farce poobah

LOL - I'm just here to help.

I prefer to think of it as Denver losing 0-3 after 1 period.

Minor point of order: Grand Forks is closer to St Louis than Denver. (721 vs 768 miles, by air, airport to airport) Besides that, Green Bay will sell out with the Badgers in town, regardless of who else goes there. But St Louis really NEEDS fans who travel, and that's why I think UND gets sent to St Louis - as long as we are a #1 or a #2 seed.

Excuse me, I just spilled beer on my Union jersey.

Whole lotta methane produced in that place.

Unsung hero of the week, and maybe season - Jake Marto. After playing forward for much of the season, he steps onto D for the weekend, and comes out +1 Friday and +3 Saturday. I have no idea how a guy can switch back and forth - between weeks, between games, and sometimes its been between shifts - and succeed like he does. I salute.

UND is dramatically underfunded and under-resourced to really make FBS work right now. Give it 10 years, especially if UND can gain a strong following in the western half of the state (ie, incremental revenue to athletics)... get facilities upgraded, strengthen ties. build up the endowments, etc. It's not out of the question that a set of core Big Sky members might eventually make the jump, and we should put ourselves in position to move along with them.

Truth. I think the reason this is coming up now is that Douple is doing a favor for his buddy Gene Taylor. Taylor sees a chance to smear UND, and he's taking it. (An alternative is that Douple is doing the bidding of his AD's, by trying to ding UND he thinks he's helping the Summit defend against Big Sky encroachment.) Kolpack, the puppet, is just trying to sell newspapers.

These brackets make sense, as far as where the WCHA teams are likely to go. I think the committee will look at the remaining seedings and make some swaps ... because St Louis is an attendance nightmare. Look for Michigan or Notre Dame to get sent to St Louis along with UND. They will keep the seeding bands, but as we saw last year, the best #2 seed doesn't always get the lowest #3. In the above brackets, that could be achieved by swapping BC and Notre Dame. Or by placing Michigan in St Louis and moving Notre Dame to Manchester. (Michigan fanbase travels better than Notre Dame.) I also think the committee would look for a way to place UNO in St Louis. But I don't see them matching them with another WCHA #1 seed in the first round. That taboo seems almost sacred. But if UNO climbs to a #3, look for them to be in St Louis. Barring UND falling to a #3 seed, I think we're going to St Louis. (Don't worry about rushing out to buy tickets, however.)

Let's see, the last 7 penalties of the game went to UNO.

8 minutes into the second, scoreless. SOG low 10-8 favoring SIoux.

End of 1, 0-0. Guys playing a bit too chippy right now. Lots of little runs. If we have learned anything this season, its that we win unless we take penalties. Davidson-Rodwell-Rowney making some things work. We need a fourth line that can be reliable and generate the occassional goal... I like that combo. Trupp-Malone-Frattin is men against the boys, as it has been for weeks now.

Every day, and twice on Sundays.

I just got clarification from papa Shep: Tonight's game is being officiated according to rules interpretation in the year 2000. Hooking is not a penalty, body checking is allowed, and its okay get the sticks up a little. Of course, that interpretation could change at any time.

Trupp with an unbelievable rush. Batted the puck in the air 3 times, the last over the head of a confused defenseman to create a scoring chance. WOW.

I like the changes. An effort like last night's practically demands changes. I like Marto on D also, but think there is a LOT to be said for giving next years' D-corps (Forbort, Gleason, and even Simpson) some significant ice time, at least until late-February rolls around ... No passengers. Everybody needs to push tonight.

As far as I'm concerned, he's excused for any comment about North Dakota. I only hope that I never face that kind of adversity, and that if I do, I handle it half as well as he.

TJ Oshie named #1 star tonight! Proving once again that you do NOT have to be on the scoresheet to play a great game. http://www.nhl.com/ice/recap.htm?id=2010020689

Lot of causes for attendance declines, but I agree that with a Big Sky schedule, the potential exists to draw a lot more. However, basketball has suffered from a number of things that are readily addressed, while others are harder to address: 1) Predictable game days and game times. We see this with hockey ... have the games every Friday and Saturday night, and people will come from hundreds of miles (Twin Cities, in my case). If they ever started playing hockey on Tuesdays, Thursdays, etc, the out of towners simply would not be able to come. Good old NCC hoops was every Friday and Saturday, and that was a huge reason it filled. In order to not disrupt the Golden Goose (hockey revenues), play basketball - predictably - on Saturday afternoons and Sunday afternoons. That gives UND a shot at drawing out of town ticketholders. And if hockey is on the road, play Friday and Saturday nights. 2) At basketball, GIVE THE STUDENTS THE GOOD SEATS. It worked at the Fieldhouse/Hyslop. Make it a point system, where loyalty / attendance drives priority. Make the Betty as tough a place to play as the Ralph is. These players have a lot of choices to play hoops, and let's give them one more reason to get jazzed about playing at UND. 3) Improve the Betty's seating. Add more permanent seating on the ends. With a 4000 capacity, that should add $$ and noise and help make it a noisy, crowded bandbox of an arena. Other items are structural with the game of college basketball itself, which I find increasingly hard to watch. 1) Ends of halves are not tension filled, they are simply tedious. The ridiculous amount of time that expires with (a) foul shots, (b) intentional fouling, © media timeouts, (d) team timeouts, (e) foul-out-timeouts, etc etc etc. SPEED UP THE GAME, PLEASE. 2) One simple rule change is that the team fouled keeps possession. Penalty for fouling is 1 shot (shot like a technical). 3) Reduce team timeouts in games with media timeouts. 4) I'm sure others can think of better ideas than I. I do think UND basketball could regularly draw 4-6k for big games. But there's a lot of work to be done.

Interested in people's perspectives whether its better for Dell to come into the rink Friday with a scoreless streak of 19 seconds or 225 minutes. I was thinking it would have been a distraction ... on a weekend when we don't need other distractions.

I checked the video at Fightingsioux.com and it is there in its entirety. If there's rebroadcast, it might get cut, but it would be worth trying the DVR thing...

OUTSIDE: White Out. INSIDE: White Out.

Yale 5 CC 1. The ECAC is better this year than previously ... Quinnipiac swept UNO, Union beat Minnesota and UAA, etc. Looking at the Pairwise, Yale has to win almost all their games to stay #1. If they lose a couple, they will drop pretty quickly.

Most of your list if pretty good. You're on the right track, and I hope the University moves quickly.

QUACK! QUACK! QUACK! Let the Mighty Ducks comparisons begin.