UND92,96

I agree that this team deserves great fan support, but let's remember that historically the NCC tournament does not draw well no matter where it's held. Last year in Fargo, the UND-NDSU game only drew about 2200, which is obviously far less than the regular season games between these two teams traditionally drew. If UND hosts the regional, I think the crowds will be considerably bigger than last night.

Congrats to both Kimbrough and Bagaason. It really sounds like both are very classy along with being outstanding players. What a run of talent for the northwestern part of Minnesota! The next big star may be Kamille Wahlin from Crookston (sister of UND football recruit Kenley Wahlin), who is just a 9th grader. Does anybody know whether Roebuck is recruiting Rebecca Mercer from Lake Region? She's another Australian, and she was the mvp of that conference. I believe she does have another year of juco eligibility, however. Since Gene has been here, it seems as though all the best Lake Region products have ended up at UND.

I agree that winning at Wayne probably isn't easy. On the other hand, McDermott had a good record there (about .700 I think), so it is possible to do well. Rico's record is under .500 if I'm not mistaken.

One guy I'd want to talk to if I were the UND a.d. is Brad Huse, the former coach at Jamestown College and a current assistant at Montana. He had something like a .750 winning percentage during his 8 years at Jamestown, and I believe they were 30-3 in his last year.

Is there any chance that Harmeson himself may urge Rich to step down? I just can't imagine that Rich doesn't see how this is likely to end up, and stepping down with the understanding that another position will hopefully be awaiting him in the athletic department would greatly help along the process. A new coach still probably wouldn't be in place until after signing day, but that may be a sacrifice that has to be made. Next year is probably not going to be very good, anyway.

If your point is that UND-NDSU was a much bigger rivalry than either school currently has, I completely agree and I doubt anybody would dispute that.

NDSU must have thought this was a pretty good idea since I see they charged more for their recent home basketball games with SDSU than any other home game this year. I wouldn't be surprised if you see the same for the football game against them next season.

Considering their 22-8 record, I have a hard time understanding how Augie has dropped completely out of the poll. Aside from UND, the NCC is not exactly sitting all that well for making the regional. UMD should still get in, but at fifth and with a first-round exit from the NCC tournament, they've put themselves in some jeopardy depending on what upsets may occur in the conference tournaments. SCSU is sitting at 7th with obviously an extremely difficult road game up next. Augie has to win the tournament to get in. Despite having very good records vs. the NSIC and RMAC, it's looking like it could be a struggle to get three NCC teams in.

Very, very sad news. He was a great man.

I see UNO and SCSU as being the two biggest rivals for the Sioux in the NCC. SCSU is probably more of a friendly rivalry considering the mutual respect between the coaching staffs, whereas the rivalry with UNO is probably more bitter, at least so long as Behrnsy is coaching there.

I have no problem with it so long as there is a stipulation in the agreement that the NCC would have an "out" clause allowing the Washington schools to be dropped if more than one all-sports member can be found. I think what some people are afraid of is that adding the Washington schools as football-only members would hinder the search for permanent NCC members.

I'm sure they're not as bad as they looked when they played the Sioux in Grand Forks, but on the other hand, they're only 3-4 against teams ranked in the current region poll, they're 1-2 vs. the NCC, and aside from winning at SW St. last week, they have no quality road wins. I think a lot of people probably have a hard time overlooking the fact that they've never been very good in the past, and as such look at them with a certain amount of skepticism. It's possible that the best team they've had coincided with a down year in the NSIC, which allowed them to win the conference. I would not expect them to consistently be any better than about fourth in the NSIC on a year-in, year-out basis.

6-6 (6-7 counting the tournament) in the NCC is not solid by any means. The non-conference season was solid, but that's meaningless when you're not even over .500 in the league. Labeling the season as anything other than a big disappointment is just delusional. And as others have said, next year is looking far, far worse.

Let's win two this weekend and the regional will return to GF for the first time in four years. I would never have thought this possible back in January after back-to-back losses to SW St. and Omaha.

There has been a lot of discontent for years, but last year I think most people were willing to cut Rich some slack due to the injuries. Clearly, that was not an excuse for this year's collapse. Right now, if a poll of season ticket holders was taken, I think about the only people who would want Rich retained are his close friends. The program is in serious need of new blood. I just hope Rich can admit that to himself and help this process along.

Beasley is apparently being charged with assault for an incident outside a Sioux Falls restaurant. link

Lindahl's career has been very reminiscent of Jeff Brandt's. Both were good as sophomores and were all-NCC selections, both struggled on defense, and both lost their shooting touch as juniors. Hopefully Lindahl will work hard to come out of his funk instead of bolting for the DAC-10...

I agree, with UND completing an impressive road sweep, and Regis losing for the third time in their last six games, the committee will finally have to move Regis from the top spot for the first time this season. The Sioux seem to be peaking at the right time.

Can anyone think of a situation where a coach of program with a history of success, at a school with considerable resources, has gone as many as 10 years without so much as a conference title, and yet still kept his/her job? I'm sure it's happened, but probably not too often. I really like Rich Glas as a person, and I definitely don't want to see him simply fired where he'd be in a position of having to find another head coaching job at probably some small school to finish out the last 5-8 years of his career. But it's also pretty clear that he's not capable of taking the UND men's basketball program to where we'd all like to see it go. He just can't get the same results as Gene Roebuck or Dale Lennon, or that Dean Blais did when he was coaching here. As such, the best scenario for all involved would be for him to be re-assigned within the athletic department, or possibly in the alumni association/Fighting Sioux Club. I believe he's earned that courtesy, just as Dave Gunther had when he was in the same situation back in the late 80's. I believe there's an assistant a.d. job open right now, unless it's not going to be filled. Presumably, it won't be filled until the new a.d. is hired, so that the new a.d. can hire that person. Thoughts?

This year has to be considered Roebuck's best coaching job at UND. Even though the Sioux were picked to win the NCC, this team had major question marks heading into the season, and looked very suspect in some early season games. But despite having almost no depth to speak of, and the fact that four of the seven players who regularly play are either freshmen or sophomores, UND has won at least a share of the conference. If the Sioux could somehow pull off a win tomorrow in Duluth, I really think this team will win the regional. Even if they don't, this has been a very good year all things considered, with only better things on the horizon for the next several years.

Somebody can correct me if I'm wrong on this, but even if the Sioux were to lose to Duluth on Saturday, I believe that UND will hold the tiebreaker IF Mankato can beat Omaha in Mankato on Saturday. The reason being is that the first tiebreaker is head-to-head, which would be a tie if UMD were to win. The second and third tiebreakers are records vs. the first and second place teams, which would be moot considering those teams are UND and UMD. Both teams swept SCSU, the probable third place team. Both teams split with Augie, the probable fourth place team. UND swept Mankato, whereas UMD split with them, and UND split with UNO, whereas UMD swept them. So the key is whether Mankato or UNO finishes higher in the standings. That will be determined by the Mankato-UNO game on Saturday. Obviously hosting would be huge for the conference tournament, since UND is 6-0 at home in the NCC, and has been extremely difficult to beat at the Betty/Ralph this season. EDIT: According to the Herald, this is correct. Either a UND win or a Mankato win on Saturday gives the Sioux the number one seed for the NCC tournament. Unfortunately, Roebuck's comments in today's article make it sound as though Regis will be hosting if they win their last two regular season games--both at home--no matter what happens in the conference tournaments. I'm not sure why that would be considering the juggling that happened last year as a result of the conference tournaments. UND went from 4th to 2nd by winning the tournament, if my memory is correct.