UND92,96

That does seem like an odd way of going about things--not red-shirting him so that he doesn't get disillusioned with the program, but then not giving him any p.t. (not that he deserves any if he can't defend). If that story is true, I don't like the odds of this kid actually lasting four years here.

I can't help but wonder what the point was to taking the red shirt off Blackwell. If he's not ready to play now, and he's only the 11th man (12th if Lindahl starts playing again), it seems that this year will be a complete waste of a season of eligibility for a guy who was supposed to be one of our best recruits.

Not that they're an either/or proposition by any means, but among prospective local recruits, I wonder which one the UND coaches consider more of a "must have"--Matt Anderson or Matt Gratzek?

I agree that if healthy, that wouldn't be a bad group--if they were actually motivated to play hard all the time. However, I'm not at all convinced we'll see Koenig this year. I have no inside information, but the fact that it said in the Herald article today that there's still no timetable for his return doesn't give me much confidence.

I think he's supposed to start practicing as early as today, according to the Herald.

I believe red-shirt players are allowed to have a little bit longer holiday break. I seem to recall past years where the red-shirts weren't on the bench for games immediately before or after Thanksgiving.

Sioux win, but have to be about the most unimpressive 4-1 team in dII. I'm not seeing a whole lot of likely wins on the schedule barring a major turnaround.

At least the Sioux are consistent--playing close games against all three DAC teams we've played so far.

UND is currently up 1 with a little over 7 minutes to go.

5 of 8 three-point shooting by Franklin Pierce kept them close for most of the first half, but ultimately UND just had much better talent and depth. Certainly not one of the best Sioux performances I've seen, but not bad.

I thought Gratzek from Stephen-Argyle looked very impressive today. The commentator for KMSP even mentioned that UND has been recruiting him (didn't mention any other schools). Hopefully he signs with the Sioux as he definitely looks like a player. Congrats to the Storm on yet another state title.

Nice list, Sic. One thing I would add under B(4) is to ask Grandall how his recruiting is going and inquire as to why it's been several years since anybody has signed a LOI. How is he spending his recruiting budget, however small it may be?

I suppose I should give Rich credit for being so candid. But between those comments, and the loss to Mayville, you have to wonder what's going through Mr. Buning's mind right now with regard to the state of what should be the third-biggest revenue generating program in the athletic department. Thankfully, Gene's team is doing the heavy lifting right now and since most games are part of a double-header, the financial impact of an under-performing program won't be quite as severe as it otherwise could be. But oh, for the days of the early 90's when Hyslop was mostly full for the entire conference season. With what the women are doing, and have been doing for most of the last 15-20 years, if the men could ever get back to where they once were, I have a feeling the budget deficit could be erased rather quickly.

I didn't make it to the game last night, but from what I read in the Herald, it sounds like this was the worst performance so far this year. A 9-point home win over UMC is not good, considering how they are supposed to be down even by their standards this year.

This thread maybe isn't the ideal place for this, but to give an example of how recruiting is an inexact science and that mistakes are sometimes made, here's a piece of information that was in the St. Cloud paper today:

I agree that Mertens is somebody to look at pretty closely. I believe he's in the 6'4" to 6'5" range, and about 190 pounds, so he's got excellent size for a receiver. I know he's had a handful of monster games this season. I've never actually seen him play. What kind of speed does he have? How about leaping ability?

Here are the minutes from the September meeting. This was the most interesting information:

There's a fairly small but dedicated group of us who have discussed basketball quite extensively over the past few years on this board. At this point, discussion will, of course, be infrequent due to football, and also the fact that hockey is in full swing. I haven't seen Koenig play since high school, and I've never seen Harkins, Gutter, Miller or Blackwell play in a game so I'll be very interested to see what they'll bring to the table this year. I think discussion will pick up next week since there will be two exhibition games and we'll get a chance to see how the newcomers look.

I mostly agree with you. I mean no disrespect to Belmore or any other Sioux player or coach. At no point have I or would I say that Belmore stinks or that Belmore doesn't give 100%. Where I'm coming from is more from the standpoint of I've always been a Manke guy since I saw him win a state title for Detroit Lakes, and I'd like to see him get a shot to play. I don't mean any offense to you, to Belmore, or certainly not to Lennon or Mussman. I was very disappointed in the outcome last Saturday, just as all Sioux fans were, but I also understand that everybody makes mistakes.

I'm not going to argue with you, coachdags. I realize you feel that nobody should ever be critical of any UND athlete or coach. That's your right, and that's fine. But you also realize full well that most people don't share that sentiment. If nobody was ever allowed to post anything but positive comments about everyone and everything, this board would probably cease to exist because it would be incredibly boring.

Frankly, I think we'd still be talking about how five turnovers in one game is pretty bad. I don't think anybody thinks that the ship is sinking, but clearly that was a crushing loss in terms of the way it happened and the ramifications of likely now having to win on the road at least once and perhaps twice in order to get to Florence. Losing is something that happens to nearly every team at some point during a season, but you kind of hate to just give the game away, which is essentially what happened last week.

Not that I think we should be emulating Pat Behrns, but it must be pointed out that Brian Masek was yanked for several series last week, and he's a senior and a Harlon Hill candidate. If he can be pulled when he's struggling, and it obviously didn't faze him, I don't see what the harm would be to put in Manke if Belmore continues to struggle. These are Belmore's numbers for the past two games: 36 of 63 for 354 yards, with 2 td's, 6 int's, and 1 lost fumble. I believe there have also been some other fumbles which were recovered by UND. I realize not all of the int's were his fault, but the td-to-int ratio is very alarming nonetheless.

No. I was a little surprised that the issue wasn't brought up.

I may have misunderstood him, but I thought he was talking about the 4th down conversion. I thought he originally said the missed assignment was on the 4th down conversion, and then said something about the touchdown, corrected himself, and mentioned the 4th down conversion again. I could very well have misunderstood him, however. In any event, I do think it was asking a lot of a 5'9" corner to be covering Denney all over the field by himself. For three quarters, Hoffschneider did a fantastic job. In retrospect, it may have been a good idea to have have had a safety or a nickel back double-covering him during the last couple of possessions, particularly on 3rd and 4th and long.

Regarding Denney, I personally would have double-covered him in the last couple of possessions because I don't think they had any intentions of throwing the ball anywhere else, at least on 3th and 4th downs. With that said, however, Lennon did mention on the radio last night something about a missed assignment, which makes me think somebody was supposed to have been helping Hoffschneider on the long 4th down conversion along the UND sideline in the 4th quarter.