UND92,96

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!

I have football programs from both '78 and '79. There are the usual "mug shot" pictures of the players, but that's about it. If you would like to use them, you certainly can.

These are the people we can thank for putting this tournament in such a fine facility: Laure Smith, Nebraska-Kearney (chair) Todd Barry, Wayne St. Lisa Carlsen, Nebraska-Omaha (presumably replaced since she's been fired at UNO) Paul Fessler, Concordia-St. Paul Steve Kirkham, Mesa St. Nancy Neiber, South Dakota St.

Godfread didn't play at all. It's probably not too surprising since he only averaged 5 minutes per game on the season. It's interesting to compare and contrast the careers of Godfread and Rypkema. I have no idea how highly the UND staff thought of Godfread coming out of high school, but in the event that UND really wanted him and Ryp was something of a consolation prize, it's safe to say that UND got the far better end of that deal.

Unfortunately, I didn't realize that game was on until late in the first overtime, but at least I caught the end of it. That was quite an accomplishment since the Mo. Valley is a very tough league. It's hard to know what Mac's career aspirations are. I assume he's quite happy at UNI since that's his alma mater, but if a big-name school came calling I'm sure it would be very tough to turn down.

Let me preface this by saying that I really have nothing against UNO. I will admit to harboring some resentment towards Behrns due to his coaching job at UND, although I was only in grade school at the time, and the way the 1996 game in Grand Forks ended, but nothing serious. I also think that it's good for the league that UNO and SCSU are both playing at a high level, along with UND, so that the league can hopefully keep its place amongst the top dII leagues despite the recent losses of schools. Regarding stereotyping, I guess I haven't seen or heard anything like that. I will admit that certain UNO players do a bit more of what appears to be taunting than what I like to see, but I don't relate that at all to race. It's more of a sign of the times, but thankfully it is highly discouraged at UND, and from what I've seen by most of the other schools in the NCC. That's not meant as a direct knock on Behrns--just an observation. Trust me, nobody who knows anything about football is treating any game, and in particular the game at Omaha, as an automatic win. True, many of us are quite optimistic about next season due to the large number of returnees and the obvious fact that we were close to another national championship this past year, but past success doesn't automatically mean current or future success as we found out in 2002.

This was in the Star-Tribune today: I guess we'd better hope she wants to stay close to home for college. A 6'2" girl athletic enough to be second in the hurdles at the state track meet AND be the all-time single-season scoring leader for MN is extremely impressive.

You can take a virtual tour of this arena here. Corella is correct with regard to there being permanent seating on just one side. I honestly don't think the Concordia athletic department has any idea what it's gotten itself into. The idea of ticket demand far exceeding ticket supply is going to be a completely foreign concept for them. Way to think this through, regional committee.