UND92,96

The reason I don't think it's that big of a deal that UND hasn't won a road playoff game is because generally speaking, if you're on the road for the playoffs, you are an underdog to begin with assuming the seeds are relatively accurate. Couple that with the homefield advantage in general, which often makes a home team play better than what they otherwise would, and it's very tough to win on the road in the playoffs. I believe that at least four of UND's road losses have been to either the defending champions or the team who ended up winning the title--Pitt St., North Alabama, NW Mo. St. and Northern Colorado. While the losses were disappointing, it wasn't as though UND was losing to cupcakes, either. The one other road loss in the past 10 years was to IUP, and that was on a field that was all but unplayable due to an abundance of rain. Obviously road teams do sometimes win, but last year's Grand Valley team is probably not the best example due to the fact that they were seeded lower than where they should have been due to the strength of schedule index not being a very accurate barometer of how good a team is. I don't think too many people really looked at Grand Valley as much of an underdog in any of their three road games. With all that having been said, I'll be the first to admit that traditionally, UND has been far better at home than on the road, especially when it comes to playing good teams. The one exception has been UND's success in Fargo over the past decade.

I recall reading earlier this year about how Metro is considering dropping its athletic program altogether. Even if that's not necessarily going to happen soon, their coach would be crazy to not be looking to move on to a more stable situation soon. I doubt they draw too well considering its a commuter school in a major metropolitan area with a lot of other sports going on. It would be hard to believe Metro pays very well, either. But they have certainly done very well in men's basketball for most of the past 15 years.

What I find so comical about this guy is that he's all up in arms about 3 or 4 people on this site pointing out the obvious--1) that the Gangelhoff Center is not a very nice facility at which to host a regional; and 2) that a true number one seed shouldn't lose by 35 points at home. Because he can't handle us pointing out the obvious and the indisputable, he jumps on the NDSU and SDSU bandwagons, as if that's some sort of punishment to the UND team. What he apparently fails to realize is that it's not too hard to find at least 3 or 4 fans from each of these schools who would wholeheartedly agree that 1) the Gangelhoff Center is not a very nice facility at which to host a regional; and 2) a true number one seed shouldn't lose by 35 points at home. I guess we were just "lucky" in that he found this site before he found the NDSU and SDSU sites.

Even though SDSU has obviously done very well the past three seasons, the good news is that UND has had very good success against them, going 7-3 over the past three seasons, and having won 18 of the last 21 going back a few more years. All three losses have come in Brookings, so that's a positive as well considering this game is obviously on a neutral court. I'm not making any predictions, but the biggest keys in my opinion will be: 1. Stay out of foul trouble. Both SDSU and NDSU have had a tendency to get the Sioux into foul difficulty, and obviously UND doesn't have much depth so it will be critical to keep the starters on the court as much as possible. 2. Keep the turnovers to a reasonable number. In two of the three losses UND has had to SDSU in the past two years, a big reason has been committing more than 20 turnovers. 3. Rebound. It's not even necessary to actually win the battle of the boards, but UND can't be badly out-rebounded and expect to win. Ironically, the one loss this year came despite out-rebounding SDSU, whereas in the two wins the Sioux were actually out-rebounded.

BisonMav- I take it you were at the game? Was it full? Could it have held any more? I thought about going, but there was no way I was going to risk not getting in after a 5-hour drive.

I see where Zubke scored just 7 points against Crookston last night. A name to keep in mind for the class of 2005 is Sam Sussenguth from Willmar. He's 6'8" or 6'9" and has put up some very good numbers this year. He led Willmar to a win over a pretty good Thief River Falls team last night. I have no idea whether UND has looked at him at all, though.

And the correct answer is...2506. Since the championship is on a Monday, I doubt that there will be more for that game. The UND-NDSU game had about 700 more than the Concordia-SDSU game.

If you would have told me before the game that Leighton and Boese were only going to combine for 20 points, I would have thought the Sioux would lose by 20. Nice effort by the other three starters to all exceed their scoring averages. I certainly expected SDSU to beat Concordia, and I'm not surprised that it wasn't even close, but a 35-point margin of victory? Wow, talk about a number-one seed laying an egg. I'm sure Concordia isn't as bad as the score would indicate, but still, that must have been a very poor performance. I've never heard of a number-one seed losing quite that bad. I'd like to think that everybody's-favorite-regional-committee has learned a lesson, but I doubt it.

There have certainly been some games in which turnovers have been a huge issue. Overall, however, UND has averaged about 17 to's per game. Not great, but not too terrible considering that the Sioux are trying to get into transition at every opportunity. UND ranked third and fourth in the NCC in turnover margin and assist-to-turnover ratio, respectively. Interestingly, Leighton is by far and away the biggest culprit when it comes to turnovers. Quite honestly, I didn't even realize this until I looked at the stats.

Langen evidently had a heck of a game last night, as she had 25 points, 16 rebounds, 5 blocks, 4 assists and 3 steals to lead Kittson Central to a relatively easy win over Fosston. It will be interesting to see what the UND strength and conditioning program will do for her. I'm sure she's never going to be particularly quick, but if she gets into a little better condition, with her size and strength, I would think she could be an effective low-post scorer, especially considering at the college level she'll be single-covered most of the time. Hopefully Kittson Central makes it to the finals so we can see her play on tv.

I meant no disrespect by use of that term. Heck, I'm born and raised in Grand Forks, and have never lived in the twin cities. My point was more that I am not as familiar with what players played at which twin cities schools, whereas I have more familiarity with non-metro schools (is that a more p.c. term? ), and I believe that the number of WCHA players Grand Forks has produced recently compares very favorably to what the better non-metro schools have produced. Probably most metro schools, too, but as I mentioned, I don't really follow who's coming from Edina as opposed to Apple Valley, etc. All the suburbs are pretty much the same to me.

Actually, the UND women's team has a similar problem to what the men had--not enough outside shooting and too few consistent scorers. At least the men had three guys who generally would score in double figures, whereas the women have just two. Lately Mahlum seems to either score in double figures, or else she doesn't score at all. Perrizo and Demaine have struggled their entire careers with poor field goal percentages. When the UND women are running and shooting a decent percentage, they're very difficult to beat. But in the handful of games each of the past few seasons where they shoot 30-35%, as has unfortunately happened in the past three regionals (counting this game today), we aren't going to win very often. I am in no position to question Roebuck's recruiting as his success speaks for itself, but I have to admit that I'd like to see more scorers than what we have right now.

They're obviously doing something right. It's a rarity that any Fargo school can touch them in in any sport. I know they don't generally play Fargo schools in football, but aside from maybe West Fargo once in awhile, Moorhead would dominate there also. And South must be at least as big of a school, so it's not just an enrollment issue.

In terms of turning out WCHA caliber players, Grand Forks would seem to be doing as well as nearly anybody, at least among outstate MN towns. In the past 10 years or so, off the top of my head there have been the Panzer's, Tim O'Connell, Tim Skarperud, Jake Moreland, Nick Fuher, Robbie Bina, Andy Schneider, Grant Potulny, Ryan Potulny, Phil Lamoreaux, Nate Ziegelmann, and I'm sure I'm missing some there. You might also be soon able to add Kasey Moreland, Jordan McIntyre, and others. Unfortunately, so long as the great players leave early for junior leagues, the teams will probably not be on par with the Moorhead's and the other elite Minnesota teams. Does anybody know roughly what Moorhead's enrollment is? They seem to do extremely well in nearly all sports year-in and year-out.

I can't help but wonder which front court players, aside from Boese, are going to be able to provide scoring next season. Judging by what Roebuck said on the coaches' show a few weeks ago, it sounds like there's a decent chance Glick won't be able to play next year due to the severity of her knee injury. Hausauer does certain things well, but she's not a scorer. Glynn has actually shown an ability to score a little bit, albeit in limited minutes and generally not against the other team's starters, but struggles defensively and isn't very strong. That leaves current red-shirts Draayer and Sannes, neither of whom I've ever seen play, and Langen. I suppose Guinn could also play the 3 since she's 5'10". Boese could be an All-American next year, but somebody is going to have to step up so that not all of the pressure falls on her to score.

Good point. I was wondering the same thing. I'm not sure that this is enough for me to jump on the division I bandwagon, but I have to admit that I'm getting closer...

I'll guess 2500. For a tiebreaker, maybe we can also guess the total number of complaints that Concordia's athletic department will receive about how this tournament was run!

Do you think Langen will be ready to contribute as a true freshman next year?

Even though it's going to hurt the overall strength of the NCC in women's basketball for NDSU and SDSU to leave, the one good thing that should come out of it is that now UND should have a better chance to go through the regular season with hopefully just a couple of losses instead of 4 to 6, and we won't be in a position of having to hope that the committee realizes that playing a tougher schedule necessitates a few more losses than somebody playing Concordia's schedule. Obviously, the fact that the NCC wins the region every year isn't enough to get respect from the committee.

First, the seating capacity at Concordia was listed at 1200. Then, they tell us it's actually going to be 4500. Now, I just saw on their web site that it's going to be 2700. I wonder what it will be tomorrow? EDIT: I almost forgot, I e-mailed the chairperson of the regional committee yesterday expressing my concerns about the adequacy of the facility. She responded that the NCAA has no minimum seating requirements (I never suggested otherwise), and that Concordia is set for a capacity of 3200! So that's at least four different alleged capacities. What a versatile building!