Poorly written

    OK, I see why readers thought I was insinuating that Mankato's coach is better than Roebuck.  That sentence was poorly written. My fault.
    Roebuck's record speaks for itself. You can't put up his numbers without knowing what you're doing.
   The post's main point was that the UND women have dramatically improved since early in the year. The secondary point was that the UND women aren't horrible if they lose at Minnesota State-Mankato because the Mavericks are good after being doormats ever since women's hoops had six players per team on the floor, three on each half of the court.

Posted by: bakken on 1/10/2008 at 3:31 PM | Comments (95) | Permalink

Revitalized UND women

     A month ago, when the UND women's basketball team was 7-0, I was unimpressed. The Sioux didn't come close to deserving the No. 1 national ranking they had at the time, I surmised.
    Well, it's still doubtful that they're the best D-II squad in the country, as the national ranking suggests. But they're a lot, lot closer than they were a month ago. I see two big reasons for this improvement.
   1) Karla Beck. She was the biggest reason that last year's team was as good as it was. She had a great year, showing improvement in shooting the 3-pointer and running the floor, in addition to her defensive quickness. But early this year, she wasn't scoring and seemed in an overall funk, her confidence shattered. But lately, she's been scoring and her overall game has returned in the process. Even if her shot isn't dropping, she's the one who UND looks to to bring energy.
    2) Whitney Ledger (as profiled in today's Herald by sportswriter Wayne Nelson). Her emergence offensively means the Sioux will always have two inside scoring threats on the floor. She will join Ashley Langen and Kierah Kimbrough in playing 20-30 minutes a game inside. As a frosh, she could rebound and defend, but was unpolished offensively. Her shots are dropping this year.
    Despite those two's recent play and the other vets, the big x-factor  will be freshman Mallory Youngblut. With the loss of 3-point shooters to graduation and with extraordinaire shooter Kayla Baagason lost for the season because of injury, Youngblut will have to provide the outside shooting to keep defenses honest.
   But . . . don't be surprised if Minnesota State Mankato beats UND Saturday in Mankato. The Mavericks are scoring lots of points, are maybe more athletic than the Sioux, are coached much better and have been relishing a chance to prove themselves. This is not your mother's Mankato, the perennial doormat.
    St. Cloud, in contrast, isn't the league power it's been the last few years.

Posted by: bakken on 1/9/2008 at 3:48 PM | Comments (15) | Permalink

Another red face for Big Ten

     They need to make two adjustments to the BCS system.
     1) Pick four teams and have a two-round playoff to decide a national championship.
     2) A bylaw banning all Big Ten squads to be among those four teams.
    

Posted by: bakken on 1/8/2008 at 1:14 PM | Comments (8) | Permalink

Weighing in on Mussman

    There never was an ounce of uncertainty about who UND would anoint as football coach to replace the departing Dale Lennon.
    Chris Mussman was the only qualified coach on staff and the timing of Lennon's departure dictated that a nationwide search couldn't be conduced. If UND had opted to open up the job, the recruiting season would have been lost. UND would have lost multiple potential players if they had been coach-less. And who could blame them? Knowing who the head coach is _ and the assistants are _ is an important part of the selection process.
    With everything else going on in UND athletics now _ no AD, transition to D-I, nickname, fund-raising upgrades _ the football team sure didn't need to risk losing a recruiting year.
    UND's recruiting suffered during the two years when it was considering the move to D-I. The indecision cost them both players who wanted to go D-I and those who preferred to stay D=II and compete for a national title.
    But the recruits landed a year ago was filled with gems. And the staff was optimistic of another top group this year _ before Lennon left. His departure will cost them some players, but keeping most of the coaches and the system in place will salvage most of them.
    I like Mussman personally. And I like his work as o-coordinator, a job where 99.9 percent of fans think they can do a better job. He's also has the advantage of seeing up close how Lennon has managed this program. Hopefully he will take Lennon's strengths _ steadfastness, consistency, no-rock-unturned work ethic, motivation skills, X-and-O knowledge _ while also being himself and flashing his substantial personality.
    Can a guy without head coaching experience do the job in the trying transitional phase? We'll see. Was there any other option? No.

     

Posted by: bakken on 1/7/2008 at 9:26 AM | Comments (6) | Permalink

Removal of the 'A'

The big news out of UND's hockey win over St. Cloud State for a weekend split _ a split, whudda thunk it? _ was that T.J. Oshie's 'A' was removed from his jersey. The A, for the hockey unschooled, stands for assistant captain.
This move by Coach Dave Hakstol was a wise one. It sends the message that Oshie's second brush with John Law was not going to be brushed aside. I don't think Hakstol did that for public relations purposes. He has never been overly concerned with the public perception. I think the removal was more a message to the team that underachievement and bad decisions are no longer to be tolerated.
He sent that message once to start the Christmas break when he broke up lines, deciding the pairings on performance rather than reputation. That worked for a game, then the Sioux dominated play for 2 1/2 periods against New Hampshire only to collapse in the the last 10 minutes.
There is something wrong going on with a team when it's ranked No. 1 to start the year and then plays .500 hockey more than halfway through its season. You see the potential in their number of blowouts of quality opponents. So, you can't brush off its mediocre record on bad luck or running into hot opposing goaltenders or bad officiating.
Seeing the talent and seeing the remaining schedule, they look capable of making a similar season-ending run to last year's hot streak. Maybe the A removal, a public scolding even more than the one-game suspension, will be the third thread of a turnaround.

Posted by: bakken on 1/6/2008 at 2:41 PM | Comments (6) | Permalink