womens basketball

[CoteauRinkRat]

Mahlum has been absolutely terrible for pretty much the whole season. Besides the fact that she has hit some 3's in a couple games, she really has struggled. I was glad to see Coach Roebuck finally sit her down.

[UND92,96]

Mahlum has been absolutely terrible for pretty much the whole season.  Besides the fact that she has hit some 3's in a couple games, she really has struggled.  I was glad to see Coach Roebuck finally sit her down.

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I'm afraid there are just too many things she doesn't do well to be the starting point guard on a good team. She's a defensive liability in the half court because nearly everybody over about 5'3" can post her up; she doesn't break down a defense by penetrating to the basket; she's only a scoring threat from behind the arc, but her outside shooting is wildly inconsistent; and she's not a particularly good ball-handler for a point guard. I like the fact that she's a hard worker and she can be effective at times by harrassing the opposing point guard in a full court press situation, but I just don't think she's capable of being a starter anymore due to the aforementioned deficiencies in her game. Demoting her does mean that there's not a real scoring threat off the bench the way there was when Maffin was a sub, but I think the positive's outweigh the negative's by playing Jahner at the point and moving Maffin into the starting lineup.

[teamsioux]

Roebuck was on the radio with Swygman and Hennessey this morning. He stated that he really didn't know if Mahlum or Maffin would be starting,may vary from game to game,depending on matchups. Sounded very disappointed in Mahlum and said being she hadn't stepped up yet, he probably couldn't count much on her for the rest of the year. He thought her confidence was shot. Also stated that Draayer is done for the season as she is having foot surgery today.

[UND92,96]

Roebuck was on the radio with Swygman and Hennessey this morning.  He stated that he really didn't know if Mahlum or Maffin would be starting,may vary from game to game,depending on matchups.  Sounded very disappointed in Mahlum and said being she hadn't stepped up yet, he probably couldn't count much on her for the rest of the year. He thought her confidence was shot. Also stated that Draayer is done for the season as she is having foot surgery today.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

If Mahlum really has lost her confidence--and judging by her play this year I'd agree with that assessment--I would hope Gene wouldn't start her anymore regardless of matchups. If a player doesn't have confidence in herself, she shouldn't be out there. With Hensley injured perhaps Augie is a little smaller at the guard position, but last year they were one of the teams that really tried to exploit Mahlum's lack of size on defense.

[UND92,96]

The new regional poll is out:

North Central

1. Regis (Colorado) 13-0 14-3

2. North Dakota 10-3 16-4

3. Minnesota State Moorhead 10-3 15-3

4. Augustana (South Dakota) 9-3 18-4

5. Concordia-St. Paul 8-4 11-6

6. St. Cloud State 8-4 14-5

7. Minnesota Duluth 7-4 13-5

8. Metropolitan State 11-3 14-3

9. South Dakota 8-5 12-5

10. Fort Hays State 8-1 13-2

It seems bizarre to see Moorhead up that high! They looked horrible the night the Sioux played them, but obviously they do have a good record. I just hope there's somebody in the RMAC who can hang at least a couple of losses on Regis.

[ndsu92]

I see in the Star Tribune today that two of next years recruits..Kimbrough and Bagaasan are on the list of 25 for Minnesotas Miss Basketball..

[coachdags]

Kierah Kimbro is the real deal...Just watched her against Grafton They won 3OT thiller 72-70 in Grafton..Kierah had a monsterous 55 pionts and around 20 boards...Great Athlete for the Fighting Sioux

[UND92,96]

Kierah Kimbro is the real deal...Just watched her against Grafton They won 3OT thiller 72-70 in Grafton..Kierah had a monsterous 55 pionts and around 20 boards...Great Athlete for the Fighting Sioux

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That's really an incredible performance. Her 55 points were apparently just 3 points away from the state single-game record: link (click on Girls Indiv Game link).

[UND92,96]

Another 40-plus point game for Kimbrough last night as she scored 43. I believe her season average is now over 35 ppg. According to the Herald, the B-G-MR team has lost some regulars to injury which has resulted in them relying on Kierah even more than previously.

[UND92,96]

These are really huge games this weekend against Augie and Duluth. A sweep is imperative to keep UND in a good position to win the league. The thing I'm a little worried about is that this is a Friday-Saturday series, and on Saturday UND will be playing a rested UMD team coming off a week to prepare for the Sioux as they don't play another game this weekend. Another poor job of scheduling by the NCC as it could easily have been a Thursday-Saturday series, particularly with no hockey this weekend, but obviously there's nothing that can be done about it at this point other than just go out and win. If the Sioux can sweep this weekend, and then win two of the last three on the road--and the games at Vermillion and Mankato appear very winnable--UND will finish no worse than in a tie for first. That would be quite an accomplishment in basically a rebuilding year.

[mcst]

Another 40-plus point game for Kimbrough last night as she scored 43. I believe her season average is now over 35 ppg.  According to the Herald, the B-G-MR team has lost some regulars to injury which has resulted in them relying on Kierah even more than previously.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

THERE ARE FOUR PLAYERS OUT FOR BGMR RIGHT NOW-2 OF THEM STARTERS...

[UND92,96]

Yikes, UND falls a spot in the new regional poll despite a nice road win:

North Central

1 Regis (Colorado) 17-0 18-3

2 Minnesota Duluth 11-4 17-5

3 Metropolitan State 14-4 17-4

4 Minnesota State Moorhead 11-4 17-4

5 Augustana (South Dakota) 11-4 20-5

6 North Dakota 11-4 17-5

7 Concordia-St. Paul 10-4 15-6

8 Fort Hays State 10-3 17-4

9 St. Cloud State 10-6 16-7

10 Minnesota-Crookston 9-5 14-7

It seems odd that UND is 4-1 against teams ranked in the region (plus wins over regional number one Seattle Pacific and regional number two Grand Valley St.), and yet despite an overall record at least comparable to everybody in front of them, they're only ranked 6th. For example, take Moorhead. The one and only thing they have over UND is one fewer loss (also one less game played). But they also played four non-dII teams compared to one for UND; they lost by 35 to UND; and they're 2-3 against regionally ranked teams compared to UND's 4-1 (6-1 counting other regions). What's going on here? I'm not interested enough to calculate SSI's, but considering UND's quality wins and Moorhead's four games against non-dII's, it certainly doesn't appear that SSI would support them being ranked ahead of UND.

While much can change between now and the end of the regular season, it does appear that the NCC is in danger of getting as many post-season bids (three) as the woeful RMAC.

[wbb2004]

Yikes, UND falls a spot in the new regional poll despite a nice road win:

North Central 

1 Regis (Colorado) 17-0 18-3

2 Minnesota Duluth 11-4 17-5

3 Metropolitan State 14-4 17-4

4 Minnesota State Moorhead 11-4 17-4

5 Augustana (South Dakota) 11-4 20-5

6 North Dakota 11-4 17-5

7 Concordia-St. Paul 10-4 15-6

8 Fort Hays State 10-3 17-4

9 St. Cloud State 10-6 16-7

10 Minnesota-Crookston 9-5 14-7

It seems odd that UND is 4-1 against teams ranked in the region (plus wins over regional number one Seattle Pacific and regional number two Grand Valley St.), and yet despite an overall record at least comparable to everybody in front of them, they're only ranked 6th.    For example, take Moorhead. The one and only thing they have over UND is one fewer loss (also one less game played). But they also played four non-dII teams compared to one for UND; they lost by 35 to UND; and they're 2-3 against regionally ranked teams compared to UND's 4-1 (6-1 counting other regions). What's going on here? I'm not interested enough to calculate SSI's, but considering UND's quality wins and Moorhead's four games against non-dII's, it certainly doesn't appear that SSI would support them being ranked ahead of UND.

While much can change between now and the end of the regular season, it does appear that the NCC is in danger of getting as many post-season bids (three) as the woeful RMAC.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It doesn't matter who they beat outside the region as far as GVST and Seattle Pacific... they also look head to head, and it does go week to week. So if UND split and MSU went 2-0 that always helps. The next three weeks will determine everything so it doesn't even matter who is ranked where right now because of who still has to play who... take care of business

[UND92,96]

[wbb2004]

[Corella]

What Sioux fans and NCC backers should be worried about right now is having C-SP at #7 right behind the Sioux. They have 4 of their last 6 at home, with Moorhead and UMC both going to St. Paul. If they should win out in both league play and in the conference tourney, I'd fully expect them to be in the top 3 of the region in the end, their coach is on the regional committee and despite what was proven at the regional last year, in D2 injustices like this seem to happen all too often.

[UND92,96]

Although I do agree that where a particular opponent is ranked in the national poll or in another region is irrelevant, the wins over Seattle Pacific and at Grand Valley are huge because of the number of power points they count for. The Grand Valley game was worth the maximum of 17 as it was a road win over a team with a .750 or better winning %, while the Seattle Pacific game was worth 15 as a home win over a team with a .750 or better winning %. One needs only look at Moorhead's non-conference schedule to see the huge difference in quality of teams played (on average). UND's overall strength of schedule index is actually more than a full point higher than Moorhead's which is a huge difference considering it's usually tenths of points that separate teams ranked close to each other.

My honest opinion is that the relative rankings of UND and Moorhead have very little--if anything-- to do with the NCAA imposed criteria. Rather, the committee is extremely reluctant to rank three teams from one conference ahead of the highest ranked team from another conference. Nobody on the committee would ever admit that publicly, of course, but it seems clear that there's something else at work here beyond simply applying the criteria in an objective manner.

I also agree with Corella that it all likelihood, Concordia will probably at least come close to winning out and will jump ahead of one or two NCC teams, while Moorhead will likely fall as they have 2-3 tough road games ahead. It's crucial for the Sioux to sweep this weekend, probably win 2 of 3 on the road to finish the conference schedule, and then hopefully host and win the conference tournament. That would probably earn UND a 2 seed.

[UND92,96]

Congratulations to Ashley Langen for passing two all-time UND greats in terms of freshman scoring. With her 31 points last night, she passed Jaime Pudenz and Sheri Kleinsasser on that list. Only Jenny Crouse remains ahead of her, although the Sioux would probably have to advance to the Elite 8 for Langen to have enough games to possibly move past Crouse. She's certainly had an outstanding freshman year nevertheless.

[SiouxMeNow]

Congratulations to Ashley Langen for passing two all-time UND greats in terms of freshman scoring. With her 31 points last night, she passed Jaime Pudenz and Sheri Kleinsasser on that list. Only Jenny Crouse remains ahead of her, although the Sioux would probably have to advance to the Elite 8 for Langen to have enough games to possibly move past Crouse. She's certainly had an outstanding freshman year nevertheless.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

3 road games left - plus probably at least 2 in the conference tourney then hopefully at least two more in the regional - that's 7 games before the elite 8 and about 120 points to go after saturday night. (less than an average of 20 a game) She's got a great shot. What an accomplishment that would be!!

[Nucleus]

First off, great night for Langen last night. When Buck sat her down with about 13 minutes to go, she had 28 and she was just rollin'. She truly showed what kind of performer she could be both as an inside scoring presence as well as a team player (i.e. the no-look pass to Jahner for the layup). I think that had Langen stayed in the game, I'm not saying that she should've, she could have broken the record for points in a game (45).

Secondly, Kimbrough is legit. We've known this for a while. Her teammates are down right now, Mekash was a great complement for Kimbrough and was probably averaging about 15 ppg before she went down with the bad ankle sprain. She should be back for playoffs though. The number three scorer Bruggeman? also went down with mono I believe and she was a nice addition to have too. Having these two people down helps Kimbrough's ppg, but as for a team perspective that hurts. She is definately a good pickup for the Sioux.

[UND92,96]

It will be very interesting to see if UND rises to second in the regional rankings this week. Obviously these were two very impressive wins over ranked teams and could easily justify such a jump, particularly considering UND's SOS was already quite high even prior to factoring in these two games counting for 15 power points each. If the committee is unwilling to rank three NCC teams ahead of the top-ranked NSIC team, I would hope that they would find it just as difficult to have two RMAC teams (Regis and Metro) ahead of the top-ranked NCC team.

[star2city]

First off, great night for Langen last night.  When Buck sat her down with about 13 minutes to go, she had 28 and she was just rollin'.  She truly showed what kind of performer she could be both as an inside scoring presence as well as a team player (i.e. the no-look pass to Jahner for the layup).  I think that had Langen stayed in the game, I'm not saying that she should've, she could have broken the record for points in a game (45). 

Secondly, Kimbrough is legit.  We've known this for a while.  Her teammates are down right now, Mekash was a great complement for Kimbrough and was probably averaging about 15 ppg before she went down with the bad ankle sprain.  She should be back for playoffs though.  The number three scorer Bruggeman? also went down with mono I believe and she was a nice addition to have too.  Having these two people down helps Kimbrough's ppg, but as for a team perspective that hurts.  She is definately a good pickup for the Sioux.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

With Langen’s performance this year, even with some double coverage, adding Kimbrough in the equation would make them both even more potent. Just out of curiosity, would this be the expected starting lineup next year?

1. Jahner

2. Guinn

3. Boese

4. Kimbrough

5. Langen

With a bench including Maffin, Mahlum, and Bagaason that would start on most teams, that’s quite an imposing lineup.

[UND92,96]

With Langen

[wbb2004]

It will be very interesting to see if UND rises to second in the regional rankings this week. Obviously these were two very impressive wins over ranked teams and could easily justify such a jump, particularly considering UND's SOS was already quite high even prior to factoring in these two games counting for 15 power points each. If the committee is unwilling to rank three NCC teams ahead of the top-ranked NSIC team, I would hope that they would find it just as difficult to have two RMAC teams (Regis and Metro) ahead of the top-ranked NCC team.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

FYI for all of you who are so worried about the committee not being fair... Gene is on the regional committee...

[UND92,96]

FYI for all of you who are so worried about the committee not being fair... Gene is on the regional committee...

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I realize he's on the committee this year. I haven't had the chance to listen to the 1440 A.M. radio show the past several weeks, but I'd be very interested if the topic of regional rankings has come up. I can only assume Roebuck would want to choose his words pretty carefully all things considered, but I'm willing to bet he wasn't happy about UND's 6th place position last week.