UND92,96

USD has had some problems turning the ball over this year, so the UND defense needs to get some take-aways. Also, the Coyotes haven't been particularly successful throwing the ball as they're last in the NCC in passing. Considering that the UND defense has been struggling a bit against the pass, hopefully we can get the ship righted a little bit in that regard. Offensively, I would like to see more of an effort to get Strouth to the perimeter. He's got excellent speed and quickness, but at 165 pounds it seems a bit pointless to run him much between the tackles. He's by far the best big-play threat of all the Sioux running backs. Also, Mielke has shown that he can be a pretty big-time tight end. He made a great catch against UNO where he went up over the db. He should be thrown to at least 3-4 times a game if not more.

I'm not sure that's an accurate barometer of how college hockey would do in a particular state. I suspect that the Nebraska High School Activities Assoc. doesn't sponsor high school hockey either, but it has done very well at UNO and the support for its USHL teams has been very impressive.

I never missed a home game because of the weather, and I kind of enjoyed watching some of the opposing teams struggle with the cold and wind. But I also realize that no matter what we say, most people are going to stay away if the temps are in the 20's or 30's, and especially if the wind is blowing and it's raining or snowing. Remember the playoff game against Mankato back in '93? It was great for those of us who were there, but there weren't too many of us. And I think the players deserve to be playing in big games in front of decent-sized crowds. The only way to ensure that is to be playing indoors. Given a choice between disappointing some of the hard-core fans who may not necessarily like indoor football but who will still attend the games anyway, or turning off the masses who won't attend games if it's cold, there isn't much question which of the two alternatives an athletic department is going to choose.

The top five are unchanged this week: Midwest 1. North Dakota (8-1) 2. Emporia State (8-1) 3. Winona State (8-1) 4. Pittsburg State (8-1) 5. North Dakota State (7-2) 6. Central Missouri State (8-1) 7. Nebraska-Omaha (7-3) 8. Minnesota Duluth (7-2) 9. Concordia-St. Paul (7-2) 10. Missouri Western State (6-3)

Maybe lawkota meant that the student turnout by NDSU students at the NDSU vs. USD game on Saturday was poor?

I have some great memories of watching games at Memorial, but I also remember pivotal late-season and even playoff games where the crowd was about 2,000 or less because of the weather, slippery artificial turf after a snowfall and prior to that, completely torn-up natural turf, antiquated rest rooms and uncomfortable metal or wood bench seats. I would agree that in most parts of the country, outdoor football on natural grass is the only way to go. But here, it's awfully tough to play outdoors much after mid-to-late October if you want to play in front of a decent-sized crowd. The Alerus has its flaws, too. But by most accounts, it has helped in recruiting and it has definitely helped with the size of the crowds-- especially during cold weather.

I'm surprised that the Fighting Sioux Sports Network televised this game (and the St. Cloud game) locally. Clearly, it doesn't help ticket sales. It would be nice if a road game were televised for a change, but I doubt we'll see that anytime soon.

I don't mean to sound too negative after a win, but was anyone else as upset as I was when Lennon chose to punt on 4 and inches from the UNO 47 (approximately) with a few minutes left and a seven point lead? The Sioux defense wasn't playing well, and there was always the threat of the blocked punt. Sure enough, UNO did drive for the game-tying touchdown immediately after the punt. I could see putting the game in the hands of the defense if the defense had been playing well, but under the circumstances I would have preferred to let the offense try to convert the first down and hopefully run out the clock. My heart was in my throat on every punt.

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.