UND92,96

He's out: http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/265139/

There is going to be a lot more new home construction in Grand Forks in the next few years, and barring a big shift in the boundaries it will only make the disparity between the two high schools even more glaring. You can't continue to have the two mega-elementary schools in town (soon three) completely in the RR district, as that is a big part of the problem. My kids go to Kelly. I completely understand that it wouldn't necessarily be popular at first to switch from a north-Central/south-RR split to an east-Central/west-RR split, but I don't see how else you can effect significant change. I'm sure the plan now is to simply shift the boundary a few blocks south in an attempt to compensate for all the new construction in the south end. As we've seen over the past few decades, that just doesn't work if fairness is the goal. The big unknown to me is whether the large disparity in extra-curricular achievement is also seen in academic achievement. I suppose people can make the argument that if it's only sports where one sees a big achievement gap, it's not enough of a reason to make a radical change. But if a similar disparity is seen in test scores, college attendance, etc., that makes for a far more compelling argument, and "tradition" as a reason to keep the status quo no longer carries much weight.

I might be in favor of that if the boundaries were changed to something more equitable, i.e. everybody east of Washington goes to Central and everybody west of Washington goes to Red River (I realize that would probably have to be tweaked somewhat to roughly equalize enrollments). But simply doing away with open enrollment without doing anything to the boundaries would not do much to equalize things. Actually, Central would probably have been worse off over the years, as it has probably benefitted from it more than RR, at least in hockey, i.e. the Lamoureux's, Jake Marto, Luke Johnson, etc.

With the school year now over and Red River having experienced another very good year in athletics while Central mostly struggled again, I wanted to revisit this topic. I can't help but compare Grand Forks to Bismarck--similar size, two public high schools with one quite old and one far less so, etc., but whereas in GF the "new" school has come to completely dominate the old school virtually across the board in athletics, in Bismarck the old school seems to generally be the dominant one. So my question is: why is the situation in Bismarck so different? For one thing, I'm guessing that unlike in GF, Bismarck's boundary lines aren't drawn in such a way that 90% of the new construction over the past 30 years has occurred in the "new" school's district.

It always perplexes me how Sioux Falls media types apparently expected UND to leave football on an island, and join the Summit a few years back, all for the sake of putting the band back together...

What about football? Are you assuming that an MVFC invite was/is a given? I don't. And that's not a risk UND, or any other school in a similar position, could afford to take unless they were going to go the UNO route and drop football altogether.

Besides Klancher starting a few games when Wagner was injured, I'm not aware of a freshman starting at quarterback at UND, period.

I watched the spring game online, and Mussman said he just had surgery recently but is expected to be ready for the upcoming season.

Personally, I don't have a huge problem with Jones' current pay, or where he ranks relative to the rest of the Big Sky. If UND has as good of a year next year as expected, he'll get a large raise. I also had no problem whatsoever with Roebuck making significantly more than did Jones, even though having the women's coach paid more than the men's coach is highly unusual, given their respective accomplishments and length of service. But once Roebuck retired, and the decision was made to promote Brewster rather than conducting a national search, it seems to me that it may have made some sense to simply start Brewster at roughly the same pay level as Jones. It seems doubtful that Brewster was in a position to demand to be paid at roughly the same level Roebuck was; and/or to be paid significantly more than Jones.

Here's kind of an interesting NY Times article on the subject: http://www.nytimes.c...?pagewanted=all

If I were Jones, I'd be more than a little irritated about the fact that Brewster, in his first year as head coach, made a significantly higher salary than me: http://www.grandfork...ary comparison/

I agree. Clearly he's a capable and proven OC, and this would provide a measure of continuity, particularly for the young quarterbacks.

Considering their unlikely sweet 16 run, it's interesting to look back on the fact that one of Hooker's many offers was from Florida Gulf Coast.

Should be fun. I'm really happy for the team to get to play another game, and the fact that it's against Jake AND that it's Jones' alma mater makes it all the better. Jones (UNI grad) vs. Jacobson (UND grad).

Totally agree. Last night was probably the biggest game UND has played in years, and with so much on the line Anderson and Webb played 36 and 39 minutes, respectively. Antwi only played 7, and Benton 6. What that tells me is that while Antwi and Benton were certainly valuable contributors during the season, in a one-and-done situation Jones wasn't willing to give them a lot of time. With Hooker, I think he potentially provides that third option at guard, and Anderson and Webb won't need to log quite so many minutes, which will hopefully make them even more effective.

To be perfectly frank, if Hooker isn't good enough to supplant a couple of the current bench players, then he's probably not as good as advertised. And I believe he is as good as advertised. The best players will play, regardless of age or seniority.

I definitely think Nash will have an impact, but what concerns me is his lack of bulk, and the fact that he's never really been a big rebounder at any level. He has some height, and apparently tremendous leaping ability, but hopefully he can put on 10-15 pounds or more in the off season because at 185 I'm not sure he'll be able to withstand physical play in the paint for 20-30 minutes every game.

Just wondering which newcomer/relative newcomer people think will have the biggest impact next year: Nash, Traylor, Hooker, Salmonson or some yet-to-be-signed player? I'm going with Hooker. He is averaging over 23 ppg, and led his team to a state tournament berth last night. I think he could have a pretty big impact while backing up Anderson and/or Webb.

Even if Traylor does not regain his eligibility, perhaps a lineup with both Brekke and Nash would be effective, with either Salmonson or some other new juco transfer as a backup at the 4-5 positions. My hope is that Nash can at least replace the production of Wilmer, but we will see. Wilmer far exceeded any realistic expectations this season.

Very proud of the effort tonight. Can't help but be excited for a possibly special season in 2013-14.

I think tonight was what many of us expected UND to be this year, before all the injuries took their toll. I'm just glad the team finally got healthy at the right time. Whatever happens tomorrow, at least we'll actually get to see whether UND can compete with one of the two best Big Sky programs when at close to full strength.

While I can't argue with at least questioning how UND matches up with the two top teams (should UND advance beyond the first game), it seems puzzling that the injuries weren't at least mentioned as a possible reason for some of the poorer performances. Huff was still nowhere near full strength and wasn't even starting yet at the time of the road Weber St. game, and Brekke didn't play at all. A relatively healthy UND team playing almost exclusively its top eight players could conceivably narrow the gap. Also, UND has proven to be one of the better road teams in the conference--which is something few of us could have ever predicted two months ago.

While obviously Jones is going to a high-major program, he does have a UND connection--his aunt is Darcy (Deutsch) Cascaes.

My concern is that Wayne Nelson tweeted something about him experiencing dizziness. Given how long Brekke was out after his concussion, I'm a little worried (not that we know whether Anderson actually suffered a concussion).

Good win, but more important is the prognosis for Anderson. If he's out for the next game, this win may turn out to be pyrrhic.