UND92,96

I still have no idea how Masek was able to complete as many passes as he did. He was basically shot putting it up there and some of the Sioux db's were either unwilling or unable to look for the ball and make a play. Masek has a very weak throwing arm, was not particularly accurate, and every pass was basically a lob. It was very frustrating to watch because a lot better quarterbacks than him haven't thrown for that many yards against the Sioux defense. It was great to win, but the defense took a big step backward today in my opinion.

SDSU's departure will certainly weaken the NCC in basketball. However, in terms of mens basketball, NDSU's departure will probably not have much of an effect in terms of altering the competitive balance of the league. During the past 30 years, NDSU has won just one outright title and one shared title.

I'm not expecting much outside shooting from Johnson. He'll knock down an occasional three-pointer, but I suspect he'll get most of his points off put-backs and drives. Parks and Nobles will probably make some treys, but the majority of the outside shooting will probably have to come from Lindahl, Jacobson and Bradley. Austin's departure probably means that Bradley will need to play more than what he otherwise would have. He is a very good shooter, but he certainly doesn't have the athletic ability or strength of Austin.

In my opinion, it was wrong. I imagine that in the opinions of 99.9% of college coaches, it was wrong. I would think it was wrong if UND did it, too, but I know that Dale Lennon would never do something that egregious. Running up the score can't always be avoided, especially if a team can't stop the run. Nobody would expect a team to take a knee until the last 1:30 or so. But a bomb in the final seconds when already up by two scores? No way can that be justified as anything other than trying to rub somebody's face in the dirt. I'm embarrassed that Pat Behrns ever had any affiliation with UND.

RD17- Are you sure about your numbers? I also tried to calculate the current strength of schedule numbers for the top four ranked teams in the midwest, but after adding all the power points and dividing by the number of games played for each team, I had Winona with a 10, UND with a 9.875, and Emporia and Pitt St. both with 9.75. I'm just curious what your numbers were.

Another juco player--Caro Nobles. He looked pretty quick and seemed to be a good ball handler, but made some ill-advised passes last night. He has a nice-looking jump shot also. He originally signed with Baylor out of high school.

Here's an article on Masek's injury status: link I'm sure he'll probably play, but without the threat of him running I suspect it will somewhat limit their play-calling.

I didn't really look at Austin as a traditional juco player since he was from the area (Hallock) and was already a proven NCC player, having played at UNC two years ago. My understanding of why he transferred from UNC to Fergus Falls was in large part to be closer to home. And obviously, Grand Forks is closer to Hallock than is Fergus Falls. I have no idea why he left the team, or whether he's still in school. Perhaps UND fan will have some inside info. With regard to Glas, there are many who have some questions about him as a coach, but I think pretty much everyone agrees that he's a nice guy and I very much doubt that he is responsible for turning players off with his personality.

According to the Herald today, Aaron Austin has left the team for "personal reasons." This is a big loss. It was quite apparent from watching last night's exhibition game against the Globetrotters that the Sioux need another scorer, and I had thought Austin would be it until I read the paper today. I had thought it was strange that he wasn't there last night.

There again, Masek's health will be a big issue. If he does play, I can't imagine Behrns would further risk his health by running option when he already supposedly has a sprained m.c.l. I don't believe UNO has much faith in their backup quarterback(s). If UNO has to rely on simply handing the ball off to Kammrad or trying to be a drop-back passing team with a gimpy option-type quarterback at the healm, I don't believe they'll move the ball very well. UND has been playing exceptionally well against the run lately.

It certainly didn't take too long for you to re-think your position on this one...

Calling this a huge game would be an understatement. The Sioux haven't had much luck against the Mavericks in recent years, losing the last three by a total of eight points. This has been the one team that Dale Lennon-coached teams haven't had much success against for some reason. It's really pretty surprising, considering UNO is primarily a running team and UND has typically had a very strong rush defense. As with the NDSU game, stopping the run is the biggest key. Kammrad (sp.?) is a very good back, and is by far the leading rusher in the NCC. UNO's lowest rushing total this year was against NDSU when they had 132 yards, and I think the Sioux need to hold them to around that same number to have a good chance to win. UNO has actually put up some pretty good passing numbers this year, even though they only throw about 20 times a game. However, the quarterback sounds like he will be hobbled after suffering a knee injury in the fourth quarter against St. Cloud in which he left the game with about 8:00 minutes to go and didn't return despite the fact that the game was very much in doubt until the final second. However, I strongly suspect he'll play this week if at all possible since they really don't have a backup with any experience at all. He's not a pure passer, but as mentioned he has decent numbers. However, if the Sioux have similiar success stopping the run as they did against NDSU, I highly doubt that a hobbled Masek will be able to beat UND by throwing the ball. Aside from the usual keys for UND of not turning the ball over more than once and successfully throwing the ball against a defense that Keith Heckendorf really torched last week, the biggest key in my opinion is getting punts off without them getting blocked. I'm sure many of us remember that was the reason the Sioux lost to these guys in 2001, and without the block against NDSU the game probably never even gets into overtime. Unfortunately, Bentow has had a tendency over the years to either get punts blocked or at least nearly blocked due in no small part to his slow wind-up. If the Sioux have a lead in the fourth quarter, I would definitely keep everybody in tight on the punt team and kick it as quickly as possible. A 30 yard punt is far better than getting it blocked, needless to say. By the way, UND punted once the entire game against Mankato, and it was partially blocked, believe it or not. Maybe we should just go for it on all fourth downs.

This game sounds a lot like the Newberry game, in that after playing very well for three quarters, the defense completely goes to sleep. I really hope there were reserves playing in the defensive backfield for most of the fourth quarter. Looks like the final score will be 41-25. I can't be too critical because it's a win on the road, and the offense played very well aside from the first half turnovers. But giving up 25 points to what is quite frankly a terrible offense has to be somewhat of a disappointment considering they're averaging less than 10 per game and hadn't scored more than 20 in a game all year.

Bowenkamp to Lueck for another td. Now 34-6. Total yardage is approximately 440 to 50 in favor of UND.

Crowd is announced as 1,888. Sounds like at least half are UND fans.

UND now leads 27-6 late in the third.

Well, if the UND backs and receivers could hold onto the ball, it would probably be at least 27-0. Mankato must have all of 25 yards of offense in the first half but only trail 14-6.

Wow, what a turn of events. Mankato has its fourth consecutive 3-and-out, but FAKES a punt from its own 25 and gets it. But on the next play, they fumble and the Sioux recover!

Bowenkamp to Lueck for a td pass of about 25 yards. UND is now up 14-0 midway through the second quarter.

UND is dominating but is shooting itself in the foot. Roland fumbles at the goal line so instead of 14-0 its still 7-0. Actually, it should be 21-0 right now. Mankato doesn't have a first down yet.

UND is moving the ball well in the first two possessions. The Sioux had a 1st and goal on the first possession but end up missing a field goal. Sounds like a pretty windy day. Mankato goes 3-and-out on its first possession. Lueck has a nice punt return. UND then goes about 37 yards on its second possession and Roland gets a short td run. UND up 7-0 midway through the first quarter.

One thing from this article that really sticks out to me is that Metro gets just $35,000 PER YEAR from ticket sales! Granted, they don't have football, and Metro is strictly a commuter school, but that's still an incredibly small amount of ticket sales revenue for an entire basketball season, especially considering how good they've been. With the small budget they have, and the lack of fan support, it's amazing that they've been able to put together such good basketball teams over the years.

Mankato looks to be coming into this game pretty banged-up. According to their press release, at least 10 players--including the starting quarterback--are out this week. There will likely be a lot of freshmen playing for the Mavericks. This may be a good opportunity for the Sioux to get the running game going a little bit. Not that I'm advocating abandoning the pass, which is clearly the Sioux's bread and butter offensively, but Mankato is giving up 190 yards a game on the ground. I would think Roland and Strouth should be able to find some running lanes. I'm hoping that the revenge factor from last year's inexplicable loss at home will overcome any post-NDSU letdown this week.

In this Greeley newspaper article, their a.d. claims the expenses will be about $10,000. link I'm not sure I believe that it won't be far more than that. In any event, look at it this way: Even if there's a $25,000 guarantee and it was ALL profit (which, of course it is not), that would be roughly the equivalent of a home game with a crowd of 2,500 with an average ticket price of $10 (the current average reserved ticket price at NDSU for basketball). At UNC, that would be huge because they typically average a few hundred people for home games. But at UND or NDSU, that's pretty much an average home crowd. Considering a fledgling dI school can expect far fewer home games than usual, you would need a pretty large number of these guarantee games just to make up for the loss of revenue from the fewer home games.