn't leap at the chance to get out of the Summit and move on to the Horizon League if they were looking for members?