UND92,96

It would have been really nice to have gotten both Klabo and Stewart. Especially since Stewart is on record as saying she was planning on going to UND until she got so much national recruiting attention while playing AAU ball last summer.

It seems crazy that in the first half (give or take) of the season, UND was able to beat Montana (RPI 100), win at UNC (RPI 138), give USD (RPI 76) and Colorado (RPI 115) all they could handle on the road, and play Minnesota (RPI 39) tough even without having Evers for most of the game. And yet despite not having any major injuries, lose six of its last seven games. What happened? Starting with the game at Montana, pretty much nothing went right.

If Jones is retained, I highly recommend that he try "doing the opposite" of what his instincts tell him to do. Couldn't hurt.

Given all the connections between current and recent graduate EGF high school players and UND, that would be bizarre if true. I don't doubt there's a certain segment of the long-time EGF population that resents Grand Forks, and by extension North Dakota and possibly even UND. However, what's the ratio of UND to UM grads in EGF? 20 to 1? 50 to 1? Maybe even higher? And how many EGF kids have ever played at UM in hockey? Any? None that I'm aware of. But I do remember Mishler, Bowen, Riendeau, Tyler Palmiscno, etc. Not to mention athletes in other sports such as Vonesh, Zeller, Perkins, Lueck, Brekke, etc. The reality is that unless somebody is a UM grad living in EGF, the fact that there are two EGF grads playing at UND, with another on the way, plus one on the women's team, should be enough to prefer UND over the Gophers.

Quite honestly, if there's any doubt in Faison's mind about Jones' future, this absolutely has to be a big consideration. Nine years ago, a good chunk of the casual fan base had mostly given up on UND men's basketball. Now, what has changed? Nothing in my opinion. UND is losing long-time fans to old age and apathy at a much quicker rate than new fans are being added.

I think we can safely count on Loyd, Dyer and Szabla to all be consistent double-figures scorers next season. But as for the rest of the returnees, I think only Strand and maybe Sawatzke are capable of scoring more than about 4 per game. That's a problem. We will need Klabo, Freije, Hass and at least one of the incoming guards to be part of the regular rotation, and provide some offense.

A buyout may or may not end up being much of an issue. For one thing, it would be due in monthly installments, as opposed to a lump sum. Secondly, it would be reduced by any coaching income he would derive in the next two years. I'm fairly confident the contract also provides a provision that Jones would have to actively seek other employment, as well, so he couldn't just sit back and have an extended "summer of George" while collecting checks. As for the potential loss of players, that's a real possibility, although it could probably be obviated to a large degree if the next coach kept a current assistant on staff.

Montana was picked 8th in the coaches' poll, and 5th by the media.

I doubt he'll ever be a college head coach again after UND, but I think he'd have a good shot at getting an assistant job somewhere. Maybe even at his alma mater. How ironic would that be considering Jake also hired Rich Glas nine years ago?

I'm sure we'll know one way or the other by tomorrow afternoon. I still say it's a 50-50 deal.

UND will play UNC again in the first round.

Lately, there have been so many kids with UND hockey connections playing at EGF--Poolman, Ausmus, Eades, Bowen, the Lovens, etc. Not sure we'll see a run like that again anytime soon, but who knows? I think the allure of MN high school hockey compared to ND definitely helps EGF attract people. I assume it's been the same way with Moorhead compared to Fargo for years.

Fiction.

It's just hard to be optimistic given the fact UND comes into it having lost six of the last seven games.

Bemidji State just knocked off the Gophers.

UND falls to UNC on senior day, 67-56. No sugarcoating it--this season has been a big disappointment. Brew had better hope the incoming freshmen are ready to play, or next season might be worse.

A month ago, I'd have said no way. Now? Maybe 50-50. Regardless of circumstances, not a lot of 9th-year coaches with a career record well under .500 survive an 8-22 season, especially given the 1-9 home record vs. division I opponents.

Actually it was the 1990-91 team that was the best one, as that was Vonesh, Burkett and Boschee's senior year, with Guldseth and Jacobson sophomores and Gardner a freshman. UND made it to the Elite 8, but blew a big lead (20 points or so) to Virginia Union and lost. The 1992-93 team didn't have as good of a record as it probably should have, but was still a very good team. UND lost to USD in OT in the region final in Grand Forks. That was maybe the most devastating home loss in UND basketball history, at least in my lifetime.

My guess, and it's just a guess, is that the one guy who would probably be in the best position to advise Faison on this situation is Steve Brekke. One, he's an assistant a.d. Two, he's a former UND basketball player, and a very good one. Finally, his son played for Jones for five years. If Brekke gives Jones a vote of confidence, it would probably go a long way. If not, all bets might be off.

At least in 2009-10, we could delude ourselves into thinking that having five or six scholarship players red-shirting was the main reason for the awful record that year.

I figured it was probably something like that, but it seems a bit unusual to give a start to a player who almost never plays.

I can't blame the players for defending Jones. I'm not saying he deserves it, but a kid is either going to go out of his way to defend the coach in the face of adversity, or say nothing at all. I take comments like this with a grain of salt.

He has two more years on his contract.

Amazingly predictable, isn't it?

Ideally, this is how I'd like to see the non-conference schedule, which is typically 10 to 12 games: 3 money games against power five conference teams (this may end up being 5 games total if one money game is a part of a tournament); 1 game against an NAIA opponent (I don't like these but they seem inevitable. Let's just keep it to one per year, please); 4 to 6 games against Summit teams, along with the occasional Missouri Valley team. These would all be part of home-and-homes, so that there should always be at least two decent home non-conference games per year. Is this at all realistic? I have no idea.