Irish

If Bubba can get us to 5-6 this year he'll get another extension.

This is the 10th year of Bubba Ball. At some point he just plain needs to get it done.

Game experience was markedly better - music was loud but not too loud and the selection seemed to get the crowd into it. Halftime was great. I talked to a few friends after last week and all said the blaring music last week was very annoying. Nice to see some adjustments. A great game experience yesterday.

But they're not out during halftime when it is most annoying.

Why yes there are. Anything to get away from that loud rap/technopop crap they play - it doesn't fire anyone up and is super annoying. Give me the bagpipes or anything else.

We need to wait until we have a 5-6 season.

Grey Hair here - I found the very loud blasting technopop/rap during the entire half time (and other times too) extremely annoying. Impossible to visit and ruins the live atmosphere of an event. Does nothing to fire up a crowd. And at this point many of the young people have left or are leaving.

Could not agree more - we need to be able to land these guys again. I know we have some nice players coming in but it is impossible to overestimate the effect having a player like Brock Boeser had on our championship run.

I really hope we can get off of the "always the Bridesmade" situation we have been in with recruiting top end talent.

We have some nice players coming in but these are the type of recruiting battles we need to start winning again - we need to get back to being a national power.

Not quite sure how.

How dare they print the opinion of a Medical Doctor and Public Health Officer about our Covid response in an opinion column.

We seriously need to figure out how to seal the deal with top talent. This is more than a one off - it is a trend lately. Not sure what is happening but we need to out-recruit our rivals and get off the darn portal.

Very few Grand Forks fans have converted to Bison fans. However, go out a bit to the small towns and it is stunning. What used to be a great rivalry for many towns with about a 50-50 split of fans is now about 90-10 Bison. The main factor in my opinion is the lack of demand for excellence from the administration and AD department. We are 85-79 for the last 15 years and have extended the current coach after a 5-6 year. Bubba was 22-21 at Duluth and coming off a 4-6 season when we hired him. In addition, the one shot we had at beating the Bison was pissed away by the most bizarre coaching call I have seen. We seem content to just do more of the same. Expect the same results.

Some good points made here and some ideas for thought - Ira suggested more involvement and I think that is important. I also think that the people at UND are working hard although there are some areas for improvement. Would more funding help? Absolutely. But here's the bottom line - as long as we have a Football program where a 5-6 season gets the coach a contract extension in a non-contract year those at the very top are setting the bar pretty low. Six years of Muss at 31-34 and 9 years of Bubba at 54-45 doesn't exactly scream success. That's a long time wandering in the wilderness. The turnaround needs to start at the top. Muss had 4 more years after the Sioux Falls debacle. Change here is glacial.

I think if Bubba and Co. could have held on and beaten the Bison when they had a chance our trajectory would be different. And the current Bison run started when they let go Bob Babich who had a 46-22 record after one bad season (he had other seasons of 12-2, 9-2, and 9-3). Other criticisms of Babich was a poor playoff record and the fact we dominated him.

Gee - What do you think I should do about it - I am giving my max with Club membership and season tickets. I have been a fan for many years and am in regular attendance. I'm sure if I doubled my contribution I still would not get a seat at the table - let alone get a chance to express my views and then get "excused". I certainly would have no input in decisions like extending a 6-5 Bubba before his contract is up and likely to get no insight or explanation. As to gaining better insight into the challenges I am anxious to listen but the information from the Athletic Department is zip. Other than our need for Phase Two I have no idea what our expectations and plans are for our programs - We are now at a point where since 2016 our combined playoff win total from Football and Hockey is 2 - and one of the schools we beat is American International. The fact is that almost all of us except those with connections or a big checkbook are outside looking in. The demand for excellence needs to come from the Administration and Athletic Department. And I stand by my comments about indifferent Presidents and weak AD's - the jury is still out on Chaves but things need to improve.

I hear what you are saying but in my opinion the main problem is that there is not a demand for excellence in Football and now apparently in Hockey due to a succession of weak AD's and indifferent Presidents. We hope for excellence and try to achieve but programs are allowed to be mediocre to good but not great forever without significant changes. We have won a total of two playoff games collectively in Football and Hockey since 2016. This is far from where we need to be yet here we are doing the same things again this year.

This whole defensive disaster last year to retooling totally this year seems to be a player development issue. What's going on that we missed on so many players that other good teams want? Looking at the roster for next year we seem to have some real blanks where previous recruiting classes should be. If it wasn't for the portal we would be in deep doo doo. Are we identifying the talent we want and coaching them up in an orderly fashion. Doesn't look like it. We have a veteran staff and I am surprised that here we are. However, I am surprised that we can't recruit and develop good young goalies anymore too. Hopefully we are back on track.

I still can't quite understand how with the crapshow our defense was last year that the 3 players we lost in the portal went to National Champion Quinnipiac, Minnesota Duluth, and Ohio State. What am I missing?

So - Quinnipiac gets one of our former defensemen and we get one of theirs - opinions on how we came out in this swap?

It feels like we are slowly losing touch with some of the things that made us great. I loved the "speed kills" era.

Point taken - it also requires playing a full 60 minutes and working your system - including being responsible for where you are supposed to be (not just chasing the puck into the corner) - See Quinnipiac. However if you look at our returning roster this next year it tells you a lot about how recruiting has been going the last several seasons - Compare that to our two biggest rivals - Denver and Minny. When we are successful we have had a nice blend of high end talent and role players (and good goaltending). It is sad to see other teams have much more success with top talent. We need to get back in the mix. I'm not sure if our playing style hurts us but their is that theory.

This really emphasizes our need to get back in the mix for high-end young recruits - like our rivals BU, BC, Minny, and Michigan. We need to take this seriously and get off the portal for all of our needs. And right soon too.

Throw in the often predictable but very untimely penalties and you can see that the mental component of our game was a major weakness last year.