A few things are rattling around here...
 
1) Congratulations to the Sioux. Now more than ever I feel it was worth
my while to sneak into Englestad Arena back in October. :-)
 
2) The 1997 Hockey-L Ceramic Dalmation will be awarded later this week. I
should finish tabulating the results of the NC$$ Tournament pool within
the next couple of days. The one thing we know for certain is that my
hockey prognostication skills are as bad as my basketball prognostication
skills. In both tournaments I had the eventual winner losing in their
first game.
 
3) What are the dates for this Chicago tournament? I am hoping to find
myself within reasonable road-trip distance next year, so if the time is
right I might make the jaunt down. FWIW, is this the point in the thread
where we pause to consider the irony of a tournament like this coming to
Chicago one year after UIC's program was snuffed out?
 
4) On a similar vein, what's North Dakota's home schedule like for next
season (in particular, the non-conference games)?
 
5) WRT the Robitaille signing, I am very pleased for him. This is almost
enough to make me cheer for the Paddingtons. :-) I would have been
surprised if he had played for four years at Miami. I'm a little
surprised that he went after his sophomore year, but I certainly
understand why he went. $2.2 M is an awfully good reason to leave early.
(Bear in mind that this comes from someone who, right about now, will move
for $2.2 Hundred :-) ).
 
6) Brendan Morrison saying "the best team doesn't always win." I'm sorry,
but I don't see this as putting his foot in his mouth, and I don't see it
as a slur against either BU or North Dakota. I see it as a truism.
 
If the best team always won every game, then every conference
quarterfinal series would be done by Saturday, there would be no such
thing as seventh games in the NHL, the USA wouldn't have won in 1980, etc.
The probability for upsets increases as series get shorter. If BU and
Michigan played a best-of-seven, Michigan would win probably in no more
than 6. It's for this reason that I'm not all that fond of the
single-knockout format (although I understand why college hockey has to
do it).
 
See you alter,
John
 
--
John Edwards, BA                  Minister of Chasing Wild Geese (DNRC)  O-
[log in to unmask]       http://www.islandnet.com/~jedwards
               "He is SUCH a freak!" - Edie Edwards (Age 17)
                    Friends don't let friends get a B.A.
 
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