UND92,96

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.

A large number of fans leaving either immediately after the women's game, or at least well before the end of the men's game, really only started within the last few years. I guess it was a form of silent protest of the product they were seeing on the court during the last few years of Rich Glas's tenure. Unfortunately, although they got what they wanted--a coaching change--they are not giving Jones and the team a chance, or else they would see that the team is better and more exciting to watch, although the overall record doesn't really reflect that. I guess it just shows that once a culture of losing sets in, it's very difficult to win back the confidence of the casual fan. I'm certainly not excusing the fact that people continue to leave, as it baffles me, but I don't think it's unique to Grand Forks under this particular set of circumstances.

Although Augie has one more loss, two of their losses are to out-of-region teams, which seem to be less costly in terms of regional rankings. I expect UND will drop to number two this week. UND needs to win its last three games, and hope Augie loses at St. Cloud on Saturday.

It was kind of a disappointing loss today, even as short-handed as the Sioux were. Duluth is a team you really need to beat at home. It was something of an unfortunate set of circumstances that had UND playing a team that was completely fresh after not playing on Thursday, because obviously with such a short bench and the starters having to play so many minutes, the legs were going to be somewhat tired today. The bottom line is that it's very difficult to win when you need your starters to score 70 points to have much of a chance to win. The main positive that can be taken from the suspensions is that Bledsoe has really elevated his game. He's going to be a good one.

According to Kevin Fee's blog today, Youmans and Lehnertz will be held out again for this Saturday's game against UMD, and thus, the Sioux will be down to seven players. I certainly don't envy Brian Jones in this situation. On the one hand, you have two players who have apparently done something severe enough to have warranted being suspended for at least 25% of the conference season. On the other hand, particularly with the additional injuries that have now been suffered by Koenig and Dryburgh, you're in a situation where you have essentially no depth remaining. So in essence, it's the other team members who are also being punished by being placed in a situation that is becoming dangerously close to unwinnable. I'm not sure how you balance these two seemingly irreconcilable interests, i.e. punishing the guility, while also attempting to minimize the collateral damage to the rest of the team. I don't have the answers, but as stated I'm just glad I'm not in Jones' situation.

If the Sioux don't come out and play an excellent game on Saturday, I'm afraid we may look back on that blown game at St. Cloud in a similar light to how we look back on the football game against UNO in 2005. That game completely derailed what could have been a special season, and unfortunately it's looking like a similar story could be developing now.

I swear, I've never seen a basketball program that has experienced as many serious injuries as UND has over the past several years.

While this certainly isn't the ONLY reason for the back-to-back losses, it's a big part of the problem--a combined 5 of 35 for 3-point shooting.

Getting back to the red-shirt issue, here's what Lennon had to say in today's Herald: My guess--and it's strictly a guess--is that Saporu may be the most likely recruit to play as a true freshman. After Alexander, there's not much in the way of proven returnees at corner. That's not to say that there aren't some upper classmen who will step in for Hoffschneider--and hopefully players like Otto and Jordan really step forward in spring ball--but Saporu has impressive size and credentials and has played against pretty strong competition.

It sounds like Beck is out for tonight with an injury. I have no idea how long she's expected to be out. Maffin also is somewhat hobbled, and Guinn has been sick, although both will likely play. Hopefully Bagaason can provide some scoring to offset Beck's absence.

Lennon really seemed excited about Bylin's potential, and I think I can see why. Obviously it's a huge jump in competition to go from North Dakota 9-man to college at the dII/I-AA level, but here's a kid who's 6'5", 270 (probably without the benefit of much in the way of weight room facilities), and he's athletic enough to be averaging 22 points and 17 rebounds per game in basketball this season. If a kid like that had grown up in Grand Forks, Fargo, Bismarck, etc., had the benefit of those facilities, plus (probably) more coaching and much better competition, I have a feeling he may have been the state's top recruit. As it is, he's probably got some catching up to do, but his potential seems outstanding.

Most likely, although Lennon always leaves the door open for a true freshman to play if it's a position of need, and the kid is capable of contributing immediately. It happens maybe once every four or five years.

According to the Forum, UND's key signings were Carruth and Kelley.

I'm impressed with Goska's credentials, and he looked good on film. Lennon mentioned the name Cullen Finnerty when describing his style of play on the WDAZ sports tonight. It should make for a very interesting quarterback battle in a few years between he and Landry.