UND92,96

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.

The interesting thing is that I believe "emerging sports" were recognized by the NCAA largely for the purpose of assisting schools like Minnesota, Ohio State, Wisconsin, etc. who already offered all or nearly all traditional women's sports, but due to the huge number of football scholarships at the I-A level, and having men's sports like hockey and wrestling, Title IX compliance was essentially impossible without adding new women's sports to the list of those recognized by the NCAA. I highly doubt that the legislative intent was ever to allow these "emerging sports" to actually REPLACE more traditionally popular women's sports. Of course, this isn't necessarily provable or frankly even relevant to NDSU's situation, but I can't help thinking that action may be eventually taken by the NCAA if schools start utilizing some of these relatively inexpensive "emerging sports" in lieu of more traditional and popular sports. Time will tell, but it just seems doubtful that the intent was to essentially replace swimming or tennis with equestrian or badminton just so the school can save money without regard for what women actually are interested in.

I stand corrected to an extent, as I was unaware that the NCAA recognized the existence of so-called "emerging sports," although I can only imagine the problems UND would have if it were to attempt to drop very expensive women's hockey in favor of cheaper alternatives like bowling, badminton and archery. I still think that it's questionable ethically, although apparently not legally, for a school to forego adding sports which have a longstanding tradition of participation in that particular geographical area at the youth and high school level, i.e. gymnastics, swimming (which I would classify as a relatively inexpensive high-participation sport) and tennis, in favor of a sport like equestrian in which you'd be hard-pressed to find anybody in the state who has competed in an actual competition. There are obviously all kinds of people in ND and MN who have ridden horses extensively, but that's far different from the actual sport of equestrian. On the one hand, I suppose you can't fault schools for taking advantage of an NCAA-approved loophole making it easier and cheaper to comply with Title IX. But I assume you also see the potential for abuse if schools are allowed to drop (or not add) sports deemed too expensive, even if popular in a particular region, in favor of cheap, high-participation sports like several of the "emerging sports" apparently are.

Since equestrian isn't sponsored by the NCAA, does it even have a scholarship limit? I understand the concept of adding a "sport" like this in an attempt to address the Title IX issue, but my problem with it is that it's a blatant attempt to follow the letter of the law but clearly not its spirit. There are sports NDSU doesn't currently have for women that are sponsored by the NCAA, and for which there probably is at least somewhat of a local demand, particularly when compared to the probable complete lack of demand for equestrian. Examples would be tennis, swimming and gymnastics, sports which are offered at the high school level in ND and MN. Hockey may not be practical due to the lack of facilities, but that presumably wouldn't be the case with tennis, swimming (at least I assume NDSU has a pool) and gymnastics. I suspect it will only be a matter of time before people like Martha Burke and Chris Voelz make it a crusade to challenge schools' attempting to be Title IX compliant by adding sports not recognized/sanctioned by the NCAA and for which there is little or no demand by former or current students at that particular school. BTW, I checked out Ohio St.'s athletic site and I didn't see any mention of equestrian. Are you sure they offer it as a sport? Perhaps it's just a phy-ed class.

Which dI teams are definitely playing at NDSU next year?

Yikes, UND falls a spot in the new regional poll despite a nice road win: North Central 1 Regis (Colorado) 17-0 18-3 2 Minnesota Duluth 11-4 17-5 3 Metropolitan State 14-4 17-4 4 Minnesota State Moorhead 11-4 17-4 5 Augustana (South Dakota) 11-4 20-5 6 North Dakota 11-4 17-5 7 Concordia-St. Paul 10-4 15-6 8 Fort Hays State 10-3 17-4 9 St. Cloud State 10-6 16-7 10 Minnesota-Crookston 9-5 14-7 It seems odd that UND is 4-1 against teams ranked in the region (plus wins over regional number one Seattle Pacific and regional number two Grand Valley St.), and yet despite an overall record at least comparable to everybody in front of them, they're only ranked 6th. For example, take Moorhead. The one and only thing they have over UND is one fewer loss (also one less game played). But they also played four non-dII teams compared to one for UND; they lost by 35 to UND; and they're 2-3 against regionally ranked teams compared to UND's 4-1 (6-1 counting other regions). What's going on here? I'm not interested enough to calculate SSI's, but considering UND's quality wins and Moorhead's four games against non-dII's, it certainly doesn't appear that SSI would support them being ranked ahead of UND. While much can change between now and the end of the regular season, it does appear that the NCC is in danger of getting as many post-season bids (three) as the woeful RMAC.

Personally, I appreciate any thread or post about basketball on this site. It has unfortunately been all too quiet on here this season despite pretty decent years so far by both the women and men. As more and more people become aware of this board's existence, you would think basketball discussion would increase instead of decrease, but sadly that hasn't been the case this year.

I was actually on the same flight with that kid from Minneapolis to GF on Monday. I figured he was a hockey player and I thought he looked strangely familiar even though I don't follow the USHL at all. The next day there was an article in Herald about him and of course I then knew why he looked so familiar! Unfortunately, I couldn't tell whether he had any of his freakin' toys with him.

These are really huge games this weekend against Augie and Duluth. A sweep is imperative to keep UND in a good position to win the league. The thing I'm a little worried about is that this is a Friday-Saturday series, and on Saturday UND will be playing a rested UMD team coming off a week to prepare for the Sioux as they don't play another game this weekend. Another poor job of scheduling by the NCC as it could easily have been a Thursday-Saturday series, particularly with no hockey this weekend, but obviously there's nothing that can be done about it at this point other than just go out and win. If the Sioux can sweep this weekend, and then win two of the last three on the road--and the games at Vermillion and Mankato appear very winnable--UND will finish no worse than in a tie for first. That would be quite an accomplishment in basically a rebuilding year.

Another 40-plus point game for Kimbrough last night as she scored 43. I believe her season average is now over 35 ppg. According to the Herald, the B-G-MR team has lost some regulars to injury which has resulted in them relying on Kierah even more than previously.

That's really an incredible performance. Her 55 points were apparently just 3 points away from the state single-game record: link (click on Girls Indiv Game link).

I have the utmost respect for Professor Lee both as a professor and as a person. He is a brilliant man, but is also completely down-to-earth and just a fun guy to talk to. I don't think anybody in my class would have a bad word to say about him. He and his family are definitely in my thoughts and prayers.

Both UND and NDSU have lost in Crookston in recent years, but not this year. None of the UND-UMC games in Grand Forks have been very competitive.