UND92,96

There are only two people I'm aware of who are obsessed enough with UND to post this nonsense in the comments section of every single Nelson blog. I'm sure a lot of people know to whom I'm referring.

As much as I love UND basketball, I think staying dII would have been a mistake. True, it would have allowed the women to continue to contend for national titles. But the men probably weren't going to win any titles at any level--be it dII, dIII or NAIA. And football was going to be harmed by staying dII due to the recruiting landscape having changed with all the additional scholarships by the xDSU's. If we couldn't get our share of the top local/regional kids, we simply weren't going to be good enough to consistently compete with Grand Valley or NW Missouri. And given a choice between football and basketball, I would choose to do what's best in the long run for football. I can respect that not everybody agrees with that, but I think the right choice was made, so long as the conference situation works itself out. Time will tell.

I just got home from foolishly venturing out six blocks to the in-laws. Of course, I got stuck on the way home (on my own street, fortunately). And who helped push me out? Dave Hakstol! Many thanks to Hak and Jody Hodgson!

Please don't even begin to compare the state of the UND football program with the men's basketball program. The football team had a winning record against dI competition, and is clearly on the right track as there is a lot of good young talent on the team. The basketball program is a completely different story.

I hope they don't go looking in DeBoer's direction. I shudder to think what that guy could do with those resources...

2010 UND opponent Montana is now looking for a new coach, as Bobby Hauck has reportedly accepted the UNLV head coaching job.

This probably won't come as a surprise to many, but according to the latest NCAA statistics, UND has allowed more 3-pointers than any dI team in the country (112). Opponents are shooting 40.6% from 3-point range against the Sioux.

A little off-topic, but do you happen to know why Massey ranks all college football teams regardless of division, but apparently only ranks dI basketball teams? I was curious about how the computer would rank UND relative to NSIC/MIAC/DAC teams, but as of now Massey doesn't include non-dI's: http://www.mratings.com/rate.php?lg=cb

Sagarin now has UND at number 345 out of 347 dI teams. I'm guessing Houston Baptist--one of the two teams ranked below us--is anxious to prove they belong at that coveted 345 spot.

It had to be a mistake in the box score. You'd think such a radical move would have warranted mention in the Herald, and there was none.

I didn't see the game today--did Josh Schuler actually play, or was it just a mistake in the box score showing that he played 3 minutes (and thereby gave up his red-shirt status)?

It doesn't seem to work very well no matter how talented--or untalented--the opposition is. Even Bemidji torched us with 3's...

Just curious--in your opinion, as between Warmack, Evers and Farroh, who's the best player right now, and who has the most potential to develop into a college player? For the record, I know Farroh is only a junior, whereas the other two are seniors.

58 UND 70 Drake final This isn't too bad of a loss considering Drake's RPI is 70.

The kid certainly has a big frame at 6'8". I'm assuming he has pretty good feet since he was a basketball player, so he's probably got a chance to be a very nice tackle in a few years.

I don't have a huge problem with a 10-game schedule next year, although I think a lot of people would like to see if a home-and-home with either Sac. State or South Alabama could be worked out. If not, so be it.

It sounds like we may have a 10-game schedule next year: http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/144195/

Wayne Nelson had the following red-shirts listed as "players to watch" for next year in today's Herald: Greg Hardin Blair Townsend Joe Kleason Caleb Nelson Dominique Bennett Cordero Finley Garrison Goodman Chavon Mackey Chris Hall

UND assistant coach Jace Schillinger's brother had a very nice game for Montana today--13 tackles and a pick.

Montana may be one of those teams that plays to the level of its competition, which results in many games being closer than you'd think--Idaho St., UC-Davis, Cal Poly and spotting a good-but-not-great SDSU team a huge lead before the big comeback being examples from this year.

52 UND 73 IPFW Not a lot of good things to say, aside from the fact that UND didn't get out-rebounded. Sioux shot just 30%.

I'm not a big fan of comparing scores, but for whatever it's worth, USD defeated Mayville State 99-67 a few weeks ago.

I can respect that opinion, although I will say that a coaching search after this season would likely yield a considerably better group of candidates than it did four years ago. We're down to two more years of the transition, and in all likelihood we will be in the Summit in another two or three years, and that's a lot better than what we were facing in 2006 (although the dI move hadn't been officially announced until shortly after Jones was hired). I can accept going winless against tournament-eligible teams. I don't necessarily like it, but I can accept it. But when a team has as few winnable games as this team does, I have a much harder time accepting anything less than 100% effort against teams like Mayville. And if we can't win a couple of games against teams that are ranked as low or lower than ourselves, i.e. NJ Tech and Houston Baptist, it will speak volumes about where we are, and whether there's any hope for marked improvement next year minus Bledsoe and Mertens. Wins and losses aren't everything, but neither are they completely meaningless at the college level either, even during a transition with no real conference title to compete for. And there's also the issue of rapidly falling attendance, and whether the Jones style of basketball can or will result in something people actually want to watch.

I don't believe Jones has had any wins against programs clearly more advantaged than UND in terms of resources, although in fairness at the dII level we rarely ever played such teams. In any event, the following are probably the best wins during Jones' tenure: 2006-07 @ St. Cloud St. 2007-08 @ USD in NCC tournament 2008-09 @ UM-Kansas City (lone win vs. non-transitional dI program thus far) Of course, I wouldn't classify any of these wins as even close to being on par with what Mayville did the other night in terms of beating a team despite having only a fraction of the resources. At this point, my only expecations for this team are to beat St. Olaf, and to split the four games with Houston Baptist and NJ Tech, both of which currently have lower RPI's than UND. I don't think that's too much to expect.

Just curious--so in your opinion Jones is back next year regardless of the team's record this year?