Coyote Fan

My pick is North Dakota 31-21 but it wouldn't surprise me if that margin grows closer to 17 by games end.. One of the biggest reasons for that is that I don't think at this point of the season that USD has a very good defense at all. It looks like it will be power vs power when it's USD's offense vs UND's defense and not so much when it is UND's offense vs USD's defense. UND fans have every right to think they will win the game this afternoon/evening. On the Coyote board most are picking a USD win except for me and maybe one or two other posters. Overall I didn't think the Coyotes were overly impressive against Weber and had to pull off a near miracle just to win a home game against a mediocre Weber State team. I do think the Valley is a little tougher than the Big Sky but USD has also won a combined 6 games in the conference over the last 4 years. To my recollection they pretty much have split their games against Big Sky opponents during that time frame. USD is probably a mid level Big Sky team if they were in that conference. Streveler is the best offensive player on the Coyotes and it's not even close. The only thing I think that the Hawks fans may be over estimating is how many or few yards they will hold the Coyotes to on the ground. I can see the type of game where the UND defense will hold the Coyotes to 3 yard or less for the majority of their carries and then Streveler will break a 50 yard run. I can definately see a game where Steveler runs for about 100 yards and the rest of the team only combines for about 50 more for 150 yards total. The key for USD is how well they will be able to keep the Hawks defense honest by how well they will be able to thrown the ball. Many think UND holds USD to 100 yards or less rushing but I think that number exceeds that mark but just not enough to be able to pull out a win. This years Coyote team is simply going through way too many changes to the team overall with basically all new coaches and severe losses on the defensive side of the ball. The Coyotes are too young in the transition process to pull out a game like this IMO. With more than a year under their belts I think next time these two teams play a different Coyote team will show up in Vermillion than what will show up today. Nielson will have the Coyotes playing much better going into the game next time around. This year the dice roll green.

There is no way that Minnesota State or St. Cloud State for that matter would take a Big Sky invite over the Summit League. Actually that brings me to the big question. This is not your opinion but what do you think the UND athletic department would do if the Summit/MVFC offer a dual membership tomorrow. I would say the U or ND would take it.

I wouldn't count on a home game. USD had a better year last year than UND is having this year but didn't get to host any games. They went down to Creighton instead.

Congradulation. UND wanted this game much more than the Coyotes did and the better team definately won. I think you may need to tell the Sioux fans that made the trip to stand up and make some noise for your mens team. If I would have driven that far to a game I would sure as heck let the players know of the appreciation. Why is it that so many of the Women's fans leave after the first game? I also agree that this is the most impressive a Sioux team has looked coming into the Dakotadome in years.

I do think the North Dakota mens team will probable go onto win the conference. The rematch in Vermillion will be important but I expect UND to win that one as well and go onto have a great year. It looks like the UND basketball team will be celebrating conference titles for both the men and the women this year. That would be a great accomplishment. That would be great for momentum heading into the big sky. Your fans deserve it much more than ours do.

Congrats to the Sioux Men and Women for the big day against USD. I was not able to watch either game but what stands out to me is how much more the Sioux Men seemed to want it more than USD. Both the USD teams are in a funk right now after playing good ball earlier in the year. USD's mens team is just in a slump right now and I think they will snap out of it. Whether that be this year or next I think they will be ok. As far as the USD women are concerned I am starting to fear that Ryun Williams is not going to end up being what many hyped him up to be and that is a very good coach. Ryun Williams seems over-rated as a coach and he should be making a greater impact in his third season at USD already. Many SD fans may see it different but he just doesn't seem able to either coach the team properly or know how to get the right talent in the program to succeed. UND is always a good program but the Sioux seem a bit down this year for their standards. Your fan base stepped up and made the atmosphere favorable for the home teams. UND is a hockey school first, football school second and then basketball somewhere down the line. With that said at least your board has some conversation about the games. The USD board on the other hand, PATHETIC, no posts whatsoever on the day of the game. It seems like the board membership and overall fan support at USD is in real trouble right now. The new AD is not doing his job in getting people to the dome to see basketball games. Based on overall fan support, board activity and so forth UND absolutely deserved the sweep. Every USD fan that didn't pay attention to the games yesterday deserved every bit of the losses that the Coyotes took. Again Congrats

Of the 4 Dakota schools only one made the right choice and that was UND. Good luck to you in your ventures to the Big Sky. USD just didn't have the guts to make their own leap of faith. They will get eaten alive in the MVFC. Many bottom of the league finishes on the near horizon.

Jack JD, You say that it was an easy decision for USD to take the MVFC/Summit option but when SDSU was an independant they seemed to favor the Big Sky option over the Mid Continent if I remember. The Midcon was a consolation prize. USD had a choice to make so they weren't just forced into one thing.

You have every right to feel that way. I am very disappointed in tonights developments. I really think USD burned alot of bridges in this whole thing. FIrst of all they dissed the Summit, than they turn around and diss the big sky plus lost alot of repect and trust from multi conferences and multi schools. I am in the USD minority and will get chastized about my opinions on the Yote board.

That was my absolute worst fear in all of this. Whatever it is if they stuck their nose into this and blocked USD from going to the Big Sky I am going to be absoluted disgusted at them.

Guys I don't know what to say tonight. I had a feeling that the Big Sky was a 90% certainty. Something has changed because Sayler had big sky written all over him in a couple of interviews I heard late last week. Something changed. It's either the board of regents or something but something is not right. I was all for the Big Sky and creating a path on our own away from SDSU. Not that I wanted to avoid them like the plague just wanted to cast our own shadow in this state. Now like usual USD just can't get away from the Jacks. They just feel the need to make every decision on what SDSU does and it's getting rather tiring to me. If this thing doesn't go through as planned tomorrow I truley feel badly if you were taken down a road of expectations regarding USD joining in with you to go west. I felt that Big Sky was definately the best choice for USD even with a MVFC vote but my opinion doesn't matter in all of this. I feel this really stinks that USD led the entire conference and UND on as long as they did. I have respect for UND and whether we go with you or not, kudo's to you guys for having the guts to make something for yourself.

Keep in mind that USD hasn't played a real D1 game at home yet so you will be getting a different team than was on the road for 3 very difficult games. How many wins do the Sioux get going to Central Florida, to Minnesota and to NDSU. That's a good question but based on your results to date 1 would be a stretch. You got blown out in one FBS game against a not great Idaho team and had a close loss in the other. You may like your offense but I like the offense of the Coyotes better. USD's defense will have the energy of the home crowd. They always play better at home. 18 of the last 20 means nothing on the field Saturday.

I will say this much. Yeah the defense isn't that great right now for the Yotes but they tend to play D much better at home. If you are not worried about Dante beating the Sioux with his arm and the Sioux coaching staff takes that same philosophy the UND defense will be in big trouble. Warren tore up Minnesota with his arm and I know they are not the best defense in the world but don't sleep on USD's throwing ability. The Coyotes did put up a good fight and had a 13-7 lead at half. Granted they fell apart in the second half but they were beating a fired up Bison team for quite awhile.

The USD women also seemed to be getting hosed on alot of foul calls but they are not good enough to play through it. USD's men have been getting to the line alot this year and playing zone on D prevents other teams from getting to the line more than a man to man. I have actually been quite impressed with the start that UND has gotten off to in the conference on the mens side. The loss hurts alot but the Dakotas will now have the schedule to their favor with 5 of the last 7 conference games at home and not any of them against each other.

Houston Baptist has a live in game chat on their athletic page website. Looks like Houston Baptist got the win 75-65. It will be interesting to see how these teams look when they come up north to the Dakotas.

USD is simply not a very good offensive team and they aren't most of the time. They had an unusually hot night against the Sioux up in Grand Forks but at the same time they really couldn't hit much of anything at home against UND and still had a good chance to win. USD lives off their defense but the offense has been so inept that they are losing games despite still putting good effort on the court. Losing the two games in Texas this weekend was absolutely unexcusable especially since UND has won with a nice cushion. No one on the Lady Yotes want to take charge and be a leader on offense and it's hurting them alot.

Despite a poor year so far I think UND fans should be proud of the way their team played in their last couple of road games. I was at the games in Vermillion and I thought the UND men played better in a losing effort than the UND women in a winning effort. There was quite a discrepency in the free throws shot for sure. I guess the Coyotes were making quite a bit more effort getting to the basket. Since the Yotes play zone it tends to lead to more outside shooting by their opponents but maybe fewer inside fouls called. You did a very nice job of holding the Coyotes to 29% shooting as they almost never shoot that poorly. As far as the intentional fouls it's really tough to say. There were a good 2 or 3 instances where Coyote players fell very hard to the floor. On one or maybe both of them the int fouls were called. UND played physical and fair in my opinion. I would suppose when a player slams to the floor and there is contact an official is naturally going to be a bit quick to call the int foul.

USD just got done playing Wisconsin-Green Bay as well. The Coyotes definately deserved to be on the same floor but couldn't find the basket very often. I heard that WGB was the #1 team in the nation last year in field goal % defense. They are tough defenders. The Coyotes also did a nice job defending them as well. It ended up 53-40.

I see your men are off to a bit of a slow start. USD got thumped by 40 against Texas Tech on Friday. They were defeated by Oregon State by 17 but turned around today and beat Texas A&M Corpus Christie by 3. CC beat Oregon State by 20 and stayed within single digits of Texas Tech.

Congrats on the win in Vermillion on Saturday. The Sioux are just a bit better than the Yotes this year. USD is redshirting some of their talent this year in preperation for next year. Hegge, Hiebert and Brown should give the Yotes a bit more punch next season. Nice outside shooting from the Sioux really kept them at distance from the Yotes most of the way.

I know this might not be big news for most of those reading along but there is a real disconnect between the Sioux Fans and the Mens team. There were a nice handfull of UND fans in Vermillion really getting into the womens game but I heard only one or two fans cheering for the men for the whole game. As good of a University that you have in Grand Forks you really need to support your men a bit better. I talked to the guy that was waiving the Sioux flag during the women's game and was complimenting him on cheering for the mens team. It looks like most of the fans were halfway back up to Grand Forks by the time the Mens team got out of town. The excitement level was alot better during the Gulseth/Gardner era but this Sioux team never gave up and made the Yotes sweat it out down the stretch.

I will say that traditionally USD hasn't scheduled the toughest non conference schedules but much of that had to do with them being in the NCC. Last year USD played one of the toughest schedules in the country for a D2 school. They played Winona, McNeese and West Texas A&M. I heard USD's AD Joel Nielson on the pre game today talk about why the N Greenville game was scheduled. He said that during that particular week there were just not many games available at all. It was either play Greenville or have 3 straight bye weeks so they almost reluctantly took the game. The budget was already set so they had to suck it up and bus. One would think that a donor could have stepped up and paid for a flight but so much for that happening. He talked about both schools needing a home game so I have no idea why the Crusaders won out there but I have a feeling they would not make the big trip Northwest. I personally don't agree with playing the game but it is what it is. The way rumor has it McNeese has pulled out of their agreement with USD to pay the return trip to Vermillion of a home and home agreement. USD has enough trouble getting home games against decent clubs and now they have the rug pulled from them from one of their desirable home games next season.

USD's offense has not been playing very well lately. UND's team of the last few years would have beaten this USD team at the Dakotadome. It appears that UND is a bit down this year as well. I think the Sioux with a regular Sioux performance should be able to defeat the Coyotes this year.

Of course Jacks fans will only take into account what they desire to take into account. USD used to get their butts kicked by both UNO and UND and last I checked neither program took a step backwards in the past 5 years. Now USD is on a near even level with UND and UNO (although the Yotes did take a step back this past season). It alot more than cooincidence that 30 point whippings have turned into much closer games. USD is definately better than the Jacks at home and definately worse on the road.

At this point in time USD doesn't deserve to get any love in the polls. That is not to intentionally throw USD under the bus but their very recent and consistant history shows that USD will have a very rough season. They have rarely/never had success on the road against competitive teams, such as the ones they will play. Since all but one of their D1 games will be on the road it's very fair to assume that USD could easily go O-For the road in 2008. The biggest difference between USD and UND is their road play. UND plays solid road football and USD plays poor bordering on embarrassing on the road. It is what it is and until USD get a better home schedule they will probably not be much of a contender. If the Coyotes do not stress discipline in the off season and don't improve the defense the road will be tough again.