UND92,96

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.

Yes. I see where Concordia-St. Paul beat Metro tonight by 15 so hopefully that bodes well for us tomorrow.

I was wrong, as UND won at Colorado Mines tonight, even without Harkins and essentially without Lindahl. Gunhus played a few minutes for Mines but didn't score.

Pueblo was 7-2 coming into this game, so to win by as big of a margin as the Sioux did was especially impressive. It should be a bigger test tomorrow playing on Metro's home floor, but I think UND is more than up for the challenge.

It's tough to imagine this team will win a road game this year. UND hasn't had a season without a road victory since the 1988-89 season.

According to the Herald, it's 2:00 our time, on 100.3 FM.

Thanks. That would explain the glaring omissions.

I think this list is kind of a joke considering some of the names left off it (Landon Smith, Landry, Kasowski, Sauvageau, German, Glaser, Zarak, Weidler, etc.), but here's a list of the supposed top prospects in North Dakota according to the ESPN site: link.