UND92,96

If calling attention to what I perceive to be problems constitutes blowing them out of proportion, then I'm guilty as charged. But I do feel that there are, indeed, problems with the Betty that were avoidable. With regard to problem number 1, I would not have brought it up but for the fact that Saturday's game was not against a rival, nor a particularly big-time opponent. It was Omaha. They are arguably the second-worst draw among all current conference opponents. If it was a problem with this game, it will be a problem for all conference games. Perhaps I'm in a unique situation, since I have two very young children, but at Hyslop, if a person needed to make a quick getaway, you simply needed to duck out into the concourse to deal with a crying kid or some other mini-emergency. Now, you would need to walk all the way down the stairs, behind the bench, past the end bleachers, etc., all in full view of everybody. It's not exactly ideal. And please, refrain from saying "so don't take your kids to the game." All I'm saying is that most other arenas, modern or otherwise, have a better set-up. Hyslop was better. The Alerus is better. And of course, the Ralph is better. The bathroom issue is the least of my concerns, but I've heard people complain about it. Again, not to belabor a point, but when there are long lines for a game with 2700 people... Since nobody else is exactly agreeing with my position, perhaps I'm simply in the minority on this one. I just never thought I'd actually miss Hyslop, but I have to admit that I do.

I agree, except that when the arena can't comfortably hold the number of people that the basketball teams have averaged in the past, there's a problem. I don't think it was as big of a problem at Hyslop. Unfortunately, that's a recurring theme (positive's from Hyslop that weren't replicated in the Betty). There are concession stands at the ends, although they're not always used. My first recommendation would be to stop using the concession stand in the one hallway where the visiting team and officials' locker room is. They rope off half that hallway so that the teams and ref's can get to the court, which makes the already narrow hallway even moreso.

I don't mean to sound overly negative, but I have some real concerns about the Betty as a basketball facility. Once you're in your seat, it's fine, but getting to and from your seat can be a problem. Some of these problems are probably not fixable, but here goes: 1. The lobby is too small. Prior to the UNO games on Saturday, there were so many people waiting in the ticket buying lines that there was no room for people who already had tickets to make their way to the ticket scanners. And this was for a game where the attendance was 2700. What would it be like for a game with 3500 or more, i.e. the St. Cloud State games this year? 2. The hallways going from the lobby to the arena are far too narrow. Particularly when you factor in that there are concession stands in both hallways. These hallways needed to be several feet wider, or else the concession stands should not have been put there. 3. The lack of a concourse or even a walkway behind the scorer's table makes it very difficult to get from one place in the arena to another. I never realized how much I would miss Hyslop's concourse area. 4. Bathrooms are too small. It's good that there are four of them for each gender, but they needed to be made bigger. Realistically, as things are now, I don't believe the Betty can comfortably accommodate much more than 2000 people for a game. If we get games in which the attendance is in the 3500 to 4000 vicinity, I'm afraid there are going to be a lot of upset and irritated people. I can see a time in which it will become necessary to move conference games either back to the Ralph, or else to the Alerus. And IMO, that could have been avoided with a little more careful planning in the design of the Betty.

According to the Fargo public schools web page, the January 2006 total enrollment for Fargo South (10-12) is 1565. For GF Central, the total 10-12 enrollment is 810 (9-12 enrollment is 1136). I couldn't find the Red River enrollment, and didn't look for any other schools.

Women won 89-64. It was a solid effort all around.

If they're still at 40-something scholarships in their 4th season of I-AA, then that tells me they didn't plan very well and weren't financially ready to give themselves their best chance to succeed at I-AA football. They should at least be approaching 63 scholies by now.

Keep in mind that I never said there's no difference between dII and I-AA--merely that UNC is traditionally up and down. When they're up, they're very good. When they're down, they stink. With their location, if you give them another Joe Glenn-type coach, they'll do very well in I-AA. If you give them a 70-year-old coach who's best days are long gone, they're going to struggle. I do think that if they had the talent of their national championship teams, they'd do pretty well in I-AA, but that's not to say there's no difference in the divisions.

Here's some more information on Wisconsin kids UND is apparently recruiting: link.

I'm certainly not in favor of a dI move, but with regard to UNC, I don't think their recent problems have had much to do with increased competition in I-AA. They were far more inconsistent during their dII days than were UND or NDSU, particularly under Dalton, so having a couple of down years isn't all that unusual for them. The past two years, they would have struggled in the NCC, as well. As basically a glorified dII team in 2003, they did quite well in I-AA.

Man, that was an awful shooting performance by the Sioux last night. Besides Mahlum and Bagaason, nearly everybody else seemed to struggle badly. I guess the bright side is that if you can win by 20-plus while shooting 35%, you must be pretty good.

UND recruit Alys Seay scored 49 points last night to lead Central to a win over Shanley. [url="http://www.in-forum.com/articles/index.cfm?id=113617

That's possible. It doesn't appear Bubba saw this coming based on this article.

I assume that must be an issue, but traditionally Mankato hasn't been known for paying their assistants very well. For example, Chris Mussman was the offensive coordinator there, and resigned to take the offensive line coach position at UND. Voluntarily going from an offensive coordinator to a line coach within the same conference is almost unheard of. Granted, that was several years ago, but I've never gotten the impression that football is a real priority there. It's probably no coincidence they're consistently near the bottom of the conference.

In what seems like kind of an odd move, Dan Ragsdale is going from UMD to MSU-Mankato to take the offensive coordinator position. That seems like a step down to me, considering Duluth was a playoff team and returns most of their skill position players, and Mankato hasn't had a sniff of the playoffs since the early 90's. In any event, you have to wonder whether now Mankato will go to the pass-on-every-down offense, and whether UMD will stick with it under a new coordinator.

I saw that on the WDAZ news tonight also. Great news! With the NCC completely dominating the other two regional conferences this year, it's practically a given that the NCC winner will host. I like the odds of that team being UND.

Here's a Forum [url="http://www.in-forum.com/articles/index.cfm?id=113470

I agree. The losses of UNC, NDSU and SDSU really crippled the NCC from a scheduling standpoint. Another loss would probably spell the end for the NCC as a dII conference. Aside from UNO, who could conceivably join the MIAA, the remainder of the NCC would have to either go dI/I-AA, or join the NSIC. I don't think anybody else really WANTS to go dI/I-AA, but they almost have to at least explore the possibility since the NSIC isn't going to make many of the their fans/alums very happy.

A big difference between the men's basketball situation and that of the volleyball program is that there have been, and will continue to be a lot of fans and alums who voice their displeasure to Buning about the state of the program. It will be very difficult for him to ignore, particularly given the fact that basketball SHOULD be a pretty good revenue producer. The longer this is allowed to go on, the fewer fans will be showing up.

That's true. Minot has actually lost to a couple of Canadian teams, and UMC. There's no sugarcoating this one. It was bad. Tomorrow night's coaches' show should be interesting. Luckily for Rich nobody ever seems to call in except for one guy, and he's unrelentingly upbeat about everything.

Here's the problem that I have when people bring up how difficult recruiting is: that would seem to be implying that our current talent is so poor that it explains the poor results. I don't believe that's true. There are a lot of players on this team who were heavily recruited. Lindahl, Jacobson (dI transfer), Nobles (signed LOI with Baylor), Doyle and probably Harkins all received pretty substantial dI interest. Gutter, Wills and Blackwell were considered to be very good dII recruits. There is enough talent on this team to be easily beating DAC teams, particularly at home. Instead of focusing on how difficult recruiting supposedly is, why not ask the real questions--do our results match (or even exceed) the level of talent in most years? Do players routinely improve during their careers? Do most of the players seem to be putting forward their best effort on a consistent basis? To me, those are the bigger issues.

I agree that there is absolutely no buzz in the community when it comes to men's basketball. Among the vast majority of local basketball fans, it's all about the women, as well it should be. I used to be outraged at losses like this, but now I guess I'm just immune since there have been so many...

That's correct. This is the primary leverage the NCAA has in attempting to coerce UND into changing the name, and they're not going to back off unless UND pulls off some kind of miracle in the last administrative appeal, or can prevail in litigation.

UND has two known verbals--German and the Winnipeg offensive lineman, Henderson. News of commitments has been quite limited as far as I have been able to find for UND, NDSU and really all other regional dII or I-AA schools. Last year at this time, UND had about six known commitments, but two years ago, there were also just two. I guess these things just go in cycles.

I agree, but it will be tougher than in the three national championship years, since in all three we played either the regional (98 and 99), or the elite 8 (97) at home. This year, thanks to the NCAA, UND will be on the road for the regional regardless of our seed.

At 16-0 and with upcoming home games vs. Saginaw Valley and Omaha, it's looking very good to at least tie the record for best start.