WeAreNorthDakota

I want players who will shovel if it's the only way to get on the field and an administration/staff that never lets it come to that.

That would be a nightmare bracket for us.

3 home games and a road game against one of the worst teams in D1. Sets up nicely for a strong finish to the season and hopefully some momentum going into the tournament. Starts tonight. Let's take care of business.

Rip Jones all you want but he fixed the early season zone problems and must've had a pretty strong message for Nash after the game Thursday because the difference in his effort was night and day.

Didn't look like there were any recruits with the coaches at the basketball game.

Welcome to the family! For a school UND's size it is surprisingly easy to follow our teams from other corners of the country. The media relations staff does a fantastic job of giving our fans access through everything they do with UND Insider and a great social media presence. Add that to every game being available live and on demand through the Big Sky and it makes for a great fan (and family) experience from afar. So long as your son can handle the cold, he's going to have a great experience at UND.

I'll be at both games this week. Looking forward to Montana sweep.

Betty for sure. I used to be a believer in having the championship games in the Ralph but after the NDSU games this year I've abandoned that thinking. Basketball belongs in the Betty.

I think Ratelle has a ton of potential but I want to see him stay healthy and seize the opportunity with the depth chart cleared out in front of him and a bunch of competition behind him.

Looks like it's gonna be a wide open battle for playing time. Dayo Idowu would be the only guy on the roster who's done anything to warrant some guaranteed playing time but everything else should be determined in spring ball, summer workouts, and fall camp. Gonna be an exciting battle to watch, especially considering the vital role they play in Bubba's philosophy.

I was going for lower level but I wasn't very clear. The argument doesn't change. Do the basketball accomplishments of Georgetown, Villanova, and Butler get diminished because their other sports aren't at the same level? No.

Let's hold off on the chopping block talk until the rest of this season plays out. Obviously I'm disappointed with how the season has gone thus far but at this level of basketball the only thing that matters is tournament time and this senior class has consistently played its best come tournament time. If we fail to make the Big Sky tournament or get bounced in the first round then maybe we can talk but for now let's sit back and see if they can find that late season magic they've had each of the last 3 years.

Why? Schools like Duluth and St Cloud might be lower level institutions in other sports but they compete at the same level in hockey and have an equal shot at a championship. That's not the case with the Pioneer, Ivy, SWAC, and most of the Patriot teams. Those schools do not compete for the FCS title and are FCS in name only. The number of teams competing for an FCS title vs a D1 hockey title are fairly close. The two accomplishments are basically the same thing; a college sports championship that 90% of the country doesn't give a damn about.

I think Bubba nailed it when he said they were recruiting without a GPS. Bubba, Schmidt, and Rudolph know North Dakota and northern Minnesota like the backs of their hand. Kostich is obviously familiar with the Twin Cities and Freund knows Wisconsin and had already built relationships with guys there. On top of that I think Bubba's message is an easy one to sell. He sounded incredibly sincere in his press conference yesterday and if he really did find guys to fit his vision in this class we're going to be in very good shape.

I think warm bodies is right to a certain extent but I also think there are a handful of kids that are going to be difference makers very early in their careers at UND. I wasn't expecting anywhere near this number of high school recruits and that makes me wonder if there are guys that we signed that Bubba won't necessarily be interested in in the future. That being said, I like the makeup of the class from a geographical standpoint and I think some of the less-heralded guys from this class are going to stick around for the long haul and be contributors later in their careers especially when it looks like the class ahead of them is going to excel from a leadership and team-first standpoint.

I don't think this year's class is anywhere near as good as last year's but considering the short amount of time the coaching staff had I'm very happy with it. Of course, I also think last year's class is going to be the one everyone looks at as being the key to the turnaround in a few years.

Am I missing something with Mitch Meindel? Someone asked about the kicker competition on the chat but I was under the assumption that Mitch would be handling both kicking mad punting duties. Am I wrong?

Done

Hopefully that upset win took a lot out of them. 7-3 would look like a really solid conference record after the disappointing non-con season.

Hell yeah! Welcome to UND Chris!

How does the housing situation work for guys who get to town early? I feel like the NCAA would not be thrilled if guys were living in campus housing without attending classes. Am I way off here?

Really? Cuz when the news of Bohl leaving leaked that place went bonkers. I do care what Bisonville thinks to a point. They assume they'll get every recruit they want and that we're an afterthought. Actually flipping a committed recruit would be a nice serving of humble pie and would be a big step in swaying the perception of the two schools from a recruiting standpoint.

Getting Ezra to flip from NDSU would be a huge coup for Bubba and the staff. I'm envisioning the Bisonville meltdown and it is beautiful.

Agree that it's a good thing but it just seems like we should have an abnormally large amount of available scholarships and with a late start to recruiting it would seem like a smaller class would be expected.

Maybe I'm naive about the scholarship situation but with the number of defections and the late start to recruiting I wouldn't think it wise to be turning away solid football players who want to play here regardless of position.