UND92,96

I can't imagine Smith's next job will be at an NAIA school.

I'm sure he'd have a chance, but I suspect a current NDSU assistant would have the inside track, provided he didn't follow Miles to his next job.

I agree that Gulf Coast does sound similar to Regis and Kearney. It's interesting that FGCU's shooting percentage was quite poor in the their last two games--presumably against the two best teams they've played--but they still managed to win in low-scoring games. However, notwithstanding their undefeated record, I highly doubt they'll be the most talented team UND has seen this year. If the Sioux take care of the ball, and shoot a decent percentage, I look for a UND win. Is anybody making the trip to Kearney? I'm planning on being there.

And I'm proudly in dead last. The General's team let me down.

Actually, wcbsas is a Winona State fan.

Detroit Lakes is playing on tv right now for anybody who wants to see Lof play.

I'm not comparing UND to these schools in terms of basketball, obviously, but how about Michigan, Michigan State, Wisconsin, Notre Dame, Boston College and even, every once in a great, great while, Minnesota. And if we want to include dII schools, there are several more who have enjoyed success in both hockey and men's basketball, such as St. Cloud St., UNO and UMD. And of course, as mentioned, UND has enjoyed success in both sports in the past, and probably will again at some point in the future.

I was thinking of the Florida example, also. To look at things another way, if having a very popular hockey program is truly a detriment to basketball, shouldn't that have been a major advantage for NDSU over UND in terms of men's basketball? The Bison never won a single region title as a dII school, whereas UND has won eight.

UND recruit Corey Lof scored 17 points today to lead Detroit Lakes past Totino-Grace and into the 3A semi-finals.

I'm not really sure what you mean. Having a wildly popular number one sport doesn't preclude success in other major sports. And the fact of the matter is that UND has already amounted to something in basketball (I'm assuming you're only referring to men's basketball for the purposes of your post). In fact, I don't believe any school in the north central region has more region titles than UND. The existence of hockey at UND doesn't adversely affect basketball at all as far as I can see.

Stafford is an intriguing possibility, but I'm curious as to whether the same stupid requirement that was used in the men's basketball coaching search, i.e. five years NCAA coaching experience, will be required for this job? If so, I don't believe he has any shot.

I certainly do not mean this as a shot at Brian Jones whatsoever, so I hope nobody takes it as such. But I had to point out that Craig Smith, a guy who was deemed not to be even qualified enough to get past the initial review of resume's last spring for the UND job, just took Mayville State to the national tournament for the third year in a row, this time getting all the way to the national championship game, and was selected NAIA dII coach of the year. I'm not saying he's better than Jones, but clearly he was more deserving of an interview than at least one of the finalists. I still can't believe how stupid it was to implement a rigid criterion (x years NCAA coaching experience), and not even consider coaches whose primary experience was at the NAIA or juco (or even pro, apparently) levels.

I believe the 1990 and 1991 men's Elite 8, and the 1998, 1999 and 2001 women's Elite 8 games were all televised by WDAZ, but after the football playoff game vs. UNO wasn't televised despite all past road playoff games being on, it's hard to predict what might happen with regard to tv.

I just hope their coach is as stubborn as Roebuck is about not playing zone. I like the chances of monster games by Langen and Kimbrough if guarded by sub-6'0" players.

What kind of defense does Gulf Coast play, i.e. zone or man? I read somewhere that Delta's best post player suffered a season-ending injury earlier in the season, so they were apparently short-handed this year, but I agree it was still a quality win for FCGU.

FGCU's tallest player is only 5'11", so I expect they must play a lot of zone. Regardless, I doubt they've seen one post player, let alone two, like Langen and Kimbrough. As Bakken alluded to in his blog last night, this Sioux team has arguably the best half court offense of any of UND's Elite 8 teams. The defense isn't as strong as it's usually been, and they don't score as many transition baskets as most of the teams of the past, but in a half court game, I like the chances of this team against anybody.

It looks like the Sioux play in the last game of the opening round (8:00 p.m. CST): link.

I believe the last time UND played an undefeated team in the Elite 8 was Emporia State in the 1998 national championship game. Hopefully the game against Florida Gulf Coast turns out as well for UND as that game did.

I've seen a lot of UND women's basketball games since the late 80's, and I can't recall a better performance than tonight. It was a credit to Kearney that they were able to stay within six at the half. They just didn't miss many shots in the first half, but then again, neither did the Sioux. In the second half, Kearney's shots weren't falling as consistently, and the Sioux continued firing on all cylinders, with Kimbrough and Langen taking turns dominating, and some deadly 3-point shooting. I'm really looking forward to the Elite 8. If UND plays like they did for most of the regional, they have a very good chance to win it all. I'm quite sure Florida Gulf Coast hasn't faced anything like what they're going to see next week.

It's hard to know what to make of Kearney. On the one hand, you obviously can't deny that they've won two games they weren't expected to win to reach this point. However, Augie was coming off a home loss to Omaha, and clearly wasn't the same team we saw in Grand Forks a month ago. Concordia-St. Paul had a nice season in the NSIC, but they played three close games this year with Moorhead, who we saw was nowhere near the caliber of the Sioux. I guess the bottom line is that to me, beating the Sioux on their home court is a whole different thing from beating a struggling Augie or a good-but-not-great Concordia-St. Paul in close games on a neutral court. If UND plays a solid game tonight, I'm pretty confident they'll be heading to the Elite 8 for the first time since 2001.

A couple of stats regarding Kearney that are probably meaningless but could bode well for the Sioux: * they were 0-3 vs. Regis this year; * they are just 7-6 on the road (not including neutral site games).

I'm going to be in a small minority here, but I'd take a first round NCAA basketball tournament win over another hockey title, due to the fact that such a win would almost certainly be against a 1 or 2 seed, which would be a huge deal. I'm not sure the publicity would result in many tangible benefits, but it would be one of those things that college basketball fans all over the country would probably never forget. Heck, I still know the name "Chaminade" based on them winning a completely insignificant holiday tournament game against then-number one Virginia nearly 25 years ago. That kind of attention would be magnified many times over if that sort of upset happened in the Big Dance, in front of a massive national tv audience.

Regis got into the passing lanes, which a lot of teams do against the Sioux (Mankato, for one). However, I felt that some of the perimeter players who normally take very good care of the ball did a poor job of adjusting. Jahner just seemed lost for whatever reason (six turnovers and just four field goal attempts). Finally, some players realized that if the opponent is going to cheat that badly on the perimeter, you have to just take it to the hole. I guess my perception of Regis is skewed by the fact that I've seen them play a total of four times over the past three years, and I've just never been impressed. The Lopezes commit a lot of very dumb fouls, and they would really struggle in my opinion against a zone because they just barrel into the lane and should be very prone to charging fouls.

I agree that Jahnke is a good judge. While I don't necessarily agree with this particular ruling, that doesn't change my overall opinion of him.