UND92,96

While all of what you wrote is true, I think recent history has shown that when former NCC schools have strong groups of juniors and seniors, they can win 20 plus games, and you're not going to do that without winning a few non-conference games on the road, or at least on a neutral court. SDSU won 27 and 25 games in Wolters' junior and senior years. NDSU won 26 this year. UNC won 21 a couple of years ago. Coming into the season, I had hoped UND could win 20 plus, but of course that didn't happen. Obviously it's extremely difficult to know how much of the failure to do so was due to Brekke's absence, and how much was due to other factors. In any event, it's very unfortunate because you only get a large and talented group of upper classmen so often. Who knows when it might happen again for UND.

The Hoffner saga has taken a surprising, and very awkward turn: http://www.footballs...kward-situation

I saw Robbins play in the state class B basketball tournament a few weeks ago, and he definitely looked heavier than 180. I'd say he was probably 210 or so.

Just nine offensive linemen participating in spring ball, too.

While they are in a little different situation given their football attendance, you can only pay an FCS football coach so much before it stops making financial sense, and I believe that number is around $300k to $350k. Basketball, on the other hand, can pay off pretty big if a conference can win a game or two in the tournament. That's how UNI pays Jake $500k, whereas Farley gets a little under $300k. If you look at UNI's overall budget, you'd never think they could afford to pay their coaches that much.

With the Smith hire, I believe this now means both SD division I schools pay their basketball coach more than their football coach. I suspect this is the norm among FCS football playing schools. My guess is that UND and NDSU could move in this direction in the not-too-distant future, too.

This brings up a point I've been wondering about. If USD could sign Smith under these circumstances, does it call into question whether some of the lengthy contract extensions Faison has handed out in recent years were really necessary? I know he was quoted in a Herald article last year saying something to the effect that he was doing this partly as a trade-off for the comparatively low salaries some of the UND coaches have had. But from the school's perspective that doesn't seem like a very smart move. For one thing, I don't think any of the coaches who were relatively underpaid had shown they were worth a lot more, nor were any of them being offered other jobs, at least as far as we know. For another thing, even with a lengthy contract, if the coach succeeds, he/she can still move onto greener pastures, meaning the contract didn't do anything for the school (e.g. Lennon). But if the coach doesn't live up to expectations, the school is still on the hook (e.g. Mussman buyout). Frankly, unless the coach has had a pretty long history of success, I'm not sure I'd ever want to extend a contract more than two years into the future. There's more to lose than to gain IMO.

I think the fear is that while the past two years certainly haven't been horrible, an overall .500 record should not be the standard to which we aspire in the good years, i.e. years with a strong group of upper classmen. And now with having to replace 80% of the scoring, how much of a regression should be expect? My feeling is that if Jones can approach .500 next season, that's pretty good under the circumstances. But if we see something like 8-24 and a finish in the bottom third of the Big Sky, you will almost have to start looking at the overall body of work and question whether he's capable of being better than a .500-type coach.

Looks he's actually under contract through 2016-17: http://collegebasket...asketball-coach With that in mind, maybe he really isn't on the hot seat. Although I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a lot of coaches who potentially last 10-plus years with a career sub-.500 record and no 20-win seasons, regardless of the circumstances.

Here's a factoid that would probably surprise a lot of people--in terms of tenure, Jones was 88th out of 351 division I men's basketball coaches as of June of 2013: http://d1scourse.typepad.com/blog/2013/06/a-look-at-current-division-i-basketball-coaching-tenures-from-1-to-351.html And of course, some departures have occurred since then, including Boots and Huus, meaning he's moved up a few more spots. Not that this has any bearing on anything, other than to prove that college basketball coaches don't typically stay in one place for very long. In that regard, I guess Jones has already beaten the odds.

Nice analysis. Question--who do you see as most likely to step up as the backup post? I am somewhat intrigued by O'Toole, although I've never seen her play. She seems to have some similarities to Evers. Or at least they had similar high school numbers, although O'Toole was playing against better competition in Minnesota 4A.

If everybody comes back, I'm thinking there may not be any scholarships left. But I could be wrong if there is more than one walk-on on the present roster.

I sure wish Buck had another year--what a player. Hopefully ND and/or northwest Minnesota can start producing more players like her. It used to be that way not so many years ago.

Another 14 seed had a good performance today. Wichita St. only lost to Penn St. by 6.

It's pretty interesting to compare UND's overall Great West winning percentage of 2010-11 and 2011-12, to its Big Sky record minus Weber St. and Montana. Excluding games against the two most successful Big Sky programs, UND has actually been more successful in the Big Sky than the Great West. I'd feel a lot better about it had UND had more success out of conference.

Does anybody know whether UND is recruiting Sydney Boike from Crookston? She's a junior, 5'11", and one of the leading scorers in the state at 23.5 ppg. I have not seen her play, but my understanding is that she is a very versatile player.

I agree Weber represented the Big Sky well. But most of the rest of the schools need to start winning more non-conference games. The Big Sky's non-conference winning percentage was among the lowest of all division I conferences this year, and obviously we know first-hand how much UND has struggled in that regard.

It's possible, but they were paying Buzz Williams $2.8 million a year. I have to think they'll be looking for, and can afford a bigger name.

Strand scored 45 points in the third place game today.

NDSU certainly got caught a bit of a break being in the region they are. If you have to play a 4-seed, better San Diego St. than Michigan St. Louisville or UCLA.

If I were a school considering a move to FBS, I'd take a long, hard look at what UMass has experienced. And that's a school with a long history of basketball success (and the money that goes with it).

The last two years, UND is 0-14 vs. non-conference opponents away from home (includes neutral court games). In that same stretch, UND is 13-12 vs. Big Sky opponents away from home. Does UND just play that much better away from home vs. Big Sky opponents, or is the Big Sky just not very good after the top team or two?

And DOWN goes Duke! 14-seed Mercer pulls the big upset!

I believe where the ball was dropped was the almost total failure to add high school recruits between the Huff-Anderson-Webb class, and the class coming in next year. I assume this was not part of a plan, but rather a reaction to not being able to sign the players they wanted, but it's hard to keep bringing in transfers year after year and expect it's going to work out. I have no idea how the staff failed to even take a flyer on a project big man in the past four years. Sometimes it works out (Wilmer).

Opinions will probably differ in terms of whether this info has any potential bearing whatsoever on UND, but I understand USD is possibly targeting Craig Smith as its next coach.