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.

One statistic that absolutely must improve next year is sacks. In 2001, the Sioux led the NCC is sacks with 23 (conference only). This year, that number dropped to 9. The pass rush is crucial to forcing turnovers, which this year's team was unable to do much of. If the staff looks at juco players, I would hope it would be a pass rusher. Maybe Babington-Johnson can be the guy, but he would need to put on some pounds in the off-season. He does have the speed, and he had a lot of sacks in high school.

I agree that the staff would be careful with regard to the character of a juco, but Lennon himself said on the radio show on KKXL last Wednesday night that they were going to take a look at whether they needed to recruit jucos to upgrade the talent at some positions. I look at it as similar to the basketball team where your nucleus is high school recruits but a few impact transfers can put you over the top. I wouldn't mind having another Glen Matthews on the team, although admitedly there aren't many players of his caliber on both the field and the classroom who attend a juco.

If he chooses to come back, Murphy does have another year of eligibility. As mentioned above, Tom Desautel is another option at tight end if he is not utilized as a safety. He would certainly bring an element of athleticism to the tight end position. I wonder if there may be a handful of jucos brought in this year? I know there have been very few during the Thomas/Lennon era, but it wouldn't surprise me if we see a few this year. If there are positions where the staff feels an immediate talent upgrade is necessary, jucos are about the only option since there are so seldom high school players ready to contribute immediately. Unfortunately, with the small senior class there may not be much scholarship money available--unless there are more than the usual number of players leaving the program early.

Coach Lennon made the comment (I believe it was on the Sioux Football show Sun. night) that last spring's recruiting class reminds him of last year's group of seniors (Schmidt, Riendeau, etc.). If they have anything resembling the talent of that group, then this year will hopefully not be repeating itself anytime soon. I also think the previous class has a lot of ability, as displayed this year by Mahmoud, Anderson, Gagner, Alkins, etc. Better play-calling, fewer turnovers and more forced turnovers could turn things around pretty quickly.

Kind of a slippery slope, isn't it? Is there anything that at least a few people don't find offensive? Personally, I find hypocrisy offensive.

I would look for Mahmoud, Travis Lueck (sat out this year) and possibly Bowenkamp if his decision-making improves to be the offensive standouts. Defensively, Digger Anderson, Irvin, Brennan, Hermes and Stratton should lead the way. I know Hoffschneider was an all-stater at cornerback in Colorado's largest-school class of high school football, which is impressive in and of itself. I wouldn't be surprised if he starts next year. DeSautel is very tall and a good athlete. I didn't realize he may play tight end as he was listed as a safety on the roster, but the Sioux could certainly use a receiving threat at tight end so that may make sense if he can put on some weight. Ullsperger will likely be in the rotation at inside linebacker next year. Groeschl had a nice high school career as a qb in Wisconsin, and has evidently emerged as the front-runner of the three qb recruits in last year's recruiting class. I guess I'd be surprised if he actually gets any playing time next year, though. I had thought Shad Carney might see some time this year after having been named the offensive scout player of the year last season, and he never played a single down to my knowledge.

To the best of my knowledge, the plan at UND is to renovate the old Engelstad arena into a basketball facility. I'm not sure when this is supposed to take place, but Hyslop will likely not be used for basketball for too much longer, thankfully. For what it's worth, there are a number of facilities that are utilized for both basketball and hockey (i.e. Wisconsin's new facility) so if necessary, it probably could be done.

That is correct, and I believe it's the same situation with Myron Allen, who, like Beasley, has the talent to have played at virtually any division I school in the country in my opinion. The ironic thing is, due in large part to this loophole, I'm confident that UND will probably have an easier time recruiting good players than will NDSU for the forseeable future. With the long period of post-season ineligibility discussed ad nauseum on this site, the poor facility, the lack of a track record for success in mens basketball, and the location of North Dakota, NDSU will have a very difficult time recruiting talent any better than what they've been getting, which hasn't been particularly good since Tom Billiter and his all-transfer teams of the mid-90's. The other thing to remember is that the talent level of the NCC is as good or better than many, many low-to-mid-level dI's. That's why it's not unusual for a UNO, for example, to nearly defeat a very respectable mid-major team like Creighton. I would like the chances of UND or SDSU against more than half of all division I teams this year.

I completely agree with star2city on this one. Hockey would never fly in Brookings. It's kind of unfortunate that neither of South Dakota's main state schools are located in Sioux Falls, as that might completely change the equation. The USHL team in Sioux Falls averages just under 4,000 per game. I have no idea what kind of facility they have in Sioux Falls, but if they can draw that well for junior hockey, I would imagine they would draw quite a bit more for a college program. It's just unfortunate there is no school in Sioux Falls that could realistically add hockey.

Earlier in the season I thought it was the lackluster offense that was preventing the Sioux from being good. Now that the offense has starting putting points on the board, it's actually the defense and special teams that are poor. While I realize that turnovers by the offense and special teams have put the defense in some bad situations, I can't believe the usually stout UND defense has managed to allow 36 and 38 points the past two weeks to two offenses that would have to be classified as somewhere between mediocre and poor. I don't know if it's the line, the linebackers, the secondary or a combination of all of them, but major improvements have to be made next season.