UND92,96

81-58 final.

UND up 38-24 at the half in Duluth.

One other thing I would suggest--and I know this won't happen but I'll throw it out there anyway--is to have dramatically slashed ticket prices for the non-conference games vs. DAC teams, UMC and whatever other NAIA or very low level dII teams may be on the schedule. Of course, I'm looking at this purely from a women's basketball standpoint. Obviously on the men's side we don't blow out these types of teams anymore. In any event, a precedent has already been set for certain hockey and football games to have higher prices. I really don't have a problem with that. But it would certainly help attendance for these unpopular games to have cheap tickets.

I don't think many people who are currently season ticketholders would drop the full package for the conference-only package. Most of these people (myself included) have had their tickets for years and are serious fans. I'm just throwing an idea out there in an effort to induce people who may currently go to 2-3 games per year to commit to something a bit more.

Since I don't know how many current season ticketholders there are, I don't know whether this idea would be warranted or not, but one idea may be to offer conference-game-only season ticket packages. Non-conference games are generally a tough sell to the public due to the mostly overmatched opponents. Obviously you would prefer that people buy the entire season package, but purchasing a conference game package would be better than nothing.

Personally, I'd like to see her in there more, but she has had some games in which she's really struggled. Last night, for example, she had four turnovers despite only playing a few minutes. I believe she also really struggled at St. Cloud. As has been pointed out by others, she also struggles on defense much of the time, although she does compensate somewhat by being a pretty good shot-blocker. I think she's going to improve tremendously over the summer, as she has all the tools, and next year I think she'll be one of the top players in the NCC. This year, we probably just have to expect that there will be games in which she looks incredible, and others where she seems a little lost.

With such a young team, I would hope several players would be showing significant improvement since the start of the season. Is that happening? If it is, it doesn't seem to be showing up in the boxscores. Compare the Sioux to another young team like St. Cloud St. They're obviously getting much better as the year goes along.

Central beat Valley City last night, but Jossy Bergan scored 35 points! Alys Seay had 23 for Central. Both are now averaging 21 ppg on the year.

Obviously I'm very happy that the Sioux won tonight, although there were certainly some disappointing aspects, as well. Bench scoring was practically non-existent tonight, which is very unusual. UND did not dominate the boards like they do most games, and Augie really isn't a very good rebounding team as we saw in Grand Forks. The second half shooting was abysmal, and terrible shooting halves have occurred several times now this year. The bottom line, of course, is that UND won at a venue which has proven to be difficult for opposing teams, and remains undefeated. Let's hope for a better, more consistent effort against a struggling UMD team, and then it should be home cooking for the next eight games!

I didn't hear it, but Chris Semrau is the person who's generally on the various local radio shows on behalf of REA. He would be my guess.

For the record, UND's average women's basketball attendance since 1999-2000 is as follows: 99-00 2546 00-01 2539 01-02 2843 02-03 2566 03-04 2387 04-05 2231 05-06 2265 (so far) That's as far back as the NCAA site goes. And of course, these averages include traditionally poorly-attended early season non-conference games. Conference game averages would be substantially larger. I believe basketball attendance figures at the Ralph are a bit dubious due to how suites are counted, but for what it's worth, the conference game average last year was roughly 3500.

It would be at the Betty. Sadly, I don't think lack of capacity will be a problem. Post-season games simply don't draw as well as do regular season ones. It's the same way in football (except the UC-Davis semi in 2001). I believe the Concordia-St. Paul game last year drew 1800-plus, while the region title game in 2001 drew a little over 2000.

Not trying to beat a dead horse here, but for those who point out that UND has "only" had one sellout, keep in mind that the NCC, in its infinite wisdom, has saddled UND with a conference schedule as follows: One Saturday night game; One Saturday afternoon game; Four Thursday night games. By way of comparison, St. Cloud State gets four Saturday night games this year. I can live with the whole Thursday-Saturday thing, but come on, at least give us a few more Saturday night games! I would hope things will be better next year.

New regional poll: North Central 1. North Dakota 21-0 17-0 2. St. Cloud State 15-2 14-2 3. Wayne State (Nebraska) 15-2 15-2 4. Northern State 11-4 11-4 5. Minnesota Duluth 12-7 9-5 6. Concordia-St. Paul 13-6 12-6 7. Regis (Colorado) 18-3 14-2 8. Metropolitan State 13-6 13-4 9. Augustana (South Dakota) 12-6 10-6 10. Minnesota State Moorhead 11-7 8-5

It would be interesting to know how many season ticketholders there are right now for UND basketball. Presumably, 2500 is the ceiling, as that is the number of permanent seats. I'm sure the end bleachers, even if bigger ones are obtained, will always be student seating/general admission. I don't think we're anywhere close to maxed out right now, but with the way the women are playing, and the prospects for the next few years, I would certainly hope for a nice jump next season.

Does anybody have any idea as to what larger bleachers for behind the baskets will cost? Or whether REA has or will be looking into it?

I was kind of expecting Bruggeman's resignation ever since her husband got the job at Northern Arizona last fall. It seemed inevitable. If I were Buning, I'd hire Bina in a minute, unless there was a lot more to her "resignation" than just not getting along with Dorn and some parents.

Care to venture a guess as to which program it would hurt more? If UND, NDSU and SDSU were all added to the Big Sky, I think you'd want to have the SDSU games in the Ralph, as well, at least if the game were played on a Saturday night. Those games often drew well over 3000 at Hyslop--although they never had to be played on a Thursday which would keep visiting fans away. Not that I would miss the cowbells, mind you.

I agree that it's not going to happen. I only brought it up as a hypothetical--would it have been practical to have done so instead of building the Betty? I look at Williams Arena as an example that it can work to refurbish a very old arena into something pretty nice. Nevertheless, I believe the odds are good that Hyslop may be torn down within the not-too-distant future. Or at least I have heard some rumblings to that effect.

I agree with you. It's at least worth a shot for conference games. If the atmosphere isn't a significant improvement over what it was when the court was in the center and/or if attendance doesn't justify it, then so be it. The Betty would always be there as a fallback, and would still be used for non-conference games.

I did a little research on the attendance issue with regard to women's basketball. The numbers are only available online as far back as the 2000-01 season, but that's a pretty good comparison since that team was the national runner-up. Also, that season all games were at Hyslop, so we take the Ralph factor out of the equation (counting suiteholders who may not be there in the total attendance, etc.). That season, the women averaged 3143 for conference games, with five games having in excess of 3100 people (NDSU, SDSU, USD, SCSU and UNO). Granted, two of those games were against NDSU and SDSU, who of course are no longer on the schedule, but the average included typically poor draws like UNC and Morningside, which brought it down somewhat. Also, all games that year were on Fridays and Saturdays as opposed to Thursday-Saturday. The bottom line is that when the team is very good as it obviously is right now, and should continue to be for at least the next few years, I think there will be several conference games per year which would easily draw better than 3000 if there was the room to put them. I'm not sure how much having bigger end bleachers would add to the capacity, but at least it's something.

Wouldn't it have been cheaper to have refurbished Hyslop? 1. renovate locker rooms; 2. new seats with backs; 3. renovate bathrooms; 4. new sound system; 5. address heating and cooling issues; 6. other (I'm sure I'm missing some things). We're still talking a lot of money, but had we known then what we know now about the Betty, I think a lot of basketball fans and alums would have dug pretty deep to make it happen. And there wouldn't have been any rent paid to REA, and all ticket revenue would have gone directly to the athletic department. And the roughly $8 million that the Betty cost REA could have been used elsewhere, or eventually have gone back to UND (in theory, anyway). Everybody wins.

I would like to give major props to Amy Mahlum for her play so far this year. I admit that I ripped on her a few times last year on this board when it seemed like she had lost all confidence and was struggling, but she has played extremely well all season in terms of running the offense, playing excellent defense, and hitting some timely 3's. It's great to see the two seniors both having career years.

Two points here. One, Roebuck probably thought the same thing we fans thought--that capacity was going to be at or near 4000. While that's still on the small side, it would have been okay for all but the biggest of games. Capacity is roughly 25% less than expected. That changes things. And just to show that the SCSU game wasn't a complete fluke, the Mary game last night was roughly 95% full. And that was for a game in which nobody thought it would be anything other than a blowout. Two, it's Roebuck's job to run a clean program and win games--not worry about the financial aspects of having hundreds or even thousands of people who want to attend games but can't due to the fact that biggest-drawing program in the league is playing in the second-smallest venue. I don't doubt that he and the players would probably still prefer to play in the Betty than Hyslop or the Ralph even knowing what we now know about its lack of capacity. The Betty gives them a better chance to win than does the Ralph, and is nicer than Hyslop. But financial good sense dictates that you don't shortchange yourself, particularly in a time of ever-expanding budget needs. I just can't get past the idea suggested by coachdags and others that the building was rushed to accommodate the world juniors, which, if true, was a lame reason to rush something of this magnitude. To me, waiting a few more years would have given REA a better idea of what sort of revenue stream to expect. At that point, a more careful decision could have been made regarding the design of and budget for the facility.

It was a nice performance tonight, and a surprisingly good turnout given the opponent (2800-plus). The next game is a big one. Augie has a long homecourt winning streak.