Pony1976

I'm pretty sure this is a job alot of top notch quality people (coaches) would love to have. It's going to be interesting to see who throws their name(s) in the hat and ultimately ends up at the helm of the UND program. I still fully expect this program to become a strong contender in the WCHA and on the national scene at some point. The right person who can annually bring in solid recruiting classes could accelerate that eventuality (as I see it). I really don't believe any damage so serious as to inhibit that process long term has occurred...and again, the right person could turn that around relatively quickly. I'm pretty sure their are, and will be alot of great players more than happy to spend their student / athlete careers at UND.

That's true alright...pretty much goes for every program.

A pure guess would be they may have some commitments and just haven't made an official announcement(s) yet. Some programs take their time releasing those official announcements. A question that comes to mind is how many UND will be looking for with such a young team...not losing much to graduation. I'd also be interested in hearing of any top prospects from within the state of North Dakota.

Four Nations Cup Team USA player bios including the Lamoureux twins. GO USA!! http://usahockey.com/servlets/FileServlet/...dia%20Guide.pdf

Watched just the 2nd period on the UW website streaming video. It wasn't pretty. Looked like UND's tender got hung out to dry a few times with not much help down low. As noted earlier tho...Wisconsin is tough and can bring it to you with three lines without any let up.

Ain't that the truth. Possibly the best team in the country on the docket for this weekend. I've now watched three of the top ten ranked teams (including #'s 1 & 2) and the Badgers are the best IMO. Outstanding goaltender in Vetter, they play extremely well in their own end and almost always limit opponents quality scoring chances to next to none. They've got plenty of fire power up front too. Man would I love to see an upset.

Yes. I certainly did not expect that. I haven't looked at stats like SOG. Kehler can do this. I've seen her withstand 50 shot salvos including many quality chances in the past. Can't really believe the margin tho. A guess would be we don't see anything like that tomorrow.

Ouch!

...or you could just post specifically what it is you disagree with.

http://wcha.cstv.com/sports/w-hockey/spec-rel/101906aaa.html

Merely my opinion, but I wouldn't count on any easy wins in the WCHA this season. If MSU stays healthy, they will battle SCSU and OSU for 4th in the WCHA I think. The Mavericks are easily talented enough to do so. BSU won't be a pushover for anyone either. You're correct about the new coach being a factor in that...great coach.

Watched the Mavericks last weekend. This is the quickest MSU team that has ever taken the ice. Also a very solid tender in Kehler. Going to be a real challenge for the Sioux. A minor point, I am familiar with the UMD program and history. Enough to say that historically, they don't really concentrate their recruiting efforts on the top US talent.

UMD has Euro Olympic / National team players up front too. Older & considerably more experienced than UND's extremely young roster. A long time philosophy and approach of a Miller coached team.

Apologies for a brief interruption, but a couple of GF natives have been selected for the US team to compete in the Four Nations Cup international tournament. In very good company...quite an accomplishment for these two youngsters. http://www.uscho.com/news/id,12809/USCanad...CupRosters.html

The money / revenue issue, I'm not really buying as any kind of big influence or motivation when it comes to a can / can't coach, keep coach or dump coach question. I'm pretty sure women's hockey is a big loser for every D-I team...powerhouses included. Thank God these institutions support women's hockey under those unfortunate circumstances. Nobody's filling their buildings for games and I wouldn't expect that to happen anytime soon no matter how good your team may be. UND's situation could be aggravated by the fact they may not have other sports generating sufficient revenue to help offset...like the Big 10 schools maybe. I assume UND men's hockey makes a decent profit. The point is I wouldn't expect a new coach to turn the program into a money maker even if the Sioux become a national power, which is something I do expect to happen eventually.

Nearly time to drop the puck. I'd like to see the Sioux take it to RPI in that NC action coming up. RPI being another program making the jump to D-I very recently. I'll always root for the WCHA team in a East / West matchup. RPI did surprise many last season having better results than expected. I would urge UND fans not to get to down on the team if results aren't great. This really should be the most competitive WCHA season yet. SCSU and MSU-M likely putting their best teams ever on the ice this season...possibly BSU as well. I genuinely believe it's the strongest the WCHA has ever been top to bottom.

I just checked out the 2006-'07 roster for the Sioux. I think that's the youngest roster I've ever seen. I also read they had some open tryouts. I wonder if anyone, or how many may have tried out and if anyone might eventually make the team.

The question I have is why does anyone who doesn't like women's hockey take the time to post in a women's hockey thread? You don't like the game...fine. Don't bother yourself with reading or posting in the thread. Unless your motive is to somehow belittle fans who do enjoy the game, the athletes or whomever...like your average four year old might enjoy doing.

Somehow I think the poll and the question pondered is a little less confusing to people who actually have a brain. Just my opinion of course.

Has anyone heard anything at all about possible candidates for the assistant position(s)?

How about a specific example? It's not impossible, but I did specify "compete" or be "competitive" in my earlier posts which to me means winning more than one game miraculously...which can happen, but in my opinion isn't going to happen often. If you think UND is going to compete consistently, or become a regular contender for a WCHA title without having a like number of scholarships to use to attract top talent, I can't agree. And that's also likely regardless of who's behind the bench. Any good coach is going to use available scholarships to attract the kind of talent that will allow them to be a contender. Big part of the job...done correctly. UW's Johnson, UMD's Miller & Minnesota's Halldorson aren't going to suddenly stop recruiting and landing national team players from around the world. I know everyone here wants to point the finger at, hammer and trash the current head coach. It's been going on for some time now. I'm not addressing whether the current coach is competent or not. Nor am I saying a coaching change wouldn't help, necessarily. Frankly, under the circumstances (up 'til now) I don't think she had a fighting chance to build a team capable of beating the rest of the WCHA members consistently. I think to expect that in the little time they've been a member is unrealistic. Virtually every WCHA team has improved dramatically (roster) the last few seasons. It's going to take more than a simple coaching change to keep pace. Simply put, at present a team needs national team caliber talent to contend for conference / national titles, again, no matter who's coaching. Edit: And that's all I'm gonna say about the Sioux coaching or scholarship situation...I'll bet that's good to hear. Heck, I'm not even a Sioux fan. Sorry, I lied...back for just a couple more comments. As someone noted the women will have a full compliment of scholarships soon so scholarships as an issue, or a disadvantage becomes a moot point. At that time if UND can't recruit top notch talent (especially with the incredible facilities as someone also noted) and become an annual contender for conference titles and more, then obviously a change is needed (if it isn't already). Because with those facilities the Sioux have an advantage over just about everyone else. Good luck, I want to see a more competitive conference top to bottom. It's good for the sport.

I'm no expert myself, I just know from direct contact with a number of highly sought after recruits & their parents that the various scholarship offers were the primary and biggest factor for many of them. Instances of players going elsewhere (than what had been the team they dreamed of playing for throughout their youth in some cases) because they were offered a 60% scholarship vs. a full ride from other programs. Finances play a big role for many of these players and their families. When the competition for top talent is as heated as it is, and at any given time several programs are going to have full scholarships available to offer those top players, if your program doesn't, you are going to lose out on many top end players. There are exceptions also tho...when a particular player may be dead set on one program, no matter what. Those seem to be an extreme minority though. Facilities alone aren't going to do it where many players are concerned, again, when those same players are being offered better financial deals elsewhere. As far as ability to compete in the WCHA, when you're competing (for recruits) with the likes of UMD, UW and Minnesota and the level of talent they routinely recruit my opinion is you better be on level ground with them regarding scholarships available and use them successfully to grab like talent. I just don't think the UND facilities, as outstanding as they are, represent any any kind of huge edge when it comes to recruitment...at least not the kind of edge that's going to make alot of players disregard the scholarship $$$ factor. I will admit to hearing rumors of excellent players originally intending to go to UND changing their minds in the face of the recent coach / player fallout. That kind of atmosphere never helps. Edit: I don't mean to imply a full compliment of scholarships is the only issue...it's not. Even teams operating with the full 18 scholarships have no schollie money available at times, and "lose out" because of it. Big job administating those funds wisely.

I don't agree. Regarding players out of Minnesota high school only (those of D-I caliber), I speak with enough of them, and their parents to safely say the varied scholarship offers are a very large factor in their ultimate decisions, often regardless of facilities. Ever been to All Seasons at MSU? It's a major dump, yet they have landed many of the top players available in state via scholarships offered to those players. BSU will have 16 scholarships in 2006-07, 18 thereafter. Another big factor for many players is location...more so than facilities (great facilities don't hurt tho). Location may hurt BSU more than their rink, which is much nicer than All Seasons Arena.

Thanks, appreciate the rapid response and clarification. As far as being more competitive, yeah UND may have issues beyond available scholarships (I'll take the word of others on that) but those scholarships, equal in numbers to other programs is pretty significant I believe. Damn hard to compete without them.