fightingsioux4life

I agree with you and share your concerns about the program. But you can find good players in the portal. Some of whom may have slipped through the cracks when they were being recruited the first time.

But when they ran into older, experienced teams, they got beat. Freshman are still Freshman (no matter how talented they are) and they will occasionally struggle against older, more experienced players.

No disrespect to Quinnipiac; I picked them to win the tournament. But for some reason, the Goofs got conservative after getting a two-goal lead and it backfired big time. Prevent defense prevents you from winning. It is a fact of life in the NFL and it is also a fact of life in this sport.

But I thought everything was about $$$$$?

He would have way more resources to work with here.

So it's the player's fault ESPN2 chose to cut to him?

Hennessey would probably retire.

Easy to say when you are sitting in the stands or at home watching. I do not like the Goofs, but I won't criticize a player for being emotional after a crushing loss like that.

For once I agree with you. Well written and well stated. One minor change: I would substitute Bemidji with St. Thomas. Otherwise, you are right.

Minnesota's recent success has zero to do with the B1G and everything to do with replacing Don Lucia with Bob Motzko. They were stuck in the mud with Lucia for years. Same with Michigan and Red Berenson a few years ago. I really hope that doesn't happen with Berry and UND. And being loaded with blue chippers is great.....until those NHL suits start waving entry-level contracts in their faces after one or two college seasons and they sign them. A mix of 3-4 year and 1-2 year players is probably the best formula for success. Otherwise, you are starting over every October and you never get to build on what you started. That is what we have to establish in Grand Forks if we are going to get back to winning.

Fair enough. However, that doesn't explain away the talking point boilerplate drivel someone on this forum received in response to e-mails about the state of our programs. They posted it in another thread on MBB earlier this year. Which makes me cynical about your all-purpose solution of having conversations with these people. Their jobs are 50% political, so don't think they are above resorting to political boilerplate language to answer your questions. Getting a straight answer on these things is next to impossible.

Then why didn't the B1G start killing it back in 2011? Realignment was announced in Summer 2011 and took effect with the 2013-14 season. They could have started recruiting off the B1G brand name 12 years ago. So why didn't the B1G do better before this?

We have a lot of successful alumni who have done very well and would probably give back if they were courted properly. The key is percentage of engaged alumni, not total number of alumni. We have always been at a disadvantage when it comes to enrollment, numbers of alumni, size of metro areas, things to do, ect. Yet, we have 8 NCAA titles banners hanging from the rafters. There is zero reason why we should have to fade into oblivion because of NIL or whatever else. We have to adjust to changing times and we need to be proactive rather than reactive. But relying on one big donor is not going to get us there. We need to recruit and engage a broader spectrum of alumni who loved their time at UND and want to pay it forward for future generations. How we get there is a complicated question to answer.

Our move up has been a disaster. We are still trying to crawl into contention in a long line of sports. It's been 15 years since we moved up and we are barely treading water. What would you call it? I never said any of this is easy. Nothing worth having ever is. I am simply frustrated with the state of UND athletics and the whole defeatist attitude by some people on here. I don't question your loyalty to UND at all. I do think you accept official explanations for things way too easily. That can lead to a lack of accountability for people in high-level positions whose decisions have a huge impact on our success or lack thereof.

So we are just screwed? We should just settle for being the Valparaiso of college hockey? Cripes, the B1G has one good year in hockey (out of 10 so far) and everyone is running for the lifeboats. I am not ready to do that.

I was stating the obvious. Deal with it.

So our donor base is 100% tapped? Everyone who wants to give is giving? I don't believe that. Others on here have documented the lack of outreach and follow-up on the part of the Champions Club. Someone on here posted actual E-mail correspondence with UND officials and their responses were mostly boilerplate talking point drivel. Others get no response at all. There are real problems with UND athletics and fundraising, but all I get from you is impassioned defenses of UND officials and everything they do or don't do. This D-I move has been an overall disaster. Which is obvious to any objective observer, except those who cannot take their green-colored glasses off. We should not have moved up to D-I if we were not prepared for the increased expenditures that come with such a move. Now hockey is faced with the challenge of NIL and the response on here is more hapless shoulder shrugging and the loser attitude of "we can't do anything about it". Either we figure this out or we should just move down to Division III where none of these problems will exist.

We cannot rely on one single donor for everything. We must broaden and diversify our donor base. Also, local businesses need to step up on NIL since UND cannot get involved in it.

I never said anyone was making that argument. If putting words into other people's mouths was an Olympic sport, you'd win Gold every four years.

On a positive note, this does poke a hole in the "B1G Rules The World" narrative. Whether our coaching staff was interested in him or not is anyone's guess. But I know one thing, we cannot contend for titles relying too much on "culture" guys with limited skills.

The most succinct and accurate assessment of the current state of the program I have read so far. Agree 100% with all of it.

Exactly. We face serious challenges as a program and athletic department, but the whole "there's nothing we can do about it" attitude is infuriating as a lifelong fan of this school.

Cripes, the throw in the towel attitude on this forum is very disturbing. Minnesota produces so much talent and the B1G teams have the same scholarship limits everyone else does. There is also more U.S. talent available now than there has ever been. A program like ours has no excuse not being able to recruit high-end talent. None. This coming season is a big one for both the coaching staff and the program as a whole.

You need guys like him to win games. They do the little things that don't get much attention, but are important nonetheless.

Agreed.