Thursday, November 1, 2012

NAIA Volleyball Host Bid

Tonight, our Briar Cliff women's volleyball team completed a season sweep of "that school across town", however, even though this occurred and BCU also finished the regular season with a higher position in the GPAC standings, the Morningside Lady Chiefs will be the host school for the NAIA National Volleyball Tournament when it comes to the Tyson Events Center in November.

Now before you start asking about the GPAC Tournament, you are right.  IF Briar Cliff can win the GPAC Tournament, they would take the host bid away from Morningside.  But, with no offense intended at Coach Muhe or the Charger players, that is a very small possibility due to the competition that Briar Cliff would have to face in order for that to happen, including three teams ranked in the Top 25.

I'm sure you're asking how can this be?  Well that's why I'm here to give you the answer.

The first criteria used to determine the host bid is a simple one: The host team must have an overall record above .500.  This is the only criteria required by the NAIA because they don't want a team below that mark to qualify and get the crap beat out of them by the competition.  This is one condition that I agree with and it's for the same reasons the NAIA has stated.  The last thing I would want is for Briar Cliff to qualify for the Tournament and then go down in the group stage with embarrassing scores (and yes Charger fans, it can get worse than that Northwestern game at the NFC this year).

The second criteria used, and these were agreed upon by BCU and Morningside, the NAIA and GPAC did not have any say in these conditions when the tournament arrived in Sioux City a few years ago, is the two teams records against six "common opponents".  What this means is that the GPAC, who although they didn't have any say in the condition serves as a neutral supervisor to keep track of the criteria, keeps track of six conference games where both schools had the same opponent in the same home/away situation.  For example, if Briar Cliff hosted Dordt and Morningside also hosted Dordt then those games could be considered common opponents.  If BCU hosted Dordt but Morningside played Dordt in Sioux Center, then those games could not be used against each other.  Another condition is that head-to-head doesn't count as common opponent.

This common opponent rule was the one that gave Morningside the host bid because they finished with a record of 5-5 while Briar Cliff was only 3-7.

When I saw the criteria that was used to determine the host bid, the first thing I said was "What about head-to-head, shouldn't the matches between two teams battling for the bid have authority over common opponents?"

The answer I got came from the fact that the criteria was made years ago when the GPAC had two additional teams than it does now (Sioux Falls left for NCAA Division II, and Dana College in Blair, Nebraska closed suddenly a couple years ago).  Back then, there was a chance that Briar Cliff and Morningside would only face each other once in volleyball, so the schools didn't want the host bid to come down to a "sudden death" game.

While this made sense then, that rule should've been amended after the two schools left the conference and the GPAC moved to a home/home regular season where all the teams face each other twice.

So now that I've explained the current rules and conditions, I'm gonna give you what I think the criteria should be for the host bid:

1) The host team must have an overall record about .500.  This is a rule that the NAIA put in and it is a good one for the reasons I explained earlier.

2) HEAD-TO-HEAD: If one school sweeps the other school in the two matches where we square off, then that school should earn the bid as long as they fulfill the first condition.  If the two teams split the season series and then face each other in the GPAC Tournament, that game would serve as a "sudden death" match to determine the bid.

3)  GPAC STADINGS: If the two schools split the head-to-head match-ups, and there is no match in the GPAC Tournament, the school that finishes higher in the GPAC should be the one to earn the host bid.

4) COMMON OPPONENTS: If both schools finish tied in the GPAC standings, THEN you go to the Common Opponents that are currently used.

So in conclusion, I'm asking, no BEGGING, Briar Cliff President Bev Wharton, Athletic Director Steve Gast, and head coach Jill Muhe, along with their contemporaries over at Morningside, to amend their rules for the host bid and put in criteria that ACTUALLY MAKES SENSE!!!!!!

I'm DK and that the 411!

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

DakotaDome Debate

Well, after a few weeks of being asked for my reaction to the recent news coming out of the football program at BCU the time has finally come for me to give my answer.

First off, I'll set the stage. For those of you who haven't heard (and there are more that you'd think) the Briar Cliff athletic department has recently announced that the Charger football team will play one game at the DakotaDome on the campus of the University of South Dakota in Vermillion (39 miles from Sioux City) during this season and, starting in 2013, will play their home games exclusively in Vermillion, leaving their home since the program's beginnings Memorial Field in Sioux City. Athletic Director Steve Gast and head coach Tom Rethman have said that the move into a Division I-AA stadium will improve recruiting and the credibility of the football program as well as expand the fan base that Briar Cliff has in the region. Gast has also been quoted as saying that this will be "one of a network of connected, and often shared, sites where we teach, learn, work, compete and recreate" and that the Dome will "provide a tremendous game-day environment for our football team, our opponents, our students, fans and everyone associated with BCU football." During the same interviews Gast talked about this being an interim step in a plan that ultimately will end in the team moving to a stadium either on-campus or in the Sioux City area. 

Now that I've told you what's going on, here's my take: For starters, I first heard about this back in March (a couple months before the official announcement was made), but at that time the plan was to play one game at the Dome each season and play the rest at Memorial Field. When I heard this I liked the idea. Playing a home game at a separate site from your official home field is nothing rare in college football. This even happens at the NCAA Division I-A level (Florida-Georgia @ Jacksonville, Oklahoma-Texas @ Dallas, and Arkansas plays one home game in Little Rock).

Now when the announcement came that BCU was going to move to the Dome exclusively in 2013, my reaction was just a little bit different. And all I have to say to Athletic Director Steve Gast is WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING!!!!!!!

While I will agree that Memorial Field is not the best place for a college football team to call home (especially when the weather is not the best and also in November after BCU and Heelan have played on it week after week) AT LEAST IT'S IN SIOUX CITY!!!! Our football fans in the community and our students ARE NOT going to travel 39 miles from Sioux City and Briar Cliff campus to watch a Briar Cliff HOME football game. I don't care if we're moving to the DakotaDome or (Bleeping) Notre Dame Stadium, they just won't do it. Busing from campus to the games might get some but come on, if the students won't go to games just down the road at Memorial where they can hang out in the parking lot during halftime and go across the street to Applebee's if the game gets out of hand, then what's going to make them hop on a bus or carpool to Vermillion to watch a game indoors? Also, you say that this will expand the fan base in the region, then answer this question for me, What football fan (not counting families of team members and coaches) is going to come to the DakotaDome to watch a team that has gone from 5-6 in 2006 to 2-9 in 2012 and has never had a winning season in 10 years of football?

Now Steve Gast also mentioned that this was an interim site until a new stadium can be built either on-campus or in the Sioux City area. That one is almost too easy to counter. Back in 2005, when Trent Johnson was talking to me about possibly coming to Briar Cliff to continue my education following high school, he kept bringing up the fact that Briar Cliff was going to be improving the facilities on campus, especially at Heelan Hall. Now the plans for a new addition didn't come out until a couple years later, but BCU was using this as a recruiting tool for prospective students for years with little to no progress being made until construction finally started in 2011. Another example is how from 1982, when the Newman Flanagan Center opened, until 2010 the floor the basketball and volleyball teams play on went through very little change in terms of look and also in upkeep. By 2009, the floor had numerous dead spots and, most infamously, still had BCC, for Briar Cliff College (not Chargers like the school claimed after the change to BCU) on the center court circle. My point is that every upgrade that the school has added over the years to the campus has taken a long time to raise the money for. And even if we could build a stadium on-campus, there is still the problem of the city ordinance against our on-campus fields having lights for night games. I've lost count of how many times we've finished a soccer doubleheader with light so dim that the light from the scoreboard glowed on the ground in front of it, or how we've had to suspend baseball games due to the sun going down so far that it was a safety hazard for the players.

So in conclusion, the idea of moving home football games to the DakotaDome is not only a mistake, it is PROGRAM SUICIDE!!!! Instead of increasing our fan base within the region will isolate the fan base that we already have because our team will not be in its key market. It will also hurt the program's connection to the student body because they won't travel 39 miles to watch a team play their home games.

Now while there are no easy solutions to this situation, a solution could be started with one simple move: Form an agreement with Heelan to raise the money together to install FieldTurf on Memorial Field. This move would improve our current facility significantly and would prevent the wear and tear that the field goes through every fall. It is also a solution that has been proven, not only in college football, but in the GPAC itself as both Morningside and Northwestern, who also share their fields with high school teams, have installed FieldTurf at their stadiums to compensate for the extra use. So my prediction for this move to Vermillion is that it will backfire on the football program and we will more than likely move back to Memorial Field with our tails between our legs in 2015.

I'm DK and that's the 411!

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Senior Day

Today Briar Cliff University honored the four senior men's basketball players who's careers will end following this season. It is always an emotional time when you finally realize that the four years are just about over and that it's almost time to move on. In honor of these seniors, I would like to take this opportunity to talk about each one of our seniors from this season. While their careers can't truly be measured in statistics over the past four years due to the talented classes that came before them, they have each contributed to the legacy of Briar Cliff Charger Basketball in their own unique ways.

Tim Loan (55) is a great example of what patience and persistence will earn you. Tim spent 3 years on the Briar Cliff JV team, including his sophomore year which was cut short by injury. During those three years we were able to see Tim steadily improve as a post player and eventually earn the right to play significant varsity time during his final season here at Briar Cliff. I'm sure there were times during those JV years that Tim probably thought to himself "What am I doing here?" or "Will I ever get a chance to really show what I could do?" but he stuck with it and has shown his talents well during this season.

Brenton "Ziggy" Brown (15) is a JUCO transfer who only played two seasons in the blue and gold. Last season he saw more action and there were many times where he dazzled the crowd with his abilities. Although he hasn't seen the playing time that he wanted this season, he has come up big in some key situations to help the Chargers pull out victories, including some key shots during the upset wins over Dordt and Nebraska-Omaha.

When I think about Ben Sitzmann (23) the first thing that I thought was "Wasn't it just yesterday I saw him playing for Heelan in the Substate game over at Tyson Event Center? Where have these four years gone?"
Ben of course is the Hometown Hero of this class. Born and raised in Sioux City, he grew up where many of us were able to see him mature and improve his game during his time at Heelan. Those of us that were that lucky knew that if the improvement continued he would be a special player for Briar Cliff, and we were right. Ben has been a great player no matter what role the coaches needed him to play. Whether it was coming off the bench during his sophomore season or being a starter during his junior and senior seasons, Ben has always given the same blue collar effort that is a calling card for Siouxland basketball players over the years.

And then there's Eric Rohe (13). Eric's story is unique to this class because he is the only one who came to BCU with a family legacy to continue. For those of you who don't know, Eric's older brother Neil was one of Coach Barry's first recruits to come to BCU. During his career, which ended in 2008 (the spring before Eric enrolled at Briar Cliff), Neil amazed over 1,000 points for his career, was named an honorable mention All-American in his senior year, and helped lay the foundation for the success that the Charger program has experienced in recent years. More importantly than that is that Neil was known around BCU as one of the friendliest and active students on campus. It didn't matter whether you were a freshman or a grad student, Neil would treat you with the same respect and dignity that he treated everyone.
While Eric was not able to match Neil's basketball achievements, mainly due to the upperclassmen that were ahead of him for three years, he is a great example of never complaining, doing the jobs that he was asked to do, and for being an even better person off the floor to everyone around him, whether it was his best friend or someone he just met.

So what is the final legacy for the Class of 2012? In many ways it's too soon to tell since the postseason hasn't been played and we haven't been able to look back. In many ways, it's a question of "What might have been?" due to these guys having to sit behind the likes of Chase Vander Feen, Kyle Semprini, Matt Geelan, and James Larson for their first three years, but it's also a legacy of guys who took advantage of the opportunities that were given to them over the years and doing their best to make the most of them.

I'm DK and that's the 411.

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Ray Nacke Day

Hey everyone,

Yesterday Briar Cliff University did something that they should've done a long time ago. The school officially dedicated the floor of the Newman Flanagan Center in honor of former head coach Ray Nacke.

By now most of you already have heard a lot about Coach Nacke's career, especially if you read the article in Saturday's Sioux City Journal [great job by BCU alum Michael (Mikey) Brauer] so I'll just state the basics.

When Coach Nacke got to BCU (BCC at the time), the school had only been coeducational for 5 years (1966) and the athletic programs were also that old. The basketball team had to practice in what is now the Briar Cliff theater, and those of you who have seen the theater (including the area behind the stage) know just how small that gym was. The team played their home games down at the Sioux City Auditorium (now the Long Lines Rec Center at the Tyson Events Center), not the worst facility in the world, but many people wished that BCU could play in an on-campus facility.

Coach Nacke took a mediocre program and eventually built it to a program that had 22 winning seasons, numerous District and National Tournament appearances, and of course his crowning achievement, the ability (and in his words luck) of being able to start the Panama Pipeline which brought great student-athletes to Briar Cliff.

Probably the best thing about the Nacke Era is that it has been used by coaches that have followed as a standard for what the expectations are for each BCU team that has followed. When Todd Barry took over the BCU program in 2004, Briar Cliff had fallen on hard times in men's basketball. One of the first calls Coach Barry made after taking the job was to the man he had coached against many times during his reign at Northwestern, and his good friend, Ray Nacke. Coach Barry used the Nacke Era to show the players that he brought in as an example of what Briar Cliff had accomplished and also set the tone for all the teams that played for him were to follow. This included hanging various pictures and newspaper/magazine articles (including one Sports Illustrated article which can be found here: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1124160/index.htm), and putting the names of many of Nacke's best players' (Galvez, Malcolm, Butler, and of course Rolando Frazer) names in the lockers of the current players, with each new varsity player having his name added to that locker.

The honoring of the Nacke Era continues with the "somewhat" new coaching staff. As soon as he was hired last March, Coach Nelson used the Nacke Era in just about every interview that he gave in those first few days. If that wasn't evidence enough of what Coach Nacke means to the current BCU team and fans, you just had to be at the Flanagan Center yesterday, as the whole Charger team formed a tunnel with the former Charger players as Coach Nacke and his family walked onto the floor for the dedication, and as members of the Briar Cliff student body wore throwback uniforms (many of which were actually worn during the Nacke Era) and chanting his name at the end of the game.

Many times in this country, people tend to look at the present and the future and leave the past for dead. We tear down old buildings to make room for new ones. But one thing is for certain, as long as they play basketball at Briar Cliff and as long as the Newman Flanagan Center is the home of Briar Cliff basketball, the name of Ray Nacke will live on in the hearts and the minds of all the members of the Briar Cliff family.

I'm DK and that's the 411.

Monday, January 30, 2012

I'M BACK!!

Hey everybody,

Sorry I haven't posted in a while (almost 2 years to be exact) but I am back now and hopefully will be posting more often.

I'm DK and that's the 411!