UND92,96

I completely agree that the regional committee should not be able to hold the whole Allen situation against UND when it is selecting teams. My concern is based on the fact that this rumor about how it MAY be used against the Sioux has been mentioned by Rich Glas, the UNO coach in the Omaha paper, and in more than one article in the Forum. Of course, since NDSU and UNO might benefit from such a ruling, it probably shouldn't come as a surprise that they are floating that idea around at every opportunity. The committee would have a credibility problem in my opinion by jumping NDSU, USD, UNO (if they lose tonight), etc. over UND because IF they were going to somehow penalize UND for the Allen situation, then they should have just been up front about it and not been including UND in the rankings at all to this point. It's not like this just now became known. Also, the criteria about considering the availability of players was clearly adoped in the event that a star player should go down with an injury late in the year. For example, had Jerome Beasley been injured against UNO, then I'm certain that this would have been a consideration used against the Sioux. I DON'T think this criteria has any relevance to Allen's absence. Finally, while the make-up of the committee is different from the football regional committee, I think it's relevant that UNC was not penalized for their use of an ineligible quarterback for three games and was chosen for the playoffs.

The men really need St. Cloud to knock off Omaha tonight, and for Northern State to win the NSIC tournament. I have a feeling that the RMAC will get four teams in and the NCC is only going to get three teams into the playoffs. St. Cloud and SDSU are locks from the NCC which probably leaves only one spot. If Omaha happens to beat St. Cloud, the Sioux are in big trouble and I don't believe they'll make the field. While it's certainly possible that the Myron Allen situation will be used against the Sioux (seven wins with an ineligible player), I don't believe that the committee can do what the NCAA itself did not do, i.e. count those games as forfeits. UND probably has the third-best credentials among the NCC teams, played very well down the stretch (aside from Tuesday's game) and obviously did finish third in the conference without Allen. While it's not technically a criteria used by the committee in selecting teams for post-season, these are the records of teams on the bubble (including UNO, Northern St. and Fort Lewis if they don't win the conference tournament and get an automatic bid) against dII opponents: UND 17-8 UNO 15-9 (pending the outcome of SCSU game) NDSU 16-11 Northern 17-7 (but only 1-4 against the NCC) Fort Lewis 18-9 UND does have the head-to-head advantage against Northern St. and UNO. I'm not including USD due to their lengthy late-season losing streak, but I guess they are also conceivably on the bubble.

I don't think the two are mutually exclusive. Why not educate students as to what is and what is not appropriate behavior, while at the same time moving them from immediately behind the opposing team's bench so that those who aren't willing to be educated can't do as much damage?

The bottom line to me is that if the seats immediately behind the opposing team's bench are reserved for fans of that school--as is done at UND--you don't have anywhere near these kinds of problems. If somebody is heckling you from 50 or 100 feet away, that's one thing. But when that person is 5-10 feet away and practically in the coach's face, it's a little different. I imagine if a large group of UND students were sitting 5 feet behind Amy Ruley, things would get pretty ugly, too. Fortunately, UND reserves that section for fans of the visiting team. I don't think it's too much to ask for NDSU to do the same.

According to Tuesday's Herald, 6'0" forward Lindsay Draayer of Owatonna, Minnesota has given the UND women a verbal commitment. However, according to the SDSU website, she signed a letter of intent with them back in November. Does anybody know what the deal is?

UND recruit Aaron Austin is having quite a year at Fergus Falls Community College. They won the Minnesota state tournament over the weekend, with Austin going for 33 in the title game against Minneapolis Community and Technical College. Austin was also named tournament MVP. Fergus is now 27-1 on the year. Coming into the tournament, Austin was averaging 21 points, 2.5 steals, and 5.4 assists per game, and he scored well above his average during the tournament. He's going to have a big impact for the Sioux next year.

All I can say is that my personal enjoyment of reading posts on this site is greatly enhanced by NOT reading anything written by JBB. Not that it's any of my business, but for what it's worth I would have absolutely no problem with the moderator of an NDSU site banishing a UND equivalent of JBB, otherwise known as a "bizarro" JBB for any Seinfeld fans out there.

Is that really the best you can come up with? The old "yeah, but what about what YOU did" response? If you think that two allegations of racial taunts at NDSU games in one year isn't a cause for criticism, then I guess that's your prerogative, misguided as it may be. I don't think anyone has said that all UND fans are saints. Not that it has any relevance to the issue of racial slurs at NDSU games.

A very gutty win by the UND men tonight in Fargo. Beasley was his typical self, Brandt played like the Brandt of old, and Porter and Mike Johnson were both solid. What can you say about Jade Jahner? He played his best game as a Sioux. UND is now 7-1 in the second half of the NCC schedule. No question the Sioux are the hottest team in the NCC right now. I only watched the game on TV, but it certainly seemed like the crowd was pretty obnoxious (see star2city's post in another thread and the Forum article). And while Cofield is a pretty good player, his urging of the crowd to make noise during UND free throws was not exactly the epitome of sportsmanship. If playoff berths were handed out tonight, it looks like the seedings might be something like this: 1. Nebraska-Kearney 2. St. Cloud 3. Metro St. 4. SDSU 5. UND 6. Fort Hays 7. Northern St. (or whomever wins the NSIC tournament) 8. either NDSU or the 4th place team from the RMAC As for the UND women, the word "choke" certainly comes to mind again. I have lost all faith in their ability to hold a lead. When you're up three with only a few seconds to go, why not foul instead of giving up a three-point shot? I'd rather take my chances of getting the rebound off the missed free throw than hope the three-pointer doesn't go in.

It should be pointed out that Central dismantled Grafton even though Jacques Lamoureux--arguably the Knights top offensive player during the regular season--didn't play for most of the game. He suffered a broken wrist early in the second period. It's hard to judge teams from different eras, but there are a lot of knowledgable hockey people who say this year's Central team is as good as they've seen in a long time. It's hard to believe that Phil Lamoureux, who I believe would have been a senior at Central this year, and Kasey Moreland are the same age. Has any high school school ever produced two division I-caliber goalies from the same class?

I know a lot of Bison fans wanted Bradley, but he has no head coaching experience nor any division I experience. Plus, although Babich was the obvious scapegoat for last season's debacle and the lack of a title of any kind since 1994, I believe Bradley was on the staff for Babich's entire tenure and thus has to shoulder at least some responsibility for the recent failings and/or underachievement, as well. Plus, as the assistant head coach under Babich, he has to take at least a little of the blame for a couple of lackluster recruiting classes in recent years which played a role in last year's 2-8 record and the necessity to take the red-shirts off far too many true freshman.

He's averaging 6.5 ppg, down from 14.5 ppg last year. I'm sure he's got a lot of potential or he wouldn't have been ranked in the top 10 college prospects in the state of Wisconsin. But I can't help but be a little concerned about such a large drop-off in scoring from his junior year to his senior year. On the other hand, put him on a high school team in ND or even any other team in Wisconsin besides King and maybe he's averaging 20 per game.

Here's what I've been able to gather on Costa Rica native Franklyn Ferguson: 6'6" 240 pounds; Led Mon-Dak Conference in scoring at 23.5/game; Very strong and athletic; Only a freshman at Lake Region but is 25 years old; Had 26 points and 7 boards last night against NDSCS; As star2city mentioned, he is not eligible to go division I so he'll likely end up at a division II school; Kentucky Wesleyan wants him badly, as do numerous other dII's. If he decides to leave Lake Region early, it sounds like he would really fill a need for the Sioux. At present, there are no returning post players who have much bulk or strength. Recruit Mike Gutter is apparently pretty strong as well, but I wouldn't be surprised if he red-shirts next season.

Does anyone know whether Glas and/or Roebuck plan to sign anyone in the spring signing period? I think Roebuck should consider signing another power forward/center since Boll is graduating and recruit Val Sannes is questionable for next year with a serious knee injury. I like the potential front line of Leighton, Boese and Demaine, but depth looks questionable if Sannes isn't able to play. Plus, Leighton and Demaine will be seniors next year. Hopefully, red-shirt Jami Glick will be able to contribute next season also. As for the men, another power forward/center and possibly a juco point guard would seem to be possibilities. Obviously the wing spots appear very solid and deep with Brandt, M. Johnson, Austin and Jacobson. Jahner has seen his playing time dwindle so I'm not sure he's the answer at the point. I like Steve Bradley but it's questionable whether he could defend the quicker point guards. Recruit Josh Doyle is supposed to be one of the better players in Iowa and an excellent offensive player. It's possible he could play as a true freshman. I think Rypkema will be one of the better post players in the NCC next season. He'd probably start at many NCC schools right now. 6'11" guys with coordination and a nice shooting touch are pretty rare commodities in division II (or even in low to mid-level division I). Evan Lindahl has shown flashes of being an excellent offensive player. I'd love to see a wide-body post scorer, even if he's not all that tall. I have heard that the guy at Lake Region (Ferguson?) is a pretty good prospect but I'm not sure whether he's being recruited heavily by UND or not. Supposedly dII power Kentucky Wesleyan really wants him.

I believe that 2 or 3 other North Dakotans have announced plans to walk-on at UND (their names escape me), but to the best of my knowledge no other recruits have signed letters of intent.

It was a huge choke. I haven't been that disappointed since...well...last year's choke to Southwest State in the tournament. It's hard to believe a good home team can shoot well over 50%, out-rebound the opponent by 12, have four players in double-figures scoring, have an 11-point lead with 4:52 remaining, and still find a way to lose. On the other hand, the men seem to be coming around nicely. I never thought I'd say this, but I actually think the men have a better chance of making noise in the tournament (if they make it) than the women do. If Brandt can ever regain his 3-point touch, this team will be extremely difficult to beat. I just wish Glas would stick with a lineup of Beasley, M. Johnson, Walker, Brandt and Porter. Very few NCC teams have more than one big guy on the floor at one time so I don't think the lack of a true power forward would be a problem.

I have come to the conclusion that the committee can do pretty much whatever it wants. With at least 6 different criteria for them to consider in no particular order of priority, they can probably somewhat justify their rankings no matter what order the top 6 teams are in. For whatever it's worth, according to my calculations UND has the advantage over Kearney in overall s.o.s. even factoring in last night's game, but Kearney has the advantage within the region at present. It's unknown whether overall s.o.s. counts for more than that within the region. They are both listed as factors to be considered. Kearney's problem overall is that they are fairly heavily penalized by the fact that two of their losses are pretty bad. I don't believe they get any points for a loss to a non-division I or II team, and they have a loss to a sub-.500 division II opponent (3 points). Kearney's three losses therefore count for a total of nine points, compared to UND's three losses counting for 21 points. UND still has the opportunity to earn big points with a possible win over USD (14 points), a possible road win at NDSU (17 points), plus possibly two games in the NCC tournament against teams with a greater than .750 winning percentage. If by chance UND were to run the table (I'm not necessarily saying they will), the Sioux would appear to have a fairly substantial advantage over Kearney in both overall and within the region s.o.s. even if Kearney doesn't lose again.

I certainly wish Dykema well, but I really hope he didn't commit to Mary just because his girlfriend happens to go there. I don't ever recall a kid from North Dakota who was heavily recruited by either UND or NDSU choose to go to a DAC-10 school instead.

A few other points regarding the NCC vs. the RMAC in womens hoops: NCC is 15-5 against the RMAC this season, with all 5 losses by league also-rans UNC and UNO; NCC all-time NCAA tournament record is 94-59, with 8 championships; RMAC all-time NCAA tournament record is a stellar 3-14, including Kearney's all-time record of 3-7. One of the problems is that due to the location of the RMAC, they don't play many non-conference intra-region games other than against UNC. Obviously, UNC is not indicative of the strength of the NCC and this skews the head-to-head records between the respective conferences. Unfortunately, the futility of the RMAC in past tournaments is apparently not held against them although it probably should. There was absolutely no way to justify allowing Mesa St. to host last season, and there certainly was no way the RMAC should have gotten three teams in the tournament compared to the NCC's two. Mesa hadn't beaten anyone outside the pathetic RMAC and they promptly lost at home against the first non-RMAC team they faced in the tournament. It's the same this year with Kearney. They haven't beaten anyone of note either. Who cares if they go undefeated in the league if the league isn't any good? Let's see how they would do going to GF, Fargo, Brookings and Vermillion. They would go 0-4 and probably all would be blow-outs.

Nice wins by the Sioux last night--particularly by the women. They really took it to the soon-to-be-former-number-1 team in division II. What a difference two weeks makes. To go from losing by 16 to winning by 24. And the game really wasn't even as close as the final score would indicate since about 10 points came off the lead in the last few minutes when UND put the deep reserves in. Although it is run-down and decrepit, you can't argue with the home-court advantage that Hyslop provides. After last night, that's a combined 62 games in a row won there by the men and women! As much as I love Engelstad and watching hockey there, playing basketball there isn't a great idea in general because there isn't the same familiarity by the Sioux players and because 3,500 people sound a lot louder in the smaller venue. It's like giving away the home-court advantage. Just my opinion.

That's what I'm assuming. I haven't seen anything about it in the Bismarck paper. I'm not sure when NAIA schools announce their signings.