UND92,96

In football, I honestly think UND can continue to recruit mostly in its usual recruiting area (ND, MN, WI and Canada), while expanding somewhat into Montana, Nebraska and Colorado. UND has gotten some Colorado kids over the years, but will probably start to recruit more heavily in the Denver area. I just don't see UND getting involved heavily in Texas, California, etc. That's a long ways away, which gets expensive, and what are the odds that a really good kid is going to want to come this far north? I'll reserve judgment on NDSU's Texans until we see how they all pan out. Maybe they'll be really good. Maybe most of them won't last more than a year or two. Time will tell.

I'm not sure. Red River is on 17th Avenue South, which at the time it was built was on the far south end of GF. Now, it's in the middle of town. Most of the building is going south, and all those new neighborhoods are in the RR district. Besides the congressional area, nothing new is going up in the Central district. I almost think it should switch to an east-west split rather than north-south. If I had had my way, after the flood Red River would have become a middle school (replacing South), and where the new South Middle School was built would have been a high school. That way, a north-south split still would have made sense, but the line could have been moved considerably farther south than where it currently is.

Yes, it requires money. I'm not sure how familiar you are with the north end of Grand Forks these days. Do you think it's a big coincidence that Central more than holds its own against Red River in sports like football, basketball, track and cross country, but usually is overmatched in hockey, tennis and golf? And yes, I know that we're only a few years removed from some great Central teams (thanks in large part to open enrollment), but I'm telling you, don't expect it to happen again unless things change in the way the districts are drawn.

Keep in mind the circumstances behind the two kids in question. Ankenbauer is Gene Roebuck's wife's nephew, and his father grew up in North Dakota. Schaan's grandparents live in Devils Lake, and he had gone to UND camps in the past. I don't think we're going to see much football recruiting any farther south than Nebraska, or west of Colorado, unless there's some sort of family connection to UND and/or North Dakota.

Ironically, one of the best athletic classes in Central history was followed by one of the worst. Obviously last year's class of hockey seniors wasn't the best, but there were a ton of really good football players, and several very good basketball players and track athletes. This year's class just wasn't good at anything, except for a couple of good wrestlers. Hockey at Central is always going to be a crapshoot in this day and age, due to the demographics of Grand Forks strongly favoring Red River in sports like hockey. Let's face it, hockey requires money, and the north end of Grand Forks is mostly blue collar/working class. About the only thing that will allow Central to ever have good hockey teams anymore is open enrollment, where several talented south end kids decide to go to Central, or a radical change in how the line between the Central and Red River districts is drawn.

I'm not sure this really means anything, but for whatever it's worth, today's loss ensures that UND will have a worse conference record than last year, as the Sioux finished 5 and 7 last season in the NCC. Obviously, the record could easily be much better this year due to all the very close losses, but it is what it is. I think the expectations for this year were quite modest, but with the extremely veteran team expected to return next year, I believe it's reasonable to expect that at a minimum, UND will finish in the top three in the conference, and challenge for a regional berth.

UND blew a 7-point lead with about 4 or 5 minutes to go and lose by 2.

Backowski would be quite an addition for the Sioux. He was a rivals 2-star prospect two years ago, and was heavily recruited by several Big 10 and Big 12 schools. A potential offensive line of Braegelmann at center, Troen and Hoffelt at guard, and Bauer and Backowski at tackle would be outstanding.

UND and UNO are tied 23 all at the half. It must be a really ugly game.

UND defeated UNO today 81-66, to clinch a share of the NCC title. Unfortunately, Augie also beat SCSU, meaning (I think) that they would own the tiebreaker over UND should the Sioux lose against UMD next week, and should Augie defeat USD. The bottom line though is that UND completely controls its own destiny. Beat UMD, and win the title outright, which would mean hosting the NCC tournament.

Unfortunately, that could mean NO home non-conference games in 2007. Assuming any I-AA games would be on the road, and the relative likelihood of a 10-game schedule again... I have to admit that I never thought I'd see Mesa St. on the schedule again. I'm quite sure they were the opponent who was originally on the schedule last year, but who was replaced (bought-out, presumably) so as to schedule Northern Iowa.

It sounds like UND will be playing Mesa State again as a non-conference game, and the Sept. 1 date could potentially be NDSU. Southern Utah is also still a possibility. link.

The first tie breaker is head-to-head, which of course is a push. I believe the next tie breaker is how the teams did against the third place team, and then the fourth place team, and on down the line. Hopefully St. Cloud continues their hot play against Augie on Saturday. That game is in St. Cloud.

The reason I feel Youmans' absence has essentially caused the two losses is because what the team desperately misses is the ability to bring somebody off the bench who can be a scoring threat. All of the starters now have to play 30-plus minutes per game, and that takes its toll by late in the game. Assuming the starting lineup would stay the same, and it probably should, the ability to bring Youmans' offensive game off the bench would be a huge lift. At least enough of a difference to account for the few extra points needed to have beaten UMD and USD. It's not that Hoy and Porter aren't giving it their all, but neither is a scoring threat. Youmans is. Having both Youmans and Bledsoe on the court at the same time late in a game would be huge.

Beck was in uniform last night, but didn't play. I will assume she probably won't play Saturday, either, but hopefully will be ready by the UMD game. The schedule is irritating me a little bit, as this is the second week in a row where we have games both Thursday and Saturday, and on the Saturday games we're playing a team that didn't have to play on Thursday. It doesn't seem like that should happen on back-to-back weeks.

Great effort by the Sioux, but the reality of the situation is that to win with five scholarship players and three walk-ons is extremely difficult. I just hope Youmans has learned a valuable lesson. His absence has likely caused two losses, as I'm quite confident the Sioux would have beaten both UMD and USD had he played. Does anybody know why Doyle wasn't on the bench last night?

It looks like I was wrong on a couple of counts--that Augie would leapfrog UND, and that St. Cloud St. was dead and buried.

I agree that the numbers don't seem all that accurate or consistent. UND's "official" regular season attendance average was just under 9600, plus however many there were in the suites.

I haven't heard anything specifically, but the fact that Samantha Brekke from Lake Region was signed for next year could be interpreted as a sign that Ledger playing again is pretty questionable.

That's not what I said. That wasn't even close to the point I was attempting to make.

I think there's a pretty good chance she'll be in the lineup on Thursday.

Personally, I think that when the NCAA compiles attendance numbers, only regular season games should count. The playoffs are a completely different animal, between the Thanksgiving holiday, short time periods in which to sell tickets, potentially playing a team for a second time, etc. Look at Grand Valley's situation, as well. They averaged something like 11,800 for the regular season, and then hosted three playoff games which drew between 4100 and 5200 each. I just think it's ridiculous to penalize a team because they happened to host a playoff game or two.

Based upon yesterday's results (and also from the results of the first meet of the year), it certainly appears that Chappell and Alexander are about as close as can be in terms of speed:

I can only assume that the players and coaches like having an interstate game, even if it's not necessarily against the state most North Dakotans would prefer it to be against.

I agree that unless somebody is living in the extreme western part of ND (Dickinson, Williston, etc.), this doesn't seem like a natural rivalry, at least when compared to ND vs. SD. Unfortunately, now that the train has left the station, I suspect it would be very difficult to switch to a game with SD.