UND92,96

I would think that had Boese scored around 20, which is probably about what she'll average this year, the final score would have looked far more respectable. She's too big a part of the offense for this young team to be able to overcome an off game on her part against a really good team.

After watching Day, Logan, Birkel and to a lesser extent Treasure, I really think UND needs to upgrade its talent level and speed at the running back position. I have nothing but respect for Roland, how hard he runs and what he's given the Sioux the last two years. But there's just no substitute for having a back who can take it 60-70 yards on any given play. We haven't had that since Phillip Moore. I think Logan showed that a very small back can be effective, even against the UND defense. That's why I'd like to see Dressler get a shot next season as the featured back. He's the same size as Logan, and while he may not be quite as fast, they're in the same ball park in that regard.

She still has an ankle injury, I believe.

It would not have been a problem. There are four high school championship games, with the 9-man and A games being on Friday. The AA and AAA games are later on Saturday, so if the Sioux had hosted, the game would have been played at about noon on Saturday with no conflicts.

Parks, Swan and Stoute all played well tonight in UND's win over Pulley. Pulley only dressed 7 players, so it was surprising to me that they were able to keep the game close. It appears that the Sioux will have a lot of offensive ability this season, but defensively they are really poor right now. I'd like to see an eight man rotation of Ryp, Lindahl, Parks, MJ, Nobles, Doyle, Swan and Stoute. Anybody know who the kid was who was apparently on a recruiting visit?

I'm pretty sure that UND would have had to get USD's permission to move the game to a day other than Saturday, and USD would have no incentive to oblige. Plus, I suspect that Dale Lennon himself would not have been in favor of moving the game to a different day.

It would appear that UNO hit the jackpot with Day kind of like UND did in basketball with Beasley. Day's juco stats were good but not spectacular. The fact that he didn't even start or get that many carries early in the season would also suggest that they didn't really know what they had until four or five games into the season.

If it wasn't for the fact that there's a home hockey series this weekend, this probably would have been a good game to play at night. I've never noticed a drop-off in hockey attendance due to deer hunting, but it has definitely affected football attendance over the years. I look at this game as huge for more than the obvious playoff implications. To potentially finish at 3-3 in the NCC and in fourth place would make this season a big failure in my estimation considering the expectations. The defense needs to put last week behind them and get back to dominating. Losing at home is not an option.

Is Wills viewed as more of a 4 or a 3? He might be a little small for the 4 at 6'6" unless he's pretty strong. He does sound like a high-quality prospect, though. Would it be safe to assume that Ryp's replacement will have to be a juco? It would seem that the odds of signing a high school big man good enough to contribute immediately are remote.

And that would support why we can move the ball against a team like Ferris St., who had pretty decent talent on defense, but not against a team like Augie, who has struggled badly in conference play this year. Every team in the NCC knows exactly what we're trying to do, and we apparently don't have enough talent right now to score points with the schemes we're currently using against teams that are familiar with us. I just don't think that having a great defense necessarily means that you have to have a conservative, predictable, low-risk offense. That kind of offense can work if you have superior talent, but if not, it's a problem.

UND offense against its four non-conference opponents--43 ppg UND offense against first five conference opponents--18.6 ppg One the one hand, perhaps the huge difference could be explained away by the contention that the conference teams are just generally better than the non-conference opponents. But could it also be that our offense has become so predictable that perhaps conference teams know exactly what to expect and are better able to defend it? Is there really any excuse for not putting up bigger point totals against lower level NCC teams like Augie and Mankato? I realize predictability does not in and of itself preclude offensive success, with UNO being a prime example of that. They're arguably even more predictable than we are, and yet they can seem to run the ball and score a lot of points year after year (except, apparently, for in the playoffs, where they never seem to win). So my question is, are our offensive problems due to a scheme that no longer works as well as perhaps it once did; is it a problem of not having enough talent or experiece on offense; or is it simply faulty execution? It seems clear to me that it's not simply a quarterback issue. Inconsistent quarterback play certainly hasn't helped matters, but the running game hasn't been all that strong, either. Being last or second-to-last in the NCC in nearly every offensive category should never happen, in my opinion.

In 2000, UND actually led the NCC in scoring offense with just under 34 per game (conference games only). This year, it appears that the offense will average under 20 per game in conference play, and will likely finish 6th in that category. With an unsettled quarterback situation, no receivers returning next year with big stats, the loss of the primary ball carrier of the past two years, and the need to replace two linemen, there will be a lot of work to do this spring to make this offense something that is a strength rather than a liability.

Although Dale Lennon has obviously done some great things as head coach, and hopefully will continue to do so for many more years, his road record against playoff caliber teams is pretty bad. In fact, I'm not sure there's been a single road win against a playoff-type team in his tenure. 1999 UND 7, SDSU 21 UND 13, NW Mo. St. 20 2000 UND 13, NDSU 16 UND 25, UNO 27 2001 no road games against a playoff caliber team 2002 UND 12, UNC 28 UND 17, UNO 20 2003 UND 24, Mesa St. 31 2004 UND 17, SCSU 21 UND 17, UNO 27 We'll generally win nearly all the home games, and usually the road games against teams we clearly should beat. But in terms of road games against teams where we're not a clear favorite or are an underdog, it's an almost guaranteed loss. I certainly don't expect to win all of these games, or even most of them, but to win none in six years isn't too good. Unfortunately, I don't think there's a team in dII where the difference between how they play at home and on the road is larger than what it is at UND. I don't attribute it to the Alerus because this problem pre-dates that by several years. I think you have to go back ten years to 1994 since we last won a really big road game, that being in the Fargodome. We've won at the Fargodome since, of course, but the 1996, 1998 and 2002 NDSU teams really weren't very strong. Until this trend is reversed, I'm not sure we'll have another deep playoff run because the odds are that in any given year, there will be at least two difficult road games. Next year, for example, we have SCSU and UNO here, but we'll have to go to Winona and USD.

What does "should've won" mean? Winona was behind for all but about a minute of that game. If their defense could have come up with a big series late in the game, perhaps they would have won. But they didn't, so they lost. That game was very much like the UND wins over NDSU and UNO. Get a nice lead, go into a shell on offense, let the opponent back in. That was just the style that last year's UND team played. It drove me crazy much of the time, but you can't argue with the results.

I am sure you and every other Sioux fan thought the same thing last year, but were you thinking how inferior Winona was when you were losing with less than two minutes to play? In my opinion, in the 2001 game UND probably did underestimate Winona's offense to an extent. I say that because in the two weeks following that game, UND shut down two teams in UC-Davis and Pitt St. that were more talented than Winona was. Last year, I don't think UND underestimated Winona at all, but the way that game played out was very typical of UND games last season. Of the 14 games the Sioux played, 8 were decided by one score, and 3 more were decided by two scores. So although Winona can be justifiably proud of the way they came back, it's not as though they did anything that teams like NDSU, SCSU, UNO and SDSU did not. This year, the UND defense has really come of age and are playing extremely well. Last year, the defense was very up-and-down. I respect the quality of the program and understand Sioux fans have the right to look down on Winona to some extent (we haven't beaten you yet), but the narrow-minded thinking (regarding the quality of Winona's play) by the majority of Sioux fans is unbelievable. I think most NCC fans do look down on Winona's schedule, although that's not due to anything Winona has done. You obviously can't help that the rest of the NSIC is so far below you. And you can't be blamed for the fact that Missouri Western is nowhere near what they were last year, just as UND opponent Mesa St. is nowhere near as good this year as they were last year. And I love the way sioux fans look down on SDSU like their not worthy, did you not squeak a win out in the last seconds over them? If SDSU was so run of the mill in the NCC why couldn't the might sioux stomp'm? A little recent history on the UND-SDSU series. At home, UND has won these games by an average of 27 points per game in the last 6 games in GF. On the road, it's typically been a struggle, so last year was no exception. UND is 5-3 in Brookings since 1990. To the extent SDSU is looked down upon in football, it's because they were typically a middle-of-the-pack NCC team, they didn't win a conference title after the early 60's, and because they had only one playoff appearance as a dII program. In Brookings, they're pretty tough, although Winona probably should have been more competitive in that game than they were. Unfortunately, since that game was the only one for Winona against essentially the equivalent of a fully-funded dII program with a winning record (I know they're technically I-AA but they are at 38 scholarships), and Winona lost pretty convincingly, that adds a certain amount of fuel to the fire for Winona-bashers, of which I am not one. Pull your heads out, you aren't head and shoulder above the rest and your road play proves it. That's certainly true, and I don't think anybody would deny that. But most teams struggle on the road when playing quality competition. See Winona's game at Brookings as Exhibit A. The big difference between UND and Winona is that UND generally has to play 2-3 very tough road games in a season, whereas Winona has maybe one in the non-conference schedule, and really none in conference play. Although Winona gets big power points for winning at Bemidji, I doubt anybody outside of the NSIC would consider that a tough road game. Ditto for playing Concordia, particularly at a neutral site like the Metrodome. Besides the best team in the NCC has two losses and your play them this week. I wish you luck because you'll need it. Obviously we'll find out who's the best team in the NCC on Saturday.

On the one hand, Bruggeman is far more successful than any of the past UND volleyball coaches, with a career record of almost exactly .500. The bad news is that a career record of just .500 is far better than any past UND volleyball coach. I don't know enough about the situation to say whether there are issues here besides wins and losses, i.e. a lot of unhappy players. I have met Maria a few times and she seems very nice, but I don't pretend to know much about her coaching abilities one way or the other.

I just looked at the schedule, and after a respectable 7-4 start, they have since gone 1-12.

While I'll be the first to admit that I'm not much of a volleyball fan, I too am discouraged by what has transpired this year. I know Maria did get the team to the post-season the past couple of years, so she's clearly not a terrible coach. But the team this year went from winning several matches early, to losing something like 12 of the last 13. Hopefully this is a one-year aberration instead of volleyball unseating softball as the worst women's sport at UND. Another year like this one might call for a change in leadership, although that may be unrealistic considering the fact that her husband is an assistant a.d.

This series in recent years has been very difficult to figure out. On the one hand, you have a team like UNO that is very predictable and wants to establish a power running game. That would appear to play right into the UND defensive strength, and yet the Sioux have not been able to consistently shut down the running game against UNO the way they have against nearly every other primarily running team. From the UNO perspective, it's kind of baffling that they've had a running game effective enough to actually move the ball on UND and win fairly often (5-3 since 1996), and yet they've had practically no playoff success. It just doesn't seem to add up.

I would echo the sentiment that the Sioux need to run the ball. I just don't like the screen passes and short over-the-middle stuff because it's so predictable and so easy to pick off if the qb makes a poor throw or decision. I'm still irritated by that 2001 game in which the Sioux thoroughly dominated and yet lost due to four picks and a blocked punt. Make UNO earn their points. Even though UNO now has their best receiver back, it really shouldn't be that hard to stop a passing game with a weak-armed quarterback and only one true receiving threat. My only real criticism of Dale Lennon in his otherwise stellar career thus far has been the inability to consistently beat UNO, and the inability to win big road games against playoff-caliber teams. This game is a perfect opportunity to kill two birds with one stone.

I just saw an interview with Chris Mussman on WDAZ and he said that the plan right now is for Manke to start on Saturday. Of course, I'm sure they want to keep Behrns and co. guessing, so who knows whether this announcement really means anything.

Grand Forks may not necessarily be football crazy, but UND is in the top 5 or 10 in dII football attendance year in and year out, so that has to count for something. Again, I'm not saying that the attendance would be huge for a national championship game here, but neither would it be a huge drop-off compared to what Florence typically draws.

RD17- What's your assessment of UNO's offensive line? On paper, they don't really seem like they'd be as good as what UNO typically has, and yet they're again putting up huge rushing totals. Is it more a matter of Day being that good, or is the relatively inexperienced offensive line better than expected? Can the Sioux realistically keep Day somewhat under control?

Speculating on attendance is interesting, but ultimately I'm not sure the NCAA really cares too much about it. This is the same organization that once awarded the women's basketball Elite 8 to Pine Bluff, Arkansas for three years. I don't think there were 100 locals there when I went in 1998. Regarding the Snow Bowl, I don't think that's an apples-to-apples comparison. All-star games, especially in football, just aren't that interesting. At least with a national championship you have two actual teams playing each other instead of a group of players with maybe a week to practice together prior to the game. I'm not saying that 10,000 locals would show up for a non-UND game, but I'd be willing to bet that the game would generate more excitement and local media attention than the Snow Bowl ever did.