bincitysioux

11 years is enough to tell me that there is a good chance that this season is an anomaly.

To me, that's the problem. UND shouldn't allow the Men's Basketball program to go 20+ years between conference championships. They wouldn't let the football program go that long, and they CERTAINLY wouldn't let the hockey program go that long. Rich Glas wasn't fired, but he was "encouraged" to take another opportunity when it was presented. And that was because the program had gone stale under his watch. Jones was brought in to revitalize the program after the later Glas years. He never did that. If this year is the "revitalization", it shouldn't have taken 10+ years. Based on the results of this season, I expect Jones to be retained and extended for multiple seasons. Honestly, though that is kind of weird to me, because I am confident there isn't a DI school in the country that would offer him a head coaching position. In fact, I'm not sure that there is an NSIC team that would hire him as a head coach.

Congratulations to Coach Jones. It is a well deserved reward, for what has been a surprisingly remarkable season. Jones often has his team playing its best ball near the end of the year during his tenure here, and I am glad to see that is the case this year. Winning the conference title outright is no small achievement and deserves praise. To add to that, I believe UND hasn't won a regular season conference title since 1996 or thereabouts so that makes it all that more impressive. I doubt many, if any here, saw this result coming back when the season tipped off in November. Given the results of this season, I have no doubt that he will receive a multi year contract extension going forward. Now to be "fair and balanced", I also feel compelled to point out his ascension up the ladders of the UND record book. This season, Coach Jones surpassed the legendary Dave Gunther to take sole possession of second place all time in the loss column in the history of the University's basketball program. No small feat, when you consider that Jones was able to lose more games in just 11 seasons than Gunther lost in 18 seasons. It took Rich Glas 16 seasons to lose as many games as Jones has in 11 years. My point is unfortunately, that he loses more often than he wins. And he is not a new, 3rd year coach that the jury is still out on. He's been here for over a decade, in my opinion we know what we have with him, and this season is the exception rather than the norm.

I think he's locked himself up a new 3 year deal. Whether or not that is good for the program long term is up for debate....

Ha, you've been banking that quote for awhile huh? Honestly nobody is happier than me that you got to use it though. Congrats to the players, Coach Jones, and the entire staff. Truly a remarkable season so far (at least the conference portion of it) and hopefully will last for a while yet. Fact is though, that my position on the leadership of the program hasn't changed. This isn't Jones' third season, it is his 11th. Based on his body of work here, this season is an anomaly unfortunately.

They touched on it in the post game last night but it was a great observation. Seales has kind of an old school game, that opposing players these days don't see so often and don't really know how to defend. When he works his way to the free throw line area and takes the mid range jumper. That's rare these days. So many guys either chuck up 3's at every chance or try to take it to the rack. Seales' game mixes it up.

Does the conference get a a tournament credit (money) for winning a play in game?

UND athletics may be facing Summit penalty fees if cutting sports I hope the Summit League holds UND to this stipulation. More ammunition for Women's Hockey to be the first sport to be cut. Or better yet, just stay in the Big Sky.

The attendance was 7700. It was Weber's second biggest draw of the year......

Easily the biggest win for this program in 15 years, maybe more......

It's an 11,000 seat arena.........

I feel like there is some home cooking going on with these refs

My group is going. We have gone every year since it has been at Target Center. The venue isn't great, but I have been to plenty of less than stellar sports venues. We go to support our favorite hockey team and enjoy a long weekend in the big city. We are afforded the comforts of a world class facility for every home game, so it is no sweat off my back to tolerate the Target Center for two days. I guess it is more about the overall experience/weekend getaway for us. Never got a chance to go to the Final Five, but was at The X the last time UND was in the Frozen Four there, (2009?). The X is definately a nicer facility, but again the venue is not a deal breaker for me.

Tough time of year for me but I hope to be in Vermillion too this year. Also hoping to go to the SUU game in Cedar City too this year.

Soccer, Volleyball, and Women's basketball all have access to some pretty amazing facilities

Hogwash And hogwash again!

I don't recall if there was an official statement. Just remember saying they weren't bringing it to Fargo in 2015. I thought the bigger excuse was because it was a non-conference game, but I could be wrong.

Clearly? NDSU is clearly ahead of us in football, and SDSU is clearly ahead of us in women's basketball. That is all.

As I begin to come to grips with this ominous move to the SumValley, I admit I have taken an interest in the discussion regarding rivalry trophies with NDSU and USD. When we joined the Big Sky, I was hoping a trophy game could be established with Montana St, perhaps something regarding the oil industries of the two states. Obviously that ship has sailed, but I do think trophy games are fun between intrastate and interstate rivals. As far as the Nickel Trophy, I thought it should have been up for grabs in 2015, and I think it should be in 2019 and then every year after. I am with those in the camp that it is a replica of a legal tender U.S. coin, and it is in no way tied to the NCAA Nickname Settlement. The fact that it doesn't have UND's current logo on it is irrelevant. It also does not have NDSU's logo on it. With USD and the Sitting Bull Trophy, that trophy was retired due to pressure from the PC crowd 22 years ago. There is no way that is coming back, but I would like to see something re-introduced. I thought it should have been done when we both moved to DI but that never happened. Just an idea, perhaps something revolving around this little tidbit taken from wikipedia: Something along the lines of the "The First Dakota Trophy"? Just a thought anyway.................

Just to keep things a little more organized, I moved all the recent posts about the potential of cutting sports to its own thread in the "Other Sports" forum. Cutting Sports: Round 2

Remind me again what the minimum number of sports are required for being in DI........... That's how many we should have, and women's hockey should not be one of them. Swimming & Diving should be high on the list too. These are both absurdly expensive sports that offer very little to nothing in return. If this ends only with a tennis and/or golf team getting axed, that'll be definitive proof that Kennedy doesn't have the stomach for the job and this university will be in for yet another long and agonizing presidential tenure. Let's make this thing really "lean" and be done with it.

What's with all this ESPN3 talk? I thought everyone was going to be going to the games in person from now on.................

Pull up fade away at the buzzer.......

Hooker is awesome of course. Nice to get out of Cedar City with a win. That place seems to be kryptonite to us.......

Baldwin is a DI player.....