Irish

Is it just me, or can you hear the wheel squeaking?

From The Hustler - Fast Eddy Felson (Paul Neuman) vs Minnesota Fats (Jackie Gleeson) - gets to a time when it's time when you have to prove it by your game and not rest on the "wait til tomorrows" or "could have beens".

I've been hearing this for so many years now it is almost a joke. Time to shoot pool, Fast Eddy.

Absolutely this - If he had a very hard-working but slightly under-talented group who played team ball and improved every year I think the attitude of this board would be very different. He had a very talented group not improve much and refuse to play any kind of organized style or rebound. Now, with a less talented group doing the same thing the wheels are coming off. I can hardly stand to watch his teams, especially in the last 3-4 minutes.

Blah Blah Blah Red

Agree - seems like the company line is to not worry about what NDSU does at all and rebuild our program. Sounds ok on the surface, but if you think that any college with an in-state rival doesn't care about the hearts, minds, and support of the residents of that state, you are delusional. Of course Auburn cares if Alabama is getting the glory and in-state support as do Michigan and Michigan State, Kansas and K-State - well - you get the picture. To pretend we don't care if most of the residents of the state are wearing Bison gear and screaming yellow is comparable to sticking your fingers in your ear and going la la la. It is plenty clear to most that our administration from Kelly on down has dropped the ball on athletics among other things. Time for us to demand a turn-around. Bubba is a step in the right direction, but sometimes I think he is on his own as far as the athletic department is concerned.

I understand your point, but disagree. I recently returned from the Class B tournament. Even though the Sioux Hockey Team was playing in their conference tournament and on at least one tv in every bar I was in, it was disheartening to look at the number of Bison jerseys worn compared to Sioux jerseys. My home town used to be pro-UND in the rivalry, but was almost exclusively wearing hometown colors or Bison wear. It was especially sad to see the number of young athletes support the Bison. I am so sick of listening to Bison fans I could puke. The Sioux need a bigtime win in any sport (looking at you, hockey) very badly, and very soon. I am worried that Bubba's premature challenge to the Bison coupled with the away-away formula could be detremental.

Spelling error - should read : different THAN expected

There has been lots of debate over the merits of dump and chase and cycle. However, I think our problem is more one of stubborn predictibility which worsens towards tournament time. We seem to have our basic game plan only more so. If we have a weakness it is that we become very predictable and it seems easily thwarted offensively come tournament time. It seems that others can figure out almost exactly how we approach each offensive rush and zone entry - this leads to absolutely no offensive rhythm for us. I think that this stubborness is Hak's one big downfall. Just once in a big game I would like to see us try something different than is expected.

I would like to hear some discussion on this - in my opinion this is one of the areas that falls on the coaches - I'm not saying we never score, but our power play has looked miserable for years. Some games it seems we never even get things set up. Why do lesser talented teams have much better power plays. It makes no sense to me.

So - what you're saying is that he is going to learn some court discipline from our program? Good One.

That has been Art's point all along

We really need a win

After watching a special tonight on WDAZ fawn over the question "what do you like better, Bison football or Bison basketball" I threw up in my mouth a little. I blame Faison, Kelly, and the ducky and bunny patrol for this state of affairs. Do we have the will be be successful? I'm not very sure.

Couldn't agree more - starts at the top with Kelly - really kicks into gear with a series of poor AD's leading down to Faison (Bunning for example) - which leads to poor hiring decisions on a shoestring budget and the icing on the cake here is the duckys and bunnys crowd who are very happy eating crap from NDSU and aspiring to be very average. I'm convinced nothing will happen to improve things until there is an uprising of fans, and I am doubtful that we have the collective will. I'm writing Faison and Kelly tonight (again). I don't care how many hockey committees Faison is on, he needs to tend to business here. This is the most frustrating stretch overall I have had in many years of being a Sioux fan.

And how long we were content to travel down it.

I'm convinced Sioux fans don't have the collective will to demand a winner - witness our 10 year Musshole in football. There is a reason why when you go to any town in North Dakota and bring up sports, UND isn't the topic of conversation. I am disgusted by our toleration of mediocrity.

"elite"

Couldn't agree more - we need a serious drive for excellence - we let football go down a 10 year Musshole and didn't learn a thing. No wonder we are losing the battle.

Not saying we never score, but with all the talent we have this year and in years past, why can't we ever have a power play that looks like those? Serious questions for the hockey minds here.

I hear what you are saying about stupid penalties, but I thought Parks' first one in the second period was worse. We had them on the run at 3-0 and let them back into the game with a pp goal and gave them momentum. Parks needs to play smarter than that. Speaking of penalties, I know we have more talent than St. Clown, so why can't we ever get a power play that looks like theirs?

Baseball

Came away from the game pretty frustrated, but a win is a win Random thoughts Horrible reffing again. It was a whole different game after Parks took his stupid penalty in the second. As has been said many times, he should know better - it allowed them to get back in the game with their PP goal - If he doesn't screw his head on he's going to really cost us with this type of play With all of the talent we have, don't we have anyone who can win face-offs? - I know it is a specialized skill, but we just got killed I am all in favor of the new type of puck moving defensemen, but since when did St. Cloud think they could goon it up with us (it kind of worked too) All in all we missed some open shots but still came away with a win.

Not cohesive offensively because the guys haven't played with each other a lot? - the same offense as last year after the guys played together for 4 freaking years. They play a playground offense when it counts.

Hak has many positives as a coach, but he is one stubborn SOB about his "systems"