Corella

Don't be so quick to judge both UND and Bemidji. Bemidji has a good team again, anyone who was at that game can attest to that. They are extremely athletic, have shooters, and have fair enough height to give teams good runs. For them, as was said by some of their staff at the game, the UND game is the one of the 2 biggest games of the year. The new staff there brought in a ton of new JUCO players that may or may not come back to haunt them. #12 for them, Muse, is an extremly good player. He would start and star for any team in the NCC. And the reffing down there was amongst the worst I have seen in quite a few years. Countless missed obvious carries and travels to go along with the hacking down low. I wish people would not be so quick to write the men off either. There has been a lot of progress made. Think about this, what everyone expected out of this team was one that could get 90-100 points a night, and at the same time give up about the same. Instead, the defense has been, except for the 2nd half against Kearney, extremely good and the staistics only back that up. They are not giving up many points at all. That, to me, is an excellent sign. Adam Jacobsen who had been complained about quite a bit in the past by most, has been playing very well. Steven Bradley has played his roll well. Keith Parks has improved defensively by leaps and bounds. The bench, which had given UND next to nothing the past 5 years or so, has been great. If and when Evan Lindahl gets his stroke going again, the Sioux will be very tough to stop offensively. The PGs play has been spotty, but a lot of that, IMO, can be chalked up to the fact that the 2 guys manning that spot have not, over the last 2 years, spent very many minutes on the floor and playing with the guys they are now. I see progress being made, and Thurs night will put that progress to a definate test.

Another thing that I have found impressive is that the 2 lopsided wins have come with Evan Lindahl hardly playing due to foul trouble. In the 2 games combined, he has played about 30 out of a possible 80 minutes, and yet the Sioux have still cruised. The bench play has been very solid as well, not many mistakes from Doyle, Swann, AJ, Stoute, or Wells, and AJ played a whale of a game last night hitting open shots and rebounding well while Lindahl was out. Turnovers have been largely a non-factor, as has the defensive pressure the 2 teams have applied which in the past 5 years has given UND fits when applied. 2 very impressive wins against teams that boast impressive resumes. I thought that it may take 5-10 games for the men to find their stride, and I am happy to say I was mistaken to this point. Next Fri and Sat should be interesting against Wayne and Lake Superior. 3 old faces will be back in Rico, Mike Fitzner and Brady Larson.

Preseason media poll is out. Interesting that the media has UND pegged 5th, St Cloud and USD curiously ahead of UND. I can't say I see the logic, but it is only the media poll I guess.

This posted today, courtesy of Wills commitment story Andy Wills Commits to the University of North Dakota Andy Wills By Errol Carlstrom Andy Wills, the former Pulley Panther who is in his senior year at Mankato-West, has decided to attend the University of North Dakota. The 6-6 Wills said that UND offered him a basketball scholarship at the end of the summer and he took his official visit 2-weeks ago and then committed. The facilities at UND are amazing and the coaching staff, lead by head coach Rich Glass reminds me of my high school staff, they are all really cool, Andy said. The campus is beautiful and compact with trees galore, Andy continued. I plan to major in education, coaching and maybe business too. I had a fantastic visit where we attended both UND vs. Gopher hockey games. The atmosphere was great and my future teammates were really fun to be with. Andy wanted to make sure his Pulley experience was mentioned. I loved playing for the Panther’s and playing against all the high profile Nike circuit talent. It made me a better player. I also enjoyed visiting all the great places we played, like Las Vegas, New York, New Orleans, etc. Andy Wills is the son of Randy & Cheryl Wills and he has 4-brothers, Jake, Ben, Matt & Dan. Thank you, Randy & Cheryl for supporting the Panther's this past summer. We really appreciate it. Also, hopefully there are a couple more players like Andy in that group that will play for the Panthers some day. Congratulations Andy, all of us wish you the best in basketball and academics during your senior year and at UND next year.

Based on Jim's numbers, it looks like UND is in an extremely good situation, but that is what has me concerned. We've seen it time and time again, teams in UND's situation that don't make it for all kinds of reasons, some valid, others that seemed like they came straight out of the elementary school "everybody gets a chance to play" rule. Hopefully that won't happen tommorrow.

Kind of odd when you think about it, UNO did literally the same thing in 2001. They had a playoff spot in the bag, but lost their last 2 or 3 in games they had no business losing to lose the conference title and their playoff hopes after beating UND. A disturbing trend for Mav fans, but it remains to be seen if it will cost them the playoffs this year.

Wouldn't earned access automatically get them in though, assuming UND keeps this up and wins?? That loss makes me think the NCC will only get 2 teams in the playoffs, UNO would seem to be in, and St Cloud would seem to be in as well. Who knows?? Thank you to the Coyote defense for waking up a what had been a below average offense to this point, though. How have these guys only lost 1 game to this point with what sounds like the worst pass defense UND has faced in quite a few years??

UND has all the momentum, how 'bout now?? Today's events have made me even more nervous.

I do not envy the position that the regional selection committe is in. Frankly, I think the UNO loss hurts UND. Despite the better overall record, UNO was better in the confernce and was absolutely dominant against UND last week, do they still go over UND?? That is what will decide the whole thing. With a win, though, I am salavating at the idea of a potential matchup at Winona. And Belmore sounds great today, probably a combo of terrible USD pass D and gaining confidence after every completion.

Jesse Blackwell commitment story

Pat Sweeney also noted on sports last night that Bowenkamp took a lot of snaps at practice yesterday, and that he would not be suprised at all to see Bowenkamp behind center on Saturday.

Considering that Winona plays CSP at the Metrodome in 2 weeks, I am curious whether a loss there would knock Winona out of the playoff picture. Granted it isn't too likely, but CSP seems to be an extremely hot/cold team that, if they got hot, should give Winona a run. CSP would have all the incentive in the world to pull out all the stops. This scenario sure would help UND if they stumble. Food for thought.

Jim mentioned that there is something he cannot figure out going on with the rankings also, but some national polls had not yet been released at the time the poll came out, that leads me to believe that the top 25 is not factored in. There is only one thing that I can really figure out, the hows and the whys of this poll are not making sense to me (and apparently plenty of others).

Even though there are the big arguments against the polls deciding things, wouldn't some sort of human rankings element be good in computing the regional rankings instead of going purely on the SSI?? There aren't many humans out there in the know when it comes to D2 football who wouldn't include UND in the top 5 in the country, and yet the Sioux are 6th in the region?? Wouldn't some sort of human element in there be benificial? That could also help drop undeserving teams, like the one that Grand Valley went to to open the playoffs last year, back to a level where peopleknow where they belong. It makes a lot of sense to me.

It is true. During the pregame on the radio on Sat, the Ferris coach was interviewed, and he said that it is a 2 year deal and they will be back in GF next year. He said it had everything to do with the old "if you want to be the best you have to beat the best."

The "disappointing recruiting the past few seasons is definetly not due to a lack of effort. Randall Herbst works as hard at what he does as anyone you can possibly find. A lot of early mornings and late nights on the road. That being said, it seems that kids recruiting-wise have a "D1 or bust" attitude as of late. The recruiting landscape of D2 has changed in the past 5 yrs IMO. The instant impact true freshman isn't going to be too frequent of an occurance, although there is hope that a few rabbits can be pulled out of the hat for next year. Instead, there will be a lot of guys who, when they are redshirt SO, are ready to step up and make the impact. That is why the juco player is so important at this level, to bridge the gap so to speak. They are, in many cases, the players that will come in and be the difference makers. Granted, it may take a few more weeks for them to get acclimated, but things have changed. Whether they have changed for the better or not, who knows, but in this case it is better to go with the trend rather then get trampled because of a lack of 4 year players. The team we will see on the floor for the men this year should have quality depth and a lot of guys who can score. Rype and Lindahl are the best 1-2 punch up front in the NCC, bar none. Parks can really make the ball go in the hole, but he needs to defend also. Doyle will probably play key minutes, and it will be good to have a couple of guys who can run the point effectively with him and Nobles, which is something that has gotten the Sioux into trouble the past few years. There are plenty of potential 2/3 guys, with MJ, AJ, Parks, Bradley, Swann, and Nobles. Wells played surprisingly well at times last year, and Stoute has a lot of potential. The team will be very deep, and could average more points per game then we have seen in a while with all the scorers they have. With all that, though, there is the other end of the floor which may ulimately determine the Sioux's fate. That is where Swann may make his biggest impact, a Bo Powell kind of defender potentially. All that being said, I beleve that if a PG steps up, Mankato could have the best NCC team that we have seen around since probably the early 90's UND teams. With Moeller, Staten, and Anderson, they have 3 guys who can really fill it up and are tough to defend.

The histories of the 2 men's basketball programs are actually quite similar in NCAA tourney appearances, which I believe SDSU has 1 more of. UND leads the overall series by a fairly large amount, it was 20 as of a few years ago if memory serves. If SDSU were in the NCC for this coming year, they would be picked no higher then 3rd preseason with all of their loses (Moeller, Matt Jones) behind Makato and probably UND. On the women's side, despite SDSU's success the past 2 years, UND still has a decided advantage there. And aff claimed the wooden bleachers are gone at Frost, well, the entire upper level, which is over half the seats in the arena, are still high school style 1970's wood bleachers, which IMO makes the arena look so much worse then it could if it got updated to even 1980's standards in the upper level. The "great history" of SDSU basketball is quite overrated in my mind, because UND's is on the same level and, unlike SDSU fans, that isn't all the UND fans talk about. Then again, that really is all they have.

I listened to the entire game, and I was so frustrated while listening to the Sioux offense. I have never heard Tony Stein groan and sigh like he did after so many of Belmore's throws, obviously signifying disbelief in how bad some of those throws were. I was hoping, praying, to hear Dan Hammer say "and here comes Reed Manke", because, after how dismal Belmore's game sounded, I truely believe that he deserves a shot based Belmore's game. Belmore sounded so indecisive, not to mention inaccurate. The defense sounded amazing in the 2nd half. The offensive backfield and O line sounded good. The receivers, by the sound of things, seemed to be open. Above all else, they were not given catchable balls by the QB, and that is where my listening frustration was.

Well said RD17. I have said it over and over again, the Big Sky is a football conference, foremost, second most, and third most. If they are going to add a team, they are not going to add one team with a football program that has not even been respectable within their conference in 20 years, one that has not even so much as shown progression. They would add the team that BEST FITS THEIR CONFERENCE PROFILE. UND or SDSU??? Now, if we were talking like the Big West, or the Missouri Valley, conferences better known for basketball then football (the MVC has no football), then perhaps SDSU would have a leg up (but then again maybe not), but the Big Sky is what is being talked about. Any fan who cannot see the logic in that is way too blinded by their own biases.

Realistically, if it came down to SDSU vs UND, Brookings vs Grand Forks for the Big Sky, it has to be a no-brainer even given the "head start" that SDSU has on UND. Facilities wise it is not even close. Their football stadium is an eyesore at best. With football being the Big Sky's big thing, that has got to go against them, not to mention the fact that their football program has been stuck in the lower tier of the NCC for 20+ years and hasn't progressed at all in nearly that entire period. Frost Arena is getting old, it has be about 30 years old right now, and everytime I have left there I have had to pick wooden splinters out of my butt because that is about all the seaters there are, high school style wood bleachers. At this point their funding has to be seriously in question based on their scholarship "increases" they put into effect for this year. Are they going to make a big leap and bump up the football scholarships by 3 next year to get them at 43?? And call me crazy, but I have to think that their AD's recent legal troubles cannot help them out as an athletic department either. The town of Brookings, well, you get the point. If, for a spot in the Big Sky, it came down to UND vs SDSU, UND would be sitting pretty well IMO.

I suppose none of the Juco kids the Bison brought in are playing then? That must not have been A.J. Cooper scoring a TD yesterday? Isaac Lavante and Alvin Robinson haven't played a snap at DE yet? I'm sure Rodney Thompson hasn't factored into the DT rotation since he recovered from injury. That is 4 right there to add to Washington.

There were 2 scores that really caught my eye Sat. The first one was the Bison-Carson Newman score. Yet again, a team from the south comes to North Dakota and is supposed to be a national title contender, only to be slaughtered. That tis the 1st thing I thought when I saw the score, the Southern teams get so overhyped every single year, and this is yet another example of it. The second score that caught my eye, our old friends from Newberry College did something that made me laugh hysterically. They played at Coastal Carolina, a 1-AA team that was 2-0 on the year, after already beating 2 other 1-AA teams, and Newberry beat them 21-7 and outgained them almost 450 to 200. Newberry, the same team that UND and us fans have taken so much crap about for the last year from Bison fans. Newberry, the word that preceeded "is what is wrong with D2". Ironic and funny all at once.

Wow, an interesting game to say the least. Are the Sioux that good, or is Mesa that bad? My guess is that the answer lies somewhere in the middle of the 2. I am glad to see the redshirt pulled off of Dressler for a few reasons. Hermes was returning kickoffs before today, and I suspect that Dressler will take over that role from him now. Nothing wrong with Tony, obviously a great athlete, but having a LB back there as a return man is not the most ideal scenario. Dressler has the skill set that is ideal for punt and kick returns. The linebacker combos the Sioux can put out there are amazing, there is a different set for every single situation. Belmore looked real good. O & D lines were both wonderful. One thing to remember for later in the year, the Sioux ran the reverse to Groeshl early in the game for about 5-7 yards. Mark my words, later in the year in a big situation they will run a reverse pass out of the same set that will go for extremely big yardage.

At the game on Sat I stood next to (in one of the endzone walkways) the Delta St offensive coordinators wife and talked to her quite a bit. She was a great lady, and had some interesting things to say about the academic situation at Delta. First off, their enrollment is decling rapidly according to her, now, she thought, just below 5000. That number is down from what she though was 7000ish not that far into the past. The most alarming thing she had to say, their football team is struggling to recruit because so many kids cannot meet the minimum admission, of 18!! She said that is was a really big issue for them. That literally shocked me, it puts into perspective just how bad the schools must be in the Mississippi and its surrounding states. After she said that, I found myself thinking about how lucky I have been to have grown up in the upper Midwest where the school systems are nationally noted as amongst the best and not paying too close attention to the game. Sad really, not a joking matter.

If SDSU, the football juggernaut, is even so much as competitive they had better get things moving.