ND-fan

I would disagree on some of our young talent. Some of you two years ago saying same thing about our young talent and look how that talent developed to where they were scooped up by schools that play in higher level conferences. Our players went to schools like Baylor, Dayton, San Francisco, and NDSU ( now 40 something school in NCAA) and couple playing small midmajors. Playing freshmen and sophomores these players are going to look not ready or capable of playing at DI level. Especially when we have been playing 3 to 4 at time. There are very few freshmen and sophomores that can be above average. Finanlly number of these sophomores had very little playing time sitting on the bench the year before they came here. South Dakota has some success with there transfers but looking at there roster they will be looking again next year starting over and they are going have difficult keeping there young talent recruited. Yes we have at least 5 graduating after this season. I also think we will see few transfer but if they go I believe they will moving down to game playing time. Some of them if they are not happy will be okay to loose if they can’t buy into program but I see players like this in long run will never reach level of play they desire. There are several players on this team have talents but you can see they need to work on there game to become more rounded player because you can’t have big wholes in your game. I still think we’re rebuilding right way to build this program but we also need things to sell this program to attract top talent look what improvements in football and softball has helped move needle. Basketball is long over do on facilities the Betty should be solely home of Volleyball and we need whole new facility for basketball that looks like division I facility.

This season was never going to be anything but transition year of changing culture of the program and begin developing young players for the future and we are seeing the beginning of this now as the season progresses. I don’t care what Hutter said at beginning what he said is what all coaches must say but he knew he had huge rebuild in front of us. Number of fans here don’t understand Und has fallen from where the program was 80’s to 2000’s. It’s been failure to invest in program and let our competitors pass us in recruiting, facilities, and being top regionally program in women’s basketball.. What we’re seeing now is beginning of our future players to build this program Harris, Hillesheim, and Miller making jump to where they are showing they can play at this level. Piekny, Volmer, Ohnstad and Harvey have made progress but need to make step forwards some of this improvement is to develop physically to play at this level and requires time and off season work but if they do this they could become very good players to move this team forward. Finally we need to recruit and sign players that can make immediate impact to compliment this group now developing. then we need athletic department that needs to invest in basketball resources so it can compete in our conference and nationally. If this is done we will see if our present leadership is up to the task but right now it appears we’re on track to rebuild our basketball programs.its not all the coach and never should have been but this team effort.

Mcfeely just put out article on rating of best jobs in the Summit program based on number of factors they rated UND the worst job. This just shows Sather probably has been performing better than we know because hard to compete when whole program has huge deficiencies. I think Armacost is already reacting to this story with planned upgrades to facilities. This has long over due in the athletic program. This going to be interesting to see what happens for full athletic program.

Brewster had lost the team and he had lost key players also in last few years of his tenure. He also got lazy recruiting talent and his coaching also showed this too! Then look what happen to him and after here getting disciplined for his coaching plus coaching at division III level few years ago. When he won here it was built by Roebuck who left program in position at Division I level and he hoped move on up after that but it never came and he got lazy or had bad attitude wasting talent he had then. That’s what I remember and going to the games back then.

I was thinking same thing last night why would play so many of your starters with risk of injury to your starters. Two possible reasons one to keep your net rankings up as much as possible to get in as second team in Summit conference. Second to not show drop of talent in the bench on this years team. This is very good team but if you look closely getting away from starting five this team is not as deep as previous SDSU teams. Next year this will be team still pretty good but with Myer gone, Mathiowetz and Colbeck gone it is not elite team like it is now. The other three top players of Fox, Hartwig, and Vasecka are good but unless other younger players develop more they will still be top conference team but they will be beatable by other teams in conference. Now UND will probably get better if we bring couple of more talented players. I do agree I haven’t understood why Hutter hasn’t settled on rotation of players by now inseason instead of playing most of the bench. I think some of this majority of these players he has not played much basketball in last two years and wonder if this year they get chance to show if they can play and show if they play division I basketball. Ohnstad shows offensive potential but I do see some short comings on defense and have no idea what her work habits. Piekny looks like she has physical attributes but her performance from offensive side hasn’t been there this year. Miller at post has improved with two years eligibility can become effective player at post. The three freshmen of Hillesheim, Harvey, and Harris have shown they have athleticism to play a division I but if we had better talent ahead of them they should have been redshirted, Volmer can play at this level but she needs to get stronger because last night playing against older players she got pushed around a lot and didn’t have strength to finish offensively and even defensively. Fletcher hasn’t played enough hard to know much about her. Mathern can play certain role on team because her size and could become valuable asst in future. We have 5 senior players and they are here to help and teach these young players and be able finish there careers here. the reason people are still coming watching they are loyal fans and this group of players still play hard and showing they are still a team. They are also I believe they are coming to see these young players see how developing because number are the future here and many of you will be surprised how they develop over there years here. Whether Hutter will be successful will be players coming in next year and year after that if any these players develop into team like where these players came from where they were successful.

I don’t think changing coaches going to change our standing and may even we even regress further with the program. What McDermott pretty much said is fact statement of fact in men’s program and number of other programs. Facilities are sub par for division I , financial support has fallen behind the top teams even in the summit and our Nil money is pretty much nil with little hope of this changing near future. I think Sather has recruited payers that have developed into good players but we have never had financial resources to keep them past there sophomore years here for additional year to make that.run to win the conference. This was proven last year even other Summit program could allure one of our average player to them. My gage of Sather as is as coach does his team improve as season goes along this has happened each year coaching record for us is never going to look good because we’re going to be putting a new team every tear. Money speaks now in NCAA basketball if you want to winning program we are going to have find resources to compete and then judge our present coach because you need horses if can’t get them here no matter how you coach you can’t win. I think this is only get worse for small midmajor programs when players can move each year it would really help if like football redshirt season would add another year of eligibility.

USD went with junior senior portal players more ready to play division I and are much better than we are this year but with this move they are pretty much locked in the middle ground not good enough to play now with SDSU and probably not with NDSU but they will be looking for players again next year to repeat similar performance but never reaching point where they can win conference. UND approach was to find freshman sophomores that were recruits that were considered to have high potential but went to tier 3 and 4 schools but just sat basically for year on their bench. Choosing these type of players and also finding recruits that would mesh into culture they are trying to build the program block by block given they at least three years eligibility. In theory this could be good but problem is like all recruiting there are going to be number of these players are not going to make it at this level. When we went this direction we were pretty much looking at least two years of misery before we could look to compete at higher level because your not going to win or look good playing number of freshman and sophomores. Finally we have very limited money to attract better portal players for the basketball programs now. Like I said above some attention is needed for basketball teams and other sports at UND. The sarcastic remarks above on my remark on facilities is part of things to bring back these sports. Also you think just going out finding big time candidates for these positions going to fix this is just matter opening up positions your going to get flood of people they are just like college recruits if things are not in place to win they are going to pass move on and for better fit. They are not going to go through 5 to 7 year rebuild lstarting from beginning it’s asking them to risk future coaching plans with very little compensation for the amount of risk coming here. The level of pay I would be better as assistant coach at tier 4 and 5 schools then they have time to find right small mid major program they can have success in shorterm and jump to next level. This realistic view of where we’re at because we have let these programs slide to just keep up to other teams in Summit. The statement of Hockey and football consuming 95% of budget may not that far off. To run college sports to be successful now takes huge amount of money something that wasn’t here 5 years ago and until we get correction this is only going to worse when we’re seeing college players are getting paid in 100,000. To into millions that was illegal not that many years ago.

We have seen improvement in hockey and football but cupboard wasn’t bare and amount resources put into those programs this past year is showing positive effects of attracting recruits. Now you look at both basketball programs very little has been done in facilities and if done something that should have been done years ago. The Betty is not bad facility but sure doesn’t look like good division I facility look what st. Thomas has done, SDSU, and few years ago what NDSU and Oral Robert’s has done. I find it interesting KC, Omaha, Denver, and UND at bottom conference have similar problems in size facilities and have been going through coaches every four or five years trying rebuild. I think Hutter could be good coach but hard to know with how bare cupboard was and then having to compete having less resources to find talent. Like stated above Jory Collins has taken seven years to get to this level and us giving final piece to complete this team. Schiller has skills to play division I seems to fit into this team know doubt she wanted to play on winner which she got for this year. Another point about support the look at softball, the improvement there after up grade in facilities and support we became at least factor in Summit. UND has done amazing things campus wide in last 10 years becoming flagship university it shows in facilities for academic resources and has been reflected in increasing enrollments bringing in resources for Grand forks as well state wide to economy of the state. I think administration now also needs toconcentrate on other sports here at UND bring them up to UND excellence.

Dom Izzo has Bison going to big dance already and trying to get Fargo excited about this team. They do look good right now but don’t count your chickens before they hatched. They are team basically now of top seven and Koenen giving them elite player for mid major just like SDSU to south having Myer dominant player in middle. The fact is UND will not be able to compete with them this year and I am afraid it will be blowout that Fargo media are going to give full air time on. I am not wishing bad on any players but things could change if Koenen or couple of other players get hurt before the season is done we have seen this in past with South Dakota teams in past where they were early outs in conference tournament. This year the bottom tier teams are probably worst we have had in number years with coaching changes and portal defects gutting these teams and top two to three teams having coaching stability and school support to keep quality players around for multiple years. But getting back NDSU this is going to be there year but I look to next year when I expect big changes with portal and wether Jory Collins sticks around or moves on to bigger program.

I have watched st, Thomas couple of times they play such old school basketball and are very good. Their coach gets them to play such unselfish basketball and to make the extra pass and players seem to hit when they get extra pass. Also is case they play good defense and play intelligent basketball. If we are going to win this game we need to be hitting our shots and not turn over the basketball. I believe we have people to match up with them but I don’t know if we can make adjustments for the game plan their coach will have prepared for us. In my opinion he is best coach in the summit and he recruits players that he can coach and follow through on his game plans.

BackThe current situation is not on Hutter it’s on AD and his people they knew they had problem with Bernhard last year they brought in Hutter to help her to develop players and to use scouting report to game plan. The problem was she had internal problem with the players and administration had to know this but let it slide until the whole program blew up. I have know idea what happened but I think the players were waiting for change but again administration didn’t do anything then it forced players to make decision and I believe it just created perfect storm and today agents came in number of payers were sold there greener pastures else where. For couple moving has improved there status but many at best it was lateral move and for some it was needed to move to where they fit better. Ibrahim has found good fit and playing starting for Dayton, Schiller is having success and Jory seems to have managed to her to mold into the team, Pemberton moved to top power team but she is getting limited playing time and she needed to be on team where she would get more playing time to continue to develop not sitting on bench, Horne moved up again getting little more playing time but needed to be on team similar UND getting playing time, Hurst moved to division II better fit for her skills, Beal moved slightly lower laterally turned into bust based on talent she came in with I don’t know if it was her or failure on us developing her probably both But could have been much different if her talent would have developed. The other players that left were just to far from knowing potential and probably needed to move on. Hutter has chosen to build from scratch with exception Hughes he brought in yes a lot of turnovers but as point guard number are from young players out of position or not prepared to receive feeds or running offense. She was here just for year teach his system and there young guards developed this year. This has been happening Volmer is making strides, Hillesheim has improved, Harvey is back which is good, and Londen Harriss I think could become exceptional player she has all tools just needs to develop them. These players are future of this team for guards and Ava Miller is going to get better especially if she gets stronger to hold her own inside. I think also Ohnstad could become unique player for us but needs to work on her game and has come miles since beginning of season. Just need to find more talent that is ready to play with these players. Still going to be long season SDSU and NDSU games will be brutal there right now at whole different level. The St Thomas and South Dakota games will be important if we can make these competitive games then we’re getting better. KC game was disappointment I think we should have been competitive with them but some it they are quicker more experienced at guard which cost us dearly yesterday .

This team also needs a player that can be counted on to get us points when things are going bad as of right now we don’t have that player I see where couple of our younger players may have that ability but so far they are not there to do that on consistent basis. I hope we have somebody we have recruited coming in or at least working on to come here. This would just make number of our other players that much better and we need leader of that type if we’re going to make that jump to next level in conference. But that player also needs to fit in as team player there not easy to find but is what is needed for the program.

Today’s game took step backwards again KC with their preesue defense got us away from what we do best. Kept us from finding good shots and turn over margin went right up to level where we don’t get enough possessions. We gave up 26 points on turnovers plus if you add points lost in possessions of say from normal turnovers of 10 to 12 turnovers where we shot 44% would gave us another 10 points and then add poor free throw shooting we spotted them nearly 40 points we needed to make up. There is no way we can win games with this kind of play. Hutter worked on shooting he said this week but.then we step back ball control and rebounding playing better defense. These younger players need to step up and start playing full 40 minutes of basketball they have been given playing time to improve but they now need to step up and prove they deserve this time. I believe coach Hutter has some tough decisions coming ahead with this group I see potential in number of these girls but they now need to step up and now prove they deserve to be at this level.

From what I have seen hard to predict finish all these teams in this era of the portal most are young teams that have been put together with few experienced portal players. UND is of this mold with couple seniors and bunch of freshman and sophomores. Watching them yesterday I think there is still quite a bit up potential. This group has some very good guards if they play up to potential but four and five positions could use another player for more depth and size. SDSU coming here looked to be very balanced team against Omaha team that was short handed on frontline. SDSU will be one top teams but they are beatable and I don’t think they have much higher up potential but I maybe under estimating them. I still think St Thomas and NDSU will be two top teams and will see if NDSU doesn’t have fall off like they did last year I don’t think in Era of portal, with Richman’s intensity i wonder if these younger players don’t burn out before season is over. I think rest of league will be battling all season long.

Turnovers are bad difficult to overcome but what is worse is 3pt. Shooting can’t continue to shoot under 25% when big part of your game plan depends on outside game to open up inside game. I think these players are better than that you got to have confidence and belief you’re going to hit the shot. Yesterday when they missed everything I think they were just happy hitting the rim. I know they have practiced shooting so if you’re hitting these shots in practice why not in game condition. This could be coaching but I think it’s number these girls.should be redshirting to develop their talents and a lot of this successful teams have experienced players to rely on. This has been difference between SDSU and NDSU has been younger team. It will be interesting how this plays out this year with NDSU having couple of stars that junior and sophomores with a lot of playing time. This is rebuilding year finding talent to build for the future.