MafiaMan

I love it when people back up former "heroes" from their home state without knowing the facts. Fact: Phil Jackson couldn't care less about Williston, North Dakota Fact: Phil Jackson views the Sioux nickname as racist Fact: Phil Jackson won't be lobbying the NBA to schedule a game in North Dakota I swear, it's no different than Mike Modano of the Dallas Stars. There are still people here in Mpls/St Paul crying about how Modano loved it here and how he cried when he left. Then I show them the SI issue that came out several years later and he talks about how the players were thrilled to head to Dallas so they could play golf. He even chided the NHL about its decision to put a team back in Minnesota, saying that if it failed once, they should abandon the idea of ever thinking a team in Minnesota could last. Nice guy, just like Mr. Jackson.

I attended the western regional and can honestly say for all the talk I heard about Cornell, I was TERRIBLY disappointed when I saw them. Ohio State skated circles around the Big Red for the better part of the semi-final game. Cornell was big and slow. It took all of five minutes of watching that game for me to comment to my buddy "the only hope of a Minnesota-less Frozen Four is Ohio State." The shots on goal wouldn't have changed a bit had the game been played in upstate New York, Boston, or Berlin, for that matter. Cornell should have been licking their chops at having to face Minnesota coming off a tough OT game against Maine. Instead, Cornell looked like a bunch of high school kids playing the Gophers. They got what they deserved.

Grand Forks hosting the Frozen Four every year just like Omaha does for NCAA baseball? Omaha's population according to the 2000 census was over 390,000 people, slightly larger than that of Grand Forks, my friend. Add another 300,000 to the population of Fargo and you have Omaha. Hardly "small town" by comparison.

That's what happens in larger metropolitan areas, my friends. At the World Cup last September, I ran into several people in downtown St Paul who asked me "who are the Wild playing tonite?" as I walked down the street in my CCCP hockey jersey. In bigger cities, what might seem to be a major event is actually only a major event to a small amount of people. Obviously, pretty much everyone in a town of 44,000 people would know about the World Junior Tournament going on, but if you asked 3,000,000 people about an event that contained about 18,000 fans, most wouldn't have any idea.

Providence held the last of the small Frozen Fours back in 2000. If memory serves me right, you're talking about the difference between 11,000 seats in Providence vs 14,500 or 15,000 elsewhere. Take those 3,000 or 4,000 seats X $150 per Frozen Four ticket package X $300 hotel room (three nights) X all the food and beverages you can consume in three days of staying in the host city and, well, you get the point...

Interesting how the NCAA loves looking at attendance figures, yet the Kohl Center gets a regional? Anybody remember 1998 at the Dane County Coliseum? Yikes.

In a related story, PCM visited St Paul last weekend and returned home minus his 1979 Ford Pinto.

Thanks, Cratter. Dang reruns anyways.

Took the day off from work today and while watching "The Price is Right," I see a contestant called who is wearing a grey "SIOUX HOCKEY" hooded sweatshirt. I wasn't paying attention and really didn't have the volume turned up enough to hear the whole conversation, but I did hear Bob mention the University of North Dakota. The guy ended up being today's big winner...thought it was pretty funny. Did anyone else see today's episode? Anyone know the guy?

I would also venture to say that playing in a big city w/all the goings on has a lot to do with recruits picking Denver over Grand Forks. I wonder how many kids pondering Minnesota gave a second look to Denver because of their recent years' performance.

Nice pics, devsrule, but I'm offended by your nickname here on the board. I'm going to write my congressman and ask him to work to change it.

Take what you can get, greyeagle.

I am quite certain that that's Al Pearson to Babe's left.

I'm just teasing, Five-HoleFrenzy. "Cemetery" is a commonly mis-spelled word. I normally expect St Cloud State fans to make that mistake, not Gopher fans.

NorthDakotaHockey will be around for a while. Probably long enough for you to get thru Spelling 101 at the University of Minnesota and learn to properly spell the word "cemetery".

NorthDakotaHockey, That joke is older than my grandma's buckskin bra...but still funny.

Side note: The new Jiffy Lube banner-raising ceremony is at 12 noon today at the National Concrete Center in St Cloud.

Big hug, WPoS.

Wasn't that my point, DLW4GOPHERS? I agree that anything less than a title is a failed season in the eyes of the local sportswriters, but I also have run into many fans with that same attitude. Just check the attendance of the 3rd/4th place game at the Final Five. Plenty of bandwagoners found something else to do besides watch that "meaningless" game. Young D and losing 3 underclassmen aside, that home regional should have meant a good chance of getting to the Frozen Four. I just don't buy talk of .500 expectations and not making the NCAA's. Even in a BAD year, the Gophers can be expected to be in the top 16 in the country. I do agree with you 100% on the "good season" reference. Anyone making the Frozen Four should be able to say it was a good season. However, only one of those teams (for obvious reasons) can say it turned out to be a "great" season.