dbarker

JBB- I'll spell it out for you, since I realize you're a little slow. Dale Lennon has proven he is a good coach, and he could have any number of positions should he choose to leave UND. You see, he has actually won two NCC titles and a national championship during his brief four-year tenure as UND's head coach. Bob Babich, on the other hand, has been pretty much a joke during his time at ndsu. He pretty consistently loses to UND (2 and 4, I believe), he hasn't won a single conference title, and he has run your little program into the ground. You know it, I know it, and pretty much everybody knows it except maybe Bob himself, Joseph Chapman, and Gene Taylor. So please, quit embarrassing yourself and your school. Most people would realize that it's stupid to talk smack when you are a fan of the worst football team in the NCC.

You're definitely not the only one. And I don't think it was just a coincidence that it took Wanless three years to find another job after leaving UND. I'm certainly not surprised that Lennon would say he would listen if Wanless called. There's probably not too many of us who wouldn't at least listen if someone wanted to potentially offer us a job. But listening and actually taking a job are two very different things. I guess we should be thankful that we have a coach who other schools want, as opposed to a guy who will probably be fired within a year like a certain Bison coach.

Just so there's no confusion, Wanless did not hire Lennon at UND. Roger Thomas hired Lennon as an assistant coach, and subsequently hired him as the head coach in 1999. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. As I stated above, I honestly don't think there's much of a chance Lennon would jump at the first opportunity to leave his alma mater, particularly after a poor season. If so, then I guess it would lend credence to the belief of some that a division I job--even one towards to the bottom of the dI food chain--is better than a comparable paying job at a good division II school. I did read the latest column in the Sacramento Bee about this saga. In case anyone's interested, apparently Pat Behrns is interested in the job. Not only that, but according to the column, he has won three division II national championships! It looks like somebody didn't do their homework before writing that one.

I wouldn't necessarily be surprised if Lennon some day did want to pursue a job at a dI school. However, I don't see it happening here. Sac. St. is not a good athletic program, and I doubt a small town guy from North Dakota who has never coached outside of the Dakota's is going to move his family all the way to Cali to take over a program where he would need to practically start from scratch. I don't see going from the one of the best dII programs to a bad I-AA program as being a step up. And with regard to Wanless, who do you think Lennon is closer to, Roger Thomas or Wanless? It isn't even close. My guess is after a meeting or two with Wanless, Lennon will get a raise and stay at UND. Maybe this is apples and oranges, but I think that if UND can keep Dean Blais from going to Minnesota, his alma mater, when they really wanted him, I'm not really worried about being able to keep Lennon at his alma mater and away from a low-end dI school like Sac St.

If anybody should know about a deteriorating football program, it would be jbb and his fellow bison fans.

I just turned on "Hot Talk" and Hennen confirmed that Ralph Engelstad did, indeed die last night.

I think the only reason there wasn't a fight was that the guy who did it seemed like he was truly sorry and it didn't look like he intentionally tried to hurt Allen. He checked on Allen right after he hit the floor, and made a point of apologizing right after the game. Interestingly, in the radio pre-game show, Scott Swygman said that a pro scout who saw the Sioux play in Oregon last weekend told him (Swygman) that he thought Beasley would be an NBA first round draft pick, and that Allen would play in the NBA also.

All I know for sure is that the 2003 schedule was listed one way in the 2000 media guide, and completely different in the 2002 media guide. It seems logical to me that the schedule generated later in time would govern, but I can't say that for certain. Perhaps someone in the NCC office could clear this up.

It looks like the Sioux will be short-handed against SW St, and maybe awhile beyond. Myron Allen was hammered going up for a dunk and came down very awkwardly. He suffered several injuries (hip, back, wrist), the severity of which are unknown at this time. Unfortunately, having a 38 inch vertical can be dangerous as he had a long way to fall once he was fouled.

I think the confusion regarding the conference schedule for next year is caused by the fact that a few years ago when the NCC released future schedules, they included Morningside. I have the 2000 UND football media guide and it listed the 2003 schedule as playing at ndsu. However, once Morningside dropped out, and now with UNC leaving as well, the schedules had to be changed. I'm assuming that's why the 2002 media guide lists the 2003 schedule as having ndsu coming here. Otherwise, UND would have two conference home games and five on the road next year. That's not going to happen, obviously. On an unrelated note, the NCC all conference teams were announced today. Jesse Smith, Ben Olson, Dustin Thornburg and Ethan Marquis made the first team. Riza Mahmoud, Eric Halvorson and Josh Christofferson made the second team. Congrats to those players.

Whether it was intentional or merely negligent, I think that there should have been some ramifications for using an ineligible player in four games. Particularly when that player was playing arguably the most important position on the field. Regardless of what UNC does in the remainder of the playoffs, their accomplishments of this season are tarnished. I don't think too many people are going to be missing them once they've left the NCC.

The Sioux men made something of a statement this weekend by winning the Western Oregon tournament. Big deal, you may say. But the impressive part was that in defeating Western Oregon 99-82 on Saturday night, UND beat the team who had knocked off defending national champion Metro St. the previous night. The "three-headed monster" of Beasley, Allen and Brandt were huge this weekend. It would be nice to get a couple other guys scoring in double figures, but when these three are scoring 65-75 points, there's not that many more points to go around. I am definitely looking forward to the game with Southwest State this week in GF.

I just read this article in Fargo Forum www.in-forum.com/articles/?id=23022 How can Kolpack compare the UND basketball team to the Billeter NDSU teams? I can specifically remember that at least one of his teams did not have a single ND, MN or SD player on it, and generally there were 10 or more d-I or juco transfers. UND has three jucos, no d-I transfers, and nine or ten players recruited out of high school--including seven North Dakotans. It's apples and oranges. This was my favorite line from the article, "He (Glas) has seven North Dakotans, some of whom may contribute." Yeah, I'd say Jeff Brandt MIGHT contribute. Way to go out on a limb there, Kolpack. Also, Josh Johnson from Devils Lake is a starter and Ryan Walker from Mohall is the 6th man. Jade Jahner from Fargo is the backup point guard, and Evan Lindahl from Cando will likely play significant minutes. Can anyone name a single North Dakotan who even played during the Billiter era? I'm sure there were a few--but very few--and certainly not as many as five who played in a single year.

I had a chance to listen to the coach's show in KKXL tonight, and it was pretty interesting. Coach Lennon sounded pretty upbeat and was very optimistic about the future of the program. He sounded VERY high on Hoffschneider and Ullsperger. He also mentioned DeSautel, Schmitz, Steve Brennan, Babington-Johnson, and Groeschl, among others, as freshman who looked good this year in practice. He said something to the effect that Carney was still deciding on his future plans, but didn't really elaborate. I got the impression he is contemplating a transfer, although Lennon didn't specifically say that. He also said they will play at Mesa next year, and that they are talking to Duluth and Northern State about possible games next season. Now, for the really bad news. UND will play Crookston again next year. Ugh. I know they're division II and all, but I can't imagine there's too many people who really want to see that game again.