Irish

Not sure what to make of this post - my first thought is you were being sarcastic (I hope this is true) - My second thought is that you are on drugs (or off your meds). I hope this is not true. My third thought is that you are BisonDan.

It ain't the hocky only bs attitude, it's the product on the floor. Stop blaming hockey for mens bb problems. If hockey went away, would that all of a sudden make Jones a better coach? Mens bb did well alongside hockey when we fielded winners.

This is a really good question and made me think a bit about my answer - - I'm not thrilled with his interpersonal skills - not that being a rah rah guy is always the answer, but he gives us absolutely nothing to rally around or get emotionally excited about. He may care deeply about winning but hasn't expressed that to the fans in a way that gets anyone fired up - Yes, he finally pulled the trigger on Muss, but in my opinion, let things go way too long to the point where we need a massive rebuilding project to become competative again. He also gave Muss a contract extension which we had to eat. This at a time when our sister school to the south is having unprecidented success - I'm really tired of hearing from my NDSU buddies - If he cared about winning, something would have been done after Sioux Falls - Men's basketball isn't really a program that people are going to rally behind in its current state. I'm worried Jones is another Muss and it will take us another 5 years to make a change. - Poor luck and timing - Many fans I know of are frustrated with our overall athletic situation and when you add in the second longest title drought in history in Men's Hockey (been discussed, not saying it's Faison's fault or to fire Hak - just frustrating) - Our place as the best school in the state by far is being threatened by the AC, who anyone can see has the fire in their belly. Faison has all the excitement of an accountant. - There have been no signature wins anywhere to get excited about. - Need something to rally around for fundraising - I'm worried that if I give more it will go to a Jones extension like he did with Muss - He has done some good things like the conference allignments, but for crap's sake we really need a big winner. Really. North Dakota needs to be buzzing about UND sports again. - Maybe that's the answer to your question - go to any town in North Dakota and start talking about athletics and what school comes up? Didn't used to be that way, even when the Bison were winning DII championships. -

Thanks

It seems like you know more than I do - here are some of my basic questions that I have never seen answered publically - not saying they aren't public, just that I haven't seen the answers: Who gets the ticket revenue for hockey games - I would assume UND gets it all, but would like to know for sure Who gets the money from concessions? How much is that for hockey per year? What are the arrangements for profits from the Sioux Shop? Does UND athletics "pay" rent to the Ralph for games or practice ice time? In other words, for the hockey season who gets what revenue from games? For me, this is quite a different set of information than how much The Corporation send back to Sioux Sports (after expenses) - My calculations may be way off here, but assuming UND athletics gets the entire ticket gate for hockey games, the New Ralph holds at least 5,000 more than the old Ralph. At a ticket cost of 37.50 per ticket and a season of 22 home games, that should be $4,125,000 more revenue per year - not including the associated costs for season tickets such as Club membership in order to purchase tickets.Plus what The Ralph rolls back to UND. It it works like this, that's a lot of new revenue. This is what has never made sense to me - we have a free new venue which seats 5,000 more people and our Athletic Department is so broke we have to operate some DI sports "on a DII budget" . Why don't we have millions more per year? If we are not getting all the money for admissions, we are getting hosed. If we are, why didn't we see a big bump in revenue?

I have been a fan for UND athletics for many years, and a regular Basketball attender for many of them. I started drifting away from basketball toward the end of the Glass era and quite frankly have gotten out of the basketball attendence habit. The times I have gone to Jones coached games I left frustrated by the type of ball we played even if we won. We need a reason go to games again - a couple of signature wins, a trip to the dance, some fantastic talent to watch (quite honestly, as good as Huff was his play drove me nuts). There is absolutely no buzz about Men's basketball. I think many Sioux fans of all sports are ready for a serious concentrated effort for excellence across the board. I know we need more money, but here it becomes murky. I am giving what I think is a reasonable amount, and am not sure that if I gave more it would go towards any increase in competitiveness as that doesn't seem to by high on our AD's priorities. In addition I am frustrated by the lack of transparency by the Ralph. If we move into a free arena and double the hockey attendence why don't we have a lot more money than we do? I guess what I am saying is that in order for me to start attending basketball or give more in general I want some strong leadership (Bubba, for example is very entheusiastic, tells you what type of team he is building, tells you his goals, and is a guy you can believe in) - we need more of this type of leadership -

Couldn't agree more - please be more active with the trolls - we have some here (not you Ira) that just can't help but take the bait time after time

In fairness to all fans, Faison gave Muss the contract extension with years left on it. Not seeing how he gets credit for correcting his blunder at our expense.

I agree that just on the record, Jones doesn't appear that bad - although he is certainly nothing to write home about. However, there is something about most of his teams that is inherently frustrating. Take the team that went to the title game for example (this is the one accomplishment everyone points to) - If they were a hard-working group of over-achievers who got there by hustle and teamwork I think everyone would have been very excited. However, they appeared to be a very talented group who didn't improve much over their careers, folded like lawn chairs on the road, played a very undisciplined style (think of our 1 on 3 offense) and refused to box out. It is nice to see UND fans want success in all DI sports - with that new interest comes some demands on coaches. So far Jones has done just enough to keep his job, but nothing that makes me think he's the guy to get it done. How long do we let him go on?

.30 - that's some hardcore drinkin.

But not tonight though - who do you think will win a championship first - Hak or Blais?

Love to hear that - Your son will fit right in and be an intregal part of what we call Bubba Ball - Thanks for being on the board - hope to see you tailgating

Two lower bowl - 3rd row, sect 113, row C, seats 1 and 2 - $60 text 701 740 1607 SOLD - sorry

Agreed - sometimes I am surprised at how easily a very talented Sioux team can be knocked off their game. It was a real good game to get a win though. Two things that kind of drive me nuts - dump and chase, dump and chase, dump and chase (ok, thats one thing) - the other is that we called time out with about 10 minutes left and seemed to go into penalty kill mode for the rest of the game and it almost cost us.

Couldn't agree more about the defense - however last year I felt like some high end talent up front could have put us over the hump and I think the same about this year's squad. We could really use another Oshie, Toews, or Parise. Not sure if this is a change in philosophy after the past couple of championships or what.

No, actually we won them back then - averaging about once every 5 years for the 25 years previous to Hak.

Please tell us how it works and why it is suddenly so hard to win a title.

Because this is a fan forum - it is designed for "couch coaches" as you call them to express their opinions. If comparing a current coach to his two immediate predecessors is now out of bounds it isn't much of a fan forum. The real tragedy will occur when Sioux hockey fans stop demanding championships and settle for just being a "good" team.

Can't there be a topic that is not Fire Hak, but "Come On Hak, Get It Done"? - How you view the frozen 4 determines how you feel about Hak. If you think it is just a random crapshoot with each team having roughly a 1/4 chance of winning and Hak just having 1-6 bad luck then you think Hak is one of the greatest coaches ever for getting there often. If you think that something else seperates winners - the type of prep, the game strategy for your opponent, the will to win, in game adjustments, motivation, or just winning athletes playing their best when the pressure is on, then you have to be a little frustrated with our 1-6 record in the frozen 4. It pains me greatly to say it, but by God, when the Bison needed a touchdown and had to the length of the field to do it in under 2 minutes, they found a way to get it done (and have for 4 years). I hope Hak grows as a coach and figures it out because I am getting frustrated. Our best overachieving frozen four was marred by a .6 goal. We used to do that to the other guys. Time to get it done.

I'm not saying that Blais didn't have the expectation to restore us to the glory days that were Gino's heyday, but he took over a team that had 3 losing seasons in a row with a record of 23-48-2 in the last two - one that was playing to a half empty Old Ralph. It took him 3 years to win a championship. Hak took over a team that was 30-8 in its previous season - one that had recently moved into a new state of the art 100 million dollar facility. Like I said, clear and obvious who took over in worse circumstances.

It's not like either took over Alabama Huntsville, but if the question is "who took over under better circumstances - Blais or Hak", the answer is clear and obvious.

I guess it all comes down to the question - is there an intangible that winning coaches and teams have that help them win championships or are we just on the bad end of a 1-6 dice streak?

The problem is that if a few influential pin heads speak on the floor in favor of the bill it could sway more votes than the committee recommendation. We seem to have a couple of idiots in positions of power down there.

Actually, all bills make it out of committee - the committee just attaches a pass or do not pass on to the rest of the house or senate