Dustin

On the flip side, no better time to pull out something weird. No consequences.

got the 3 points, but a bit of wasted possession. I thought the spike was unnecessary, since the clock didn't run during the ball spot. then that 3rd & 2 play was pretty bad. Maybe defense can do something yet.

Yeah, I had the thought on that play that if SS had had the ball he would have had a big gain.

Alerus turf appears to be slippery today.

I think Schmidt said on one of the podcasts that statistically you have a better shot of scoring a touchdown on either offense OR defense (if the ball is turned over on downs) when deep in the opponent's territory, so I think that's why they eschewed the FG in that situation. I'd say it paid off, too, since ISU had to punt out of the end zone, yielding excellent field position for UND's next offensive possession, which turned into a touchdown.

Makes sense.

But that’s getting pretty far ahead of ourselves. Need to go 1-0 this week first.

Finishing 10-2 would get us in the 4/5 seed range, I would say.

A one loss XDSU team (assuming the one loss is to UND) would still be enough to put them as a higher seed than us, I would think.

Ok, thanks. So 4 regular season games to preserve eligibility.

Did this change recently? In the past I thought the bison were holding out their star freshmen until the playoffs, then played them 4 games, thus preserving their eligibility.

I was thinking this may be setting up a future decoy.

Ok, now I gotcha.

Your definition of “barely beating” is different than mine. I would say they’ve thoroughly dismantled Portland State and Valparaiso.

I’ll be really curious to see how we do against South Dakota on the road. I think the road woes will be officially behind us if we win that one.

To I Ranger's point made right before this post, Berry had a title in '16, but by '17-18 and '18-19 his teams underperformed. Same thing happened after his great '20 team (which would have had a chance at a title), the '22-23 and '24-25 teams underperformed. Say he did win a title in 2020, but all the other seasons played out as they did, he would likely still be coaching here, but I think he would be on a hot seat under a magnifying glass this season. Between the NCAA one-and-dones coupled with missing the NCAA altogether, he would have had to make this season count.

U of M Hockey all-time player list. https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/display_players.php?tmi=8634 From what I could tell, of the nearly 700 players, 42 of them have been Americans from outside of Minnesota, and 21 have been Canadians.

Not being from MN, I only have an outsiders perspective, but this was my take as well. And I think the fact that John Mariucci and Doug Woog committed to recruiting Minnesota players reinforced the Minnesota system of development from youth to HS. It's pretty noble, I think, but also leads to insufferable arrogance. Think of how proud UND fans are when there are a lot GF/EGF/ND/NWMinn players on the team. It's also good for local engagement in the program.

Other than one being Canadian and one being American, is there really any difference between the two now that both leagues are eligible to send players to the NCAA?

I suppose Berry could have been headhunted for an NHL job if he had gotten 2 natties in 5 seasons and we could have had Jackson 5 years ago.

Besides Minnesota, what other schools only recruit American players? Air Force and Army, I suppose. I mean, chances are there are going to be at least a few Canadians on whatever team wins the Natty. Not that geography has so much to do with recruiting anymore, but Minneapolis (and Madison) are a lot further from Canadian hockey hotbeds than Grand Forks. Plus, Minneapolis is at the epicenter of its own hockey hotbed, so I think they just got used to recruiting players from around Minnesota, and then it just kept feeding on itself. I respect what they try to do, but I think that model is too outdated in the current landscape of college athletics, especially now with the recent Major Junior decision.

So basically try to win a shootout?

I said a little longer leash, due to a lengthier grace period. The 2019-20 team was great, but Berry still let things get away from him.

Probably a longer leash, maybe one more season. But ultimately, what did happen would have happened. I don’t see how a title in 2020 would have changed anything.

Was going to make this same point about the 19-20 team especially, and to some extent the 20-21 team.