NoiseInsideMyHead

I’m gonna buck the consensus and prevailing sentiment here and say that while rooting for St Cloud has its own merits, Duluth is the best (only?) choice in Pittsburgh. If UMD does not win it all, then the absolutely epic battle for the ages in Fargo Saturday night into Sunday morning will have been for naught. Love or hate the Bulldogs, how can UND fans possibly want any other outcome than having gone toe-to-toe for 6+ hours with the eventual NC? Nothing else will soothe that wound, IMHO. Besides, as most have noted, it keeps the title in the NCHC for yet another year.

Wuss.

Tests, tests, tests... One year in, has anyone even mathematically correlated a positive test to sickness, severity of sickness, or contagiousness? What confirmatory test protocols are in place to rule out false positives? Have QA/QC standards been implemented to ensure test validity and technician competence? Are PCR cycle counts still a variable? Has the specificity or affinity of the test kits for specific pathogens been characterized with any certainty?

It was Lou Bega, who gave us the unforgettable Mambo No. 5. Although, one could be forgiven for thinking of Suzanne Vega, but she's probably a two-hit wonder...Luka and Tom's Diner.

Now THAT is a socially distanced tournament.

The weight of expectation. Duluth, despite a hell of a run, still enjoys a little bit of anonymity (dwarfed by older cousin Goldie and next door superpower UND) and gets to be the perennial, ‘small school’ underdog.

Will there be a seventh period stretch?

Hopefully in an autoclave.

NOW we can start sharpening our asterisk pencils, right? The legitimacy of the title with a bye or two out of a field of 68 is one thing, but 16?

Plenty of room for a Pepperjax.

Can't spell mAx distANCing without NCAA.

That's some delay.

This is going to sound petty, but the Midco pre-game hosts are wearing masks, while there are at least two pairs of the KVLY pre-game crew (field and booth) who aren't. And the Midco guys just look plain silly. And their muffled voices are ridiculous. Advantage: NDSU

Well, technically, that game was at the bottom of the region, not the top. So...

As the saying goes, you only get one chance to make a first impression.