UND92,96

If recent history is any indication, the odds may be against USD. Just twice in the last six years has the host team won the region.

The first two on-campus interviews have been scheduled: link We should also know fairly soon whether Barbara Burke is offered the Eastern Illinois a.d. job, as all of their on-campus interviews have been completed.

For a team like UND who was picked not only to win the conference--but also as the pre-season number one in the country--to potentially lose four times to one opponent would be quite a disappointment. It's probably not a surprise that losing four times in a season to one opponent has never happened under Roebuck (it was all but impossible until the advent of the NCC post season tournament).

I've seen Travis Mertens from Lake Region at a number of UND games this year. Also, I believe the 6'9" post from Warroad was sitting behind the bench at the last home game, although whether or not he's being recruited I don't know.

UNO beat top-seeded Mankato this afternoon, so the Sioux will be playing UNO tomorrow in what will likely be a nearly-empty Taylor Center for the right to go to the regional!

It was a disappointing performance by the ladies last night. One sub-par game against a four-win team like Duluth can probably be written off as something of a fluke, due in part to over-confidence after having beaten them so badly in Duluth. But for it to happen twice, at home, in such a short period of time is pretty hard to explain. The outside shooting was terrible last night, and if the Sioux are going to have anything other than a very brief appearance at the regional, that needs to change. Last night also under-scored how difficult it's going to be to replace the scoring and rebounding of Ashley Langen next year. Besides Kimbrough, who is going to step up and be a consistent double-figure scorer? Who's going to help out Kimbrough on the boards? I think Roebuck needs to find a transfer at either the 4 or 5 position, and at least one more 3-point shooter.

I'm not going to go so far as to say that once UND and SDSU start playing again, UND will have the upper hand. But FWIW, at the peak of SDSU's dII success--the 01-02 to 03-04 seasons--UND was 7-4 against them. It's all about recruiting. If UND can continue to recruit the Langen's, Kimbrough's, Boese's, etc. of tomorrow, they'll be fine. If not, they will struggle.

Kansas State (Tibesar connection) and Iowa State (Mussman's alma mater) would seem like possibilities.

Ruley's recruiting had really slipped in the last few years before the dI move, so in a way I'm not all that surprised that things were more of a struggle for NDSU than they have been for SDSU. She was always a very good coach, though. It is interesting that both she and Lavin have decided to hang it up, and both are considerably younger (8-10 years) than Roebuck.

link

Based upon who UND is returning, and the records of last year's opponents, it appears the Sioux will only be a big underdog in the SIU game. I think both Idaho State and SE Louisiana are realistically winnable (both were 3-8 last year). UC-Davis will be tough, but both Western Washington and SDSU managed to win there last year, for whatever that's worth.

Of course, even Whitewater probably wouldn't be all that intriguing considering they lost to a pretty woeful St. Cloud State team last year.

The more I think about it, the more I think UND and USD should have played home-and-home this year. Obviously UND didn't have much motivation to do so back when most of us thought USD would be coming here anway, and when it sounded like we'd have a 12-game schedule with 10 FCS opponents and a couple of dII's. While I realize LaCrosse is probably not going to be a pushover, I'd still rather play USD a second time rather than a dIII (or NAIA). Just my opinion. In any event, this is the hand we've been dealt, and I still plan to go to all the home games just like every year.

FWIW, SDSU's home schedule in the first year of their transition was Winona State, Western Oregon (dII), Augie and NDSU.

LaCrosse beat SDSU in Brookings a couple of years ago. link

We're the worst team in the league, but at least we apparently have the most smart guys. link. Congrats to all of these student-athletes.

Roebuck said on the coaches' show last night that it's pretty much a given that the regional will be in Vermillion due to their regular season sweep of UND. I agree. Prior to each getting their second loss last week, both Concordia-St. Paul and Fort Lewis would have had arguments, but probably not now (unless USD were to somehow lose twice this weekend).

I wonder if the "play USD twice" idea is still being floated around? It's sounding better now that we pretty much know we have to travel there anyway, and we only have 10 games. It's not as though we haven't played teams twice in a season before (including playoffs).

Fair points, but IMO, if all else were equal, I'd trade the road game with UC-Davis for a home game with USD and a road game with Cal Poly. As for whether Poly would have agreed to play us under the scenario of not joining the Great West until 2009, I can't say. It does seem a bit ironic if they agreed to schedule us because of our immediate admission into the Great West, only to have the commissioner void it. It smacks of "I know better than you what's good for you."

I believe Cal Poly would have been a road game. As for UC-Davis, I'm not really in a position to speculate as to what they may have done, but if Poly agreed to schedule UND, I would think UC Davis may have done the same. Perhaps it would have come down to choosing to play either UND or USD?

Not as far as I know. But as we saw the last time around, there's always the chance somebody else can emerge at the last minute.

Maybe a stupid question, but wouldn't we have actually been better off had the Great West not decided to "sort of" add UND and USD for the 2008 season, and instead wait until 2009? But for this would-be concession by the Great West, we likely would have hosted USD instead of travelling to Vermillion again, AND we apparently would have had a game against Cal Poly? We had Southern Utah at home anyway, so I'm not sure we got anything good out of this in the short term.

On the 10:00 WDAZ news last night, it was reported that the committee has decided to invite all remaining candidates except Schlickmann for on-campus interviews. This was not in the Herald today for whatever reason.

It was reported on the WDAZ news tonight that Don Kojich has taken a job at a school in Illinois (don't recall which one), which presumably means that Betty Ralston will be leaving, as well. IMO, here would be an excellent candidate to be the next SWA.

Of course I do--I'm undefeated! BTW, apparently they don't live and die by the three, because it's been penetration, getting to the free throw line and an absence of turnovers that have resulted in two wins against UND. What's your brilliant idea for stopping what they've done to go 2-0 vs. the Sioux this year?