McFeely's Tip Sheet is a compilation of notes, quotes, rumors, gossip and commentary by Forum columnist Mike McFeely. If you have a tip, a note or a hot rumor feel free to send it along to mmcfeely@forumcomm.com. Not all will be printed because of, you know, legal reasons. But they might lead to something. All tip sources will remain anonymous. The staff at the Tip Sheet waded into dangerous waters over the weekend by daring to question why the powerful University of North Dakota hockey team has won only one national championship in 24 years and one NCAA tournament game in eight years. This is dangerous for several reasons, among them 1) the Tip Sheet is a Fargo-based media entity and Fargo-based media entities can NEVER comment on anything about UND athletics (it's just not allowed by Grand Forks rules), 2) the Tip Sheet covers North Dakota State
Football so this is obviously a NDSU vs. UND thing (it's not, because it's not 1993 anymore) and 3) the Tip Sheet staff admits he really doesn't know much about hockey and college hockey in particular because he just doesn't care that much. However, unfortunately, the Sheet got bored and decided to rattle the cage with a rather innocuous querie (because there's no better place to get reasoned, rational answers than social media): How can a program with seemingly every advantage in the small world of college hockey — from arena to tradition to fan base to investment to facilities to ... well, just about everything — win only one natty since 2000 (same as the UND football squad) and just a single NCAA tournament game since 2016 (same as the football squad)? Poor Bubba Schweigert . The football coach gets a contract extension and it seems 70% of the fan base is angry about it because he doesn't win playoff games. The hockey team flames out again and its fan base shrugs and says, "Yeah, but the boys won the Penrose Cup!" ADVERTISEMENT Why? That's all we were asking. And we got the answer: The Hockey Gods. It seems, according to responses on
Social Media, that college hockey success or failure is determined solely by luck. A bad bounce of the puck, a good bounce of the puck, a hot goalie, a bad call by an official, the tournament draw, travel. The puck bounces your way, you win the Penrose Cup. It doesn't, you exit the NCAA tournament early again unless you're playing
American International. This was an amazing revelation. The Tip Sheet always figured recruiting, coaching, developing talent, toughness, culture — all the things coaches say are important — figured into athletic success. And it does in sports like football and basketball. If a coach doesn't do those things well enough, he or she is sent packing. Or at least critiqued, like a Schweigert or a Matt Entz in Fargo, who had the audacity to go two entire seasons without winning a national championship as the coach of NDSU's football program. But in hockey, it's all dependent on the Hockey Gods. University of North Dakota men's hockey coach Brad Berry. Forum News Service photo It's astounding. College hockey programs spend millions of dollars, including hefty coaching salaries like the $500,000 or so Brad Berry is getting at UND, and it's all unnecessary because winning and losing is determined by a bounce of the puck or whether the ice is the proper consistency. UND lost four of its last six games this season, with the only two wins coming against putrid Miami (Ohio), which seemed a poor way to end a season during which it was ranked No. 1 for a stretch. Alas, it was not. It was just bad luck. The Hockey Gods happened to scowl at the Hawks in four of those games, but smiled and put Miami on the schedule for the other two. ADVERTISEMENT A couple of different bounces against Michigan and a few good ones the next night against whoever the next night's opponent would've been and, presto, UND and its rabid fan base is taking over St. Paul in a couple of weeks for the Frozen Four. A few hockey observers did message the Tip Sheet to offer thoughts privately, apparently afraid to stick their hand in the wood chipper that is X (formerly known as Twitter). A couple of the thoughts: They weren't deep up front, were occasionally porous defensively, and had a primary goalie who lacked big game experience because he spent 3 years losing at Miami. And ... I don't agree with how Berry is building that program right now. Not enough recruiting/development and cultivating relationships and too much portal shopping. There's more of that to come from them. A program like that should be recruiting high end skill and quality depth, using the portal only when someone leaves unexpectedly (whether it be a transfer or pro signing). Instead, they pushed out 8 defensemen after last season for 8 new ones (4 freshmen and 4 from the portal) and almost got away with it. The Tip Sheet just doesn't know. Those seem to be legit observations, but we are hockey muttonheads and admittedly watched a total of 13 minutes of UND hockey all season. Shrug emoji. The gaping hole in that analysis, too, is that it places some of the responsibility on actual humans. No mention of the Hockey Gods, who brought UND eight national championships before so viciously forsaking the Hawks in 23 of the last 24 years. Vengeful gods, those Hockey Gods. ADVERTISEMENT If you have ideas, share them at mmcfeely@forumcomm.com. Hot take of the day Something that likely won't happen, but if it does I'll look like a genius: — As long as the Sheet is on a heater ... If Midco would release the numbers, we'd be willing to bet the UND football team has more television viewers in the Dakotas and western Minnesota than UND hockey. Bison football has ruled the roost, whether they were on Valley News Live or WDAY, but since moving to the Missouri Valley Football Conference the Fightin' Bubbas are the No. 2 sheriff in TV Land. North Dakota State forward Andrew Morgan (23) tries to make a move to the basket against St. Thomas on Sunday, March 10, 2024, during the men's quarterfinals at the Summit League
basketball tournament at the Denny Sanford Premier Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Richard Carlson/Inertia Cornhuskers covet former Bison Morgan Andrew Morgan to Nebraska? And Frankie Fidler, too? That's the buzz on Hoops Street and in some of the blogs that write about the Cornhuskers. Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg visited Morgan, the 6-foot-10 former big man for NDSU, at the family home in Waseca, Minnesota. An in-home visit? That signals strong interest. Morgan was called a "top target" of Nebraska by writer Robin Washut of Husker Online. Morgan was reported to have visited the University of Minnesota last week after catching everybody by surprise by entering the portal after the Bison's season. Meanwhile, Omaha stud Fidler is also reportedly coveted by Hoiberg. Fidler had an unofficial visit to the Nebraska campus, according to online reports. ADVERTISEMENT Colorado's Joe Hurlburt goes up for a shot during a game against
Washington State this season. Contributed /
Colorado Athletics Jottings Speaking of Omaha, former NDSU players Josh Streit and Lance Waddles both committed to the Mavericks this week. Both entered the portal after the Bison's season. Minnesota State University Moorhead was said to be keenly interested in Streit, but the 6-foot-9 former Bison reserve chose to remain in the Summit League. Ex-NDSU assistant Kyan Brown is an assistant under Chris Crutchfield at Omaha. ... North Star Athletic Association men’s basketball Player of the Year Darren Jones of Mayville State (N.D.) was named to the third team NAIA All-America squad. He averaged 15.5 points and 7.6 rebounds per game for the Comets. ... Former South Dakota State cage standout Zeke Mayo committed to Kansas. ... Colorado center Joe Hurlburt of Enderlin, N.D., has entered the transfer portal. ... According to the X account Portal Updates, NDSU has shown interest in (but not necessarily offered) Wisconsin-Parkside's Colin O'Rourke , the Citadel's Madison Durr, Rockhurst's Tamaris Brown , Wisconsin-Plattville's Logan Pearson , Southern Utah's Prophet Johnson and
Texas A&M Corpus Christie's Tedrick Washington Jr. Comments Share Share this article Opinion Opinion Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the interpretation of facts and data. The Trust Project What is this? Tags Tags SUBSCRIBERS ONLY THE MCFEELY MESS UND FIGHTING HAWKS HOCKEY By Mike McFeely Mike McFeely is a columnist for The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead. He began working for The Forum in the 1980s while he was a student studying journalism at Minnesota State University Moorhead. He's been with The Forum full time since 1990, minus a six-year hiatus when he hosted a local radio talk-show.
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