UND92,96

UND beats USD, and Fort Hayes beats Regis tonight. Things will be very interesting in the region committee conference call this week. Regis has now lost the only two semi-difficult road games they've had, and has the same number of losses as UND. In-region record would appear to be their one and only advantage over UND at this point, and that's just one of six criteria, none of which is supposed to any more important than the others. Roebuck will have to really be lobbying the NSIC committee members so that common sense can finally prevail regarding where the RMAC teams belong in the rankings.

I don't think Chappell will put on a lot of weight/bulk in college. It's hard to say for sure, of course, but I suspect he'll be like Phillip Moore in that regard. He definitely has huge potential as a 400 meter hurdler. He shattered an 18-year-old state record in the 300m hurdles last year as a junior, and could very well put the record out of reach for decades should he improve at all this year. Had he chosen to concentrate on track in college, I think he definitely could have gone to Minnesota or some other dI track power. If he can avoid injuries, he could do very well in track at UND, even without much of an indoor training facility.

Although it would have been interesting to see what Dressler would have done in track this year, another UND football player is doing very well so far. Donovan Alexander has won the 55/60 meters at the last two meets, including a win over the guy who was the conference runner-up last year in the 60.

Fort Hays defeated Metro tonight. Hopefully they can do the same to Regis on Saturday. It certainly is possible considering Regis has no road wins vs. regionally ranked opponents this season. Of course, they've only had one road game against a regionally ranked opponent thus far, which goes a long way towards explaining why they have the record they do. Unfortunately, it's not a criterion used by the committee, but the fact that Regis hasn't had to play very many regionally ranked teams should be held against them, particularly when their record is nearly identical to UND who has played numerous games, home and on the road, vs. ranked teams. Regis has played Metro St. twice (splitting those two games) and beat Fort Hays at home. They also played and lost to Angelo St., a ranked team from the south central region, on a neutral court. Compare that to UND who has played Augustana (split), UMD (won at home), St. Cloud St. (won twice), Southwest St. (lost on the road), Moorhead (won at home), as well as beating two region number one's (at Grand Valley St. and at home against Seattle Pacific). If the two teams switched schedules, who would have the better record? Unfortunately, because the criteria attempt to make everything objective and don't allow for a common sense component, something so obvious as who played a difficult schedule and who didn't is almost completely overlooked.

We should know by Saturday night whether UND has any chance whatsoever of rising to first in the region. Tonight, Metro plays at region number 10 Fort Hays, and on Saturday Regis goes to Fort Hays, in addition to obviously UND playing in Vermillion where we haven't won in about five years. Saturday is the last realistic chance for a Regis loss prior to the conference tournament. Since I think they would need to lose two more times (and UND would have to win out) for the Sioux to get to first, if Regis wins at Fort Hays they probably have the top seed wrapped up.

I listened to the coaches' show on 1440 last night, and while he didn't divulge any confidential information or probably say anything for which he could get into trouble, clearly Roebuck isn't happy with the regional rankings. When you look at how the RMAC has fared against both the NCC and NSIC this year (and every year, for that matter), it simply defies logic to have two teams from that conference ranked one and two. Regis, for example, has only played three teams from the NCC/NSIC--USD, Mankato and Bemidji--and all of them were at home. At least last year Concordia-St. Paul had beaten NDSU and SDSU so it was easier to accept when they got the number one seed. This year, just like when Mesa St. got it a few years back, it will be in spite of not really beating anyone of note outside their own conference.

Here's the new poll. Looks like I was wrong about UND leapfrogging Metro. I suppose the RMAC has earned this kind of respect, though, considering how they've dominated the region all these years... I really wish we could have a "do over" with that Northern State game, as having one more win could easily put UND at second and perhaps even first. North Central 1 Regis (Colorado) 18-1 19-4 2 Metropolitan State 16-4 19-4 3 North Dakota 13-4 19-5 4 Concordia-St Paul 12-4 17-6 5 Minnesota Duluth 11-5 17-6 6 Augustana (South Dakota) 11-5 20-6 7 Minnesota State Moorhead 12-5 18-5 8 St Cloud State 12-6 18-7 9 Southwest Minnesota State 10-7 16-8 10 Fort Hays State 11-4 18-5

I see where Mekash (sp?) played last night for B-G-MR. Hopefully they can get back to full strength for the playoffs as it would potentially make for a very interesting region championship game between B-G-MR and Fosston (Kimbrough vs. Bagaason), if B-G-MR can get past Red Lake Falls.

Probably. I do think UND has the highest overall SSI in the region, however. What saves Regis is that there is a separate category for in-region SSI. Their overall SSI is very low due to having lost to an NAIA team (counts for 0 points) and to a sub-.500 dI team (counts for 2 points). Those games, along with their loss to Angelo St., don't count in the in-region SSI. So while most schools have a fairly comparable overall SSI and in-region SSI, Regis has a huge disparity between its two different SSI's. Most likely, so long as they have the best overall record, in-region record, and in-region SSI, they'll likely remain ranked first in the region. However, if UND could possibly run the table--which admittedly won't be easy--and if Regis were to drop one more game putting them at 5 losses, things could get interesting for the top spot...

Note to self--if I ever go to Dagwood's, make sure to use a rental car or let somebody else drive!

I think there's a decent chance UND will leapfrog Metro. UND will have a healthy advantage in overall strength of schedule and in-region SSI, according to my calculations, as well as having a better record vs. common opponents. Both teams will have the same number of in-region losses, but Metro has played more region games and will therefore have a better in-region record, as well as having an overall record advantage with one fewer loss. UND actually has a big advantage over both Metro and Regis in terms of overal SSI.

I realize he's on the committee this year. I haven't had the chance to listen to the 1440 A.M. radio show the past several weeks, but I'd be very interested if the topic of regional rankings has come up. I can only assume Roebuck would want to choose his words pretty carefully all things considered, but I'm willing to bet he wasn't happy about UND's 6th place position last week.

I believe Lindahl (Cando), Dobmeier (Fargo South) and Adam Jacobson (Shanley) all came out of high school the same year, and it appeared all would have outstanding college careers. Unfortunately, none of them has really performed up to expectations IMO. Lindahl has clearly been the best of the three, and does have an all-conference selection to his credit, but he's still got to be considered an under-achiever thus far considering his 6'10" height and shooting ability. At least he has another year to go (as does Jacobson) due to having taken a red-shirt year, but Lindahl's defense and Jacobson's offense have a long way to go to be considered anything other than at least somewhat disappointing. I'm not sure whether Dobmeier's problems were injury-related, weight-related, or something else altogether, but he certainly hasn't been the explosive athlete and scorer in college that he was at Fargo South.

Yes, you would think so. I just don't know whether the blame lies with REA, UND or the architect. Don't get me wrong, I like the Betty as a whole, but I hate the fact that if you're sitting towards the upper half of the stands, you have no choice but to walk all the way down the bleachers, walk past the scorer's table and behind the bench in order to get to the concession stands or bathrooms instead of just walking up or down a few steps and out into a concourse like at Hyslop or the Ralph. The seating capacity issue can probably be remedied (hopefully) with larger portable bleachers at both ends, but the lack of concourse and the resulting lack of convenience for most fans is permanent.

It will be very interesting to see if UND rises to second in the regional rankings this week. Obviously these were two very impressive wins over ranked teams and could easily justify such a jump, particularly considering UND's SOS was already quite high even prior to factoring in these two games counting for 15 power points each. If the committee is unwilling to rank three NCC teams ahead of the top-ranked NSIC team, I would hope that they would find it just as difficult to have two RMAC teams (Regis and Metro) ahead of the top-ranked NCC team.

I heard a rumor from a couple of different people at the basketball games this weekend that all games next year will be played at the Betty. The only thing is, I think they may need to somehow add some more seating at both ends (larger portable bleachers) to increase the capacity to something over 4000. In conference play this year, UND averaged just under 4000--with three of the six games having crowds exceeding 4000--so I think the capacity needs to be at least 4200 and preferably a bit more than that if at all possible. It's not as though this year has been unusual in terms of demand for tickets, and with next year's women's team looking like it could be special, I think demand will only increase. 4000-plus in the Betty would be an incredible atmosphere, although with no concourse, which is something both Hyslop and the Ralph have, and relatively few concession stands compared to the Ralph, the comfort level for the fans will decrease a bit, as well.

Congratulations to Ashley Langen for passing two all-time UND greats in terms of freshman scoring. With her 31 points last night, she passed Jaime Pudenz and Sheri Kleinsasser on that list. Only Jenny Crouse remains ahead of her, although the Sioux would probably have to advance to the Elite 8 for Langen to have enough games to possibly move past Crouse. She's certainly had an outstanding freshman year nevertheless.

I guess the difference would be that women's hockey probably actually is considered "emerging" around here considering how many high schools programs now exist in MN and even ND. I'm honestly not just trying to pick on NDSU or SDSU here. I'd really just like to know if down the road it would be an option (not a likelihood but an option) for UND and other non-IA schools--who don't need to worry about offsetting 85 football scholarships--to drop women's hockey at some point if the program simply lost too much money to be considered feasible, and replace it with something cheaper from the NCAA's list of "emerging sports." I'm sure it would open up a huge can of worms if that were to be attempted, but it makes for an interesting conversation.

Although I do agree that where a particular opponent is ranked in the national poll or in another region is irrelevant, the wins over Seattle Pacific and at Grand Valley are huge because of the number of power points they count for. The Grand Valley game was worth the maximum of 17 as it was a road win over a team with a .750 or better winning %, while the Seattle Pacific game was worth 15 as a home win over a team with a .750 or better winning %. One needs only look at Moorhead's non-conference schedule to see the huge difference in quality of teams played (on average). UND's overall strength of schedule index is actually more than a full point higher than Moorhead's which is a huge difference considering it's usually tenths of points that separate teams ranked close to each other. My honest opinion is that the relative rankings of UND and Moorhead have very little--if anything-- to do with the NCAA imposed criteria. Rather, the committee is extremely reluctant to rank three teams from one conference ahead of the highest ranked team from another conference. Nobody on the committee would ever admit that publicly, of course, but it seems clear that there's something else at work here beyond simply applying the criteria in an objective manner. I also agree with Corella that it all likelihood, Concordia will probably at least come close to winning out and will jump ahead of one or two NCC teams, while Moorhead will likely fall as they have 2-3 tough road games ahead. It's crucial for the Sioux to sweep this weekend, probably win 2 of 3 on the road to finish the conference schedule, and then hopefully host and win the conference tournament. That would probably earn UND a 2 seed.

From purely a football perspective, I think this would make sense. It would obviously mean that two fewer non-conference games would need to be found every year, which would probably be a relief to Dale Lennon and the new a.d. These programs have also proven to be competitive in recent years. It would, I assume, mean that some concessions would have to be made with regard to conference scholarship minimums as I don't believe either program is anywhere near 30 and quite probably never will be. But I don't think that is quite as big of a deal in their geographic location as it would be if they were in the Dakota's or Minnesota. One trip to Washington per year shouldn't break the bank of any existing NCC school's athletic department.