Apparently, UND Fighting Sioux woman's basetball coach Gene Roebuck caused quite the stir with these comments, “If given the choice of keeping the name or getting into the Summit,” Roebuck said, “I’d definitely go with the Fighting Sioux. Personally I don’t have a problem with what Gene said; I guess it’s an issue that’s between him and the athletic director. Right now I am not all that happy with Faison or Kelly.
As you probably heard, the University of North Dakota will finally retire the Fighting Sioux nickname and logo, but not without making a scene.
Players, coaches and administrators have all dished out some priceless quotes about the situation. One of the best was women's basketball coach Gene Roebuck saying that he'd rather keep the nickname than gain entry in the Summit League, a conference that has said it won't consider the school for membership until the situation is resolved.
Now, why say that publicly? There seem to be only two reasons: A) He really believes that, which seems unlikely given that passing up a spot in a conference that has automatic bids into NCAA Division I tournaments is illogical or B) He's just saying that to stay on good terms with all the nickname loyalists in Grand Forks. And there are a lot of them. And they are powerful. That's another aspect that is astounding: This development could have been an opportunity for the school and the athletic department to stand unified and rally support for a new chapter, to say, "Sure, this stinks and we tried everything we could to prevent the change, but we're going to make the best of it. We're still going to be UND and we're going to be better than ever."
But it hasn't happened that way; the cringe-worthy comments keep coming. It's reminiscent of 2004, when some UND coaches blasted rival North Dakota State for moving to Division I - only to wind up making the same jump a few years later. [Argus Leader]
No comments:
Post a Comment