UND92,96

You're talking out of both sides of your mouth if you think Lennon is mediocre and that Rocky was somehow better. Let's review Rocky's last four seasons at NDSU: 1993 7-3 (lost to UND) 1994 9-3 (lost twice to UND) 1995 10-3 (1-1 against UND) 1996 6-4 (lost to UND) Looks like pretty Babich-like numbers, don't they? Even you would have to admit that 1-5 against UND over his final four years wasn't sitting too well with Bison fans. Had he continued to lose to the Sioux for another year or two, he may have been canned even if he hadn't been feuding with Entzion. For whatever reason, some Bison fans seem to forget that by the end, Rocky's teams weren't overly successful, and were downright bad against the Sioux.

Just out of curiosity, when was the last year that NDSU fans DIDN'T think they had a great class, at least at the time? Obviously not all of them have panned out--the class of 2001 in particular was pretty poor--but every year that I can recall we have heard from Babich and read in the Forum about how great the class supposedly was. Since the success has been relatively modest since the last NCC title, it kind of makes you wonder whether the talent was just overrated, or the coaching was just that deficient.

Mike Martz has hired Bob Babich as linebackers coach of the Rams, according to the Rams website. I imagine most NDSU fans are glad to be rid of him, but announcing it the day before signing day is not exactly ideal.

I'll say 21, with the following breakdown: 8 from ND 6 from MN 3 from WI 1 from SD 2 from CO 1 from MB

As a follow-up on the some of the potential recruits from Colorado, Bierbach (lb), Craft (db), Marsh (rb), Kennelly (ol) and Weeks (ol) were all named all-Colorado by the Denver Post and/or the Rocky Mountain News. Since I believe these teams are picked from all the combined classes of high school football in CO, these players are evidently in pretty elite company. The other players mentioned by star2city were either all-state in 5-A (the largest class) or honorable mention in the cases of Johnson and Kluever. Bierbach, Craft and Marsh in particular sound like outstanding prospects. If UND can sign any of these guys, they will have done very well in Colorado in my opinion.

Offensive lineman Andrew Pratt (Platt?), who had been considering UND and others, is apparently going to the Air Force Academy. Also, UND is still in the running for all-state linebacker Brad McCamy from Mahtomedi. update from Star Tribune on MN h.s. players

Three more recruits have verbally committed to the Sioux according to the Milwaukee Journal. Andy White, an OLB-DE from Arrowhead, Duane Wenzel, a safety from Janesville Parker, and Andy Soll, an offensive lineman from Fon du Lac. UND recruits from Wisconsin I haven't found much on White, but Wenzel and Soll have very good credentials. Wenzel was named to at least three different all-state first teams, and Soll to two. Wenzel is also a very good hurdler and triple jumper in track.

tony- How about this little gem which can be found on your website?: "There has been some muttering (can a person whine and mutter at the same time?) up in Grand Forks that UND wasn't going to play NDSU next year because they are flouncing mad over this, that, and the other thing. Like almost everything wafting down from UND's direction, this rumor has the smell of bull crap. NDSU is still in the NCC for one more year and UND can't pick and choose which NCC teams they're going to play." Please enlighten us as to where or from whom you supposedly heard about this rumor.

According to the GF Herald, Troy Ott, a 6-5, 210 pound receiver from Dickinson has verbally committed to UND. Ott is a pretty good all-around athlete. He's a good basketball player and qualified for the state track meet in the 800 meters last spring.

Another ND recruit for the Sioux. Defensive lineman Nick Bonnet from state champion West Fargo has verbally committed to UND according to Pat Sweeney on the 5:00 sports. It's getting to be quite a pipeline from Jay Gibson's team to UND with Ryan Grant, Ross Brennan, Caleb Johnson, Steve Brennan and now Bonnet all having signed with the Sioux the past 3-4 years.

Actually I do follow the hoops teams very closely, but I will acknowledge that reasonable minds could differ with regard to whether the men have much of a chance of reaching the post-season without winning the conference tournament. I kind of lost faith after losing 3 of the last 4 games, including what I consider to be an inexplicable home loss to a team with exactly one good player and no size to speak of, a.k.a. NDSU. I felt quite confident that this was going to be THE year for UND men's basketball and it has turned out to be a disappointment. I agree that the Sioux are more than capable of beating anybody in the league, but by the same token they are just as capable of losing to anyone. As much as I like Rich Glas as a person, I do agree with you. Case in point was the fact that against NDSU, a simple zone defense basically shut down the offense. Each team had one great player, and they double and triple teamed ours, while we played man to man against there's, even at the end of the game when they were just clearing out half the floor and letting Tenbroek go one on one. That's not good coaching. Miles isn't exactly a coaching genious in my opinion, but at least he was smart enough to make someone other than Beasley beat them, particularly down the stretch. Unfortunately, Rich didn't make somebody other than Tenbroek beat us.

In my opinion, whether or not UND has to forfeit any games makes no practical difference because it's quite apparent the Sioux will not make the post-season either way. This may be a bigger issue if UND were sitting at 18-1 right now and had a legitimate chance at an at-large tournament bid, but they do not. The only chance the Sioux have for the post-season would be to win the conference tournament, in which case the non-conference forfeits would make no real difference anyway due to the automatic bid. As for Bancheedog, he/she evidently is interested in this matter because Southwest St. would stand to get another victory if forfeits are forthcoming. However, similar to UND, Southwest St.'s overall record is pretty mediocre either way so I fail to see how it would particularly benefit their post-season chances. If they make the post-season, they will likely have to win the NSIC tournament and get the automatic bid. Again, if they were sitting with a better overall record and had a good chance for an at-large bid this may be a bigger issue, but I don't see how having 6 instead of 7 losses right now would make a huge difference in the scheme of things, particularly when a win over UND isn't going to be all that impressive to the regional committee now anyway due to the fact that the Sioux are not doing particularly well. For what it's worth, I don't believe any penalty has been assessed yet to Northern Colorado for their use of an ineligible quarterback for 3 or 4 games, so I wouldn't expect any sort of prompt decision by the NCAA as to potential forfeits.

Gearman sounds like a very interesting prospect. He was first team AP all-state in MN, has excellent size for a receiver, caught 13 td's and averaged 17 yards per catch as a senior. It sounds like he could potentially be a great player. According to mnpreps.com, Minnesota is recruiting him along with the Sioux, St. Cloud St. and San Jose St. (among others). Hopefully the fact that there are 3 or 4 other players from Alexandria on the team will help UND land him.

I found these numbers on Stewart: Rushed for 1129 yards for an average of 10.3 (!) yards per carry and 23 tds; caught 1 td pass and returned a kick for a td; had 103 total tackles and 5 sacks. Other than that, he didn't do much.

According to today's Herald, 6-6, 300 pound lineman Brett Bauer from Dickinson has verbally committed to UND.

If Jacobson and Austin both transfer in, along with freshman Doyle and returnees Brandt, M. Johnson, Lindahl, Bradley, etc., that's a lot of 3-point shooters! Rypkema, if he continues to show improvement, should really benefit from defenses having to concentrate on the perimeter.

Kevin Fee's take on the Allen saga: KEVIN FEE COLUMN

I wonder if Myron Allen has any football background? I assume he would still have college eligibility in sports other than basketball. Chris Weinke played 6 or 7 years of minor league baseball before going to Florida State for football. Tim Dwight came back to Iowa to compete in one last year of track after his rookie year in the NFL. With Allen's athletic ability, I'm sure Dale Lennon would give him a shot. I know it's a longshot, but it would be a chance to earn a partial scholarship, continue his education, and compete in college athletics for at least one more year.

Myron Allen has been found permanently ineligible by the NCAA. UND is appealing. Apparently no games will be forfeited. I feel bad for Allen. While this situation is clearly his fault, a poor decision made four years ago for which he received practically no compensation has cost him a great deal. Whether the punishment fits the violation or not depends upon your point of view, but it is pretty unfortunate for all involved nonetheless.

For what it's worth, I checked out the home non-conference basketball schedules and attendance figures for Montana, Montana State and Northern Iowa and here's what I found: Montana played Northern Iowa, Denver, Gonzaga, Montana Tech and Southern Utah this year. Montana State played Winthrop, Great Falls, Dickinson (N.D.) State, South Carolina State, Siena and Portland (not to be confused with Portland State). Northern Iowa played Wayne (Neb.) State, Wisconsin-Green Bay and Iowa State. In my opinion, out of those three schools' home non-conference schedules, the only interesting games were Montana's game against ex-Big Sky member Gonzaga, and Northern Iowa's game with its in-state neighbor Iowa State. If schools who have been division I for many years have this much trouble getting quality opponents to go there, I would have to assume that UND or NDSU would have even more difficulty. I don't doubt that it is very possible to play quality opponents on the road, but I'm not sure that translates into much fan interest, particularly if those games are lost with great regularity. With regard to attendance, I was unable to find Montana State's numbers for last year, but Montana averaged about 3600 per game, and Northern Iowa averaged 3400. Those numbers are very much in line with the NCC schools. It therefore appears very questionable whether membership in division I would necessarily translate into a substantial increase in ticket sales. I'm not necessarily trying to say that going division I is definitely a bad thing--merely that it does not necessarily mean a substantially better home basketball schedule or bigger crowds.

According to Pat Sweeney on the 5:00 sports, there were "further discussions" between UND and the NCAA today, but thus far no decision has been rendered.