UND92,96

BSU certainly has talent, but I can't help but wonder what their graduation rate has been since Gunther left? Sure, it's nice to have better talent and more wins, but is it worth it to bring in 8-10 new transfers every year in return for 17-18 wins per season? I believe 20 wins is the most they've had since they've gone to this virtually-all-transfer method of building a team. Maybe an argument can be made that there's nothing wrong with it, if a decent percentage of the players actually graduate, but if not, then no way. Glas and Hennessy were having an interesting conversation about that very thing last Wednesday night on the coaches' show, but unfortunately I only heard bits and pieces of it due to poor reception.

For what it's worth, I think Roebuck agrees with you. It's kind of ironic that going dI would probably help the men's program, but could very well have a corresponding negative impact on the women. Personally, I'd prefer to do what's best for the women, but it seems that dI is the direction the athletic department is heading.

From today's Herald regarding Travis Mertens:

Another Wisconsin kid UND is apparently recruiting. link.

It was apparently a good game between Crookston and GFC yesterday. Wahlin scored 27, Seay 26, and Crookston won by 5. link. If her stats so far are any indication, Seay should have a very good chance at ND Ms. Basketball this year.

This was a mild surprise to me, but NDSU seems to be a bit lacking in offensive firepower. They clearly couldn't handle Dietz at all. This is just my personal opinion, but it appears as though NDSU's recruiting has really fallen off in recent years. Since signing Katie Lorenz--who is certainly an excellent player--they haven't really brought in many "difference makers" in the past 3-4 years.

UND is reportedly showing interest in a kid from Colorado. link.

Here's [url="http://www.in-forum.com/articles/index.cfm?id=111818

I can only assume the Betty expenses have something to do with the disproportionately large number, although in reality I don't understand the point of artificially inflating both the reported expenses AND the revenue for basketball (revenue is reported to be $640,000+). In any event, regardless of the "real" number, it appears the NCC schools are spending the most in general, without getting much bang for their buck, particularly when compared to Winona.

I realize the numbers from the OPE site are by no means 100% reliable, but I thought this was interesting, anyway. I've ranked all the teams in the NCC and NSIC based upon how much they reportedly spend on their men's basketball program according to the most recent numbers available: 1. UND $711,657 2. UNO $420,417 3. Augie $413,732 4. SCSU $363,632 5. Mankato $352,150 6. Northern $341,570 7. UMD $338,672 8. USD $329,740 9. Southwest MN $310,250 10. Concordia-SP $284,693 11. Wayne $248,549 12. Bemidji $216,053 13. Moorhead $199,121 14. Winona $190,023 15. UMC $158,220 Again, these numbers may or may not be truly accurate, but they were reported to the federal government, so I would hope there's some basis for them. Clearly we're not getting our money's worth if the UND number is anywhere near accurate. And that holds true even if the "real" number is actually closer to what UNO and Augie are supposedly spending.

A Southwest State fan on the d2football.com board said they're at something like 6 scholarships. Maybe they're an aberration, but I strongly suspect the majority of teams are probably at least a few scholies below 10. And again, I realize men's and women's basketball are very different since this area produces so many more good girl players, but you would still think that the gap between the NCC and NSIC should be comparable for men and women. It's definitely not. The NSIC typically has a couple of legit women's teams, but that's it. The NCC was never dominant on a national scale, but it was once known for having a lot of good teams. Maybe not teams that could win a national title, but a lot of good teams nonetheless. It's gotten to the point where it's a rarity for an NCC team to make the Elite 8. Certainly Metro State has had a lot to do with it since they hired their current coach with all the Aussie contacts, but the NSIC has had a couple of Elite 8 teams since the last NCC one, and that really shouldn't happen IMO.

To answer my own question, according to Steve Hallstrom, NDSU is showing interest in Travis Mertens, Evan Sauvageau and Lee Vandal. link.

The thing I find perplexing, though, is that considering the scholarship advantage for the NCC vs. the NSIC should be roughtly equal for the men's programs AND the women's programs, why is it that on the women's side, the NCC has a 20-5 record vs. the NSIC, whereas the men are roughly .500 vs. that conference? I just don't see why it is that the women have more or less been able to maintain their dominance over the NSIC (and the DAC and other NAIA programs) over the years, but on the men's side, there's not much difference anymore. I'm not sure there's really any one answer, but it's hard to believe how far the NCC has fallen in men's basketball.

Oksendahl didn't get (or didn't take) the Mayville job, so apparently Tim will stay at UND. Hopefully this bodes well for UND's recruitment of Matt Anderson.

This may be the worst the NCC has been in recent memory. Everybody has at least three losses except USD, who is playing their usual weak non-conference schedule. Duluth looked pretty good for awhile, but just lost at home to Southwest State. Aside from the obvious of losing teams to dI, what has happened to this league? I realize most teams were senior-dominated last year, but whatever happened to reloading? The NCC's record vs. the NSIC is basically .500 right now. Is the NSIC really getting better, or is it just a matter of the NCC getting that much worse?

That would be good news, as he's a nice player. Any word on Evan Sauvageau?

According to this, a Wisconsin kid who UND offered just committed to Minnesota.

It's on Wednesday nights at 6:30, usually on both 1440 AM and 96.1 FM. Glas, Roebuck and Hakstol are all on unless there's a bball game. Last night, the women were playing on 96.1, so the coaches's show was only on 1440.

Did UMC sit back in that tight zone again? I assume they did. That's why teams do it against UND. It won't work often, but once in every 10-15 games, the Sioux will shoot 30-something percent, and a clearly inferior team can spring an upset. But this would have been the biggest upset in local college basketball history IMO. Hopefully this serves as a wakeup call. Even shooting that poorly, if the Sioux had played with more fire, it still could have been a 20-plus point win considering the huge disparity in talent and depth between the two teams. What are the odds that Boese, Mahlum, Maffin and Guinn all have poor shooting nights at the same time like they did last night? Hard to believe.

That's disappointing, to say the least. This was in the same article:

I tried to listen to the coaches' show tonight, but I was in a location where reception came and went. In any event, I thought I heard Rich actually acknowledge for one of the first times about how the public is really down on his program. Did anybody else hear what he was saying in the last 5-10 minutes of his segment?

I found a Jeff Kolpack article from February of 2004 which included this: I'm not sure if this link will work or not, but you can access the article in the "Bison Zone" at the Forum website.

I imagine the possibility of UND getting her will depend largely on whether or not she's one of those kids who doesn't want to go too far from home for college. As we all know, UND has gotten some kids who clearly were/are dI players due to family connections, e.g. Jaime Pudenz, or proximity to home, e.g. Kimbrough. The facts that she's from Crookston, and that her brother is already at UND certainly won't hurt Roebuck's chances. I've heard Minnesota is very aware of her, and it's very unlikely UND would have much of a chance against the Gophers, but in a recruiting battle with dI schools from other states, I like UND's chances given what UND can offer in terms of facilities and attendance to go along with the opportunity for family to see all of her home games along with a number of road games which would be within a few hundred miles of Crookston.