UND92,96

If Murray can't go, I think we'll see Dressler motioning in and out of the backfield even more than usual. Honestly, until the emergence of Chappell last year, I felt he was the best running back in the program for a couple of years. Not that he's going to get 20 carries or anything, but at least the threat of a big run will be there every time he lines up in the backfield. Also, let's keep in mind that last year UND had very little success running the ball against Grand Valley even with a healthy Chappell. To beat them, I think you have to do it through the air for the most part.

Top three, actually (Brady also). This is a good example of why getting one of the top two seeds and a bye in the first round is so crucial.

IMO, there's no way UND could realistically run the same offense and play Battle against GVSU. In order to have any chance to win, you'd almost have to either i) go empty backfield and throw on every down, a la Mankato and Duluth; ii) line up Dressler at running back; iii) move Ryan Kasowski to offense; or iv) take the red shirt off Solum (highly unlikely at this point). Great job by the defense today. I know Winona's offense isn't of the same caliber as UNO or USD, notwithstanding their regular season stats, but it was nice to see a running game completely shut down by the Sioux defense again.

Battle didn't play h.s. ball in Grand Forks. I believe he's actually from Massachusetts. Not sure how or why he ended up here. I'm pretty sure he's a walk-on.

Metro is a decent team, and will probably be in the regional. I guess I'm just used to the Sioux blowing out RMAC team at home, whether during the regular season or the post season. And UND was well on their way to a blowout before the last seven or eight minutes. There were certainly some bright spots last night with the play of Kimbrough and Langen, and some good things from Youngblut, Ledger, Seay and Guinn. I'd just like to see some more consistent perimeter scoring and better handling of the ball against pressure.

Wayne Nelson's call: [url="http://www.grandforksherald.com/articles/index.cfm?id=57516

I'm going to resist the urge to get too negative about this performance, but considering Adams was picked fifth (out of seven teams) in the RMAC west division, tonight's game may not bode well for UND's chances to show significant improvement upon last year's record.

I'm sure we'll get plenty of crap from some Bison fans about the attendance at the football game tomorrow, but on the bright side, the UND-Metro game outdrew the NDSU-Idaho game in Fargo by about 400. In the words of Carl Spackler "so we've got that going for us, which is nice."

Those Adams Atoms do play pretty good ball. Ogre is tough inside.

No.

I doubt it'll even be 6,000.

You are correct. link

Just not a very good performance tonight. No flow, no transition points, poor three-point shooting and just not enough offense from the perimeter players. Obviously the team is not at full strength right now and it's very early, but UND did not look like the number one team in the country tonight.

All too predictable, unfortunately. We're almost certainly going to have less than half the regular season average (10,700) at this game.

No, he shouldn't call them out, but he shouldn't say things that are blatantly false, either. Of course, I didn't see the McNeese game, but the USD defense was flat-out awful against UNO. Taking what Meierkort said at face value, he apparently disagrees. Clearly the guy's a reasonably good coach in terms of wins and losses, but between the odd comments in the media, the bone-headed scheduling (too easy, then too hard), and the fact that he never seems to make effective adjustments to shore up the perennially bad pass defense, you have to wonder about him, too. His predecessor didn't exactly set the bar high, but one playoff appearance in four years isn't all that great, either.

One thing Meierkort said that I found very odd was this (from the above-linked article): What about the UNO game? Also, back in 2005 when USD was left out of the playoffs, Meierkort was on record as saying USD deserved to get in over UND due to the head to head results. Since he never mentioned UMD (8-3 record), the implication was that he thought they DID deserve to get in. The problem with that argument, of course, was that UND had beaten UMD and had one fewer loss. See the flaw in his logic? When three teams are in the running for two playoff spots, and all are 1-1 against the other two, you can't arbitrarily choose one of those teams and claim you deserve to get in over them due to head to head.

Scratch Kliniske. He signed with NDSU for baseball yesterday.

Meierkort has a tendency to say some strange things. Anyway, who cares if they would have made the playoffs with an 8-3 record, since they'd have been on the road for sure, and they're simply not a good road team?

A few things from the coaches' show tonight: -Bagaason is injured and her status sounds like it's up in the air right now; Seay will likely start in her place; -Sannes won't play this weekend due to a relatively minor injury; -Roebuck sounded very excited about Youngblut's potential. It sounds like she could be an impact player.

Here's a [url="http://www.grandforksherald.com/articles/index.cfm?id=57189

I think he's about 6'8", 280. Probably a project, but obviously has tremendous size.

Anthony Kliniske from Grafton is likely getting some interest. He's probably a better baseball prospect, though. Crookston offensive lineman Andrew Anderson has gotten interest from a lot of schools, including Minnesota, NDSU and UND.

As expected, UND is picked to win the NCC in the pre-season coaches' poll. link The question is, which coach besides Roebuck picked USD to win it?

I guess I'm going to resurrect a very old thread here. The new numbers for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2007 have been posted on the OPE site, and UND reported revenues of $11,414,689, and expenses of $11,250,249. You can find all the details here.