Teeder11

Guess we'll just have to settle it on the field someday so we don't have to extrapolate and blow our stack on these statsistical and sometimes hypothetical comparisons that mean jack sh#t at the end of the day. I say, here we come. We are North Dakota! Bring it!

The point about hockey is that there is no competition in the area for it, so UND draws well. In North Dakota, football allegiences are split statewide and regionwide. If North Dakota (with a population 680,000) were like Minnesota (with its population 5-6 million) and had only one Division I football program, I could see either UND or NDSU, which ever it would be, draw 30,000-40,000 per game relative to the state population. But that's just not reality.

No smack intended for the many respectful SU fans on this board. Those who are not -- if the shoe fits, wear it. Grand Forks is the biggest hockey town in a 150-mile radius. It has a long established history as an NCAA Division I powerhouse in a conference that up until its eventual disbanding will have been equal in relative stature to the SEC of FBS fooball (for all the footballheads out there ). UND plays strong rivals week in and week out in a world class facility. Ocassionally, UND plays Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Michigan State, Notre Dame, Boston College, Boston University, Harvard, Yale, Ohio State, etc. With all that, it still amazes me that the Grand Forks' market can draw 12,000 people consistently night after night. But again, we are drawing from Bismarck, Minot, Devils Lake, Thief River Falls, Crookston, Canada and FARGO and all point in between -- not just Grand Forks County. There is no competition in the area for elite college hockey. UND hockey has a statewide, regional and even national following. That is not the case for FCS football in North Dakota. It is much more parochialized and divided as far as allegiences go. So all that said, I, too, am somewhat underwhelmed by attendance claims down south given the context of the size of the potential fanbase, the fact that they are not in a transitional conference and the fact that they are actually playing competitive teams for real hardware.

Very interesting....

We weren't interested in playing a shell game and raping our academic budgets in order to do it like Wild Joe "Take it to the next level at all cost" Chapman was. Where is he now? We were ready when we were ready. I must say, when you look at athletics as a whole, our transition went quite swimmingly. I like where we are at right now. Oh, in regard to attendance.... NDSU better be drawing bigger raw numbers by comparison.... your base population area (those within relatively short driving distance of the dome) is nearly four times that of UND's. Not an excuse, just facts, man.

Wish I could be there... I definitely would if I could, but I have military duty in Fargo this weekend. I will be there in spirit, and will be stealing away every chance I get for score updates. Go Sioux!

Interesting tidbit: UND is 0-11 vs. Bradley all-time. However, the two teams have not met head-to-head since 1969. Before that they played fairly regularly, with the first meeting played in 1941. Source: Last year's media guide. Time to start a new trend!

Bradley with a 1-point victory tonight 66-65 over S.E. Missouri State of the Ohio Valley Conference. Next up: UND! Let's get ready, boys!

Let's hope.... a lot of tradition at Bradley and another 7-footer at center to contend with.

Check out the dateline in the online version of the Sioux-ISU MBB game story from the Idaho State Journal (primary newspaper in Pocatello). "Sioux Falls, N.D." !!! http://www.idahostatejournal.com/sports/local/article_44a696da-0f4d-11e1-ae58-001cc4c03286.html

Fixed your post. And I'm not a pothead. Far from it.

Ditto. Anderson is catching up quickly.

Not to get ahead of ourselves and please don't get me wrong.... I know we have A LOT of work to do... but the fact that the nucleus of this team comprises mostly frosh and sophs (with solid role-playing upperclassmen) has not been lost on me either. IMHO, beating down a lower tier Big Sky program by double digits (16 points ), and one that took Oklahoma to the wire, is a sign of good things to come. This young team is only going to grow and get better over the next three years. There's a lot to this story that still needs to be told and a lot of those questions could be answered this season. I have a dream, my friends, that in couple years this team might have an autobid within reach. Please don't wake me!

I have not seen the statististical breakdown from the last night's game, but having been there, I can tell you that I have not seen the Sioux women rebound, block shots, fight for loose balls and play as agressive on defense the whole game on both sides of the court (full-court press) as they did last night. They looked really inspired last night, especially, the Mothershed twins and Brianna Williams. Buck was incredible and was clearly the best offensive player on the floor, and the post play was agressive but controlled for the most part. Nice job, ladies!

Holy cow! ISU Bengals have a center on their roster that's listed at 7 feet 4 inches. Wonder if he's athletic enough to play with that kind of height. Might have to show up at the Betty just to see that spectacle. http://www.isubengals.com/roster.aspx?path=mbball

Team USA beat Canada today in the 4-Nation's Tourney in Sweden 4-3 in an overtime shootout. JoLam had 2 assists and MLK had an assist in the victory, which avenged USA's only loss in the prelims. Way to go, USA! Sweden took bronze, defeating Finland and UND's Michelle Karivinen 2-1 in overtime. Karvinen was held scoreless in the game. There's a big drop off talent-wise between USA-Canada and Sweden-Finland, and an even bigger landslide from the aforementioned four to the rest of the international women's field. Need more parity or this sport will go the way of women's softball and will be dropped from Olympic competition. One radical proposal might be to divide Teams USA and Canada into four teams (Team USA West, Team USA East, Team Canada West and Team Canada East), at least, until the rest of the world can catch up. Team USA West would comprise players who hail from hometowns west of a predetermined meridian that runs down the eastern border of Ohio, i.e. players from Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, etc. Team Canada West would comprise players from Manitoba to British Columbia.

And while were at it, bus the students there and then ankle chain them to their seats so they can't leave at halftime for whatever more-important gad they've got going on at 2:30 p.m. on a Saturday afternoon.

Was at the game, too. The assessments posted so far are spot on. Sioux women are closing the gap, though. Last year, they lost to this same team by 40. Tonight they cut it by more than half. They are young... good recruits coming in next year. Life goes on.

Lammy twins had a solid day in the 4-Nations tourney today in Sweden, beating the hometeam 8 to zilch. MLK had 2 G and a helper and JoLam had 1 G and 2 assists ( I believe, something like that). Canada took care of Finland 5-0 in the first game.

Wholeheartedly agree.

Thanks for passing along the tweet. Sounds a little more encouraging.

What is R.J. Magill's status for this weekend? We've been playing without him; if he's back.... maybe it might all be a wash, if he is healthy enough to compete.

I'm being told (by one person in the know, not a comphrehensive survey, by any means) that Dahl's amendment, at least initially, is being viewed as "acceptable" by UND -- kind of a compromise to appease the hardliners in the Legislature. The administration appears to be more thrilled that the bill came out of committees with a unanimous recommendation to repeal.

I take everything that rag prints with a huge chunk of salt. Kate B. is definitely dogged and does some very comprehensive reporting, with some slanting here and there to make her editors, Rob and Scotty, happy, but anything that is associated with Rob Port isn't exactly a bastion of objective journalism. He's got a bit of an ax to grind. Then again, in today's world, what medium is truly objective? Pick your side and drink the Kool-aid, I guess. What I don't get is the counterintuitiveness of this whole cost issue. The logic just doesn't compute. If UND admin is so hell bent on getting rid of the nickname just because they despise it, as many claim, wouldn't they lowball these cost figures as much as possible to make it more palatable to those who don't have any other kind of dog in the fight. Enlighten me, please!

Of course you should....it's the university that you love, right?