the green team

I just don't see that HBU team finishing the season last in RPI, I was pretty impressed with them. Gonzalez is ridiculous. This team continues to find wins, just think what our season would have looked like had we made free throws against UMKC, Green Bay, and Utah Valley. It's going to be weird to see them head out on the road for so long, I was having so much fun watching them at home. I haven't been down to Vermillion since the ladies lost to Wayne St, in NCAA Regionals a few years back but am considering making the trip there next week to see the men take on USD again. Webb & Anderson as primary ball handlers have really changed my outlook on the future of this team. They are only freshman so as they continue to mature in there years here, I think the future is bright. Brekke is only a few games into his career- what might he be like when he is a senior?

Oh, where is my head...Win #600 for Coach Roebuck. Awesome!

Ladies cruise in the 2nd Half after absolutely sleep walking defensively in the 1st half. 104-54. Held HBU to 21 pts in the 2nd. Corey Lof, way to go today - 18 points (do this more... please), Career High and 2nd Career Double-Double pulled down 10 boards. Mal Youngblut, is going to be a good candidate for Great West Player of the Week honors with 21 the other night and 24 today. Carly Rothfusz what in the world, scores what 16 or so, never saw that coming.

I'm not going to get down on our defense, we have played very well on that side of the ball in the UVU (regulation) & USD games-- this was a very interesting game- They made some shots- some well defended 3's with a hand in there face and some not well defended. The one thing that was a real surprise is that 6' 8 Fr. #13 who has done absolutely nothing all year... just went off. When we went out to guard tight they went to the basket hard & when Urbanus is making riduculous floaters over defenders in the lane. What are you going to do? the kid hit some really tough shots. We handled their pressure and we didn't turn it over, and never relenquished the lead. We bent but didn't break. If UTPA gets play from #13 the way they did this game (as Coach Moody said in the pre-game show that they have had near 0 in the paint presence scoring coming into last night) they are going to be a pretty good basketball team. Both teams made 12 3's in the game on only 17 attempts each. If you would tell me that we would draw even in that battle when a team knocks in that many 3's on you on your home floor... I would tell you your crazy, but somehow we made a ton of those shots which is promising.

Most ensuing classes will have a maximum of 3 players. I doubt highly that we will see too many more 4 plus classes. The key will be to try get 1 to 2 players that will make significant impact during their careers in each class. I don't deny that the sophmore class has been a disappointment, but look at the injuries. Spencer Goodman was injured off and on last year, he's out for the year this year, 10 games in. Wilmer was injured throughout the year last year, was knicked up to start the year this year...has a breakout game against the Bison but injures himself during it, and most likely out for the season. Allard, broke a weird bone in his foot his redshirt season, then last year breaks the same bone in the other foot-midway through the season, Plus he started the year with a broken shooting hand, breaking it in practice. Doug Archer actually was playing well last year...blows out his knee, this month is a marks a full year after the injury, most say you don't even get close to getting back until a full year has gone by, barring any setbacks. And Nick Haugen- who at times showed a little something last year has been healthy for all of 5 minutes this season. Rolls an ankle, comes back does something else- and suffers another setback. This class has been a MASH unit. I can't really say from a playing standpoint if its a failure, bcause I haven't seen enough of the class play on a regular basis to make that type of opinion. Now from the standpoint that they haven't played because they are fragile, that may be a failure. But I don't think anyone could have predicted the number of injuries this class was going to be faced with and to what degree, and how severe the injuries would be.

Where is this evidence that Hak was one of the staunchest proponents of the Big Sky--I'm not saying he wasn't, I'm just saying I guess I don't recall him doing cartwheels (figuratively) for or against in the media, other than saying he was happy and that it was great day for UND...typical speak. But of course he is going to be for it, why wouldn't anyone be for it...especially him, he desperately wants to see some of these programs keep themselves afloat for a change, (the Big Sky, gives them the best chance for that) and to be honest I don't blame him. It must be getting old to see all the $$$'s having to support so many other things other than hockey. All I'm saying is everyone revered Roebuck when they held the nickname press conference awhile back and he came out and said something to the effect "that he wouldn't trade the nickname to be in a conference"- of course he was going to say that, he doesn't have to take the larger view, like an athletic director or a president...Roebuck is a very wiley and he knows and knew that. In the mean time in other interviews during the same time his key phrase was how important it was that they get into a conference. But for that one nickname specific press conference, it was conference be damned. He knew the time place, and he knew what people would want to hear. Very shrewd, that's why I like the man.

Hak is entitled to his opinion and I value his opinion, but in his position he is first and foremost responsible for the recognition and the operation of the hockey program. He doesn't have to apologize for taking a side that would possibly adversly affect the other sports programs at UND. That's not his concern- and not his problem, but I don't think for an instant that when he issues his thoughts on something like this that his opinion has been formulated with anything else in mind other than the hockey side. The fact his he isn't the one that has to face the piper when trying to make a whole athletic department work. Although right now he kind of does because the longer our other sports have difficulty gaining financial stability, his hockey program is going to have to hold the department up financially. Wouldn't be nice where some of the other programs could do well enough to take the financial burden somewhat away from hockey for a while?

The Big Sky has no position on the name, and never has...meaning their member institutions have played us during this period and at least of right now will continue to do so. Wisconsin only played our basketball teams after the NCAA allowed the 3 year window, and Wisco's policy reflected that. The thing that is troublesome to me is that, ok our state legislature gets its way and this becomes law and we now retain the name but are no longer in compliance of the settlement. Lets say our football team does make the playoffs 2 years from now, and we would have had a home game, but now we won't...that would be a bitter pill. Or lets say they finally get the Big 10 Hockey Conference together and Minnesota & Wisco leave, at that point we would no longer be a league member with them and they could in theory abide by the policy of their institutions and choose not to play us in non conference games... yet another possible bitter pill. The more reason comes into the argument like Atty Gen Wayne Stenjhem telling legislators the impracticality of this all, the more that I have a feeling that the legislature will move ahead and this will pass. Because if there is one certain thing in this state is that no legislator is going to be told how dumb their ideas are by someone like Stenjhem--they are to stubborn...thats just their cue to push it through just to say I told you so.

Wow! That was a positive. Brekke, getting the start, I like what he is showing as a freshman. 2 huge alley oop dunks (Anderson to Mitchell & Anderson to Huff), the Sioux out running the break. Schuler leading the way scoring, despite not hitting a 3. A lot to like about tonight...now build off of it. Extremely entertaining.

When I asked someone who is close to the program about the players they have coming next year, he implied that Benton for the 1st year would be walking on (with him gaining one after the 1st year- thats the way I understood it) leaving the Sioux with one(scholly) to work with.

Actually, of the many that currently make up the North Dakota Petroleum Council, Owners of companies in the industry, Managers etc... many are UND guys-- just ask the guy that acts on behalf of the NDPC, he even acknowledges this and he's an NDSU guy.

If you listen to the broadcasts this year, you will hear visits with assitant coach Moody and he will talk about what they are trying to do. This screen and roll & reverse offense is being used by alot of teams including Jake's N. Iowa team. If you look at a game such as Mayville St where they came out to guard near the midcourt stripe...the screens are going to occur that much farther away from the arc, but against Sac St. the screens were right on the wings right on the arc. From the interviews the offense is designed to create driving opportunities for those using the screen, but also it allows for us to free up the player with the ball to get the ball reversed and the defense to shift. The screener like a Pat Mitchell should open up from time to time on the roll allowing him some open jump shots. You need some of your 3 and 4's & 5's who set the screens to be threats as good shooters. Are they? The verdict is still out. The guards have been taking advantage of the screens by getting alot of drives...sometimes they need to drive and pass though as the defense slides to help. (this hasn't been happening as guys like Anderson & Huff sometimes try to force their own shot) We want drive and pass opportunities out of this offense, along with finishes at the basket.

I thought I had heard repeatedly that scheduling as we progessed through the transition would get easier, and better. Is that not the case? What the heck is this? This is an embarrasing schedule for our last year of the transition and to be honest it really does very little to prepare us for the grind of a full season within the Big Sky. Yuck

You pose some very good questions. I too have had many of the same ones rattling around in my head. I'm not sure I have decided on my answers yet. The Bison success and our struggles does leave a sour taste, but the time of our transition was different, which has led to different situations. I can see passion in your thoughts, and thats important, because if we don't ask some of these tough questions, it's possible that more and more people will lose their passion, and once that happens it will be difficult to reaquire. Above in the previous post I was responding to what appeared to me to be a lack of of knowledge when it came to the criticism of the offense. Criticize the offense all you want (it certainly is warranted in some places) but know what your criticizing, and in that instance I don't think the poster did.

And yet you keep trying to convince yourself that Siouxsports is a place for BisonDan to be.

Have you watched this years offense? If you were referring to last several years of the Princeton, I would give you that. The fact is with our new offense we are getting up a ton of shots, we are playing faster. We've already had more fast break points this season than we've probably had in the last 3 years combined. The fact is, right now we are not making any shots. Thats why were not scoring in the 70's or 80's. Your criticism of the offense would carry more weight if you perhaps have watched a game this year to know that we jack up the ball quite a bit more now that we don't play the Princeton. Even if your criticism stated "could we make a shot ever?" that would have applied bettter to this years team. Maybe the guys we thought were good shooters, really are not? or maybe they are just shooting poorly right now. But this years offense is not what is relegating us to scores in the 50's or low 60's. Honestly, I don't like losing, and I'm not particularily happy where we are at, but what I don't like more is people whose criticism is so off base, it defies reason.

That's fine that your primarily interested in hockey, certainly entitled. I just happen to follow every sport here hardcore. I lean a little basketball but am passionate about them all. As I've mentioned before I have lived long enough where basketball was the bigger deal in town. That may not happen again and personally I'm ok if it doesn't. What the game with NDSU showed was indeed there is a fan base on both sides that were very interested in seeing the 2 teams play. Secondly, BWW's may have purchase the remaining 2500 tickets or so, but didn't they all get picked up? I would say sitting there on Saturday night that most of those tickets that were picked up were redeemed. What a marketing coup on B-Dubs part. The rivalry will continue to get more ignited as they continue to play more and providing our squad closes the gap. I think it has the potential to be more venomous as the years progress as we will only be playing 1 game a year rather than 2 if we were in the same conference. The fact that we didn't move to D1 together has long been moot, the fact that we are not in the same conference does little to extinguish my burning desire to see us beat them. I think the first half of the game was a wild roller coaster ride for both fan bases, more of that in the future will help the rivalry reignite again.

One thing I will take away as a positive from the loss the other night was that when the applied pressure on their point guards in the first half with Anderson & Webb the 2 Bison point guards Lundberg & Zastrow were none to happy about it and struggled against our two young guards. That shows as our backcourt gains maturity we seem to be heading in the right direction there. However, credit their staff if you noticed they got it out of their hands sooner in possesions in the 2nd half and into their veterans thus negating any advantage we had gained in the 1st half in that area. Wilmer, played well but we need better post depth & production. And it would be nice to see our 6'7 shooter (Mitchell) be able to shoot and handle the ball like Tveidt did in that game, someday.

Great breakdown Sic. I don't disagree that seniors have to lead with their play. But until we have other players who are at the very least a threat to other teams, our opponents are going to harrass Mallory to no end. Last year at least Baaggy had Mal and Bergan if she was being chased all over the floor, teams before that had players who could step in if the star was going to be taken away. Right now we don't anyone who can consistently step up and hit shots when Mal is being doubled, chased whatever. I think its really effecting her... which is sad because I believe out of all the players on the roster, everything should be done to allow those players to have fun their senior years, because there has never been any postseason for them to get to- why should they have to suffer when all they did was come in and try help the program through the transitiion? Which as just alluded to is a miserable place to be for a athletic program. At the very least they should be having fun...and I'm not so sure they are having fun right now. Getting hammered repeatedly by very good teams has got to be getting old. I don't see it ending until conference season, no matter how well our Seniors or our Freshman play.

Whoa, don't you all know that the NDSewers all know whats best for us at UND. They always have they always feel the need to come over here and tell us about how great they are. I can count on one hand how many times I've ever visited Bville in the last 5 years, and have never even thought of posting there. Why? I'm not entirely sure they would know what intellect is, so I'm not going to waste it chit chattting with a bunch of sheep. (Well, they are the Ag School? I thought the reference might work) The Big Sky gives UND a great opportunity to create our own path. I for one am really looking forward to having our teams play in the Big Sky, visiting new communities and hopefully getting recruits from new places. Whether, or not we ever come to a consensus with them on who stopped the rivalry or left it is of minimal interest to me. I don't see Gene down there letting this happen anytime soon, despite what he says to the contrary. "The... we had an opening so we called them" is such a media stunt, but whatever, I'm worried about getting our teams ready for Big Sky competition coming out of the transition, because looking at it right now- with just over a year until we're in it...we have a ways to go. But I think we can get there. My hope is for 2 Big Sky Conference Championships year 1, don't care what sports they are...but I think that would be quite the feather in the cap year one.

Ouch, it has got to be tough to be a fan right now at San Jose St., Louisiana Tech, Idaho, & New Mexico State. For those schools it truely is limbo right now- for them- given the question of what their conference look like or if it will even exist next week. I know the feeling of limbo & uncertainty, thats why I am stoked about our opportunities now that we will be in the Big Sky. 2 months ago we were the ones that had alot of questions. Today we are the lucky ones. I'll take it.

I really don't see this happening for the next 20 to 30 years. I think their focus is to finish raising the money for a practice facility. They have a long term lease with Alerus- we have yet to show anything as far as sustaining attendance at near maximum Alerus Center levels. In my mind in order to support a new stadium we would have to have a student enrollment of 18,000 to 20,000 of which we would roughly 4 to 5 thousand to be regular attendees. On top of that you would need to increase regional attendance of which for good games is already drawing maximum interest. I'm selling this as dreams. Dreams are good but in this case thats all that it is. I will believe it when I see it.

I'm not touching this one--I have before with logical arguments but I'll let someonelse try to explain it here. I will just say that yes it is popular, most popular? (idk) but it's difficult to measure.

A quality big is not going to fall into our lap. The top 100 D1 Schools are going to get their picks 1st of the 18 year olds and of the Jucos, the ones that got their degree and are D1 elgible are certainly not going to consider us. They are going to go to a Kansas, a Washington etc... and if they didn't qualify by not getting their degree, we can't get those ones either as they are going to go to top Division 2 teams. In my mind at least right now, we are stuck. We can try find some big guys who have potential but your success rate in turning a project into a D1 force is probably 1 in 10 perhaps worse. I don't know what the solution is, but it goes to show you that it is really difficult to find talented big guys.

I don't mind our black uniforms. In regards to the photo, Anderson does have green accents on his shorts(i believe) we just can't see it, look at where the green trim is on the shorts of Shuler in the back part of the photo, that would be hidden on Andersons right leg as it is covered up by a Badger player. The outside of his left leg is away from us so it's impossible to tell if he has all black shorts. I just think because of the camera shot it is inconclusive. Jeepers look how high he is off the ground tho.