UND92,96

Certainly there would be some positives to such a large senior class next year. I'm thinking more along the lines of the importance of having a really good year next year, to create some buzz and fan enthusiasm prior to what will inevitably be some tough seasons, i.e. weak home schedules. This year's team finished at 11-17, and and although there was progress, the last two games did overshadow that progress to an extent. How realistic is it for the current group to win 22-plus games, contend in the NCC and earn a regional bid? I'm not sure. But I think that has to be the goal. When Jones was hired, he presumably wasn't in a position to really know what the level of talent was in the program, and there really wasn't time to bring in multiple impact players, anyway. Now, he knows what he has, what their capabilities are, and what he needs to add. I'm certainly not advocating wholesale changes, and I don't WANT any player's scholarship pulled or reduced, but I think the reality is that any new coach is going to want to bring in the players to play his style ASAP. The bottom line is that whether right or wrong, I expect some scholarship money will be freed up so that some impact players can be brought in for 2007-08.

This is just speculation on my part, but really, what are the odds that all eight seniors-to-be (Doyle, Koenig, Hoy, Gutter, Dryburgh, Little, Boyce and Youmans) will be returning next year? I don't see it happening. For one thing, that's far too many players in one class. Secondly, does a new coach really have the patience to play two seasons with basically an inherited team? That would be quite unusual if he was THAT patient, particularly coming off an 11-17 season. One way or another, I have to think spots will be opened up so that Jones and his staff can bring in two or three impact players for next year.

My feeling is that the top two seeds were already set prior to the conference tournaments. I think there was some threat of Augie jumping to number one had they won the tournament, but obviously that's out the window now. I think USD could very well drop if they don't win the tournament, particularly if either Regis or Metro wins the RMAC tournament. St. Cloud St. should be out. Right now, I think the following teams are in for sure: UND Augie Regis Metro USD Concordia-St. Paul The other two spots will be filled either by an unexpected winner of a conference tournament, or among Northern State, MSU-Moorhead and Kearney.

UNO upset Augie tonight, which should mean for all practical purposes that UND has now wrapped up the right to host the regional.

UMD beat St. Cloud tonight, so assuming they can make it here by Saturday, it will be UND vs. UMD in the conference tournament semi-finals.

The last regional rankings are out: North Central Region 1. North Dakota 24-3 15-3 2. Augustana (South Dakota) 19-5 17-3 3. South Dakota 16-7 15-7 4. Regis (Colorado) 19-5 18-3 5. Metropolitan State 22-5 17-5 6. Concordia-St. Paul 16-9 14-8 7. Nebraska-Kearney 17-8 17-7 8. Northern State 16-7 16-6 9. St. Cloud State 13-10 11-10 10. Minnesota State Moorhead 16-8 13-7 I'm still surprised that the committee keeps putting three NCC teams as one, two, three. That can't be popular politically among at least some members from the other two conferences. The first two positions are easy to justify. But USD, with 7 losses, at 3?

I wonder if the teams will be able to get to Grand Forks for this weekend's games? Ten or more inches of snow is expected from Wednesday to Friday. [url="http://www.grandforksherald.com/articles/index.cfm?id=28919

I was thinking Rivard was in the $60,000's somewhere. Not sure about that, though.

UND won 69-62 today, to claim another outright NCC title.

Those are my feelings, as well. Which probably means that unless the two schools end up in the same conference, we may not see this game for a long time.

I'm really not even much of a hockey fan, so there's no need for me to be making excuses for any particular school or team. I am a sports fan in general, and as a life-long Grand Forks resident, I am interested in issues such as the demise of GFC hockey, and RR football. Granted, RR football doesn't have the history of GFC hockey, but they had some very good teams in the 1980's. I don't think there's anything wrong with speculating as to the reasons for the deterioration of these programs. I don't think it's purely a matter of chance.

A very large reason Central won state a few years ago was open enrollment. The Lamoureux clan lives well inside the Red River district. I don't think they were the only ones on Central's team who did. And just to be clear here, nobody's saying you have to be rich to be a good hockey player. The point is more that if you come from a family where the household income is close to the national median--somewhere in the $45,000 range--you probably will be needing to make some pretty big sacrifices to be have your kid(s) play hockey. And some families do that, although probably not very many. It's not like I'm saying that Red River's or Fargo South's accomplishments are somehow tainted, or that they have an unfair advantage. That's not my point at all. The point is that things have changed rather dramatically from the days when Central was "it" in North Dakota high school hockey on a routine basis. Again, if it's not the changing demographics of the north end of Grand Forks, then what is it?

I'm the one who originally brought up the point regarding the disparity between Central and Red River in certain sports being due in large part to money. I stand by that assertion, to the extent people have qualms with it. The idea that a Central hockey team could not only fail to make it to the state tournament, but also only win four or five games, would have been unheard of 20-30 years ago. Now, I can't say that I'm surprised at all. When I was growing up, the primary feeder programs to Central were the park board teams from University, Riverside and Central parks. Central park doesn't even exist anymore. Much of the Riverside neighborhood was removed after the flood, and Wilder School has the smallest enrollment in Grand Forks. The Lake Agassiz/West/Winship neighborhoods are increasingly becoming rental houses. It certainly doesn't appear to me to be a coincidence that sports which were once staples of the Central athletic program--hockey, tennis and golf--are shadows of their former selves, while those sports continue to thrive at Red River. If this has nothing to do with money, I'd be interested to hear other theories.

The is probably overly simplistic, but if you took an all-star team of NCC players from any given year (exluding the Washington schools, since they're in a completely different recruiting area), how would that team compare athletically to some of the best in I-AA? Pretty well, I think. Obviously, I'm not saying UND is going to start getting everybody it wants when recruiting against the soon-to-be-former NCC schools. Rather, the point is that the vast majority of players in the NCC were not offered scholarships by I-AA schools, but that doesn't mean they're not I-AA caliber players. My hope is that with an additional 27 scholarships, UND should get not only its traditional share of very good players from Minnesota and Wisconsin, but also start taking even more players away from the St. Cloud State's, UMD's, Augustana's, etc., particularly since those programs are likely facing scholarship cuts due to the NSIC scholarship ceiling. Furthermore, I'd like to think UND can start stealing a few talented Nebraska kids who historically have gone to UNO. Players such as Chris Denney, Chris Bober, Chris Cooper, etc. These were all future NFL players who (presumably) didn't have any I-AA offers. Would they have been willing to travel north for a full scholarship, as opposed to the partial they were likely offered by UNO? Very possibly. UND also has to the potential to do very well in Colorado, particularly with the trainwreck that UNC has become. Throw in some more Canadian recruiting, and I think UND could really upgrade its talent level without having to try to compete with the countless other I-A and I-AA schools already trying to recruit in Texas, California, Florida, etc.

It seems kind of weird, but I'm positive that is the rule. An example is the receiver/returner from Northern Iowa last season. He played at Pitt in the 2005 season, transferred to UNI, and played there in 2006.

If he transferred to another I-A/BCS school, he'd have to sit out a year. A transfer to any other division, including I-AA/FCS, would mean he could play in the 2007 season.

So did anybody make it to the Betty last night? I saw in the Herald that Kirstie had 23 points, and Jenna had 16, but that's all I know.

No. Although the population seems to be on the rise (or at the least the number of households is going up), enrollment is declining. People have fewer kids these days.

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.