Irish

I'll have what you're smokiing

But track, swimming etc don't cost north of 1.5 million

Sadly, Women's Hockey is not a flagship anything/

Agree - so why are guys like Luke Johnson so eager to go pro

Getting a high level talent like Boeser always has a risk of early signing and I think UND does as well an anyone in keeping them for as long as possible. However, we seem to be hit with a lot of painful mid-level early signings - the Luke Johnson type where almost everyone can see the minor leagues in his future. Does this happen to other teams to this extent too? I don't follow closely enough to know. It seems like it is easier to plan for the high end signings than the mid level flight. In my opinion the lower ones are the ones that are hurting college hockey in that it is harder and harder to develop continuity in your program.

Agree, but you have to admit that opportunistic is not a way you would describe this year's Sioux team.

We need to be serious on the recuriting trail as we have guys that just haven't upped their game much - too much dead weight

We make 3-4 deadly mistakes in the D end each game and don't have a lot of guys who can close the deal scoring with regularity - we have a lot of swipes at an open net and either miss or miss-fire. Add a power play that everyone involved should be ashamed of and voila

I'll admit to being a critic of Coach Jones in the past. However, I believe this season has earned him an extension. I do, however, have a hard time erasing from my memory the years in which we had great talent and played an almost unwatchable version of street ball (let's clear out so Huff can go 1 on 4). I sincerely hope Jones has grown as a coach and will not revert to what we went through a few years ago.

When we keep our heads in the game and play for 60 we are one dangerous team that can beat any team in the country - They could be deadly in the tournament.

Two big questions that I think most are thinking? - First, is this year an outlier or has Jones really upped his coaching chops? Second - does a conference championship outweigh the years where we had great talent and played street ball?

I'll have what he's drinking

Thanks

I 'm out of town trying to follow the game here - i have zero idea what is going on

This would make a ton of sense if you never watched our team play - The optics on this team are awful. People are riled up more for how they got to 16 pairwise than the fact we are at 16th pairwise. I have not seen a Sioux team consistently mail it in like this group for over 20 years. They were painful to watch - lack of effort, refusal to play for all 60, lack of improvement, same mistakes over and over, no leadership - you name it. I would feel much much differently if this were a scrappy team of young guys working their butts off and who have shown improvement and given us hope for next year.

Starting last December

When I mentioned that I was severely criticized - but it is true we have a serious talent gap - We are skating Wilkie who is having a Blutarski season 0.000

Talent can be up and down - here we expect mostly up But how many times have you seen a Sioux team just mail it in like this group. Maybe once or twice in the last 3 decades - Coaches have some serious work and recruiting to do it's one thing to have your young but scrappy team get beat because of youth - this year's performance is quite something else

It may not be bare, but that is predicated on guys actually getting better from year to year. Another year of "improvement" and we will be in tough shape.

Wilkie is a lost cause - he wouldn't find his way if it bit him in the butt

If everybody improves as much next year as they did this year we will be worse. Time to clean house.

Here's what I don't get - I wish someone could explain it to me How can over half of this year's team be on a national championship team who's locker room probably set a new standard for work ethic and inspired play from the stars to the bottom and then come this year play like they are mailing it in. I get we had a couple of fantastic leaders in the locker room last year, but you would think something would have worn off and stuck for this year. If you go down the roster, the amount of players who improved from last year is laughable. It's like we are in Bizarro Sioux land. Time to clean house for the non-hackers.

After the big 3 absolutely no scoring talent - what the hell - we are the University of North Dakota not St. Cloud. Why the blank recruiting years? The least talent of any UND team I have seen in the last 20 years and not all due to early departures. We have misfired on our recruiting for about 2 years.

I think the talent is down - other that the three that will probably be gone next year we have no one that can put the puck in the net. And the defense - well have you watched them? Weak clearing around the goal and in the slot, can't start a rush consistently, and some who get used for about a goal a game. So, no, I am not going to shut it. This is a fan forum not your personal Facebook account. That's what we do on fan boards - discuss our opinions. If you think I am wrong then make your point. Who other than the big three have a big offensive upside? Which defensemen are studs or going to be studs? Name the talent you see and lets have a discussion.

Over half the team were members of last year's championship team that set new standards for hard work and doing things right. Even if two great leaders are gone you would think some of it would have stuck to our current players. We have a serious lack of scoring talent for one and almost no one got better from last year to this year. Time to clean house for the slackers. When a starting forward has scored 0 goals this year that should tell you something about our talent.