bincitysioux

Well that is a real bummer about Shields. I really like what I saw from him in the limited opportunities he got. To me, he basically looked like a young version of Jaron Nash. I think he will have a nice career wherever he lands. Coleman is less surprising, but just as unfortunate. He began the season as a starter, and finished the season playing just a handful of minutes. Personally, I felt he should have gotten every minute that De Rouen did. For whatever reason, he found himself in Jones' doghouse and never got out.

Boots and Nagy both proved for many years that they could field successful teams at the DII level, which I feel provided them with much longer rope. As a member of an entrenched low-major Big Sky conference, I say yes. There are also plenty of other low-major opponents on the non-conference schedule every year. Absolutely. IMO his actual record at North Dakota before the transition, during the transition, and after the transition is far more disturbing than how he conducts himself on the sideline. There is no arguing that the past 9 years have been one of the least successful periods in the history of Sioux basketball.

I am pretty certain that Glas left under similar cicumstances, i.e. "strongly encouraged" to explore other opportunities. It is remarkable how different the standards apparently are right now. Just a decade ago, .500 seasons weren't good enough for UND. Currently they are considered a success.

I agree with you. What I am wondering is if 12 DI wins, plus 2 wins against DII/NAIA schools putting us at or around .500 overall will be enough to satisfy Faison. That would be double the win total from this year. With as horrible as it was this year, .500 might look like quite the accomplishment to some people unfortunately.

This is my biggest fear. Jones has conditioned the administration to have such low expectations for this program that I fear an overall record that simply approaches .500 next season is going to satisfy the AD. We have already seen that a slightly above .500 season earns a multi-year extension. This team won 6 DI games this past season. If they win 12 or 13 next year, that will probably be viewed as a remarkable turnaround.

The Betty needs some minor upgrades. It is probably the 3rd best facility in the Big Sky. Ask any player, they love it. We are so spoiled regarding facilities that it is almost nauseating.

Not sure what the Big 12 has to do with it. You said 20 win seasons are rare in the Big Sky. There have been at least two 20 win teams in 6 of the last 7 seasons. 7 different schools have hit 20 wins in the last 7 years. UND hasn't won 20 games in over a decade. They don't give out trophies for getting 20 wins, but it is a nice round number that, for a low major would indicate a quality season. Winning percentage is a far better measure of success over a long period of time in my opinion. .455 over 9 years is pretty weak for any flagship program that has a high-end facility in one of the country's weakest DI basketball leagues.

An argument could be made that North Dakota is grossly overpaying for the results that have been produced over the past 9 seasons.

Four Big Sky teams won 20 games this season.

How about at minimum, a standard of winning more games than we lose?

Interesting how different the standards are at Texas' flagship university versus North Dakota's flagship university. In Texas, a .664 winning percentage and having a winning season in 16 out of 17 years is a fire-able record. In North Dakota, winning games at a 45% clip and turning in 3 winning seasons in 9 years apparently equals job security. Well, they always do say the do things bigger in Texas.................

Ha! I see what you did there.

Update on the Billings visit: Welsch column: Billings gives Big Sky Conference every reason to say 'yes' Big Sky Conference group 'impressed' with city's welcome Big Sky Conference Representatives Impressed with Billings Sounds like a decision will be made on April 17.

Big Sky officials are visiting Billings today and tomorrow. Billings preps bid to host 3 years of Big Sky men's basketball tournaments Gazette opinion: Bring Big Sky basketball to Billings Spokane's point of view: Big Sky Tournament considers Spokane as host

Have to continue to agree to disagree and that of course is fine. 2012-14 were 3 years in what has been one of the worst eras of Sioux Football. I will continue to argue that the reason attendance has been so low the last 6 seasons is because we have gone 30-37 over the last six seasons. I'm sure attendance for the Montana games would have been better if it were on Potato Bowl like that SDSU game was, or if we had been to the playoffs for several consecutive seasons and fans felt the game might have some national significance. Sadly we've been terrible for the last 6 or 7 years, and few people want to watch the product that has been on the field. As long as we are looking at attendance for games where the Griz are the opponent, look at NDSU's schedule last year. Their game against Montana outdrew their games against SDSU. So Montana must be a more attractive opponent right? I wonder how attendance would be at the Fargodome if NDSU were 30-37 the last six years instead of 70-16. The product on the field means way more than the opponent as far as I am concerned.

I've seen two Bald Eagles in the last two weeks near my farm. I think it is a sign. The Badgers have Bucky, we could have Baldy..........

Well played........... It was SDSU. For Potato Bowl, which is often one of the top attended games of the year. Southern Utah is the next most recent 10,000+ game in the Alerus.

Im well aware of SDSUs football pedigree. Perhaps doormat was a strong word. My point is nobody used to care when they came to town because here were always so so. Now they are a Top 15 FCS program every year and I bet most casual fans are unaware of that.

I bet that the casual football fan has next to no idea what or where UNI is. I bet the casual football fan probably assumes that SDSU is still the perennial doormat just like they were in the NCC.

Apparently a home schedule like this: Texas A&M Kingsville St Cloud St. Wisconsin-LaCrosse Western Washington Southern Utah Those are the teams that visited the Alerus Center when UND set its all time season attendance record. I wonder if being arguably the best football program in our division for something like 7 straight years prior to that season had anything to do with it. Win and they will come.

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Hypothetical question.................... If NDSU were to trade places with UNC as the only former NCC school in the Big Sky, and everything else being equal with SDSU, USD, UNO, UNC, and Denver all in in the Summit/MVFC, the Summit Tourney in Sioux Falls, which conference would you prefer UND to be in? My guess is that everyone here pining for the Summit/MVFC would be in favor of the Big Sky in that instance. Am I wrong?

I think most people don't care who we play, just that we are winning. We have not been winning lately, hence attendance suffers.

I'm in the camp that a big reason we go is because it is an excuse to get to the Twin Cities and take advantage of what the big city offers. My wife and I and another couple have done it the last two years and plan on continuing to do so. No way could I see us making a weekend trip to Sioux Falls. I think attendance would be pretty poor there. Wasn't attendance at the Target Center over 11,000 both days this past weekend? That's up quite a bit from last year from what I can tell. 11,000 in an old and crappy 18,000 seat arena is better than 4,000 in a shiny new 10,000 seat arena IMO.

I believe they would be the same presuming the NDSU game was on the road like it is already in 2015.