tboneund

I love hearing TH's commentary

It sounds like Adam's at it again tonight! ...we score (so sorry Adam)

This is a great idea! Sicotka, I loved the pictures!

My major concern is that last time the students "compromised" and tried to clean up the cheers the administration said they would help get the whole crowd into cheering by putting some of the cheers on the big screen and informing the public about when and what to cheer. I do not feel that they have upheld their end of the bargain. By the way, how might one join this group or support it? If you cannot say in the public forum just send me a private message, I am sure there are many people on here who would like to help in any way possible.

Agreed, he's just being realistic...a sweep would be nice, but UMD is a great team so a split would be acceptable too.

I like the sound of that! I might have to stick around another 4 years and get a couple more degrees! Thanks PCM!

Good to hear, but how often have we heard that Brandt didn't play well in practice? Not to say that Blais is lying, but it seems that he really wants Parise to take the #1 job [iMO] so maybe he focues more on Jake's mistakes and overlooks Parise's mistakes. How to see you(or I guess hear you, depending on TV coverage)play this week Jake, show 'em what you've got!

Jake might go down more often, but Parise stays down longer... I really believe Jake does a better job of repositioning himself after the first save to make a second save if it is needed. With more experience Parise will get better at this too, but right now it is a weakness.

Good question.

I thought that while goaltending is the hot topic we might as well find out how many people think UND should have a goalie coach...I'm not the first or only person to advocate UND hiring a goalie coach. Having a goalie coach would allow Blais more time to work with the offense and defense and provide our goaltenders with better training to help them improve their game. However, I think that a part-time goalie coach would be adequate, at least to start with and then we could bump them up to full-time if the coach and goalies thought it was necessary.

Wish I could do the same, but Blais has never given Brandt the same chance as other goalies. Last year he had Simba and Brandt and neither was ever called a #1, however Jake was the go-to guy when the playoffs arrived and he rose to the challenge. This year Jake hasn't gotten a whole lot of chances, certainly not as many as Parise has. I might think differently if Blais had given him the start Saturday against the Gophers after a strong game Friday, but in typical Blais fashion he rewared a good game by benching Brandt instead of giving him more starts. Brandt is not perfect he made mistakes against Wisconsin, but the whole team played like crap that weekend...Parise hasn't proven to me that he is #1 material, certainly not after the Saturday CC game...especially if the Sioux want to go deep into the post-season.

Brandt will be here next season and barring some major screw up so will Parise...if anyone's future at UND is in jeopardy it is Ziggy. Brandt played well against Gophers on Friday, but Blais started Parise on Saturday, not exactly playing the "hot" goalie. As for his shutout streak...that should have been enough to let Blais know who his #1 goalie was...I will admitt that the streak did not involve a whole lot of saves, but Parise and Ziggy didn't face a lot of shots at the time either. Hopefully the "Brandt isn't good enough" sentiment from some people fuels Brandt like the "he's too small" sentiment fueled Karl, although I don't expect the same numbers I do expect solid play from Brandt. Keep up the great work Jake!

Brandt, no doubt or questions in my mind. He's proven he will come through in big games, with big wins, as long as Blais shows some real confidence in him...instead of saying one thing (Brandt is our #1) and doing another (Starting Parise more often). 7-0 for Brandt...good to see some people actually supprting the right guy...now if we could just convince Blais .

After all of the suggestions I like the following the best: Emailing Roger Thomas and REA about suggestions to make things better and thanking them for the way they politely asked for our assistance to make things better. This seems more likely to help without hurting the team. Suggestions: - Putting chants on the boards, as they promised in the past. - Use those paper flyers they always like to hand out for things like words to the cheers and when to use the cheer. - Maybe consider feasibility of moving students to the corner or end...only if at the end we shoot at twice. (It

I've never liked the way Blais has made decisions regarding goalies since we lost Karl, but that was a no brainer. I have always thought Blais was an idiot when it came to coaching goalies, but I never wanted to say anything because in this town saying anything negative about Blais is blasphemy. Nothing proved this more than his comments after the Friday Wisconsin game and pulling Brandt against Yale. Brandt is the better goalie this year and has not been given the same number of chances to take the #1 spot as Parise. I do think Parise is an exceptional goalie, especially when you remember he is just a freshman. This year Brandt has the skill and talent to be #1, but whether he has the confidence to be the #1 after things said and done by Blais is something we will have to wait on. Pulling a goalie and robbing him of an almost guaranteed shutout (Sioux vs. Yale) and saying he "botched it" against Wisconsin aren't great ways to instill confidence in your supposed #1 goalie. I don't think Jordan is playing because of Zach, Jordan has proven he deserves a back up spot. However, Blais continues to say that Jake is #1, but then gives Jordan more starts. The bad practice and wanting to give Parise some play time to keep him fresh are not acceptable excuses anymore. My own opinion is that Ziggy is a third string to be used as a last resort, he

Right on Diggler! I'd love it if a couple public forums were held so that everyone could get together and come up with some solutions. If the people on this board can come to and agreement on certain cheers to be used at certain times I would be more than happy to write a letter and submitt it to the Herald and Dakota Student...heck even to the Forum in Fargo. Hopefully enough people would see it to at least begin to change things. It will take time, more than we have left this season, but eventually I think we can get most of the Ralph rockin'...or at least the portion that truely bleeds green! I like the "Who's he, He sucks" or "Who's he, Who Cares" for the opening line up.

I been saying the same thing for the past 3 years, I think its about time the Sioux get one. Dean does a great job, but I think the team would ebenfit from having a goalie coach, even if he were just part-time.

I feel you pain, maybe they could devise some sort of test to receive season tickets. In order to get the tickets you would have to pass the test, and if you buy more than one ticket you are held responsible for the newer, less knowledgable fans...I know this would never work, but it would shock the heck out of the corporate guys if they did!

Right on, there's always the MT seriesto try this one ! Personally I think emails, phone calls, or personal visits to Roger Thomas with suggestions such as using technology more will help things improve faster. If you have a favorite cheer you can always ask him if it would be considered appropriate. Here are ways to contact Mr. Thomas: ROGER_THOMAS@MAIL.UND.NODAK.EDU 701-777-2235 Hyslop 120A Please use the above for giving support for things that are being done or ideas to improve the atmosphere, the last thing he needs are more people complaining without providing solutions.

This one is a no-brainer for me(lucky me), it's got to be the Old Ralph. There's no place like home and the Old Ralph felt like home.

Let me start by giving a big thanks to Roger Thomas and the REA, they really have tried to improve the current

Brandt had a new mask too; almost the same except for a lighter green, like JPar's, and the back was different. The back used to have the REA on the back with spotlights shinning on the Sioux logo, now the back just has a black outlined Sioux logo.

I'm willing to try chanting "Let's go Sioux" during the line-up because I think it has the highest probability of success (getting the whole crowd chanting), but we need more than a few people to get it going.