UND92,96

Uh, guys...obviously you can talk about anything you want on this site as it pertains to UND athletics, but this issue has been absolutely debated to death over the past few months. Nothing we say is going to affect whether the series continues or not, and nothing anybody says is probably going to change somebody else's opinion about it. It seems bizarre to me that we are a few days removed from a national quarterfinal game and this whole "should they or shouldn't they continue to play NDSU" thing is dominating conversation. The Nickel has been won (again). For the time being anyway, it would seem that discussing the playoffs should be the priority, and not debate over somebody we're probably not going to play for at least the next few seasons.

I agree that the gap is narrowing. However, I think the obvious factor that will keep the top football teams from the NSIC from being able to compete year in and year out with the top of the NCC is the large scholarship differential. I believe it said in the Fargo Forum today that Winona is funding 11 scholarships, or less than one-third of what the NCC is funding. Obviously, they're doing quite well with what they have, but in the long run I don't believe you can recruit competitively in the same geographic regions as the NCC schools while only able to offer a fraction of the scholarship money. Certainly you will find the occasional diamond in the rough or get lucky with a guy who was overlooked for whatever reason and turns out to be a star, but it's tough to do that consistently. If it is at all feasible financially, Winona should consider fully funding its football program and joining the NCC as UMD is doing. There's obviously an open slot right now in the league, and they would be very competitive. I'm sure it's easier said than done to go from 11 to 36 scholarships, but I can't believe it's impossible for them, either.

In 2001, Winona was a completely unknown commodity, and I think there was a certain amount of over-confidence on the part of the Sioux since everybody outside of Winona was saying how the game was going to be a complete blowout. Winona did some unconventional things offensively and it did cause some problems for the Sioux. We must remember, however, that it wasn't only the Sioux defense who struggled that day. The Winona defense provided very little resistance to the UND offense in that game which sometimes gets overlooked in retrospect. It seems everybody remembers the 28 points we gave up instead of how the UND receivers were running free for most of the game without a db anywhere in sight. This time around, there won't be any over-confidence and I fully expect that Bubba Schweigert will have the defense ready for anything Winona will throw at them. He's one of the best defensive coordinators around and he will have them ready to go. I also think it has been beneficial to UND that there are so many teams in the NCC who throw the ball a lot. Winona hasn't had many difficult road games the past few years, and the ones they have had have often been struggles, i.e. Concordia-SP this year and NDSU and UMD last year. I have to believe that UND will be deeper and a little more talented and physical overall, which along with the home field advantage should give the Sioux a good chance to win. The team has worked too hard all year long to give anything less than their best when a trip to the national semi-finals is on the line.

I don't think it's a matter of being down on the I-AA system as much as it's pointing out the inherent flaws in both systems.

I agree that the student section was great on Saturday. It certainly helped that the 40-50 football players who couldn't suit up for the game were in the front few rows.

I don't believe the I-AA system necessarily puts the top 16 teams in. Eight conferences get an auto bid, which allows a team like Montana St. to get in despite its five losses. If they are one of the top 16 teams in I-AA, it doesn't speak very highly of the division. The Big Sky must have been really down this year. The supposed top two teams from that league both lost at home to essentially division II teams. True, UNC is technically I-AA but they probably put the same team on the field that they would have had they still been division II. The I-AA system would have gotten IUP and Catawba in, but I don't think NDSU would have been in anyway with three losses and only eight at-large bids from around the country. In any event, it's a moot point.

Your feelings regarding televising games are well-known, but there is absolutely no question that television coverage hurts attendance. It's simply common sense. It doesn't matter if you or anybody else thinks that it shouldn't--it does. It's human nature that a lot of people would prefer to watch the game from their own living room if given a choice in the matter. My feeling is that road games should be televised. I think they should be televised during the regular season, too, but that's another story. Home games should not be televised unless 10,000 tickets or more have been sold by Thursday or Friday. Not televising a home game with poor ticket sales is hardly unprecedented. Look at the NFL, for example. If a game isn't sold-out 72 hours in advance, it's blacked-out locally.

I certainly respect Winona's offense and their team, but in reality Pitt St. averaged more points per game and more yards per game this season playing a far more difficult schedule. Winona averages about 230 yards per game passing, but those numbers may be a bit misleading considering there are a number of very poor defenses in the NSIC this year.

Not that there was really any doubt, but this link confirms that UND is hosting next week.

I looked up the box scores from the web page of each host school.

Like UND, it appears that Winona was the beneficiary of a pretty favorable home schedule. Their only road challenges were at Concordia-SP, and a quasi road game against Northern St. in the Metrodome. I am very happy that the Sioux were able to run the ball effectively yesterday against a very solid defense. Pitt St. basically sold-out to stop the pass, but it was at the expense of stopping the run. I know Duluth ran the ball quite effectively against Winona a few weeks back, so I would expect to see a heavy dose of Adam Roland on Saturday. I have to think that the Sioux offensive line is pretty confident in their run-blocking right now. I also doubt very much that Winona will be able to generate anywhere near as much of a pass rush as Pitt St. was able to do. Whether it's Bowenkamp or Wilson, I think the passing game will bounce back next week.

Not that it's any consolation, but the UND-Pitt St. game yesterday had the second-highest attendance of the eight playoff games: Grand Valley St. at Bentley (4433) Edinboro at Saginaw Valley (3907) Carson-Newman at Valdosta St. (3247) Southern Arkansas at North Alabama (7132) Central Ok. at Mesa St. (1961) Tarleton at TAMUK (9500) Emporia St. at Winona (3115) Pitt St. at UND (7160) Half of the home teams, including UND, had attendance BELOW their season average.

The 2001 playoff games had attendance as follows: Winona St. 6700 Pitt St. 8222 UC-Davis 11,696 (this was the "official" number. The Alerus certainly appeared full, however, so this number is probably not really accurate.) The Winona game was probably not helped by the fact that everybody thought it was going to be a huge blowout, and this likely kept a lot of people away. The Pitt St. game was over the Thanksgiving weekend, I believe. I don't believe either game was televised locally. The UC-Davis game was televised but fortunately, there was enough hype by that point that people showed up anyway.

Yes. The previous low was, believe it or not, the St. Cloud St. game with a little over 7600. Not coincidentally, that game was televised, too. Four out of the seven home games this year have been on tv. I'm sure it will be five of eight after next week. Not only does it keep the crowd down, but we have to sit through all those stupid tv timeouts! I hate those! I don't care if they televise these games outside of the Grand Forks area, but they absolutely should not be televised locally. With the Thanksgiving holiday this week and one fewer day in which to sell tickets, it's going to be a big challenge to even get 7000.

While the MIAA had a lot of success in the 90's, I imagine they're ready to try their luck in another region starting next year. Since NW Mo. St. won the national championship in 1999, the MIAA has a dismal 1 win, 6 loss record in the playoffs. Not good.

The crazy thing about this game was that generally, UND's strengths are throwing the ball and stopping the run. The Sioux usually struggle to run the ball and to stop the pass. Today, we didn't do a great job of throwing the ball or stopping the run, but did run the ball well and generally stopped the pass well. The one trend that really held true was Pitt St.'s propensity for turning the ball over. It's a miracle it was as close as it was with seven to's.

UND tied for the most first-team selections with seven, and three of those first teamers are only sophomores! I've said it before and I'll say it again, in another year or two, this defense is going to be dominating. The biggest omission from the first team in my opinion was Stattelman. In the NCC-only stats, which presumably are the ones that count in terms of choosing all-conference teams, he ranked first in receptions, second in receiving yards, and third in touchdowns. It's hard to believe those numbers don't merit one of the three first-team wide receiver slots.

I understand your frustration, but at the risk of sounding like an athletic department apologist, I believe they made a conscious choice to not release TV information until Thursday so as to avoid hurting ticket sales as much as possible. Obviously, for somebody in your situation, attending the game probably isn't an option. But I imagine they decided it was better to inform everybody at once as opposed to picking and choosing who they would inform of the TV situation and who they wouldn't. I'm not saying whether it was right or wrong, but I suspect that was the rationale for you not getting a straight answer.

I take no pleasure in writing this post, but I think it needs to be said in no uncertain terms. Whether it's fair or not, when you compare the mens basketball program over the past dozen years to the other three highest profile sports at UND--hockey, football and womens basketball--the mens basketball program really pales in comparison in terms of achievements. Since Dave Vonesh last played in 1991, UND has won one (shared) NCC title, that being in 1995. During the same stretch (post-1991), the football program has won or shared six NCC titles and a national championship, the hockey team has won four regular season WCHA titles and two national championships, and the womens basketball team has won or shared six NCC titles and three national championships. While a national championship may not be in the cards, I don't think it's too much to ask to win an NCC title ever three or four years considering what this program has done in the past--eight Elite 8 appearances (most were before it was known as the Elite 8), 18 NCC titles and 19 NCAA tournament appearances. Yes, some of these were accomplished by Rich Glas, but his best success occurred in the 89-90 and 90-91 seasons. That's a long time ago, and in retrospect it would appear that Greg McDermott had more to do with the success than did Glas. If the football, hockey and womens basketball teams can be consistent contenders, why can't the mens basketball team do it? Simply not winning national championships or NCC titles would not be enough in my opinion to fire somebody, but a string of embarrassing losses over the past several years has been too much to take. Bemidji St. (twice), Minot St., UMC and now Mary. Before last night, at least the losses were close ones and arguably flukes. Losing by 32 is not a fluke. Managing zero NCC titles and a one-and-out NCAA appearance during the two-year career of one of the most talented players ever to play dII basketball isn't exactly much of an accomplishment, either. If Rich Glas cannot see the handwriting on the wall and step aside of his own volition for the good of the program, then he needs to be shown the door, and the sooner the better. Perhaps he could be a fund-raiser or be given a job in administration, but a basketball coach he is not. With a new facility set to open, the athletic department cannot afford to have a mens basketball program that very few fans will be interested in seeing. Sixteen years of Rich Glas is more than enough. It's time to move forward.

UND lost to Mary tonight 86-54. No, that is not a typographical error. This is truly a new low. At this point, I'm not sure this team will win a single NCC game, and a 20-plus loss season appears likely. Aside from home games against Morris, Crookston and Bemidji, there aren't many games on the schedule where this team could possibly be considered a favorite. I believe Roger Thomas has a serious decision to make in the very near future. With the resources and history of basketball at UND, I don't believe there's any excuse for the program to have sunk this low.

Another possible Pitt St. weakness: turnovers. 11 int's thrown and 13 lost fumbles.

On the coaches' show on 1440 A.M. tonight, a caller asked about whether the game will be televised locally. Dale Lennon wouldn't come right out and say it, but it sounded like it would be. I just hope this doesn't keep the attendance down.

I would say that UND's strengths are: 1. Throwing the ball. Bowenkamp has a pretty strong arm and has completed 65% of his passes. The top three receivers are all at least 6'2", and are pretty sure-handed. Lueck is an exceptional athlete and a big-play threat. The offensive line has given up just four sacks, or about 1 out of every 85 passing plays. 2. Stopping the run. With the exception of the UNO game, this has generally been good. Not as good as 2001, of course, but still pretty good. NDSU had a good running game but was only able to run for about 75 yards against UND. The Sioux rotate a lot of people in the front seven and probably won't wear down as the game goes along due to all the substitutions. 3. Solid kicker. He's missed some field goals (has made 12 out of 20 on the year) but he's made some clutch ones to win games and has made all of his extra points. 4. Not penalized very much. This was a problem early on, but in the end UND was the least-penalized team in the NCC. Weaknesses: 1. Running the ball. It's been effective against poor teams like MSU-Mankato, but generally this has been a problem. But if the passing game is as effective as it normally is, 75 yards rushing is probably enough to keep the defense honest. UND is not a team that can just line up and run the ball down the throat of a good defense. 2. Stopping the pass. Some of this has been towards the end of games which really weren't close, but some big plays have been given up against a number of teams. The pass rush isn't as good as it was two years ago and this makes the db's jobs more difficult. This year, UND games have tended to be pretty close. I wouldn't expect much of a margin of victory for either team. The home field advantage should be pretty significant for UND, and I am thinking that Pitt St.'s lack of a consistent kicking game could be a problem for them, particularly in a close game as this one quite likely will be. The NCC has fared pretty well against the MIAA in the playoffs recently, as the past three years have all had an NCC rep come out of this region. Hopefully for us, that trend continues this year.

I believe a Pittsburg-area station is covering it. That may be something to check into, also.