the green team

I'm not sure about Privatsky 2 injuries to the same knee...will she ever be able to play again, ? The way I look at Sharkova is if she isn't playing now, she may not be playing in the future. Which is funny, what is the official word on her? The last info I heard was in a Wayne Nelson article dating back before Xmas, that they would know soon. That time came and went, was there anymore followup on that story. Sounds to me as if the story just got forgotten, or maybe I missed it.

I know our season is far from over. But lets do a little conjecture. What will next years roster and starting line-up look like? Seniors will be: Lof & Youngblut Juniors will be: Sophmores: Privatsky?, Kuehl, Houdek, Smart, Rothfusz Incomming Freshman: Buck, Burck, Lauck, Wall, Evers Starters: Youngblut, Lof, Kuehl, Rothfusz, Smart? It's going to be interesting, and extremely difficult. Recent years have not gone well at all as we haven't been able to have an effective redshirt for development since Youngblut, all other players have had to play. With alot of these players, they would have benefitted alot from having been able to redshirt. And it looks like more of the same this coming year. Oh well.

Considering both sets of end bleachers were full at Meltdown at the Ralph, and they seat 500 each, I would say that it was more than 2,000 and say it was closer 3500. In the end the weather wasn't that bad, but what was being forecasted kept a few away. In fact, a few people who usually sit in my area for games at the Betty, said they had decided not to come- just because they thought the weather was going to be worse. I still think your estimate knickball, is very much on the low side. Why as basketball programs do we have to suffer forever in the Great West? Because we are struggling the last few years. My goodness, I'm sure if the shoe was on the other foot, when UND hockey was struggling in the early 90's and if (which I know they were not, strictly hypothetical) they were in some piss poor periphery conference with no chance of ever getting an autobid- that person would have been shot. But since it's basketball, who gives a rip. Thats pretty much what I'm hearing. Do you know one of the reasons that Men's hockey is able to effectively is stay ahead and make money is that many of their road trips are take by institution charter bus, meaning UND's. It's a lot cheaper to do that than fly everywhere- less stress against the budget. Now imagine if Basketball could at least get a few more games via bus, then at least they are not losing as much money, or they are causing less strain on the athletics budget. To me this is more about dollars & cents. I've said it before, what are we complaining about a pidley 7 months left for, we've had more than enough time prior to these final hours, but please enlighten me as to why anyone thinks that SR is going to change their mind or even show any movement. If they did I would be rejoicing in the streets, but the reality is they refuse to touch this issue with a 10 foot pole. It's sad but having lived next to this reservation (not on) while growing up, I know this is their way. This is how they do things. Getting to it may mean 10 years from now, should we wait that long?

Well, I just learned a valuable lesson last night. I turned the game off when they went up by 7 with 2 minutes to go. Had an early day. Boy, do I regret doing that. Lesson learned on my part. Way to go guys! Great job not ever giving up. The Sioux were missing Archer (may be out for the year-knee) and Benter (ankle sprain)--heard that before the game. Thats really too bad about Archer, as he had really put together some nice games recently.

Oooooooooh, The Evil Summit League. They are out to get us.

Nobody is saying that the having the Sioux Nickname while participating in the Summit would be a problem. They just want us to either continue to be the Sioux or not. None of this, "one day we're going to get approval, the next were not"--- business. Its their league, and their rules. What this boils down to is $$$$, costs of travel, scholarships have all increased. This is not the perfect solution. Far from it, but right now I don't see how we can't take a hard look at it. Unless everyone is ok with us staying in the Great West, which is basically as an independent. I know what will happen then, I will be hit up to try defray the costs by increasing my donation. Now I guess if we all agree to significantly increase our donations, I am fine with that, but honestly I donate plenty already, I don't know how much more I can do. Reality is, it really doesn't matter what the Summit says...If you believe that the Standing Rock Tribe is going to have any movement between now and Nov. then I have some ocean front property in Arizona I would like to sell you. There has been no movement. The belief of getting a referendum there is complete and utter lunacy. The tribal council, and I don't care who is running it (RHHT, Murphy) is not going to go for this, because they know that if they allow for one on this issue, then arguments would be made to have to start allowing them on other issues...which is something they really don't want-- because it would take power away from the Council.

I guess the only question that matters is... Does anyone actually think that Standing Rock between now and November will address this issue? My thought is- no, unfortunately.

I just get the feeling that we will get to Novembe 2010 before the final decision is made. There's been to much posturing, and twists and turns in this saga to believe otherwise. Here's my prediction with all the legal haggling and everything else... We will arrive in November with a meeting which will resolve to retire the nickname. No one will have heard boo, from Standing Rock, leaving a bewildered SBoHE to go with the choice that they didn't want to have to make. The Summit will have waited for UND, to join the conference, however they did go ahead and schedule the season that needed to be scheduled leaving UND to join a year later than they would have preferred, forcing them at least for another year to throw more money covering costs to travel within the Great West. In the end we all will be poorer. No Nickname, Less Money in the bank to operate- after another year of heavy expenditures, missed recruits as they choose to go to rivals. Not a pretty picture no matter how you slice it but I do think we will make it to November. But I don't think we'll hear anything from SR in that time.

People have been playing the What If game, with the Montana Schools for years. They are not going to the WAC!

DU doesn't have a lot of connections or fan interest in relation to the the Sun Belt (Their current conference) (which is putting the screws to them since they don't have football) But if they are available... the Summit would be stupid not to approach them with everything they've got in order to get into a large market like Denver. The other option for the Summit is if they truly want to make the Conference tenable for Southern Utah...Utah Valley would have to be a consideration. Plus Utah Valley is already done with their transition, and is full fledged D1 program.

I noticed that on CBS Sportsline that when they had the Great West listed in the Scoreboard area in the Men's Category, but they didn't have it listed for the Women's. You could find some Great West Scores in Women's listed under Independents. They listed Scores for HBU, Tex Pan-Am, NJIT, Chicago St, USD, Utah Valley, but not UND for either the Men's or Women's scoreboard. I was wondering why that was.

I think pointing at the Summit League as being a culprit in this is getting to the point where it really doesn't matter what their position is. Realistically, there is only about 8 months left on the deadline anyway. We've had how much time after the settlement to make progress? It hasn't happened on the SR reservation and every indication is that there isn't going to be. By the time the SBoHE gets around to it...it will be November anyway, and we will have had the full amount of time or- near that- to try gain approval. This is the way the SR reservation and their leadership are deciding to approach this and that is fine with me. It's unfortunate, but that's sometimes how it works out there, and there is nothing that you or I, can do to change the way they prioritize issues.

I know Burk is a point guard, I think next year could be brutal without someone who can take over handeling of the basketball. Jossy is playing 40 minutes a game now, and to be honest with you we don't really have anyone to groom behind her right now. I know that the thought was that Smart could play that role and develop into it, but I'm not seeing that right now. It seems she's better suited to being off the ball. Privatsky, just depends on her health, and I don't want to speculate. Next year could be brutal just getting into our offense without a seasoned point guard to get us there. Add to that-- the only proven scorer we'll have returning will be Youngblut. Lof is improving but the reality is next year we could be an absolutely horrific offensive ball club.

I keep hearing a very common comment, and it hasn't really bothered me until this point in the season. Its that the goal is the Great West Conference Title and tounament title is the answer I hear after losses. Thats great but... Yes these are good teams, but the goal should be to advance this program by eventually stealing some wins against some good D1 teams. Thats what will advance these programs (men & women), it will add a boost for our fans and build recognition. Unfortunately that storyline isn't even close to being possible right now with the men and the women as the talent is not there to surprise and beat these long established d1 majors and mid majors. Yeah thats great about the Great West and all, but I want to see our Women or Men get a victory over a Big 10 or quality MAC or Missouri Valley or similar program. Those are the wins that make noise. Other teams who have transtitioned ahead of us were able to do so. Why can't we? Poor planning on the type of player needed to accompolish the job to do that or what, you tell me? Winning the Great West for Volleyball may be great, but for UND basketball I expect more, and right now am not getting it.

No! There is no evidence of that.

I've followed Fla St. for a long time and i am not aware of this buying off the tribe as many like to state from time to time. I know I have stated this before in previous topics. The Seminole tribe approached the state legislature, many many years ago, in which they got the legislature to draw up a resolution that the name would always remain Seminoles at FSU. I've never heard any stories or seen any evidence in which any dollars were exchanged in return for accteptance of the name.

late first half collapse again killing us

I was listening to the game last night on my way into GF. It sounded like we played pretty well against the Red Raiders in the 1st half in fact led by 5 with about 3 minutes left (then they closed the half 8-0 why can't we seem to close a half against good competition?). We didn't do as well in the 2nd and they made shots and of course we decided to turn it over. It sounds like we've been improving since ASU. Beat Long Island tonight.

nice write up on jake at fightingsioux dot com.

Anybody see how Evers who is coming to UND, did against Frydlund and EGF last night? Not just the game story out of the herald info, anybody there, that could add some insight.

I'm optimistic that we will have a good consistent effort on Saturday, and I do believe we will shoot at least a little better and we won't go 6 plus minutes without a basket. (I pray) I think Northern Iowa by 16. but I won't be totally disappointed by that. I think the Panthers will make the tournament weather they get the auto-bid or not, just looking at their RPI, I would guess they are on pace to get an invite. Providing they don't have a huge second half slide and their 2nd half schedule doesn't bring them down. I look for their RPI actually to suffer a little bit even if they do beat us. I just want our freshman to take a step forward in this game, and our veterans to make smart veteran type plays.

I wonder if we actively recruiting anymore of those players off that list? We're going to need a whole bunch of them if we are going to compete at this level.

Hey! relax its one article. What are they suppose do? stop practicing now that they've had a bad loss? Thank god they are in practicing, we need it. Somehow I think your JBB... in that case, it doesn't surprise me, because you can't get enough of us.

I only caught a little of the game, but I did catch Roebucks comments after today and he said his team played as hard as they could, didn't feel ASU was any better bball talent wise but did say they were bigger and stronger witch was the difference. They had a number of players that were 6-2 or taller, I was excited when I thought we were getting a 6'5 player this year. Alas it hasn't worked out with that but what could we possibly expect facing the #14 team on the county on their floor, clearly outsized. This transition is awful to have to suffer through, as I love our basketball programs. I look at things this way as we are at a stage in the D1 transition where 1 of 2 things is going to happen. The first being... We survive -our basketball programs are competitive for conference titles following the transition and become one of those mid majors that big time programs respect and are a bit leary of. Or because of our losses the programs begin to tailspin, no one wants to come play there and we become the perennial doormat of d1 and our conference. I hope like crazy we avoid the latter.

If you think this year is going to be tough I look at the next 2 years as being tougher. Looking at the roster, we're graduating 4 seniors, we have 4 seniors, next year we will have 4 true sophs, 2 seniors, and a player in Privatsky who will be coming back after nearly 2 years away from the game with a knee that will be a question mark... maybe. Then we'll add in a bunch of new freshman who if you look at the numbers won't be afforded the opportunities to redshirt. It won't be until we have a roster full of d1 caliber players that have years of experience under their belts will we see improvement in competitives, as this year has blown up in our face, and looking at the next 2, I don't see anything promising for at least 4 more years, and thats a long time for our fan base which skews older already. just my opinion. Being a mid major I do believe in redshirting. I think it allows players that come in at this level to mature, work on their games and get stronger. Right now our program can't afford to do that, we need players to step in and play. Recruiting wise, I agree just if we're going to compete, we need talent that is as good or better than what South Dakota State is getting, I don't care where it comes from, but thats what we need, but I'm beginning to wonder if we have what it takes to get these recruits of that ability. Maybe we don't have the facilities, institution, student experience, and staff that appeals to players that we think we do.