the green team

Did my opinion hit you a little too close to the mark- sd hoops? I just don't think she's D1 good, maybe I will be wrong. Honestly, I really don't give a rip about what happened at a Nike, Reebok, Converse, And 1, Pay Less camp. That doesn't change my opinion of what I seen of her here in high school. Good for her, that she played well in that camp. There have been a lot of busts who have had great off season special camps. I hope she proves me wrong, but I just dont see it. And on this board my opinion is no more and no less than yours, your comments of me not knowing basketball is just that....an opinion. To wrap this up I will give you a line from the movie Stripes "Lighten up, Francis"

I've seen her play, and she was a nice class B basketball player but I've seen D1 basketball players and in my opinion, it's going to be tough for her. Our team played Lamar in Ames Iowa a few years ago, they weren't that good. I think they're reaching. I always thought that she would be a nice player at Northern State or Mary. If she turns out to be an All-Conference player down there, I obviously will have to admit that I'm wrong. She's quick that is true- she can shoot the wide open 3, she can drive and get to the rim against B defense, but I'm not sure she can hit the pull up. She is also slight and small. Come to think of it I'm not sure how many on the team we have now can drive and hit the pull-up on a regular basis. We got Bri Williams coming in, I like her a lot better with strength and physical ability. I also like Burck who redshirted this year who with her size & long arms bring a lot of intangibles to the equation. I think Roerich is a little better player as well. I think perimeter players we are going to have or will have in place over the next few years are better fits to the program. imho

Fans will turn out if we win, The Alerus is fine. I don't know why we would need another football facility. Other than a multi-purpose training & practice facility. To be honest, I think it's great that no matter what the elements are outside I can go to the game and enjoy it. The Alerus provides that. I've stated time & time again on this board that people have short memories & love to believe in this stadium utopia, but I remember when even big games at Memorial where crowds were stifled due to horrible weather. When we were lucky to have a thousand people there. This town is a front runners town when it comes to the sport of football especially. If they win, they will come. If they lose- good luck, if they play outside & they win- the fans may show(but don't hold your breath...hey the track record is there) if they win and they play inside- the place becomes bonkos. imho

Indeed

I would like to add a huge DITTO! The current WAC & future WAC with the schools they are courting is only FBS by the slimmest of name only. Montana may some day go there but not if it remains close to it's current state, they're no dummies. yuck.

I don't know if anyone saw the DAZ sports last night but Faison was discussing how any discussions with certain institutions regarding future schedules have been put on hold by those institutions. ie. Minn, Wisc, Iowa. I don't know about anyone else, even though it's great that we get money games against Texas Tech, Fresno St & others, I would for once like to be able to travel & take in one of those games. A short jaunt down to the Cities or into Iowa or Wisco, is very doable. No real need to take off any or much work and cost wise most likely within reason. But that will not happen with this current situation. Getting back to the news story, it sounded as if there were discussions about games in many sports not only football over the next many years, but apparently the word now is "wait & see" Considering how difficult it has been to schedule, especially football during the transition, Faison didn't look thrilled at the premise having to wonder which schools have road blocks up and which don't when trying to make future schedules.

I kind of would like to be at a home play off game in the future. As a fan isn't that something you go into every season hoping for. I was there in 2001 at when we played Pitt St. then UC Davis, where it was so loud you couldn't talk to the person next to you. It was fun. It was electric. And I would hope fans would get to experience it again.

I realize that we need some size as we move forward, but if Lenny can make us better at a position that we are already strong at over the long haul. I say welcome Lenny. Wouldn't it be great if we got a healthy Archer playing at a higher level, along with a healthy Wilmer and both ended up making us eat humble pie over the next 2 years. I'm not saying it will happen, but it would be great if it did. And I would happily take a second slice.

The way I look at it is I think we should proceed ahead with Fighting Sioux as the nickname for the next few years to see how the penalties will really effect the University. If they become a huge factor, such as scheduling or say the football team would have had a home playoff game or game(s), re-evaluate after that and go from there. We are at the point now that the come August 1st we are going to have to deal with the law, so we might as well stay with the nickname for next season & just to see what effects the penalties will actually entail we might as well keep it for the next 2 or 3. Who knows, maybe the penalties will seem like an occasional fly at a picnic and not be so bad, and we can just go on in perpetuity on the list. We may find out that it may not have that big of effect on us.

I thought that of the 4 backs I saw on Saturday. Sutton, didn't get a lot of touches, but we should know what we are going to get with him from his previous years play. I was pleased with Jake Miller, and very surprised with Ethan Magsteadt who I really thought, ran the ball quite well. He like's to initiate contact and deliver the blow, but also showed some great ability to set up some runs out wide by patience, by waiting for a block to develop or feinting inside a cut up and then kicking out wide. Receivers, we need to make the easy catches, too many drops. Is it just me or does it seem like our receivers have a hard time creating seperation from db's in their routes. That will have to change. Our special teams, especially punt team was crap. They are trying to run that spread like every other team out there right now (kind of the flavor of the month in college fb), and it was absolutely dreadful. I like how Bradley get's into his drop quickly and when he reaches the end of the drop the ball is out---I feel this is very important for any college qb. Hendrickson, didn't look too bad, but he still has a ways to go as well.

What if the guard is already better than the guards we currently or will have? Would you want that guard then? I can't say that he is, because I don't know, but what I'm saying is we should always be flexible and fluid when it comes to recruiting talent.

I guess I'm from the NFL school of who's the best available on the board. Guard, Forward or Center. It does appear that our guard talent evaluation has a pretty good track record with last years crop, so if we add another guard hopefully that trend will continue. I understand we need another 6'7 to 6'9 guy who can contribute but maybe they aren't out there. It appears every school in the country is looking for those guys. Hopefully, we can snag a few of those guys over the next couple of years, but don't just grab one for the sake of grabbing one, because I think we are past the point of having the time to develop a project right now, with only a year away from Big Sky. 3 years ago, I would say take the project try to develop, but as we are close now- I believe we need to find guys 6'7-6'9 that aren't so much a project as they are ready to step on the floor. Again, problem is everyone covets those so some years if they aren't there, we need to go get a guy that is going to make us better when they step on the floor. If it's a guard, so be it, just keep improving the teams talent level, is all I'm about.

They should sell time in that room to us in the general public in the winter months. Very Cool. I'm sure they wish they had a dome to hit in like in Fargo, or I even think Gustavus or Augsburg has one too, but they have got to be pretty happy about having this. That was neat to see, I had no idea. I remember seeing just a net, back in the day up top in the main Hyslop arena. Definitely an upgrade.

Well here is a penny for your thoughts... I would give you a Nickel, but your team in the last 10 years of the series couldn't figue out a way to win it. So I think we should hold to it from now on. It's home is here, and we take great care of it.

Just looking at the tournaments, and see that both Green Bay & Gonzaga both are in the Sweet 16 in the NCAA. Both Toledo & Colorado remain alive in the WNIT. I'm not sure our strength of schedule will adequetly reflect the non-conference challenge that we subjected ourselves to, this season. Hopefully, it will benefit the Freshman to have seen just exactly how good they are going to have to get in order to be factor in the future. Lots of work has to be put in over the summer. If I actually had a say, I would put rollaways out in the Betty and they eat, sleep, drink basketball and the weightroom all summer long.

That's a great fact about the added schollies, allowing the upper teams to stock pile talent. It definitely makes the challenge that much more difficult. You look at Green Bay- Northern Iowa, and there are players out there, but I tend to agree it has got be a battle to get them. Totally agree on the NW Minnesota talent, it's as if it has basically dried up. Now that we are nearly elgible maybe we will be more competitive for a Wahlin or isn't there a girl from Bemidji head to Minnesota?, in the future. Not saying were going to land a lot of them but a few is going to be essential moving forward.

I certainly think that we definitely need to find some help at the SF, or P positions for depth and just to have more athleticism on the court at times. Patrick Mitchell was awefully good defensively for us a vast majority of the time inside this year, but he graduates next year. I just hope we can find a 6'7 guy who can leap, defend & board or a 6'9 to 6'10 big body who has a little penchant for scoring back to the basket. With the eventual Mitchell departure we most likely won't find a guy his size who is as proficient at shooting the 3 as he is but, with Huff shooting those better as the year went on I'm not as concerned about that- as I am to find someone who can carry some of the defensive and midrange to interior scoring slack. Players like that, I believe are only going to help Brekke, whose arms don't match his body,I might add. He should be 6'11 with arms that long. I have to echo the sentiment on here right now that I honestly don't think we are going to find any of those types of players here in our local pool. I'm sure some of the local guys whose names are being bandied about are nice players but I think we are fooling ourselves if we think they are D1 material. But of course they said that about Woodside, and at least one Big 10 school never gave him much of a look...so I guess what do I know when it comes to talent evaluation. But in reality I think our staff will be needing some of our frequent flyer miles to go find someone who fits those bills.

My brain should be on meltdown, I've watched so much basketball this past weekend. I just watched my 1st NCAA Tourney Women's game of the year as Gonzaga beat 3rd Seeded UCLA at home in Spokane. I found it interesting watching a team that just dismantled us as if we weren't even on the floor- were pretty much the better team in the UCLA game. Their point guard Courtney Vandersloot, who wasn't overwhelming in the game here, surpassed 2,000 points and 1,000 assists in her career. No player, MEN or WOMEN in NCAA basketball history has ever accomplished that feat. Gonzaga's Women's basketball is hardly a longtime power- their first tournament appearance was in 2007, now granted they've now made it 4 out of the last 5 years, unlike another Sioux oppenent Green Bay who has won their conference like every year for the last century (exageration, I know...but probably not that far off) You look at those 2 teams and the players they have been able to put in their programs, the athleticism, the skill set, and basketball iq, and you realize how far we have to go to be one of those programs. And yet those institutions had to start somewhere- Gonzaga only recently,- Neither institution is going to overwhelm UND with more to offer in comparison- # of alums, majors offered, fan base, or even facilities. Granted both schools without football put their sole focus into basketball. I used to think back through our dominant D2 years that those teams could have been fairly competitive against those type of mid-majors, now I'm not so sure. And after watching Williams from Hopkins on TV this past week/weekend. And seeing a little of Frydlund & Roerich over the past few years, I am certainly not convinced we are ready to get there. If our goal is simply to go to the Big Sky, beat Montana then go to the tournament and lose, maybe. Because Montana went this year and I thought last years Sioux team would have beat this years Montana, unfortunately we were playing them with this years Sioux team. That shoudn't be our goal though, should it? Our freshman this year... are again- pretty ok, if we want to be good in the Great West or D2 power,ok, but I'm not getting the feeling that pieces or the future pieces are going to get us where we should want to go? Am I wrong? Agree or Disagree.

Tremendous start to their careers for this Freshman & Redshirt Freshman class. I believe if we get 2 or 3 players to be regular contributors out of our current redshirt sophmore class.that will have been a victory. Even though much was made of that class being the first elgible for the NCAA tournament, I would say that it still wasn't an easy class to recruit to, for the simple reason was if you were recruiting against an already elgible D1 or an established D2, I'm not sure that if I was the recruit that I would have chosen us, for 1 shot when I could go to another school for 4 shots at post-season D1 or D2. The Freshman class will only have 2 shots, and because of that I think that our ability to get better talent will improve in the next couple of years. But going back to our current Redshirt Sophmore class, I think Allard will be a great player to bring off the bench for years to come. He already is giving us great minutes, and with his frame, if his skill set improves, he will be a huge positive. I think Wilmer has the potential to give us productive minutes, as well-if that Bison game was just a glimpse. We may not get superstars in their careers out of that class, but I think we could have solid contributors for the next few seasons. I think where you'll see the talent get better is when we get talent to visit. I think they will be excited to play with a player like Webb, who is all about sharing the ball, why wouldn't want to play with a guy like that if your a talented Forward or Center? This is a great treat to finish our season. I am proud of our team, and even though it will be a great challenge to knock off Air Force on their floor, I'm glad that we will be given the opportunity. Go Sioux!

Not that I won't enjoy a battle with the USD, but with the way the games ended with UVU this year it just seems a bit unsatisfying not getting one more opportunity to play them.

I've been accused of being overly positive for our Men's program in the past, but they now have 18 wins this year. I never saw that coming. I'm not sure too many would have. Great job guys with continuing to learn & improve throughout this season. You give us die hards, hope for the future. It's us and the Yotes on the Men's side. Should be fun.

I think it was Anderson with the lay- in which ends up being the game winner as opposed to Webb- not that big of deal, just glad he made it. Also, Benter had a very solid game for the Sioux off the bench. Free throws again were a nightmare but a win is a win.

Last night was an unreal dunk fest. Huff with a 1 handed, 2 handed jams, & a 1 handed stickback off a miss. Mitchell with the lob from Anderson. And Allards in the 2nd half was monsterous. That was fun. I have to believe Schuler is hurt, he isn't doing much right now. Anyone know anything? Also, Anderson blocking a player on a breakaway layup while trailing the play, may be the play of the night. It was silly good. Was it just me or did we have a lot of 3's that rattled in and out?

Having not had a chance to be at or watch the game last night- I will go off of what I heard off the radio broadcast. From what I understand the reason La Tech was able to rally was because McNeal was hitting ridiculous 3's. According to the guys, they said the last 3 he hit were with a serious hand in his face. He was only like 33 % coming in and was 7 of 9 last night. It never seems to fail that somehow our building (The Betty) seems to magically give guys confidence to shoot successfully. I think what I can take away from this... is that despite having a tough lapse to start the game- and having to fight to the end to win the game. We still were able to win. That's another big step for alot of guys who are only 24 games or less into their college careers. My feeling is that they will continue to improve on closing out games, and have less lulls, as they get older and more mature. This next stretch of games are going to be incredibly difficult, as Utah Valley State is going to be an unbelievable road test- but then to follow it up with a non-conference game against a team that is near the top or on top of the Big Sky standings in Northern Colorado, is going to be a huge mountain for us. This team is making strides- I think they will be the first to admit they still have a long way to go- but it's good to see them progressing at this point of the season. It happens quite frequently where Freshman wear down as the season progresses and they just aren't as effective as they have been. So far we haven't seen that, yet--and hopefully they won't, because we are going to need them the rest of the way. Down 17 to 4, what would the game have been like the last couple of years. I'm not saying it was because of the players effort on those teams, but most likely the game would have gotten even more out of hand- This team has exhibited a consistent effort, but they also show that they have some very good talent to overcome situations like this and that is what I'm liking from this team as we move forward.

While this seasons home schedule is to put it mildly, an absolute yawner for the most part, I feel that it is the schedule we will have with no late changes. Oh well, we only 1 more year to go and we will be in a long conference season...thankfully. I think I can tough out one more year, but only 1.