jimdahl

Yeah, that same thing that freaks me about Minnesota being in the bracket freaks me out about a first round game against Michigan. They're probably my 4th choice of the four #3 seeds. No matter how little their fans may be expecting, or what their performance may have been like in past weeks, the institution has a history of making the tournament and doing well. They have a super-veteran coach with a ton of tournament experience, the players won't be afraid of playing big bad UND, they won't be intimidated by REA or its crowds, and they're coming in with the comfort of low expectations. If UND overlooks this game at all, we'll be one and done.

I'll post it formally later this afternoon along with announcing PRIZES! But previous years there were two leaderboards: 1) Tournament scoring -- each round is worth twice as much as the previous (strongly rewards getting the Frozen Four / champ right) 2) Simple scoring -- one point per correct pick (more strongly rewards getting first round upsets) Picks can be modified through Friday, so if the scoring announcements change your strategy there will be plenty of time, I just wanted to get the bracket up and "exercised" ASAP as I sometimes mess up setting it up.

Is back: NCAA Tournament pick'em Early users, please pay particular attention to making sure its working correctly, saving your picks correctly, and that the matchups are correct and let me know of any problems.

Trusting USCHO as an official source is the same mistake as trusting INCH (note that USCHO's bracket already includes the "corrected" disclaimer). Look at the NCAA bracket linked from this site's hockey page, it's the most official.

Formally, I've only heard of the preplanned alumni association receptions before the game. Though I haven't been to a Final Five in a few years, it used to be the case that post-Final festivities were generally confined to private parties. Join alumni, fans and friends at the Great Waters Brewing Co. Located in the Historic Hamm Building 408 St. Peter St. (2nd floor) St. Paul, Minn. Friday, March 17 following the 2:37 p.m. game: 5 - 7:30 p.m. $10 -- Chili with all the toppings and chips with salsa (a no meat option will be available) Saturday, March 18 pre/post-game depending on game time: 5 - 7:30 p.m. $10 -- Brats with all the toppings and chips Pay at the door - No RSVP necessary Cash bar available

You're not the only one

I wouldn't normally reply to myself, but, umm... USCHO gay/lesbian/bisexual

I'm admittedly not the most frequent visitor to USCHO, so I don't feel like asking over there because it's probably well-known, but when did it quit being a college hockey site? USCHO lacrosse USCHO Men's Basketball Tournament scores etc... ?

This was raised a couple hours ago in the WCHA awards thread. Hard to complain about ROTY going to the top scoring rookie in the conference who's also playing on the #1 team in the conference and nation. Congrats to Phil.

I believe it was in 2001 when the MAAC got an autobid, so there weren't really enough to give everyone 2 anymore (plus I think there was some pressure from the NCAA to make it like every other sport -- one autobid to do with as each conference pleases). The current rule is that each conference gets a single autobid to do with as they please. I believe every hockey conference gives it to the conference tourney champ.

Describing PWR possibilities is probably not suitable for a newspaper audience. Frankly, the Pioneer Press statement is closer to true than USCHO's "expert" claims three weeks ago that there was no way UND could make the tournament at-large because doing too well in the regular season would match them up against a non-TUC for the play-in (which many of us debunked by pointing out over a half dozen comparison that UND could easily flip, which promptly happened the next weekend).

I didn't mean to bring up the quote to talk about Ovechkin except that it was the context for the Crosby "the cherry-picker" quote, though I guess it's impossible to mention one without comparing to the other (especially when I have the Caps logo next to my post). Ovechkin is definitely a showboater, and needs to become more of a team player if he wants to stay the better player as they both mature, but a showboater is currently far more fun to pay $50 to watch on a near-bottom team than a cherry-picker...

You should go to a Pens game and watch Crosby. Saw this quote about Crosby while watching the Caps-Sens game the other night, made me laugh out loud:

Nah, boobies are right up there with beer on my list o' favorite things. I smiled at them, not frowned. However, other guests (correctly) pointed out to me that they make it harder to browse the site at work, and perhaps less female-friendly. GDM, can I say "boobies"?

Man, you've had the same name for like 4 years! But, OK...

Done.

SCSU 75 - UND 69 F

If the Herald is a money-loser (of which I have no idea), I would think Forum Comm. would be even more interested in it than other parties, because Forum Comm. can capture efficiencies of scale. More consolidated local coverage would result in less local coverage, meaning a smaller news staff needed on the ground in G.F. There are a whole lot of stories duplicated between the two that could be consolidated (major local college athletics, for example). I think a WDAZ/Y style split for newspapers would be a big negative as it reduced original newspaper coverage for the Valley, but it certainly could be profitable for Forum Comm. No matter who ends up owning the Herald, at least it will finally get to ditch the "don't be so useful as to interfere with physical newspaper sales" KRD web template.

McClatchy to Buy Knight Ridder for $4.5B Buy it with the Duluth News Tribune and St. Paul Pioneer Press and you could own a WCHA media empire!

No doubt, that thread sucked. However, people are obviously going to want to discuss D-I while UND is actively considering a division reclassification. Such a discussion would be disingenuous if it didn't include discussion of NDSU's success or lack thereof in having reclassified just a couple years ago. Moving the discussion to one place helps keep the sports forums about sports, lets people who want to avoid the topic do so, and makes it easier to moderate as the incendiary threads are all in one place. On the other hand, not having a dedicated forum for it may have reduced the smack by dispersing the discussion and leading to only highly relevant threads being started. I definitely appreciate the feedback, keep it coming.

It's tough -- it kind of makes me think back to Gasparini. Glas was a great coach who has done a lot for UND and comes from an era where being a good guy and having some long-term success lets you have a long-term coaching job at a small school. However, UND is becoming not such a small school and that era is fading... realistic or not, year-in-year-out results are the new demand.

Yeah, I guess I'm an eternal optimist. Though I think the discussion of NDSU's success in their transition is highly relevant (particularly in the new forum), I'll admit the thread is unrecoverable in that the tone simply seems to preclude civilized rational discussion.

No Sioux fans are "talking about" it, the bait was put out and not a single Sioux fan has taken it yet (I'm so proud ). The Sioux have only recently been near the top of D-II and would obviously be less near the top in I-AA (how much less is a frequent topic of discussion). No talk of "dominating" in either division here.

This subject has been pretty thoroughly hashed out -- the board has no shortage of speculation about where UND would fit into I-AA football, just scroll around and read some of the past threads on the topic. I'll get you started.

UND's report shows that our hockey score is less than stellar (you must be above 925 to avoid punishment; for the percentile report, being close to 0 is bad). Ironically, the recent trend of UND being considered a good farm for the NHL hurts our graduation rate, which hurts APR, which will eventually result in scholarship reductions (which will make it harder to get the top NHL-bound players?)