Corella

Emporia State went 2 and barbecue in their conference tourney, they lost their 2nd game last night 14-11. Rational reasoning says since the #2 Sioux went 1-2 in their conference tourney, and #3 Emporia went 0-2, Emporia would drop faster and lower then UND. It only makes sense.

Emporia State lost 9-7 to Northwest Mizzou State in their 1st round game today and are playing in the loser out game right now at Central Mizzou State. The plot thickens.

If Mankato loses tommorrow, which is more of a when then an if, I cannot see any way that they can leapfrog UND in the regional rankings. Then again, I couldn't see how the NCC could not overturn the Josh Mueller shot 2 years ago, so the impossible has proved me wrong before. But, based on past precident, I say UND gets no worse then the 3 seed, because Emporia will lose to Central Mizzou, Wayne was in extra innings today and I don't know who won that, and Mankato is going to have a real tough time winning against the Bison, especially with if they fall behind in either game with Wagner in the pen, and if he starts it is lights out. I cannot see losing out in the conference tourney costing a team 3 spots when at minimum 2 of the 3 teams directly behind the Sioux in the region poll lose out in their conference tourney's also.

Sioux lose to Mankato 8-4. It was a good game, close throughout and well defensed on both ends. Now, it is a waiting game until Sun when the regional bids are announced. I think the Sioux are fine, there were a lot of varied opinions at the ballpark. Last year, Duluth went into their conference tourney ranked either 3 or 4 in the region, went 3 and out just like UND, and made the regional. UND is ranked #2 in the region right now, I cannot see how it can could be possible for them to drop to #5 or below, especially considering how little emphasis the regional committee has put on the conference tourney as of late.

Sioux win 7-1, or was it 8-1, anyway they win. Scheving goes for a complete game, only run was on a solo shot in the 1st inning. He had at least 13 Ks also. UND-NDSU tommorrow for the 5th time.

The new region poll.... Central Region 1. Central Missouri State 48-6 2. North Dakota 36-14 3. Emporia State 35-17 4. Wayne State (Nebraska) 39-16 5. Minnesota State Mankato 32-16 6. Missouri Western State 32-16 7. North Dakota State 28-22 8. Southwest Minnesota State 29-20 UND moved up to #2. Mankato dropped from 4 to 5 after going 3-3 last week. The Sioux are in great position to go into the regional ranked no lower then 3rd no matter the results of the conference tourney. The game today will feature the NCC's 2 best starting pitchers, with Scheving likely facing Hoegh from Augie who is a lefty that is 8-0 with about a 2.8 ERA and only 15ish walks in 74 innings, and 73 Ks. He will likely either be drafted or sign a pro contract after the draft. He got a no-decision against UND earlier this year.

The NCC Champion is considered by the league to be the team that wins the NCC Tourney. A real curious thing IMO that the regular season champ doesn't really get a title to go along with their accomplishment. Definately something that should be reformed, it is a lot harder to win a regular season title then to have to win 3-4 games and take home a conference tourney title.

Sioux split, win the second game 4-2. Got a little hairy at the end, Sioux up 4-0 going into the top of the 7th, and MSU had a runner on 3rd with 1 out but Scheving came in fro the save and got the final 2 batters to K. 1 win tommorrow cliches it.

Sioux maintain #3 spot in region. Central Region 1. Central Missouri State 42-6 2. Emporia State 32-16 3. North Dakota 32-12 4. Minnesota State Mankato 29-13 5. Missouri Western State 30-14 6. Wayne State (Nebraska) 34-15 7. North Dakota State 25-19 8. Winona State 28-16-1 With Mankato at 4, the game has pretty big regional implications also, 3/4 by UND could do wonders after the NCC tourney in the committees mind. Interesting that Emporia stays at #2 probably because, despite a worse record, they beat UND 3/4 to start tthe season. Not too sure how NDSU is still in the top 8, they are barely over .500 at 25-21??

4 teams make the regionals. There is no automatic qualifier, it is based solely on the region poll. Last year, no NCC team made the regional.

If Zig doesn't get NCC coach of the Year this year I will puke. This was supposed to be a rebuilding year, and instead the Sioux get either 1st or 2nd in the league, and are still a year away. I hate to say it, but the NCC tourney and beyond may be tough for them. With JJ's arm, it is darn near impossible to get more then 9 innings in a weekend out of him. Conference tourney and beyond are 9 inning games. After him, the pitching is shaky, hit and miss, but has been hit more then missed so far. The guy who was supposed to be the #2, Schlangen, has been terrible during the conference season. Hopefully, a potential Springfest NCC Tourney will come to fruition and give the home team a great advantage. Having the best middle of the field defense in the NCC will help a ton, Mark Olson does things at short that you only see on Sportscenter. NCC tourney looks like NDSU, Mankato, UND, and UNO. UNO is hot, Mankato always has real good pitching, and the Bison who knows, pretty Jekyl and Hyde. Makes for a very interesting last week and NCC tourney. Hopefully the Sioux can get it done.

His home town newspaper says he is 5-4, the Forum says he is 5-6, either way, 5-4 cannot be confused for 5-9. Either way, your Muggsy Bogues makes Weston Dressler look like Shaq. Talk about having the wind aid your track times, he probably wins races because they put him in the 4th Grade runt division, that poor little midget.

Darin Heston will probably be going onw game, the other is up in the air. Of note though, yesterday against USD NDSU's best player and all-time homerun leader got tossed after striking out to lead off the 1st inning. It is conference rules that a player who gets ejected must then sit out the next conference game (unlessd it has changed, but I doubt it), and that is Tues against the Sioux. If so, tha is enormous for the Sioux that he wouldn't be in the lineup. Huge games for tie-breaker purposes as well.

My bad if true, couldn't find the box score but found 2 of the pitchers for Augie. Not too impossible they could still lose 1 or 2 tommorrow, Bison took 3/4 from them so they are beatable.

Luckily, Mankato split today, so it is a tie on the top of the league. NDSU swept so they are 1 game back. Expect UND to come out of the weekend no worse then tied for the lead. Augie, who is playing Mankato, still has their ace (Keogh or something like that) to throw tommorrow, and he is probably the 3rd best pitcher in the league. USD, which is playing NDSU, still has their ace Lundin to go tommorrow, and he has probably been the 2nd best pitcher in the NCC. Bottom line, UND wins 4 of their last 6 in the conference and they should be sitting pretty regardless of what happens tommorrow or Sun. Actually, best case scenario may be that UND gets rained out of Omaha for the next 2 days and cannot play, that saves Scheving for the Bison and gives other pitchers a rest also, and keeps UND away from 2 more games against what seems to be a red hot Omaha team. Can't exactly bank on that though.

Brett Brielmaier has commited to Arizona as a walk-on.Brielmeier a Wildcat There wasn't much talk about him after the new year, so I would guess he got "too-big" for UND. Can't blame anyone for taking this opportunity. There are a lot of rumors going around that old Lute is nearing the end of the road as a head coach. It will be interesting to monitor Brielmeier's progress.

UND almost lost to UNO, St Cloud, NDSU, and Winona, EXCEPT they didn't. The Bison almost lost to Montana, EXCEPT they came back in the 4th. Whatever your point was, Mark Kauk would find the hole in it.

Your right about that release Star2city. "He may have beat his wife, but he is still a champion of equality for women." Which is greater, the injustice he has commited or the programs he has been forced to implement. On another note, at the baseball game last weekend against SDSU, a couple of players and fans were saying that that program will be gone in at most 2 years because of equestrian, and this was before the adding of equestrian was released (which was on Tues I believe). Someone could attempt to discredit the players and fans scredibility, but how then would they have known that equestrian was on the horizon? The addition of 2 football scholarships seems to be the high for their additions scholarship-wise for next year. For next year, the increases for women by sport will go like this:

You're right, becuase UMD didn't make it to the regional last year and came into this year as the resounding favorite with their returning All-American, who, at last check had hit less then 1/3 of the # of homeres he hit last year. And Southwest has won 3 of he last 7 conference tourneys, and have gone in as the favorite in probably 6 of them. That is what I call a team that is a joke. And to argue with me about the hitting aspect of the game is silly, because 9/10 hitters say the exact same thing.

Eslinger made a few All-American teams at the D1 level last year, and Hunt couldn't even make all-conference at the D2 level. The 2 don't even compare.

You are exactly right 92, 96 , and IUPUI is a great example of just that. They are located in the most baskebtll crazt state in the union. Granted they play minimum 4th fiddle in the state, probably lower, they can keep a couple of local kids at home and compete. Stay at home, that isn't a terribly difficult sell for a coach. Now, on the other hand, Idaho, Idaho State, and Boise St are the tops in their state, yet struggle mightily on the court. Why, geographics plays a huge role there. Even if one of those teams could get the 5 best players in-state to stay every single year, the team on the court would still be lucky to compete. Shoot, give them the top kids from Montana and Wyoming as well and they still miss the boat. Geography plays a fairly large role in the move IMO.

No way. For every 75 UMKC's there is one IUPUI. There are far, far, far more teams that have failed miserably after moving up then there are examples like IUPUI. They are the Powerball winner to everyone else's wrong numbers.

It is also commonplace for a team newly admitted to a conference to be placed on a probationary like sentence by the conference for a few years, not being eligible for that confernce's post-season tourney for X years, however playing the full conference schedule.

Ask any hitter who they would rather face, a guy throwing 85 with a decent deuce or a thumber coming at 70 who throws a 60mph deuce more then his fastball, and the fromer would take the cake by a huge majority, trust me. There is nothing more frustrating then facing one of those clowns, and some NSIC teams have 4-5 of them. You cannot sit back on that junk as someone who hasn't hit that kind of crap since BP as a 10 year old from your dad's arm. And no, the top NSIC are not as good as the top of the NCC. Wayne St does have a good program, I can say that, but UMD is no good and they contend in the NSIC every year. That will be proved next year when they are right near the bottom of the NCC. Southwest is a joke every year, ranked but always losing out in the NSIC tourney. Winona usually puts a pretty decent team on the field. Other then that, nothing but junk. Bemidji, UMC, CSP, Northern, all brutal, and Bemidji is .500 in the league. That tells the story right there.