SWSiouxMN

Sooo..... getting back on topic Its my understanding that we have so far 1 commit for 2014 and 1 commit for 2015. Is this correct?

I'll go conservative with the score UND 48 Valpo 6 Finally got my ticket for both Valpo and SDSU today.

1) Semi-surprised, but I'm sure both QBs will get a crack against Valpo 2) Good decision by the coaches on McGill. Get another year to get healthy, stronger, and have an awesome senior year 3) Wonder if those would be the only 3 getting lifted. Kuksa is a no brainer, he is a stud

This is bar none, the biggest basketball season in UND's history. Period. We have potentially the best player in the Big Sky (Huff) and the best backcourt in the Big Sky as well. (Webb, Anderson, Huff, Schuler). We do have some big questions in the frontcourt however, as each player has some issues. Brekke is the most experienced and talented (he could be All Big Sky this year, I really think so), but is the concussion issue in the past and can he stay out of foul trouble. Does Traylor have his grades in order and can they stay in order? Can Calcaterra tap into his potential and be a big time post player? What will Salmonson and Nash bring to the table? If the frontcourt can get its act together and plays respectably, we can do a lot of damage this year. I am holding this team to a higher standard this year. No more of this CIT/CBI stuff, its NCAA or Bust. Anything less would be a disappointment in my eyes

The coaching staff has not done any longer scrimmages and has instead gone to doing shorter "live" drills at the end of most of the morning practices. The reason being is that they want to keep people as healthy as they possibly can. Im sure they will have one tomorrow, but being that we are getting close to Valpo week (my goodness, only 8 days away?) they will start to shift towards that and limit what they do. If you move your stuff in quick enough in the morning, take the short trek from Swanson to Memorial and check them out. They should start going live around 10:30-11:00 ish (about the time they did when I went to look at them on Monday). I believe it is also the last practice at Memorial for the year as they shift on over to the Alerus for the rest of the time until the 29th.

Snuck outside today and caught the last half of practice, mainly all of the live drills they did today. I tried to get as much as I could down while the plays happened, and while I don't have the greatest mind for football, here were the things that went down. Instead of focusing on every little thing possible, I tried to focus on a couple of areas. -The live session was focused on drives where the offense tried to score a TD. -There were 6 drives in all today, each QB got one and one of the freshman (Palendech) got the honors of a second drive. -Out of the 6 drives today, 1 was a touchdown, 2 were stopped after a missed 3rd down (would have resulted in FGs), 1 was a 3 and out, and 2 ended in interceptions. Now for the specifics 1st drive -Mollberg got the first crack and drove the ball down the field, mainly behind the legs of Jake Miller, who broke a couple of nice runs. -Defense did their best to keep the run game in check once they got down to the red zone. -On 3rd down, Mollberg attempted his one and only pass, which was a good thrown ball to Golliday, which he caught for a TD. Golliday just outmuscled and outworked the corner to get the ball, but the corner (I forget the number) did his very best to knock the ball out of his hands. 2nd drive -Hanson was next to step up -Jer almost broke one the first play of the drive, he make a nice cut back and had the open field. Kolonwalski however make a shoestring tackle to save the touchdown. -The D then toughed up the next 2 plays, stopping the run -Best play of the day by the D when a Hanson overthrown lead to Kuksa getting the pick. He extended his hand to tip then pick the ball off. 3rd drive -Palendech led the offense next and on the first play ran some read option and just about broke one down the left hand side of the field. Another great tackle by Kolonwalski saved the day for the D. -After which, the D shut down the run game. Sparks got a few carries and just plowed through the middle of the field and picked up some nice yardage, the O didn't pick up the 3rd and short. Would have resulted in a FG in real time 4th drive -Bartles finally got his chance here -They once again ran some read option but this was the worst offensive series of the day. It resulted in a 3 and out and Bartles badly overthrew the ball on 3rd down. He was however on the run, which was flushed out by the D 5th drive -Riddle was the last to go and he looked effiecient, he kept a lot of plays alive with his legs and made a nice throw to Carr, he kept one drive alive with this legs as well. The D once again prevented a score and did a much better job containing the QB and the run game, but would have resulted in a FG in real time. Last drive -Palendech got the honors of the 2nd drive and let Varner snap off a nice run and the O was on the drive once again. Disterhaupt showed some good hands at WR and Ivery make a very good tackle to stop him right where he was. Palendech's ended on a sour note when on an attempted fade on 3rd down, he underthrew and Ivery had an easy pick which he returned to about mid-field. Final Thoughts: -Based off the live drills, Mollberg won the day in the QB battle, with Palendech not too far behind. Was impressed with Kurt today as well as Riddle. -Good to be Miller snap off some long runs, the run game looked decent for a change. Jer and Kodee didn't look too bad as well -The Defense did have its moments and in my eyes do look to be improved from last year. The tackling looks way better than it was last year. The runs were mainly on good plays by the offense and not a whole lot of missed tackles. -I fully believe in the Golliday hype machine -I hope Kuska gets his shirt lifted, he is the ball hawking safety we need. -Ivery is going to be a nice player in the secondary

I wouldn't worry too much yet. Its still early, we didn't get our first commit last year until mid-September.

The 3 game Canadian scrimmage starts tomorrow. Anyone interested in following the action with the gameday chat on the UND website. http://www.undsports.com//ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=13500&ATCLID=209191261 No Dyer and Roscoe on the trip, but everyone else is there.

Big Sky Preseason Poll. UND was picked 4th 2013 Big Sky Conference Preseason Coaches Poll Team Points 1. Portland State 95 (7) 2. Idaho State 83 (2) 3. No. Colorado 75 4. North Dakota 74 5. Northern Arizona 59 (2) 6. Eastern Wash. 56 7. Sacramento State 49 8. Montana State 37 9. Southern Utah 28 10. Weber State 26 11. Montana

I think with a new coach and attitude along with the influx of the redshirt freshman will help. Labat, Rich, Edwards, Cain, Konowalski will be names to watch on the redshirt freshman side to get into the rotation.

I like how its been done the past few years and I feel the song has grown in the past 3 years when it began to grow on us as students. I was lucky to have tickets since arriving in the Fall of 09, so before they put the song in, it was goal, school song, students hi five and then clap for the school song, sieve the goalie, announce the goal, beer song. For the last 2.5-3 years now: goal, Chelsea Dagger, students dance and celebrate, school song, students clap for school song, sieve the goalie, announce the goal, beer song. In a way with Chelsea Dagger, we students created somewhat of a tradition and its a fun upbeat ridiculous song that you want in a goal song. It just grew on us and it started to spread as the years went along. I think the players see that and that's why its still around Its bad enough they took our Beer Lady, don't take our Dagger!

Guess that also means that Omaha will be coming to Grand Forks for the 14-15 season as a return for bracketbusters

Schedule breakdown pros and cons Pros: -The Oregon tourney will be solid. Poly and Pacific finished in the top 3 in the Big West conference last year and Pacific went to the NCAAs last year. Oregon coming off a sweet 16 run. -Love the trips to Butler and Wisconsin. The Badgers are always near the top of the BIG 10 and rarely lose at home and Butler will be Butler in the new Catholic Confer.. errr I mean Big East. Cons: -Need to get USD on the schedule. -Just a personal con for me but SDSU on the 21st when the students are gone? ouch Overall: Definitely an upgrade over last year and will work to challenge and get this squad ready for the Sky. Hopefully they can make some early noise and knock off a couple teams.

1) Hopefully the NDSU game is NOT scheduled over Thanksgiving weekend 2) Any rumbles on who are playing at home for non-conference besides NDSU and SDSU. Is Omaha coming up this year?

Whoops, when looking at the roster I used Varner's hometown of Baker, MT and confused it with another running back. haha my bad

I am interested in the RB battle myself as we need this to greatly improved to achieve balance and take some pressure off our freshman QBs. Miller, Garman, Sparks, Shaugs, Varner, and i'll even throw Baker in here as well, someone here needs to step up and be a big time back.

What I have pieced together from other Big Sky conference schools and the women's schedule 12/21 UNC 1/2 @ SUU 1/4 @ UNC 1/9 ISU 1/11 Weber 1/16 @ Montana 1/18 @ Montana State 1/23 Sac State 1/25 NAU 1/30 @ EWU 2/1 @ PSU 2/6 @ Weber 2/8 @ ISU 2/13 Montana State 2/15 Montana 2/20 @ Sac State 2/22 @ NAU 2/27 PSU 3/1 EWU 3/6 SUU The only ones that I am not sure on are the UNC and SUU games, just guessing based on the women's schedule. If they put theirs out before ours, I'll update. Otherwise Im pretty sure of 16/20 based on research

My .02 on the schedule Pros: -The early scrimmages up in Canada in August will be a very good thing for this team with all the questions they have. -Playing both Minnesota and making 3 trips to Iowa will be a good test for the girls and will help our recruiting inroads in both the Twin Cities Metro and hopefully get some attention down in Iowa. -Glad the USD rivalry is back on the schedule, hopefully the men's team follows suit this year Cons: -4 non-conference home games and only 2 of them are D-1 schools? You couldn't at least figure out a way to get at least 1 more D-1 school to play instead of the North Dakota NAIA schools. Would rather see Omaha, Drake, etc. -Got to figure out a way to get SDSU back on the schedule. They are the measuring stick when it comes to women's basketball in the region. -Looks like no return trip from Utah, disappointed in that.

The Schedule http://www.undsports.com/SportSelect.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=13500&SPID=6389&SPSID=58571 Sat, Nov 02 Minnesota Crookston (exh.) Betty Engelstad Sioux Center (Grand Forks, N.D.) 2:00 p.m. 100.3-FM Tue, Nov 05 Bemidji State (exh.) Betty Engelstad Sioux Center (Grand Forks, N.D.) 7:00 p.m. 100.3-FM Sun, Nov 10 Iowa State at Ames, Iowa TBA 100.3-FM Tue, Nov 12 Northern Iowa at Cedar Falls, Iowa TBA 100.3-FM Sun, Nov 17 South Dakota Betty Engelstad Sioux Center (Grand Forks, N.D.) 2:00 p.m. 100.3-FM Tue, Nov 26 Jamestown College Betty Engelstad Sioux Center (Grand Forks, N.D.) 7:00 p.m. 100.3-FM Wed, Dec 04 Milwaukee at Milwaukee, Wis. 11:00 a.m. 100.3-FM Sun, Dec 08 Minnesota at Minneapolis, Minn. TBA 100.3-FM Sat, Dec 14 North Dakota State Betty Engelstad Sioux Center (Grand Forks, N.D.) 2:00 p.m. 100.3-FM Wed, Dec 18 Mayville State Betty Engelstad Sioux Center (Grand Forks, N.D.) 7:00 p.m. 100.3-FM Sat, Dec 21 Northern Colorado * at Greeley, Colo. 3:00 p.m. 100.3-FM Sat, Dec 28 Iowa at Iowa City, Iowa TBA 100.3-FM Thu, Jan 02 Southern Utah * Betty Engelstad Sioux Center (Grand Forks, N.D.) 7:00 p.m. 100.3-FM Sat, Jan 04 Northern Colorado * Betty Engelstad Sioux Center (Grand Forks, N.D.) 2:00 p.m. 100.3-FM Thu, Jan 09 Idaho State * at Pocatello, Idaho TBA 100.3-FM Sat, Jan 11 Weber State * at Ogden, Utah 2:00 p.m. 100.3-FM Thu, Jan 16 Montana * Betty Engelstad Sioux Center (Grand Forks, N.D.) 7:00 p.m. 100.3-FM Sat, Jan 18 Montana State * Betty Engelstad Sioux Center (Grand Forks, N.D.) 2:00 p.m. 100.3-FM Thu, Jan 23 Sacramento State * at Sacramento, Calif. 9:00 p.m. 100.3-FM Sat, Jan 25 Northern Arizona * at Flagstaff, Ariz. TBA 100.3-FM Thu, Jan 30 Eastern Washington * Betty Engelstad Sioux Center (Grand Forks, N.D.) 7:00 p.m. 100.3-FM Sat, Feb 01 Portland State * Betty Engelstad Sioux Center (Grand Forks, N.D.) 2:00 p.m. 100.3-FM Thu, Feb 06 Weber State * Betty Engelstad Sioux Center (Grand Forks, N.D.) 7:00 p.m. 100.3-FM Sat, Feb 08 Idaho State * Betty Engelstad Sioux Center (Grand Forks, N.D.) 2:00 p.m. 100.3-FM Thu, Feb 13 Montana State * at Bozeman, Mont. 8:00 p.m. 100.3-FM Sat, Feb 15 Montana * at Missoula, Mont. TBA 100.3-FM Thu, Feb 20 Sacramento State * Betty Engelstad Sioux Center (Grand Forks, N.D.) 7:00 p.m. 100.3-FM Sat, Feb 22 Northern Arizona * Betty Engelstad Sioux Center (Grand Forks, N.D.) 2:00 p.m. 100.3-FM Thu, Feb 27 Portland State * at Portland, Ore. TBA 100.3-FM Sat, Mar 01 Eastern Washington * at Cheney, Wash. 4:00 p.m. 100.3-FM Thu, Mar 06 Southern Utah * at Cedar City, Utah 9:00 p.m. 100.3-FM Big Sky Conference Tournament Wed, Mar 12 - Sat, Mar 15 TBA at TBA TBA

Is it August 29th yet? Season can't start soon enough

This was something that was experimented last year during the football season, and it actually had some moderate success. Hopefully the 2 people picked can continue to help built a new atmosphere at the Alerus.

1) Find a song 2) Find a group of people willing to do it (other students, band members, etc) 3) Hopefully watch it grow.

Hopefully Jones and crew can back it up with a memorable season and land big time recruits for next year. This years team cannot make another trip to the CIT, that would be a disappointment in my book.

The scary thing, I think he could be even better next year. He has no idea how good he can become. If he can focus more on his free throw shooting, continue his shooting work from last year, and no fluke injuries... Look out nation

If he can help us get to the Big Dance, and be a big part of getting recruits that can help us get right back into contention in the Big Sky the next year after Huff and company leave, its a major coup.