UND92,96

From today's Herald:

You really put me in my place, didn't you? You must have been in debate in high school. If you're actually in high school yet. Nice talking to you, though.

Sagarin has UND's strength of schedule ranked higher than NDSU's. And according to the Massey rankings, five of UND's seven non-conference opponents are ranked higher than NDSU. Southern Oregon was a cupcake, and Northwestern State turned out to be far worse than anybody could have predicted, but in reality UND's schedule was a pretty difficult one, particularly if one looks past Sioux Falls' NAIA label (they're ranked 92nd in the country by Massey).

They're both still listed on the roster, and I haven't seen or heard anything in the local media about any departures. But clearly at least one underclassmen currently on scholarship won't be returning next year, as the numbers don't add up. EDIT: There was one early departure before the season even started, but Brittany Peterson wasn't on scholarship.

Hard to believe that despite having 15 players on scholarship, we still seemingly have so little depth.

The question is: are offensive answers expected from any of the recruits signed last week? If not, things will likely get worse the next few years before they (hopefully) get better.

I'd rather just blame the NCAA for dropping the ball. Seriously though, it would be interesting to know whether many other schools are dealing with a similar situation right now, and exactly what is causing this overload the clearinghouse is apparently experiencing.

I guess my point is that once all the incoming football players and other fall sports athletes are either cleared or not by the NCAA, presumably by early September, it should provide the NCAA with roughly a month and a half to take care of basketball and other winter sports. If the school gets them the info in a timely fashion, I don't see why the NCAA shouldn't have sufficient personnel to do what they need to do pretty quickly (insert obligatory NCAA joke here).

As someone who vividly recalls the Myron Allen fiasco of several years ago, I appreciate showing caution when in doubt about a player's eligibility. With that said, considering we're now nearly three months into the semester, it would seem that this matter should have been taken care of by now--either Sharkova's eligible or she's not. I can see this being an issue with fall sports since they start practice in early August before school has even started, but winter sports that don't even start practice until mid-October? I'm not saying anybody necessarily dropped the ball--it just seems strange since I don't recall a basketball player ever being held out due to eligibility concerns (other than Allen, after he'd played several games ).

I think the men have a better chance, with home games against UMKC and Waldorf coming up. I don't really expect the women to win until the Mayville State game on Dec. 7th, although if they have a hot-shooting game it could come earlier than that.

We're unfortunately in the midst of a rather prolonged dry spell in terms of recruiting a post who can score. I'm sure it's not for lack of trying, but it's now been what, five years since Kimbrough was recruited? I know players like that aren't in abundance, but at a minimum we need somebody who can score 12-15 ppg from the post position. There's nobody like that in the program now. Until we find one, I'm afraid we'll struggle just like we have so far this season (even in the exhibition against UMC).

UND's post players shot a combined 3 of 19 from the floor. But on the bright side, the bench scoring tripled compared to the Green Bay game--from two points to six points! Also, the theory that we only struggle against teams from the state of Wisconsin has yet to be disproved. And there are no more Wisconsin teams on the schedule.

He didn't play in the exhibition game, either. I think he has some sort of leg injury.

23 UND 38 WI half Sioux shooting 29%.

I think so.

This Star Tribune column on the MN-SDSU game is pretty funny: link

I think we provided the blueprint for beating Cal Poly--force them to pass, and wear their defense down with the running game. Assuming they finish this game off, USD turned things around pretty well in the last two weeks.

Three years into Brewster's tenure, and IMO Minnesota isn't even a playoff caliber FCS team. Maturi should be taking some serious heat, too.

I would have pulled him. How badly would Southern Illinois beat Minnesota? I'd say by at least two scores.

And it was an unforced fumble. SDSU's missed chip shot field goal in the third quarter is huge right now.

13 SDSU 13 Minnesota 8:27 left in the 4th

13 Minnesota 10 SDSU MN with a defensive score. SDSU qb having a nightmare game. SDSU is pretty impressive on defense.

10 SDSU 6 Minnesota early 2nd quarter SDSU doesn't have a first down yet, and threw an int inside the MN 10, but has managed to score 10 points thanks to defense and special teams. If MN loses, I think Brewster has to be canned--opening the door for Dale Lennon?

Wayne Nelson confirms the Anya-Gafu commitment in today's Herald:

I'd prefer you just read between the lines.