bincitysioux

6 UND 10 PSU 15:47 1H

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Very well said. The program has seen its fair share of ups and downs, to be sure. I think Jones has done some very good things here. The first two seasons in the Big Sky are exactly what I expect from this program, and I was very pleased and impressed with their conference play. I think he is a very good recruiter, with examples going all the way back to Emmanuel Little. One of the most impressive things about Jones' teams over the years is that they usually are playing their best basketball by far near the end of the season, and that trend goes all the way back to the NCC days. But here is where I am at currently with this program. -The inconsistency has gotten to the point of being almost intolerable for me. Things like having a more than respectable showing against a top 25 team like UNI, to being run out of a neutral court gym by UTPA. Blowing an 18 point lead at SDSU. Things like this make a fan weary. As I said, Jones normally has his team playing well at the end of the season, which of course is great. But I want to see good basketball all year long, not just the last 5 or 6 weeks of the season. -I wonder if the program has hit its ceiling under Jones. People like to cite how UND won more games than any other new member of the Big Sky has in 2012-13. People often don't point out that in that year the number of conference games played increased by 25% so there were many more opportunities to get wins. In 3 seasons in the Big Sky, we are 1-12 against Weber and Montana. And if ever there was a year that Weber was ripe for the picking it was this year. We need to be better then 1-12 against those two programs if we want to be considered one of the top Big Sky programs, which I think we should be. -The expectations for this program are not where they should be, IMO. I admit I may be overly optimistic, but I don't thing UND should ever be picked 9th in a conference pre-season poll. The truth is, the Big Sky is one of the weakest DI basketball conferences in the country. That means there are probably more than a few teams in it that just aren't very good, in fact they could be considered pretty bad. When you are picked 9th (and now actually sitting at 10th) that means your are in fact one of the ones that are pretty bad. There are a couple of NSIC teams that would probably have their way with several of the Big Sky schools, including us. I find this unacceptable. Whether or not Jones is the root cause of any or all of this is up for debate. If he can turn it around that's awesome.

I just like Drake due to geography. UNI, Drake, UW-Green Bay, and UW-Milwaukee are all semi-regional DI schools that could be interested in a semi-regular rotation with us. Someone mentioned Denver as well, and on the surface seems like it makes sense. I heard (and even made myself) the argument that due to our hockey ties that our transition was going to be far better scheduling wise than the other former NCC schools. None of that ever really came to fruition, so apparently our status in hockey doesn't carry as much sway in the regard as some thought, including myself.

I find it strange that we have not played USD since they left the Great West. At one point I heard a rumor that our AD was boycotting them because of the way thy handled their Big Sky invite. But since then, we have played WBB, VB, softball and other sports, so that must have not been true. Jones puts the basketball schedule together and SDSU has been on it throughout the transition, sometimes twice a season. It seems strange that this game doesn't take place anymore since USD was somewhat of a partner in the DI move. My ideal rotation with the former NCC schools would be NDSU and UNO opposite of SDSU and USD. I would also like to see a home and home with Drake every year and a standing 2 for 1 with UNI.

It is kind of interesting to look back at the attendance numbers for all 4 Dakota schools individually during their final DII years, independent years, and first few years with conference affiliation. For each school I looked at the final four years of DII, the four years of DI independent status (3 in the case of USD), and the first 3 years of membership with an established DI conference. UND is the only school of the four whose average attendence in its first three years with an established conference is lower than it was during its independent years. UND is the only school of the four whose attendence declined every year in each of its last four DII seasons. UND is the only school of the four that had an overall losing record in the 11 year window that I looked at.

Attendance is always a solid topic, pretty much year round, so I moved most of the attendance related posts to a different thread.

I don't think there are any DI conferences that regularly have double headers, although I think Summit has one or two a year, or at least NDSU does. In UND's case, a school where women's basketball draws well, the mirror scheduling essentially provides double the revenue that double-headers would. The travel savings would be minimal, because you still have to buy the same amount of airline tickets and hotel rooms, etc......

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Predictably, Griz & Bobcat fans like Billings. Weber fans like Ogden. Nobody seems to love Reno.

I think winning would be the best thing UND could do to grow attendance and casual can interest. Haven't done a lot of that in football or men's basketball in a number of years now......

The season isn't even over yet. Isn't it a bit early for the annual Big Sky vs Summit conversation? We are going to run out of off-season material......

We did play at UNO, SDSU, and NDSU the last two seasons so there is 1-2 road games one could have attended of late. NDSU obviously draws fans, but other than them, I've come to the conclusion that most fans don't really care who the opponent is.

Although Port is definitely one of NDSU's most famous alums, he just hates the higher ed system in this state and attacks it any chance he gets. He has taken UND to task numerous times as well.

So it will just be me going to Billings then?

Attendance was 1967. Pretty good turnout, entertaining game, disappointing result.

I didn't respond to the "lie part" because I did no such thing therefore I felt no need to justify the accusation. Good grief I didn't even mention hoopster in the post in question. I didn't even remember who brought up Izzo in this thread until just now when I went back and looked, and you are correct it was hoopster. Obviously I have struck a chord with you for whatever reason. Seeing as how this is totally off topic, feel free to take it up with me via personal message and I will do my best to address any of your concerns.

UND falls to the Bobcats, now 8-5 in Big Sky play. Tough weekend for UND against Montana schools.

Man, tough loss. Just can't seem to close one out for whatever reason. 2 things really stand out from box score. We had more missed free throws than they had free throw attempts. They had 14 offensive rebounds, the final one obviously being the dagger.

Crowd comes alive for good basketball......

54 UND 49 MSU 11:31 2H

Stats are pretty even except for turnovers. That is the difference so far.....

34 UND 37 MSU HALF

12 UND 15 MSU 11:30 1H

Better crowd today than Thursday.....