farce poobah

RIP. I only saw him a few games, when Bemidji made the state tournament. The phrase man among boys was never more true. If memory serves, he was about Keaton Verhoeff size, and very agile on skates. Many times, he would let up on a body check of a 5-9 160 forward, and hit just hard enough to disrupt the play but not send the guy into row Z. I remember being most impressed with his hands - he could stickhandle in traffic, and place a shot wherever he wanted. Man oh man, what could have been.

During the WDAZ era of Sioux hockey coverage, Pat Sweeney or Travis Dunn (don't recall who), talked about how tall Denver was, and said "they have a really high team". 🤣 Not sure if the double meaning was intentional or nor.

Denver announces their freshman class. No surprises, but a lotta chippahs: https://denverpioneers.com/news/2026/6/18/denver-pioneers-hockey-adds-eight-incoming-freshmen-for-2026-27-season.aspx

Oddity of soccer: USA scores first, leads 1-0, but shots on goal are USA 0, Australia 1.

Great piece of trivia: https://x.com/CSG_Hawks/status/2066576598711619980?s=20 Fun Fact. The New York Knicks have never won a title without a UND alum on their roster or coaching staff. Phil Jackson in 1970 and 1973 Carson Shanks in 2026

Private equity (or outside investors of any kind) aren't doing this from the goodness of their heart. They want a return on investment, which means profit extracted from sports revenues, at very high rates. Walk away. PS Count me happy someone else got suckered in first.

FIFA rankings (before the game, approx): USA 17, Paraguay 41. So a USA win wasn't a surprise. But USA scoring 3 in 1H was a surprise to most, given Paraguay had the #2 defensive (GA) record in South America qualifying. Give credit to USA coach Pochettino, an Argentine by birth, who found the mismatches and exploited them.

Excellent first half for USA. Easy to forget how many of Team USA are now playing at the top-tier clubs of Europe. (IOW, this is not the '94 team.) EDIT: 4-1 final. Nice start on points and on goal difference.

Congratulations to Jadyn Keeler on finishing 6th in the 10k. Some tough competition in that race. That 3 points puts us .... yes 3 points ahead of NDSU.

Count me a fan of the Fox promo "Do You Believe". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_yQyyrPxkg Hint: the ending is my fav.

Congratulations! to Mr Fanucchi for qualifying to the finals in the 3000m Steeplechase. He looked very comfortable throughout, finishing 6th in his heat.

Brandon Bussi - be proud, Western Michigan.

Bummer that the nearest games are a long travel away. Oh well, TV will help me understand what's going on. (1) (1) will confess to being a fan of Crystal Palace, these past 16 years. The images/videos of their fans singing outside Lloyds of London to save their club caught my eye.

So in 14 months, only 3 players remain from the Berry era. Wowsers. Rebuilding is no longer a 3-4 year project for a new coaching staff.

Before that, I was rooting for Gwozdecky to leave and Montgomery to leave, and a long long time ago for Murray Armstrong to leave.