jdub27

He had a list of schools sorted by their distance from the nucleus of the conference and highlighted with different colors to represent their chance of getting invited.

Webcast available here. I believe you need to sign up but it is free. Link to game will appear closer to game time. (Link stolen from @UNDSID)

You didn't read his color coded list. It clearly was a travesty.

So which is it?

Again, if he wanted to make an Invitational tournament by not having to rely on an invite, then he should have won the Summit. Other than RPI, which 75% of has nothing to do with whether you win or lose, what point does he have? And NDSU wasn't even the highest ranked RPI team to be not invited.

Wish they would have shown his comments while he was explaining his color by numbers to the media. WDAY barely had a thing on it. Convenient. Someone should tell Saul that he could have played in the NIT if they would have won the Summit instead of coming in third. Good luck to UND tonight. UNI is a tough draw, but this game will be much closer than it was earlier in the year. Play like they did last week and UND has a good chance at pulling it off.

UND is currently sitting at a 16 point underdog.

Please tell me you are joking? Edit: I see his new conference on KVLY's website but I can't get it to play at the moment.

While I didn't look it up to verify his claim, Hak said in the 3-4 games or whatever it was that they played with Rocco on the top line, they only had one 5x5 goal. So while they may have been generating changes, they weren't lighting up the scoreboard. From the way he talked about it, I would guess that O'D (or someone else) will likely stay on the top line and Rocco will stay on the second line for the majority of shifts to spread out the scoring threats.

It appears he has a very good understanding of recruiting and I believe he was Special Teams coordinator previously at WIU. Well deserved promotion.

I believe all games are played at campus sites. I could be reading their website wrong, but it looks like after the first round match-ups, the remaining teams are then bracketed geographically. Championship game is on CBS this year.

What difference does it make if it is Friday/Saturday or Saturday/Sunday. People can take Monday off of work instead of Friday. I also seem to remember the Xcel being pretty full at the Regionals last year against UM, that was a Sunday game...

Basically, RPI is comprised as follows: 25% weight on win-loss, 50% weight on opponent's win-loss and 25% weight on opponent's opponent's win-loss. So 25% is how you do and 75% is out of your hands and has to do with your scheduling and who you play schedules. Winning your games helps RPI, but not as much as one would think. Using realtimerpi.com, this year, SDSU (RPI of 62, SOS - 175) got a major boost from playing New Mexico (2, 2), Belmont (19, 87), Minnesota (34, 4) and Alabama (60, 76). NDSU (75, 183) played Indiana (8, 10), Minnesota (34, 4) and Akron (42, 131). The only game in that group that either XDSU won was SDSU vs. New Mexico, which was a huge win, but they benefitted even more just by playing it since UNM has an RPI of 2 and a SOS of 2. The article someone posted earlier about Oakland's coach and his scheduling philosophy is a good example of this. Winning games is important, but scheduling tougher games can almost be more important, win or lose. It is also why many people don't think all that highly of RPI prefer other ranking systems (though all have their weaknesses). For comparison, the only top 60 team UND (224, 285played was Kansas State (20, 40Montana (74, 241) played Colorado St (18, 35) as its only top 60 team. They also played Davidson who was 61 and BYU who was 63. Weber State (85, 292) didn't play a single top 60 team, but did play BYU. What it boils down to is that as long as RPI continues to be looked at, the Big Sky needs to step up its out of conference schedule very similar to what Summit teams have been doing the last couple of years.

Gut punch loss. Guys played well just couldn't hang on. Weber is legit. Would have loved to see this team at full strength all year. Won't be surprised if UND isn't done yet

No sound here either.

From the luncheon today: O'Donnell will likely stay on the top line with Knight and Kristo. Hak said he likes what Gaarder brings on a line with the MacMillan brothers so I would expect him to stay there.

A large part of the issue that I believe people have with them is that they are the only option most places they are available. People think things can always be better, especially when they don't have a choice. I personally think their prices are somewhat higher than they should be, but when your only competition is satellite, that is not really much of a concern for them. I've never had a problem with their customer service. Overall offerings are pretty good as well, though they have made some small changes in channel offerings that I personally haven't cared for, but different people watch different things.

It may have been coach-speak, but Hak was very adamant that UND has one of the toughest, if not the toughest first round match-ups (for the home team), particularly with how Tech has been playing the 2nd half. He spoke very highly of them, more so than I've heard him speak of opponents in the past. Again, he could just be setting the tone for the playoffs, but I don't think they will be the push-over we are used to seeing.

Well good thing there isn't much of that for you to do around here...

Wilmer needs to play like he did last night and limit fouls. Brekke needs to have a much better game. Need to get the dribble drive and kick out going like the 2nd half last night and hit the shots. UND has the talent to pull it off, but are going to have to play a very good game to do it.

Actually Butler>Valpo but in the grand scheme of things it shouldn't matter. Point being, their starters will now have at least some game action under their belt. Originally, I thought UND would have a little bit of advantage having played a game, especially with a young QB. Looks like SDSU will have the same opportunity.

Looks like SDSU picked up a game against Butler on 8/31, meaning their game against UND will not be their first one of the season any more.

Mitch Wilmer was the MVP of that game and not sure it was close. Hitting the open corner 3's when SUU switched to the zone was the big difference. Once those started falling it was over.

If the team that is playing the 2nd half tonight shows up tomorrow against Weber, it is going to be entertaining! Not so much if the 1st half team shows up. SUU currently shooting .245% from the field...

Wilmer made a big difference tonight.