UND92,96

Roebuck said the key against SCSU would be to not allow Quigley offensive rebound put-backs, and not to foul her. Basically, make her earn her points. Maffin won't play, which will obviously affect UND's depth, but he is very pleased with the way Bagaason is playing. He also really praised Beck and Jahner. He feels Guinn is a starter, but likes bringing her off the bench because she can play four positions. He said Seay is going to be a great player, but needs to play more instinctive rather than being overly analytical. He said something to the effect that sometimes she's too smart for her own good.

Case in point--a certain Viking receiver drafted 7th overall a couple of years ago.

I agree. Let's also keep in mind that even Dressler wasn't considered to be super-fast until his senior year of track, AFTER he signed with UND. Prior to that, he was still a great football player, and a pretty good 800 meter runner, but not really a sprinter. Maybe Solum will get faster over the next few years (not that he's slow--he qualified for state in the 100 as a soph. and jr.); or maybe he plays faster than his 40 time would suggest. Regardless, I think he was the best skill position player in ND this year, and I'm very pleased that he'll be playing for the Sioux.

I think Dale Lennon and Steve Veldman (Matt's uncle) played four years together at UND. Hopefully Steve enjoyed his time here, and vouches for what a quality individual Dale is.

I believe he was second-team all-metro at tight end and he sounds like a good prospect. I just hope this doesn't mean we won't be getting Veldman.

I don't think so. Even if Quigley gets 30, I don't believe SCSU has enough of a supporting cast to get it done this year. Their point guard last year, Sascha Hansen, was a huge key for them. She's gone, and hasn't been close to being replaced in the lineup. UND has superior depth, and far more balanced scoring. I think the Sioux will win by at least 10 points. IMO, SCSU is on par with--or slightly better than--MSU-Moorhead and Concordia-St. Paul this year. The Sioux didn't have any problem with either of those teams, and I look for a similar result tomorrow.

From Wayne Nelson's article today: SCSU has been to the past two elite 8's, but has only beaten UND once in the past 10 games between the two teams. To me, that's like saying the UND football team has had the upper hand against UNO of late based upon this year's playoff win.

If I were Maturi, I'd want to talk to Boise State coach Chris Pedersen. Granted, this was his first year as a head coach, but an undefeated season and a win over Oklahoma is bound to make some major conference schools take notice of him.

It's interesting that both Bohl and the guy who fired him at Nebraska, Frank Solich, are being mentioned as candidates. link

From a football perspective, it's a great move. But it runs contrary to what the twin cities sports media have been saying all year, because Mason is owed four more years' salary. Somebody must have come up with about six million extra bucks.

Sioux win 72-58. Stat of the game--UND out-rebounds Seattle-Pacific 49-23! The bad news--UND has another 25-turnover game. That needs to stop.

I think this game is crucial if for no other reason than to give the team confidence that they could conceivably win an NCC road game this year. With a loss today, I would have serious doubts as to whether they will win another game away from the Betty this year.

I haven't been inside Purpur Arena in years, but I know they used to have a plaque on the wall of the lobby area which included all the years that game was played, and the yearly winners. If I have a chance to get over there, I'll see if it's still there. That would at least give an idea of when the game was discontinued, if indeed it has been discontinued.

In ND, probably Catlin Solum from South and Luke Senger from Bismarck. Not sure about MN and elsewhere.

Here's a recent article on Brackins, from the Winona paper. I'm not sure why it doesn't include UND in the schools recruiting him, but I suspect the problem is the foster father wanting him to stay in IF and play for him at Rainy River. I still believe UND has a good shot at him, though. Who's the 10th verbal? I count nine--Hendrickson, Belmore, Daggett, Anderson, Murray, Goska, Rose, Ankenbauer and Nguyen.

If Maturi hadn't signed him to a contract extension after last season, he would probably be fired. But unless some rich alum ponies up the money to buy out his contract, I can't imagine Minnesota could afford to buy out Mason AND come up with the money to hire a new coach.

From what I understand, things are going quite well. This should, in theory, be the most difficult recruiting year due to the fact that there won't be any additional scholarship money until 2008. I still hope some scholarships are used to get a few immediate-impact transfers on defense, but in terms of the high school commits so far, I think things are going well.

Although the Sioux never seem to get blown out on the road (except the exhibitions against IU and Purdue), they seem to always find a way to lose. It's a little frustrating. I wonder what the deal was with Little last night? He didn't start, and played just 16 minutes, although he managed to score 18 points in such a short period of time.

I don't want to spend too much time discussing a hypothetical UND-NDSU matchup this year, since obviously it's a moot point, but I think NDSU would have a chance for the same reason many other teams have a chance when playing UND--sit back in a tight zone and hope UND isn't hitting the outside shots. The Langen-Kimbrough duo would have a huge advantage over their NDSU counterparts in the post, but a zone can negate that advantage to an extent. The problem for NDSU is that they are a rather poor shooting team (under 40% as a team), so even if UND wasn't hitting, there's no guarantee that NDSU would be able to score enough to take advantage of UND's periodic outside shooting woes. NDSU's poor shooting, particularly from 3-point range, tells me that a zone should be played against them. The problem is, UND never plays zone. In Grand Forks, I think UND would win pretty handily. In Fargo, it would be hard to say what might happen.

That could be it. Lennon was quoted in a Herald article about a month ago as saying that there were a couple of prospective recruits with ND ties from outside the normal recruiting area. Evidently Ankenbauer was one of those kids.

I think both games this weekend are very winnable, although I'm kind of expecting a split. I'm not yet sold on the Sioux as a road team, and it's hard to predict how the layoff will affect them.

Two more commitments for the Sioux--Kris Ankenbauer, a Plano, Texas defensive back, and Tru Nguyen, a Burnsville linebacker. [url="http://www.grandforksherald.com/articles/index.cfm?id=22079

I guess I'm not sure what you're talking about. I, for one, don't believe I've disrespected NDSU's program at all--I've just pointed out the obvious with regard to their past year and a half, and their recruiting struggles which have stretched from the signing of Katie Lorenz to the present (I'm not familiar with their most recent signees). By the time UND and NDSU play again, it may very well be back to being a fairly even matchup. Right now, there is a talent disparity, particularly on the interior, in favor of UND. Nobody's denying that NDSU had great teams in the late 80's through 1997. Since that time, UND has clearly had the upper hand with regard to accomplishments (national titles, conference titles, etc.)

No, I don't think NDSU fans expected their women's program to struggle as much as they have in transitioning to dI, but in retrospect perhaps they should have. If you read what NDSU grad posted above, you would see that he acknowledged that NDSU recruiting had started to slide even before the announcement of the dI move. UND's recruiting has been very good of late, and the oncourt success has been as good as it's ever been, at least during the regular seasons. I think most objective observers would expect the UND women's program to more closely replicate what SDSU has done rather than what NDSU has done.