Sioux vs Arkansas

[ND Ball]

Jenny Crouse ACCIDENTALLY falling in our laps helps a great deal there Mr. Expert. I will cool it though. I appreciate you speaking your mind as I have.

Don't you dare say Jenny Crouse accidentally fell into our laps. She came to UND because of academics, players, coaches and the program. I know her very well and she was one athlete that thought about academics as much as basketball and wasn't going to go Division I because she thought highly of herself. She came to UND because they had the TOTAL package. I would have to disagree with you in saying that that was an accident.

[Nodakstud_43]

Don't you dare say Jenny Crouse accidentally fell into our laps. She came to UND because of academics, players, coaches and the program. I know her very well and she was one athlete that thought about academics as much as basketball and wasn't going to go Division I because she thought highly of herself. She came to UND because they had the TOTAL package. I would have to disagree with you in saying that that was an accident.

AMEN to that ND Ball! She wanted to fly...and UND happens to have a great aviation program. Believe it or not sometimes a player is attracted to the school, not the other way around. I agree with everything you said!

[star2city]

We are in year ONE of a five year transition to D1 in case you didn't know! This ain't the NCC anymore...yet we are playing largely with players recruited to play NCC basketball. So far in nine games, we have played teams from the SEC, MAC, Mountain West, and some good D1 teams from lesser conferences. We still have a Big 10 team left to play. It's a helluva jump up in competition, and anyone who didn't expect this team to struggle during the first half of the season has impossible expectations. We've been blown out in only two of those games (playing in Wyoming is a tough task, and Green Bay is just tough!), so I feel like UND is ready to turn the corner for the rest of the season.

The toll that travel takes is underestimated, especially with with weekday games and balancing schoolwork. That said, somehow SDSU continues their winning ways, beating Gonzaga on the road.

SDSU may be the truer model, but here some excerpts from:

Sioux Falls Argus-Leader: Gonzaga success a model for SDSU

But the underlying factor in the (Gonzaga's women's) success, according to Bulldogs men's assistant Ray Giacoletti, the former head coach at North Dakota State, is commitment from the institution, the community and the people within the program.

The (Gonzaga) men's and women's teams travel by private jet rather than flying commercially or chartering a plane - a luxury made possible by boosters with big bucks. ...

(Zags women's coach) Graves was hired a couple of years later, lured away from another school in the West Coast Conference.

His first conversation with athletic director Mike Roth during the hiring process went something like this: "We want the women to be as successful as the men. We know what it takes to get there. You just let me know what you need, and that's what we're going to do."

In 2007-08, Gonzaga spent $2.6 million on men's basketball and $1.2 million on the women, In other words, its athletic budget has basically quadrupled since the first year of what no longer be considered a Cinderella story.

By comparison, SDSU - a school of nearly 12,000 students that is a member of the expansive Summit League - spent a total of $1.4 million on basketball.

The way the SDSU women have so swiftly reached the brink of the top 25, it's not hard to at least entertain the idea that they might be capable of a similar path; Giacoletti called the Jacks' rise "staggering."

But Gonzaga's sustained success does not guarantee anything for SDSU, Coach Aaron Johnston said, just as the four former North Central Conference schools have found varying degrees of success since moving to Division I.

"I think there has to be a long-term plan," Johnston explained. "When we started our transition five years ago, I don't think anybody thought we'd compete with the top 50, let along beat some of them and receive some votes.

[star2city]

Sagarin's Ratings also has a women's list, but it doesn't include UND or a number of other DI transitional schools. In women's basketball, mediocre squads from the power conferences like the SEC and Big Ten are more common. Unlike men's basketball where no new DI school have entered into the top 100, three new DI schools have accomplished that (with SDSU amazingly up to #13). Based on its performance so far, UND would likely be in the 200-250 range. UND's DI schedule has almost no bottom feeders, so, other than the lack of DI home games, it's a rather good litmus test of where we stand in DI basketball.

Women's College Basketball 2008-2009 Div I games only through 2008 December 12 Friday

HOME ADVANTAGE= 4.93 RATING W L SCHEDL(RANK) VS top 25 | VS top 50 | ELO_CHESS | PREDICTOR

13 South Dakota St. = 92.37 10 1 75.39( 36) 0 1 | 4 1 | 101.84 3 | 85.14 32

37 Arkansas = 83.77 7 2 68.65( 142) 0 1 | 0 2 | 81.86 48 | 84.26 34

48 UW-Green Bay = 82.35 6 1 65.60( 208) 0 0 | 0 1 | 82.23 46 | 81.24 56

51 Iowa St. = 81.20 6 2 70.71( 96) 0 1 | 0 1 | 81.70 49 | 79.54 63

91 Fla. Gulf Coast = 75.42 5 2 64.05( 247) 1 0 | 1 1 | 79.53 61 | 70.55 149

100 USC Upstate = 74.12 3 1 63.55( 262) 0 0 | 0 0 | 75.14 85 | 71.87 136

115 Wyoming = 72.43 4 3 70.07( 111) 0 0 | 0 2 | 71.84 104 | 71.63 138

128 Kennesaw St. = 71.17 1 4 86.49( 1) 0 2 | 0 3 | 68.94 124 | 71.94 135

138 Ball St. = 70.31 4 3 72.69( 60) 0 1 | 0 2 | 70.95 115 | 68.35 176

152 UC Riverside = 69.11 2 4 74.98( 39) 0 1 | 1 1 | 62.45 174 | 74.35 109

154 Vermont = 68.87 5 3 63.75( 252) 0 0 | 0 0 | 68.90 125 | 67.46 189

155 UC Davis = 68.78 4 2 62.27( 287) 0 0 | 0 1 | 63.13 170 | 72.97 124

162 Lamar = 67.74 4 2 62.42( 284) 0 1 | 0 1 | 71.50 109 | 62.81 244

184 North Dakota St. = 65.30 3 3 64.15( 242) 0 0 | 0 1 | 55.39 222 | 73.85 115

197 Toledo = 63.82 2 6 72.03( 72) 0 0 | 0 0 | 58.48 201 | 67.69 185

200 Montana St. = 63.58 2 4 71.88( 73) 0 0 | 0 1 | 59.63 191 | 66.06 211

202 Northern Colo. = 63.30 3 3 60.50( 304) 0 0 | 0 0 | 55.09 226 | 70.06 157

204 Utah Valley St. = 63.26 2 5 72.84( 59) 0 0 | 0 2 | 57.97 203 | 67.07 196

230 Eastern Michigan = 60.25 2 5 70.94( 89) 0 1 | 0 2 | 52.81 239 | 66.20 208

257 Northwestern = 56.80 1 6 70.60( 99) 0 0 | 0 3 | 39.73 321 | 71.58 140

268 Chicago St. = 56.09 3 6 64.14( 243) 0 0 | 0 2 | 44.32 294 | 66.05 212

269 Longwood = 55.99 3 4 63.72( 256) 0 0 | 0 1 | 53.76 231 | 56.73 297

278 Bryant = 54.45 3 6 58.65( 322) 0 0 | 0 0 | 49.44 262 | 57.98 291

279 Northern Arizona = 54.30 2 6 66.51( 187) 0 0 | 0 1 | 47.35 275 | 59.70 275

284 New Jersey Tech = 53.81 2 5 61.29( 294) 0 0 | 0 0 | 48.45 268 | 57.66 292

292 North Florida = 52.82 2 4 62.90( 272) 0 0 | 0 1 | 48.02 271 | 56.14 298

295 Texas-Pan Am. = 52.46 3 4 55.38( 336) 0 0 | 0 0 | 46.50 283 | 56.91 295

323 Central Arkansas = 45.64 2 5 58.69( 321) 0 0 | 0 0 | 43.69 304 | 46.05 338

327 N.C. Central = 44.56 1 9 65.71( 206) 0 0 | 0 0 | 40.92 317 | 46.73 337

335 Niagara = 43.15 1 7 65.92( 199) 0 1 | 0 2 | 34.96 328 | 49.54 334

337 Winston-Salem = 39.94 0 8 64.98( 226) 0 1 | 0 1 | 26.16 337 | 50.50 329

Black - other recent move-ups

Red - Established schools UND has played

Orange - Established schools UND has schedule later

Blue - Great West Schools listed on Sagarin's Womens list