UND92,96

Well, that pretty much brings me back to my point of comparing UND to UNC and UNO, since they went through a transition, also. And the head-to-head comparison is not favorable for Coach Jones.

Greg McDermott is 6'8". Dave Gunther was about 6'7".

What's worse--a division I transition, or having to play your home games here: http://www.hornetsports.com/information/facilities/The_Nest It reminds me of Grand Forks Central's old gym.

Here is a list of each Big Sky coach, including their record at their current school, and the number of years at their current job: Brian Jones--9 years--127-152 (.455) Randy Rahe (Weber St.)--9 years--180-103 (.636) Don Verlin (Idaho)--7 years--110-113 (.493) Brian Katz (Sac. St.)--7 years--76-128 (.372) Tyler Geving (Portland St.)--6 years--84-98 (.462) B.J. Hill (UNC)--5 years--76-77 (.497) Jim Hayford (EWU)--4 years--64-62 (.508) Bill Evans (Idaho St.)--3 years--24-65 (.270) Nick Robinson (SUU)--3 years--23-66 (.258) Jack Murphy (NAU)--3 years--45-51 (.469) Travis DeCuire (Montana)--1 year--19-11 (.633) Brian Fish (MSU)--1 year--7-20 (.259)

So what are you asking for exactly? The career record of every current Big Sky coach, and Jones' record against each of them? You can easily get Jones' record against everybody from the media guide. I'm not interested enough to compile every coach's career record. I used Hill and Hansen due to UND's historical ties to those schools, and the fact both schools have gone through transitions in the recent past.

Maybe, aside from Rahe from Weber, whose career winning % is something like .645. But I do think it's a bit more telling to compare how Jones has done head-to-head against coaches at other ex-NCC schools. And he hasn't done very well there. Against non traditional basketball powers like UNC and UNO, to be that far under .500 seems pretty bad.

Very true (in his first year, I believe), but it doesn't change the fact that his record since that time isn't particularly good, and Jones has struggled against him anyway. And Jones' record against Hansen is downright abysmal, going all the way to the division II days.

When analyzing a coach with a mediocre record, it's useful to compare how he did against other coaches with mediocre records and who coach under similar circumstances. Brian Jones is a combined 3-12 against Derrin Hansen from UNO (.525 career winning %) and B.J. Hill of UNC (.496 career winning %).

The Moon has been purchased, by a very familiar Grand Forks name: http://www.grandforksherald.com/news/3698702-grand-forks-institution-italian-moon-has-new-owner

I remember the last time the Eagles were scheduled for Grand Forks (at the Ralph), it ended up canceling.

Per Schloss tweet, two more Finnish Olympians will join the team next season.

Yes, a lot of schools do that. And in many cases, the ability to raise the funds to buy out multiple years on a failed coach's contract is not difficult at all. I would say a rule of thumb might be: unless you're absolutely willing to bet your own job security on the ability of a coach, don't extend a contract beyond its initial term for any longer than you know you can raise the funds necessary to buy it out. Somebody can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe this is a summary of Jones' contracts: May 25, 2006--initial contract. March 19, 2008--after a 15-15 season, extension to June 30, 2013. July 3, 2012--after a 17-14 season, extension to June 30, 2015. July 12, 2013--after a 16-17 season, extension to June 30, 2017.

I agree. Why extend when a coach has multiple years left on an existing contract? Clearly that benefits the coach, but how does it benefit the athletic department? If by chance the coach becomes successful, he can still leave for a higher-paying gig anyway. But if things go south, the a.d. either has to go solicit funds from donors to buy his way out of his mistake, or else he has to keep the coach around for a year or two longer than he otherwise would have. Unless the coach in question has been wildly successful over an extended period of time, or is on his first contract, I would prefer a contract never extend farther than about two years into the future.

Constant negativity does get old. But so does pretending there's nothing wrong. And no, I don't particularly trust Brian Faison to do what needs to be done. In retrospect, I'm pretty surprised he actually pulled the plug on Mussman when he did.

You are certainly free to your opinion. I just think it's a bit ironic that if one were to have the opinion that Brian Jones should not be fired based upon his entire body of work, it should probably logically follow that one should also think Rich Glas should not have been forced out based upon his entire body of work. In which case, Brian Jones never would have gotten the UND job in the first place.

Not that too many people have high expectations for next season anyway, but to give some idea of what UND is facing, EWU, Montana, NAU and Weber return a lot of proven production. And SUU and Montana St. return a similar amount as UND. I believe getting back anywhere close to the top of the standings is going to be far more difficult than it was in 2012-13 or 2013-14.

Every message board has its share of crackpots, but I actually think the general sentiment of this board is probably pretty indicative of the public's opinion on the job Jones has done. Just like it was regarding the job his predecessor did. Even Tom Miller labeled Jones' body of work as "mediocre" in the Herald's live chat yesterday.

Whoa, wait a second, bin. That could also conceivably mean Jones will be here forever, too. On the other hand, with global warming and all, maybe the only real hurdle keeping him from greatness will be removed eventually if he sticks around long enough.

Jacobson is the one other player on their roster who looks like he could be something, but when I watch him play I still see the kid who was outplayed by Mack Arvidson of Red River in the state tournament a few years ago. Seriously, NDSU returned one good player, and one defensive specialist from last year, and that's it. And they didn't really add much of anything, other than Jacobson coming off his redshirt year. And they have no depth, or real post presence on offense. But they do have a more than competent coach. Funny what that can overcome.

Last year, NDSU had four legitimately good players. This year, there's Alexander and...who exactly? Which means that Richman did one heck of a job.

I think the most obvious candidate would be Benton, given the fact that he was really the only non-senior scholarship player who practically never played. He could probably be a good player at Upper Iowa, Morningside or some other small school in Iowa where he's from.

Even though I had limited expectations for this season, I just didn't see a last place finish coming. Nor a 1-8 home conference record. I figured if Jones won 12 games or so, that would buy him another year. But I did think there was a minimum acceptable record. I guess I was wrong. As I've stated before, next year really concerns me. We all know some improvement is inevitable, but how much is absolutely required? Does Faison extend him again if he just approaches .500?

Big Sky awards announced: http://www.bigskyconf.com/documents/2015/3/9/2015AllConferenceTeam.pdf I was a little surprised there was no honorable mention for Hooker.

Here's a link to Minnesota class of 2016 players with division I scholarship offers: http://www.mnfootballhub.com/page/show/1286303-2016-recruitment

I was just looking at the UND basketball media guide. And it reminded me exactly how mediocre this program has been for 20 years now. As far as I'm concerned, the high-water mark was 1999-00 (Mustard, Reinke, Travis, et al. senior year), when the team finished 23-8. Good for third place in the NCC.