fightingsioux4life

Because of a cold that just wouldn't go away and some "miscommunication" with the friend I was supposed to go with, I will not be there for the first time since 2002. I shall return next year however. Everyone be safe coming home on Sunday, you might have some slick roads to contend with. I'll be watching at home and praying for two wins and an NCAA birth. GO SIOUX!!!

I think they do it for attendance purposes. Women's BB still has trouble drawing fans, despite the overall improvement in talent and competitiveness over the past 10-15 years. At least we aren't playing a #2 seed Stanford (a perennial power in WBB) like USD is.

Correct me if I am wrong, but your post came off like this: "Congrats to NDSU and coach Miles.....but we just cannot expect that level of success here." This mentality is far too prevalent on this forum and amongst our fan base. We have to start thinking and acting and talking like a top-notch mid-major program. Listen to Brewster and the WBB players talk; he and his players expect to be good and expect to achieve at a high level. And look at where they are now. That is where championship traditions start and I think we all want to see that with our MBB program. And whether or not Jones is the man to build that tradition remains to be seen.

Good analysis overall, but I have a couple of comments (as always)! Then how do you explain NDSU's success in MBB at the mid-major level? Or SDSU's success in WBB? The Slummit is not exactly a bus league either (despite repeated attempts by the FU faithful to portray it as such). Also, a kid that is willing and able to leave home for college and to play college basketball isn't going to be as attached to playing close to home as you are implying. How many stories have we read about UND parents traveling hundreds of miles to watch their son/daughter play for one of UND's teams? Today's young people are very anxious to get out in the world and pursue their dreams. So I don't think we can use geography as an excuse for not recruiting well.

I have heard about that before. It's brilliant!

I have gotten three games wrong today. Louisville losing would make it four.

I totally understand what you are saying, but I think we'll get off our arses and get with the program in FB and MBB soon. Bubba will get FB turned around. Jones should be on the hot seat after this year's MBB team underachieved and slow-walked thru game after game this season. The plain and simple truth is we have no choice but to fix the programs that are not working. We are Division I in all sports now and running all non-hockey sports on shoestring budgets cannot continue. Better days are ahead.

I am glad NDSU won because I picked them to win their first game. Now whomever they meet up with next, please beat them by 40 so I can hear Scott Miller use the dejected version of "My oh My".

I'll be heading down from Grand Forks early Thursday afternoon. I'll be staying in a hotel in Bloomington and will be taking the light rail from Mall of America to downtown Minneapolis. I want to avoid driving in downtown Minneapolis. As Randy Moss will tell you, it's kind of confusing!

Were you talking to us? I thought I heard an annoying, whiny voice!

But UNDBIZ, it's all about "family entertainment" now! I am surprised they don't use the big screens to play patty-cake with all the toddlers in the audience. This is one of the reasons most people get nostalgic for the Old REA, where the atmosphere was second to none in college hockey and this kind of garbage didn't go on. The day is coming when there is no student section whatsoever. That will be the day I dump my season tickets.

Larry The Cable Guy would disagree with you.

Sorry, but when FU fans go off the deep end and start talking about Sweet 16 and Elite 8, then they deserve some ridicule. I am picking them to upset OU, but that is as far as they will go. They aren't Wichita St or Creighton and that is what THEY need to "just accept:". Some of us are just sick and tired of the trolling on the fan site of a team they claim not to care about anymore and the arrogance and pompous attitudes. When the shoe is on the other foot, they'll realize how foolish it was to be a bunch of toolboxes. I don't hear anyone on this forum making outlandish predictions for the UND Women's team.

Having traveled to every Final Five tournament since 1999 except one (2002-I got sick), it was easy to notice all the cars with North Dakota license plates and Fighting Sioux decals traveling on I-94 with me. I also have noticed the same thing on I-29 when our FB team played in places like Brookings and Sioux Falls, SD during our NCC days. I am sure that there are a lot of our fans that live down there that make a point to go to our games, but he was making it sound like we don't travel as well as some people think, which is pure crap.

It simply is not true. If I am blind, you are hallucinating.

Did you come up with this crap all by yourself?

Very funny troll. Did the almighty Slummit receive an at-large bid yesterday? Nope, didn't think so. Both our leagues are one-bid leagues. Stop trying to spin it into something else.

ButtRPI!

Eight Overtimes; Five minutes each.

ButtRPI!!! Both leagues are one-bid leagues. RPI only matters if you are in a conference strong enough to get multiple bids.

Agreed. The women get after it every night; even if they are off their game the work ethic is there. The men are hit and miss; you don't know what you are going to get. I don't care if the men get to the NCAA tournament and get beat by 40 or if they get stuck in one of the play-in games, I just want them to get there. The exposure alone would be worth it.

Perhaps you should read the original message? It talked about ranking accomplishments other than national championships. The message also implied that national titles are a default #1 and asked people to put everything else in order from most to least important. I agree with you on NCAA titles (and have been subsequently ripped for it), but I seriously think you missed the point of the thread.

Well, I guess we will find out soon enough.

Good discussion on the differences between Class A and AA hockey in Minnesota. With the rise of the wealthy suburban programs in the MSP metro area and the presence of private academies that recruit because they can, I don't think we'll ever see a one-class system again. And that is how it should be. It just isn't realistic to have schools the size of EGF, TRF and Warroad try to compete with big schools like Duluth East, Edina, Apple Valley, Bloomington Jefferson, ect. It's not that there isn't any talent in Class A, it's that the small schools lack the depth to compete consistently with Class AA schools with a 2 to 3 fold enrollment advantage. Of course, some of the "Class 2A" hockey snobs will try to tell you that Class A is glorified JV, but I think T.J. Oshie and others have proven that wrong over the years.

Well, I am in the same boat.