UND92,96

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.

UND recruits Andrea LaFrance and Kirstie Gillett were among three players who were runners-up in the voting for ND Ms. Basketball behind New Mexico-bound Jessica Kielpinski. link

I kind of felt like UND would be better off with Kearney. Both Kearney and Concordia looked pretty bad defensively, but Concordia had more talent IMO, so their potential to pull of a "perfect game" seemed higher. Kearney can score, I'll give them that, but they have no depth, and what in the world were they doing defensively against Behnke? CSP was able to easily get the ball into her, and Kearney rarely doubled, which meant a lot of easy points. If they do that against the Sioux, Langen and Kimbrough are going to combine for 50. I think the Cinderella story is going to end on Monday. If the third-best team from the RMAC wins the regional, I'm afraid that may signal the end of the world.

A win is a win, but unfortunately the level of play dropped off pretty dramatically from Friday. 24 turnovers, and giving up 15 offensive rebounds to a very small team is not good. About the only thing the Sioux did well was shoot a high percentage. I'm afraid that against a better team, we would have been in big trouble today given all the mistakes (many being unforced). On the bright side, hopefully we dodged a bullet today by getting a win despite the type of performance that resulted in losses the past two seasons. I don't expect the Sioux to play that sloppily again on Monday. It was good to see Maffin and Guinn both play about as well as they ever have in a Sioux uniform.

I guess we'll find out tonight, as Bismarck is playing Dickinson in Fargo for the championship. I don't think Fargo people will be flocking to that one. I'm sure there will be a lot of Devils Lake people there for the girls game, though.

Wow, Nebraska-Kearney, the number 7 seed, knocked off the 2 seed Augie tonight. I guess that long layoff (they hadn't played since Feb. 28) hurt the Vikings more than expected. This is the first time in many years than an RMAC team has won a game at the regional (aside from Regis's game today against fellow RMAC team Metro--the "somebody-had-to-win" game). It's all up to UND now to uphold the tradition of an NCC team winning the regional literally every single year. Saturday's semi's: 1. UND vs. 4. Regis 6. Concordia-St. Paul vs. 7. Nebraska-Kearney

I thought the Sioux looked extremely good today. Jahner was exceptional, and in spite of some rather uneven officiating which kept them saddled with fouls, Kimbrough and Langen both managed to pretty much reach their averages. After watching Regis play today, let's just say I really like the matchup. Before the tournament I felt UND would have a huge advantage inside, and Regis did nothing today to suggest otherwise.

The following are the dII teams still apparently seeking games for either the last Saturday in August, or for September 1 (per d2football.com): Catawba (NC) Charleston (WV) Glenville St. (WV) Lincoln (MO) Mary Missouri Southern North Alabama Tiffin (OH) Washburn (KS) I-AA (per afca.org) Jacksonville St. (AL)