UND92,96

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.