UND92,96

I acknowledge there's probably not much downside, but I doubt there's going to be any real practice time, either. Maybe a walk-through today, and another tomorrow night in Omaha. It's just a bit hard to get too excited about playing in the same tournament for the fourth year in a row, and with a severely depleted and fatigued team, to boot. But for a team like UNO, who wasn't even eligible to play in its own conference tournament, and who hasn't played in two and a half weeks, it's probably a great thing.

I tend to agree that IF Webb, Nash and Schuler are all out, it may be have been prudent to simply decline the invitation. There is speculation that both UNI and Montana may have turned down invites.

Yes.

That seems to be a popular sentiment, and I understand it to an extent given the history of 12's vs. 5's, but NDSU hasn't beaten anybody with an RPI of higher than 67 this year, and OU is at 25, so it's going to probably take their best game, plus an off game by the Sooners.

I hesitate to even contribute to this thread, but what has been difficult to accept is that two years ago, UND beat Montana (Big Sky tournament champion), SDSU (Summit tournament champion) and NDSU (with four of the same starters as this year's Summit tournament champion). The future looked very bright given the fact that the team was nearly all sophomores. But for a variety of reasons, most notably the loss of Brekke for most of the last two years, an inability to ever really replace Patrick Mitchell, a series of in some cases freak injuries (Huff's jaw last year, Schuler missing a total of 16 games in the past two seasons, Webb going down in this year's Big Sky tournament, etc.) and other various unfortunate circumstances (Traylor missing most of last year due to academics and Nash having to sit out a year when many other similarly situated players were given immediately eligibility upon transferring), UND was really never able to be at full strength. So now we're left to wonder what might have been.

That seems pretty unlikely, having USD as a higher seed than UND. UND's RPI is presently 89, whereas USD is at 136.

UND's rash of injuries the past few years has been borderline absurd.

Official capacity is 3300. There is absolutely no way the place was only about 60% full. It was at least 80% full, and probably more.

Webb will try to play tonight.

You can watch the De La Salle game now on midco channel 322.

Very proud of the women's team. I am going to be honest enough to say I had some concerns after last season. But Brewster deserves major kudos for turning things around so quickly. Maybe the most impressive thing is that of the eight-person rotation, how many were really highly-recruited? Not many. Loyd in particular turned out to be a complete steal.

If I'm not mistaken, all four Dakota division I schools have earned at least one trip to the NCAA men's or women's basketball tournament within two years of being eligible. That's pretty impressive.

Not that I ever thought it would get to this point, but this is precisely why I never thought Hooker would red shirt. As much as it will sting to be minus those two, at least we're not yet in a position of having to play somebody completely out of position, or somebody who has barely played all year.

Definitely. Evers will of course be good in her role again next season, but who is going to platoon with her like Wall has done? And Evers only has one more year of eligibility.

Interesting question. In terms of what it means for the program, probably yes. On the other hand, I don't want to completely overlook how huge some of the games during the Jackson era probably were.

Not to open up a big can of worms, but I'm still bitter Hyslop wasn't renovated and retained as the home of UND basketball. I loved that place.

Is this game televised in the GF area on the same channel as the MN state hockey tournament?

Agreed. She should step right into the rotation next year. Hopefully the expected return of Lauck and the addition of Strand will somewhat offset the lost scoring of Buck.

I also thought the crowd was bigger than the reported number yesterday. In any event, the difference between a Friday afternoon and Saturday afternoon, not to mention the increased stakes today, should add up to a much, much bigger crowd. I expect well over 2000, and a nearly full house would not be too surprising. It's been seven years since we've seen a game of even remotely comparable magnitude at the Betty.

Heard a pretty amazing stat today--barring some kind of shocking at-large selection, all of Indiana's 10 division I men's teams have been eliminated from NCAA tournament consideration. I wonder if that's happened before since the tournament expanded to 64?

A bit of a fluke, but they did play pretty well down the stretch. They very nearly lost in the quarter finals of the tournament, but a last-second 3 won it.

I don't think it was announced today.

Madi Buck selected as Big Sky player of the year. Emily Evers co-winner of 6th-player of the year. Kelsey Knox newcomer of the year.

Not Big Sky related, but a big upset in Sioux Falls this afternoon--USD knocked off SDSU in the Summit semi's.