the green team

Actually, if Eastern Michigan were to make a Kohler Bathroom Fixture's Bowl- I would anticipate that would be of benefit in additional attendance for said bowl. Why? Because when a team who has had a significantly poor run or over the years finally has some success- it activates their fringe fan base and alums. However, if Nebraska has an off season, and only qualifies for the Kohler Bathroom Fixture Bowl- expect the bowl to see a dip in attendance as the fan base really won't be excited to follow that as they would be with an Orange, Rose or Fiesta bid. Nearly all the FBS conferences have a share agreement where if there is money to take home- it all goes into the collective conference pot and gets split amongst all the conference schools. However, I read an interesting article a few years ago, that schools that end up in the "fringe" bowls- early season bowls actually lose money- because they take home the money the conference split it and then when they get their portion of the split they find out that the costs for going to the bowl- over ran what they took home.

2 for 1. We really should have won down there last year. We owe them another visit- not sure if its next year or the year after.

Great news! Some good pieces, hopefully they come together to make a good team.

Saw this and was disappointed. How long until we are like Devils Lake and just have a bureau office, with a story on the Fargo (WDAY) cast?

Maybe from a basketball standpoint it was. Look all I'm saying is that we are not alone in scheduling a Mayville St and Dickinson. I listed above what South Dakota has had on their schedule other than the ones you listed and you'll see that with other teams as well. That most likely is not going to change. During the transition, I'm going to miss a few....so feel free to criticize me for that...La Tech, Northern Iowa 09, Northern Colorado, UMKC, Green Bay 09, Longwood, IPFW and Western Illinois. There certainly were some nice home and homes there. Ideally, I think it would be great to have it work where one year we have Omaha and USD at home then SDSU and NDSU on the road- then vice-versa the next year. That would be a significant help. None of these schools are going to do away with the Dickinsons, the UMC Crookstons, completely. Not us, NDSU, USD, not Omaha. But then maybe you could find a way to pick up a Northern Iowa or a Drake from time to time to enhance that home schedule.

Actually I would argue that they are currently an entirely different animal than us when it comes to Men's Basketball right now. From this stand point....Budget. They don't have hockey, they don't have the noose that is Women's Hockey (sorry, it's not that I don't love ya, but that's a hard reality in our budget) They save a significant amount in conference travel budget. Bus trips v. air fare for many trips...They have way more dollars to work with for their men's basketball program than we do. They can sweeten the pot of home and home's by saying when you come play us for your side of the home and homes- we can give you 2 night's hotel for example. Or, we'll pay for your charter bus from Sioux Falls to Vermillion. (I don't know, I'm just spitballin here) They have more money to play with in that program currently. They also played in 2013 a home game against something called Graceland (NAIA) and in 2012 they had home games v. Waldorf and Culver Stockton, so I guess they too--- schedule 1 or 2 non D1's to tune up on. Yes, I'm sure Jone's and his staff doesn't try hard enough to get teams to come here (sarcasm)

Thanks by the way...that was very helpful. I still believe that it's relatively a rare occurrence.

Does anyone really think that they don't want to get more good opponents here for home games? To me that argument really doesn't make a lot of sense. I'm sure the staff sits around and says "let's have a crummy non-conference home schedule this year". How does that even seem plausible? So I guess I don't see the sense of whining, crying or complaining about it, when you accept the realities of where this program is at right now. When you are able to bring in the Bowling Green's and the La Tech's and you beat them...that already puts a hesitance in a program that may be looking for reasons not to travel here to GF in the first place. I do not believe in 2 for 1's with other mid-major or low major schools. Despite the mention of Southern Miss & NDSU above) Others simply don't do it very often. Why should we put ourselves in that box? Schools our size/conference etc occasionally seem to only use that scheduling method if they are able draw in a P5 Conference team eventually. Otherwise 95 to 99% of the time it's home and home's between like schools or one game guarantees. I suppose we could bring some teams in for 1 game guarantees but do we have just 50 to 100K just lying around to do it? Unfortunately we are an outlier- we have the 1-29 corridor and it just happens that those games fall on the road this year. Omaha is the return for the Bracket Busters 2 years ago. I think Jones has been on record that he would like to see all the teams in the conference including his own as taking less guaranteed money games, where often unfortunately the team is a sacrificial lamb, because it harms the Big Sky's RPI. In fact during a Coach's Show last year he said there are 2 teams in the league that are in a situation that they don't have to take guaranteed money games and more often than not...don't. Guess which 2 those are....Weber and Montana. But right now neither UND nor anyone else in the league can be fortunate enough to operate that way- those games are imperative to pay for an extensive travel budget and other things such as your staff etc.. Not a great home non conference schedule-no doubt about it. Doesn't mean I can't travel to Fargo or Brookings for close proximity non-conference road games.

I didn't know NDSU v Southern Miss was 2 for 1. I thought that was a home and home. So they go there the next 2 years? I wasn't aware of that.

Weren't Northern Iowa and Green Bay both 2 for 1's, during the transition? Correct me if I'm wrong but other schools that are similar to us don't really do 2 for 1's unless it's a P5 conference-if they can pull it off. I think that was more accepted during the transition for scheduling- but it's not something I see other schools similar to us doing with other similar schools...it's usually home and homes isn't it?

I'm guessing if it hasn't been accomplished by now...most likely the answer is, no.

Maybe it makes sense to us, but for the Pioneers I think they had Wyoming at home last year and will take the easy low cost drive to Laramie---I assume they keep this series relatively regular, could be wrong- but it makes too much sense for both schools. Good attendance, and low cost. They also have Colorado State right there, and some years, I assume Air Force. That's a couple of no-brain non conference games right there- then you can take into account that they are located in a major city with a major airport- so they probably look west for some games as they probably recruit California hard... I just don't think we factor in the thinking when in comes to filling out their non-conference schedule. It appears that were in a regular rotation with NDSU & SDSU now, and I have to believe that we will eventually get things cranked up with USD again. I don't known about Omaha, they seem to be Jone's kryptonite--kidding--it would be good to have something with them regularly too-- but other than that, I'm not really sure that we can count on too much more without breaking the bank- because other teams seem to be content to do home and homes with others closer and easier to get to. They will pay for us to come to them for a one off game, but more than likely won't give us a return.

I don't understand why people think our hockey connections should help us. Schools like Denver, Miami and Western Michigan can spend a lot less money by scheduling basketball home and homes far closer to home than to schedule UND. The only way we are going to get better opponents to The Betty is to splash serious cash in their direction. I don't know our basketball budget, but if we can't protect our assistants in a bidding war we certainly don't have the money to be spending to bring in better opponents into GF. That much is obvious I would think.

Hypocritville

My bet is that the Fargo media will sit on this story. They most likely won't even address it. - KVLY- is the Moo U mouthpiece. All one has to do is to see what story their sportscasts lead with. It was 2 days after NDSU had played in Men's NCAA and they didn't even have another sport playing while our Women were playing Texas A&M- and they led with 5 minutes of post game reacts from 48 hours prior. -Kolpack has a "special" relationship GT - I've seen Izzo almost in tears after UND has beaten NDSU in Basketball, that was a couple of years ago at REA---literally looked like he was crying when he was walking away from the broadcast table. Or maybe he had watery eyes from allergies They take their cues from GT, and if there is anything this situation teaches is that you go with what GT says or he won't play with you. Honestly, it's fine. It's the only thing they have. The only thing. If for some reason we were to beat them in football too...they simply can't afford to take that chance.

I see what you did there... bullseye

Exactly- it's on the players as well as the coaches. Again, I drink the kool aid. Despite the disappointments, I'm still all in with this team, that means all the players and coaching staff. But I believe any issue to be multidimensional. I don't think when a team struggles that anybody should be let off the hook, from coach's to players. They win together, they lose together, that's all my opinion. It all starts on Thursday and I think if we play solid D, especially against McKinney and Garritty, we will be in good position to win. It's my favorite time of year.

When is it up to the players? Do you know how much the staff has the team prepare for each opponent? Film? Practice Court? How much time does the staff break down the opposing team? I don't know the answers to these questions, but you seem to make it sound that this coaching staff just drives up to the arena and says "ok, good luck". I would find that hard to believe. Secondly, I think it's quite apparent where the issues have been this year. When this team goes awry, for example (MontanaSt @ home and @ Sac St) some players come out looking like they have it all figured themselves, you got 1 guy trying to play D, and 3 others spaced out. And 1 guy trying to do way too much on offense, or not getting into the offense(careful, before you assume that I'm trying to insinuate a certain player, that's not the case as they all have had their horrible moments. I have a feeling if you've watched our staff, that they can't even believe why our guys do what they do sometimes. I think this might be closer to reality is when we were recruiting 4 or 5 years ago, we were so talent deficient that we desperately needed to improve in that area, so we in order to get some guys who could close the the gap we got guys who could really play, but may not understand the game really well or even have the ability to do so. I think its extremely difficult to find those complete guys especially at our level... So when you look at these guys trying to get around screens or being on the wrong side of someone on a cut... If they haven't got it by now they most likely never will. But I'm pretty sure the staff coaches those elements because thats the one thing that last years senior class was really good at... Positionally they we very good and they had to be because they didn't have alot of natural talent. If they haven't got it by now they most likely never will, doesn't make them bad people, but what we have is number of guys who have very good ability who either turn off or don't understand or carry out concepts. But lets lay some blame at them, they are veterans and can either choose for themselves to figure it out or dont. I don't state these things to be mean, because I really like our guys and still think they can do something, but after watching them I tend to think a fair amount of them "being ready" as you say is more about them than the coaches.

I understand that more than likely all the schools inflate their numbers to a degree...so if everybody inflates, the leader should still be the leader and 2nd should be 2nd and so on, however I've watched a number of games on the Big Sky app this year and I honestly have no idea how Montana State comes up with the numbers they do. Certainly, they have a big building but there is absolutely no way they even have 1500 at games. I would give them an additional 500 in no-show paid attendance but 2400 plus seems excessive. Must live off of Montana game attendance every year.

And if it wasn't official already, it should be after tonight. This league is officially nutty. Weber gets beat by NAU at home. Portland State bounces back and beats N. Colorado...how does a team that has gone unbeaten all year at home-all of a sudden lose 2 straight? What is going on with this conference? And Idaho State keeps its slim hopes alive with a home win over Sac St. No matter who makes the conference tournament all 7 teams will have a realistic chance to go dancing, because the Big Sky truly is the world where anybody can beat anybody.

So what your saying is Webb's ability to play D, is not needed in the final 4 minutes. That makes no sense. So Webb had a few turnovers...get over it. He's had some unbelievable stretches of assist to TO ratio during this season and in his career. And when he's playing well...this team plays well. Also, he did make some free throws, but again late in the game Saturday, he wasn't in there for offense- he was in there to guard people. I think too many on here worry way too much about offense with this team. This team can score... it's when they don't guard that creates the problems.

This Plus he's not going to be on the floor in the final five minutes of a game because, teams will just foul him and send him to the line- which we all know has been a challenge for him this year.

Sure, why not. I don't have a problem with it. Webb, is shooting a better percentage from 3 than Schuler is. Form or not, all I care about is if it's going in and continues to do so. And even if Webb isn't a shooter as you say, we can have Anderson with him on the floor who is more than capable, and Huff has got to be on the floor because he can score inside and out and he rebounds. And Webb often is called upon to guard the best or hot player, and even if Webb doesn't always get the stop because it is after all the other teams best player, you better believe that player is having to work thier tail off for the points they get.

Which of our point guards can't shoot from the outside?

Actually it was time for Muss to go. I'm just pointing out that I know a few people in life who take more pleasure in difficult moments because it allows them to piss and moan. They actually prefer being that way. It appears there are an fair percentage of posters here cut from the same cloth. But thats fine I guess, different strokes for different folks, but thats the great thing about this forum it allows for many to never be satisfied about anything here, but the forum also provides me with a place describe the absurdity of it all, for those who take that stance. It just amazes me that no matter what these student athletes do, and coaches, there can do nothing right in the eyes of some... And for that "some"they prefer it that way.