UND92,96

Kelsey Maffin's knee injury was extremely unfortunate. That leaves just 10 players, three of whom have played very little this year. I was kind of shocked yesterday when Haug actually got into the game in the first half. I'm afraid the Sioux will be forced to play a lot of zone to keep foul problems to a minimum. Mahlum, Hausauer and Langen all got two fouls in the first half yesterday which could be a big problem against anybody other than Fort Hays.

Kayla Bagaason had a nice game yesterday to lead Fosston into the state title game. She had 22 points, including 4-7 from 3-point range, and 9 rebounds. Although they probably won't be guarding each other, it will be interesting to see how she compares with Ms. Basketball frontrunner, all-time Minnesota career scoring leader and future Gopher Katie Ohm.

Bagaason struggled shooting the ball yesterday, as did most of the team, but still had 19 points, 8 rebounds and 5 blocks to lead Fosston to a win in the Class A quarterfinals. Fosston will play Minneota in the semi's tomorrow.

I think most, if not all tickets are reserved. Here is a seating chart: link

I certainly can't vouch for the veracity of this rumor, but the following was in Frank Fee's column from the KROX (Crookston) radio web page:

I don't think there's much of a chance for a sell-out. Particularly if you get there reasonably early for Friday's game(s), I don't think you'll have any problem getting in.

I believe the point regarding the depth of the conference is that there really aren't any truly bad teams anymore. For years teams like Mankato and UNO were pretty terrible, but that's not the case anymore. Aside from UND, the top teams this year were probably a bit down from past years, but overall the league is still among the best in dII due to that depth. We all know that UND will be loaded next year, but teams like St. Cloud St., UMD, Augie and USD should be very strong, as well.

Boese, Langen, Hausauer and Jahner all make all-NCC; Jahner is defensive player of the year; Langen is freshman of the year; and Roebuck is coach of the year. Not a bad season. link

According to this excerpt from the Green Bay newspaper, it doesn't sound like things went too well for Tyler Koenig this year:

Which current or former UND player would you compare Bagaason to?

Congrats to Kristi Boese for being named first team all-region. link Unfortunately, a glaring omission was made by not selecting Ashley Langen for at least the second team. I didn't get a chance to see all that many NSIC or RMAC players, but there's no way UNO's J.J. Smith merited being selected ahead of Langen.

Both Rich Glas and his wife are big assets to the GF community, and for that reason I want to see them stay despite the fact that I also believe it's definitely time for a coaching change. It really could be a win-win situation for Rich to be out of the high-pressure, high-stress world of college coaching and into a job where his people-skills can be utilized for the benefit of UND.

Rypkema is the lone Sioux player selected all-NCC this year. link

From the St. Paul Pioneer Press: I know Ohm's career numbers are outstanding, but I also know she was pretty badly out-played by Langen at state last year.

Here are the actual seedings/matchups: 1. UND vs. 8. Fort Hayes St. 4. Concordia-St. Paul vs. 5. Metro St. 2. MSU-Moorhead vs. 7. St. Cloud St. 3. Regis vs. 6. UMD This almost makes it appear as though the seedings were done without regard for today's results. I don't see how Regis could have stayed at three, and Metro St. clearly wasn't rewarded at all for having beaten Regis again. Ditto for Concordia-St. Paul seemingly having several advantages over MSU-Moorhead. The good news for the Sioux is that they are in the opposite bracket from the other two NCC teams.

Concordia-St. Paul beat Moorhead, and Metro beat Regis today, which probably would have resulted in UND hosting the regional even had the Sioux lost last night. In any event, my guess as to what the seedings will look like is as follows: 1. UND 2. Concordia-St. Paul 3. MSU-Moorhead 4. Metro St. 5. Regis 6. UMD 7. St. Cloud St. 8. Fort Hays St. Spots two through five are somewhat unclear, although with Concordia beating Moorhead two of three meetings, and having quality non-conference wins vs. St. Cloud St. and UMD, I think they'll jump ahead of Moorhead despite Moorhead's better overall record and NSIC regular season title. The same would go for Metro jumping Regis since they beat Regis two of three meetings. It would be a bonus for UND if the Sioux would have opponents from the RMAC in the first two rounds. If the above seedings end up being accurate, I wouldn't be surprised to see a UND-SCSU title game. The actual pairings will be announced around 9 P.M.

If your grasp of history is that poor, you might want to consider not saying anything at all. Anybody who has followed either UND or NDSU women's basketball should be well aware of the fact that UND won in 1997, 1998 and 1999, with a runner-up finish in 2001.