UND92,96

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.

According to the Bismarck Tribune online addition, Strasburg-Zeeland linebacker Brian Dykema has narrowed his college choices to UND and the University of Mary. He's considered one of the best college prospects in the state. Hopefully Bubba Schweigert's and Tommy Dosch's ties to Strasburg and Zeeland will help the Sioux land him as he is a good one.

According to today's Heraldo, Cavalier running back Alan Sundby has verbally committed to UND. Cavalier had a very nice team this year, and won the AA state title.

Probably more so than football, but maybe no more so than hockey. In basketball, you can have an underdog team that shoots lights-out, and in hockey you can have a hot goalie. Both of which can lead to upsets. However, in the case of recent UND mens basketball upsets, it has not seemed to be so much of a case of the underdog playing incredibly well as it has the Sioux playing incredibly bad. You just never see the UND women lose to a vastly inferior opponent.

I know Rich has his supporters who are behind him no matter what, and that's fine, but I think the majority of UND basketball fans feel his time has come and gone. I am a season ticket holder, and during last night's womens game there were many, many people sitting around me who felt the exact same way I do once we found out the men had managed to lose to UMC. While this isn't exactly a scientific poll, I would venture to say that a lot of people feel the same way. Let's put it this way, would Gene Roebuck lose to Crookston? Would Dale Lennon? Would Dean Blais lose to a team like Canisius? Highly unlikely. If you are a good program, there are certain teams you simply do not lose to under any circumstances. Glas has had three of these inexplicable losses during the past five years or so.

This may very well be the last straw for Rich Glas. A few years ago, I thought the home loss to a terrible Bemidji State team was the worst loss ever for UND basketball. Of course, that was until last year's Minot State debacle. Now, we may have a new low by losing a truly horrific basketball program that was winless until last night, and will be fortunate to beat anybody else this year other than maybe Morris. UND should be able to exclusively play its bottom 6 or 7 players and blow out Crookston. If a coach can't motivate his players to at least play hard--something they evidently didn't do last night--generally that coach is not around much longer.

I believe it's still available on Amazon.com. Unfortunately, vhs only.

I think UND has been extremely fortunate to have been able to hold on to its top coaches over the years. Dean Blais is probably the top college hockey coach in the country. Minnesota wanted him, but UND was able to step up to the plate and retain him. Gene Roebuck has won an astounding 85% of his games during his tenure at UND, including three national championships. You could probably count on one hand the number of college basketball coaches at any level with a higher career winning percentage. While it's not particularly fashionable to hire a male to coach a female team these days, I'm sure he could have left for many division I jobs over the years with his track record for success. Dale Lennon's accomplishments have been discussed extensively. Roger Thomas has stayed at UND as a head coach and now as a.d. for about 17 years with a good deal of success. One thing you have to say about UND is that there is a good deal of loyalty among many people in the athletic department. That's not to say that nobody has ever left for another job, or that one of the above named people won't leave for another school in the future. But it does seem like UND must be doing something right to retain good people for as long as they have.

This article appeared in the Sacramento Bee today: http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/colle...p-6514872c.html It doesn't look too good based on some of the alleged quotes from Lennon. A few things perplex me, though. If Sac St. funds 63 scholarships like they supposedly do, how can their football budget be only $1 million (compared to $2 million at UND with 36 scholarships)? Also, it says in the article that Sac St. lacks the modern facilities to compete for recruits. How likely is it that they will be upgraded anytime soon considering the tight budget they have? It seems pretty strange that Lennon would even consider going to a program that has always been, and will probably always be second-fiddle to UC-Davis in that market, has poor facilities, a low budget even by division II standards, and to work for a guy who was almost universally disliked while at UND. I'm sure Lennon would get a raise equal to at least what he's offered by Sac. St. if he stays. Is I-AA, even at a low level, and perhaps the weather of Cali enough to compensate for all the negatives that go along with this program?

Thanks for the info. I have long thought UND needed to get back into Canada for recruits. I don't think anybody else in the NCC is recruiting there, and there have been so many great Sioux football players from Canada. Unfortunately, since Lotysz, Schultz and Juhasz, the pipeline has dried up for some reason. The two players from ND who I hope the Sioux get are Drew Thomas from Red River and Brian Dykema from Strasburg. Drew's connection to UND is obvious. I have no idea where Dykema is looking, but he's an excellent linebacker prospect and he is from the old stomping grounds of Bubba Schweigert and Tommy Dosch so I would think UND may at least be in the running.