UND92,96

I love to compare scores? What are you talking about? On second thought, never mind. You're on my "ignore" list, anyway, although I couldn't help but see your most recent post since it was quoted in sultan's post. As for what the UND women have done recently--just about everything except making it back to the Elite 8. If that's the sole measure of a program, then I guess it's been a disappointment. By any other measure--an incredible success. Since UND's last trip to the Elite 8 in 2001, the Sioux have gone 151-25 (.858). Not too bad.

Per wisconsinpreps.com, UND has received a commitment from Cody Rose of Elmwood (WI). link. He's 6'4", 190 lbs. and Erik Lofdahl, who runs the site, calls him "one of the most highly-recruited athletes in the state." His father is an ex-NFL player.

I agree that making it into the men's tournament is very tough. But on the women's side, which is what I believe NDSU grad was talking about, it should be a much more achievable goal. The caliber of play in women's basketball in the Mid-Con and/or the Big Sky is not particularly good. I expect that the SDSU women will immediately be the class of the Mid-Con, and frankly, I think UND would have a very good chance of winning either the Mid-Con or the Big Sky this year.

I agree that Ruley doesn't have the horses. But the reasons for that aren't clear to me. Some ignorant people cling to the notion that NDSU's downturn in fortunes is somehow the result of UND swooping in and "stealing" all the good area recruits due to NDSU's impending period of post-season ineligibility. However, if that were the case, then it would seem USD and Augie should have been doing the same to SDSU. But that hasn't happened, which seems to blow that theory out of the water. That theory also ignores the fact that UND has traditionally gotten a good chunk of the area talent well before division I was even on the radar for NDSU (Heisler, Kleinsasser, Richards, Boll, etc.). Maybe Ruley just doesn't have the desire to recruit as much anymore? Maybe her assistants aren't doing a good job recruiting? It's hard to say what the reasons are.

He tries to push buttons. But who cares? There are lots of writers/posters out there who I don't agree with, but instead of getting myself all worked up over them, I just don't bother reading their columns/posts. Bakken is getting exactly what he's after, and a group of NDSU fans is apparently more than happy to oblige him. It's not worth getting upset over. With all that said, would you acknowledge that NDSU women's basketball definitely is well behind football and men's basketball in terms of having a successful transition into dI? And further, that they're clearly behind SDSU in women's basketball? The question is, why? I don't believe a win over a struggling Minnesota team at home erases the struggles in recruiting and in the on-court results of most of the past season and a half. I don't know what the problem(s) is/are, but I don't necessarily expect UND to experience similar struggles.

Bakken's latest blog entry. I guess I don't necessarily agree that UND will start to get lesser recruits. The reason being is that there really won't be any top-flight dII programs within several hours of GF. The state of ND produces a fair amount of good girl basketball players, and of course northwest MN has been a goldmine over the past several years. Most of those players are probably not going to choose to leave the immediate area, or choose Northern State or Mary or Moorhead (for example) over UND or NDSU. They may choose to go to a major conference dI program if offered, but it's rare that those offers are made to area players. It MAY affect twin cities recruiting to an extent, but most of the better UND players over the years haven't been from the cities, anyway. As a side note, it's interesting how many NDSU fans seem to be faithful readers of Bakken's blog.

The vast majority of women's basketball coaches are, in fact, women, so it's certainly ironic that the NCAA would essentially say that it knows better than female basketball coaches what is good for female student-athletes. My guess is that influential coaches like Pat Summitt (who I believe was one of the first coaches to use male practice players) get this proposal shot down.

Regardless of whether UND is dII or I-AA, I think Solum has the potential to be a player. I don't believe he'd be offered more than a partial at this point for the simple reason that UND will still be at 36 for another year, and as such a freshman would have to be really exceptional to warrant a full. Speed is certainly important, but a kid doesn't have to have Chappell or Dressler speed to be effective. Solum's speed is comparable to Kyle Steffes's coming out of high school. I'm not saying Solum is going to be as good as Steffes turned out to be. The point is that a kid doesn't have to be state recordholder in the sprints to become a very effective skill position player at the I-AA level.

I can't vouch for the credibility of this information, but a poster on the northdakotapreps.com board who apparently has some ties to the Fargo South program posted that UND has a good shot at landing Catlin Solum, who was the Gatorade player of the year in ND. Some people say he's actually going to play baseball in college instead of football, but if he does choose football, I think he could be a good player for the Sioux. I think he has some Dressler-esque qualities, although not as fast.

I don't think Maturi will be around long. He's about as popular of an a.d. as Glen Mason is as a football coach, or as Dan Monson was as a basketball coach. If he makes an unpopular decision in the men's basketball coach hire, he's done IMO.

Football alums were the biggest dI proponents. There is no way--I repeat, no way UND would ever consider dropping football. The 5000 attendance figure from the playoff game is a non-issue. People generally don't show up for games when they expect a blowout. Hence, the 1000 people NDSU had for its men's basketball game vs. Southwest State last night.

I heard what the "infraction" was, and it didn't sound too serious to me. Of course, I'm getting only one side of the story, but if true, I was surprised that Roebuck felt it warranted any disciplinary action.

Ryan Bakken blog entry.

How bad did Maffin's ankle injury appear to be?

I don't think we can really count on Koenig being healthy enough to be the player he once was, but I do feel that Gutter can be the answer inside. He's big, strong AND athletic. He's missed several games so far this year, but I don't believe he has any significant history of injuries prior to the upper body injury he suffered earlier this year. Eventually, I think we'll see a starting lineup of Gutter, Little, Boyce, Kruse and Youmans. I doubt there would be a more athletic group in the NCC.

Maybe not quite the margin of victory it could have been, but a win nonetheless. It will be nice for the team to have a little time off, and then get Gutter and Doyle (and maybe Harkins) back for the post-Christmas games. Barring any further injury setbacks, UND could surprise some people once conference play starts.

UND 86, BSU 59 Kimbrough had a huge game, scoring 28 points and grabbing 12 boards. Very balanced scoring otherwise.

"Chamberlain. You could hold his head in the toilet and he'd still give you half of Europe." --George Costanza

Maybe it's just me, but it seems like Koenig is having more trouble getting up and down the court than he was earlier in the season. His limp is very noticeable. I really feel bad for the guy. I'm sure he's giving it everything he has, but he's just not able to perform at the same level he could pre-injury.

Yes, he has potential. He's probably always going to have a problem with lack of bulk and strength, but he blocks shots well, and he can shoot pretty well. I think he'll be an effective bench player over the next year and a half.

From today's Herald:

Next year.

Bemidji is improved, but it's definitely a game the Sioux should win. Moorhead won there, and somehow, BSU managed to only beat Mayville State by five points last week in Bemidji.

I had been thinking that UND had a good chance of finishing in the top half of the NCC with the way they had been playing the past few weeks, but these statistics may suggest otherwise: NCC leads the NSIC in head-to-head games 21 to 10; UND against the NSIC: 4-5.

While they have made the playoffs in the past with scholarships in the 24 range--and Winona has had good teams with scholarships at about half that--I just don't see teams with scholarships much below 30 being competitive with the Grand Valley's of the world more often than perhaps once every decade, particularly with the available talent being further diluted with the additional scholarships which are/will be available to the SU's, UND and USD. If simply making the playoffs or winning a conference is the main goal, this move will be a positive one for the the soon-to-be-former NCC schools. If the opportunity to potentially win a national championship is more the goal, they need to find another job because it's not going to happen for an NSIC team at the current scholarship level. Bubba strikes me as too competitive of a guy to accept that, so it will be interesting to see what happens.