Dustin

Pretty sure 2 more wins will yield a home playoff game.

LIU goalie made at least 33 saves (didn't see final shot count on the broadcast) and 2 GA. That will win you a lot of games. LIU only needed half of their offensive output to win.

I am actually a little surprised we hadn't thought of this until now. Matvik does usually get an NCAA regional assignment.

I’m on board with this.

I had such high hopes for the Tupacs. I think they showed growth this year over, but it sure seems like it's taking a long time. I see we signed a couple of ND girls. Not sure what to make of that, other than local engagement is always good.

Yes

According to what I can find, the first game is in Kazakhstan and second game is in Hungary. That's crazy that he would get such a far flung assignment. Does that mean he's a rising star or is he low man on the totem pole? Either way, quite the experience for him. Also, did not know he was getting interest from Fox. I am thinking his days of calling UND games would be done pretty soon.

It's not looking good, but I'm hopeful.

ok.

Are conference matchups discouraged for first-round games, like in hockey? If it came down to it, would you rather be 8 or 9? 8 would get you the bye, but 9 might be nice to get a (home) playoff game under your belt.

There's still too much season left to make this assessment now. I need to see how the next 2-3 games play out before I would damn the new staff this way.

I don't buy the narrative that special teams is bad under Kostich. According to his bio, his coaching career spanned 2 head coaches at Minnesota (Brewster and Kill), and now his UND career has spanned 2 head coaches. Are you telling me that 4 head coaches have just been letting him skate by? Even when a new coach (Kill or Schmidt) could have let him go and brought in anyone as part of a new coaching staff, they both decided to keep him.

Having him for SDSU and the playoffs would be a big plus.

Decent dose of Hoskins, too.

Just playing devil's advocate here, but remember when Rudy was "run, run, run, punt" and we couldn't wait to have a creative play caller?? If it's not one thing, it's another...

You'd have to ask Dom Izzo that.

Glad it's UMD. Better than SCSU or Omaha, like it has been in the past.

Do we know what the future pairings will be?

I am guessing he was surprised by our defense.

I looked at the past couple brackets, and that does appear to be the case.

Yeah, that'd be great. What I mean is that a quarterfinal game appearance would show growth, which is a reasonable/attainable goal. If we get to the quarterfinal game, heck yeah, let's evaluate a new reasonable/attainable goal, which may be Nashville.

Generally, if you play any opponent, regardless if you win or lose, you want that team to win their other games to make your resume look better. In the case of SIU and USD, I think would go with SUI. If we ended up with the same record as either of those teams, we have a tie-breaker with SIU and not USD. I think the same logic holds for SDSU and ISU-red. We play the Jacks, but not the Birds, so it would look better when we beat SDSU in the last game.

Dom Izzo's bracketology. UND lost to the #1 seed by 5 and the #2 by 1. No reason we can't make a mess of this bracket.

One last question on the playoffs/seeding - is it a straight bracket, or are teams re-seeded after the first weekend?