kiyoat

Looks like 2 years eligible, too. Nice get.

Congrats on having a postseason! I just looked, and the last time we (USD) didn't qualify for a postseason was the Spring of 2010 (Great West era).... yikes. This is a great reward for your gals having a great season. Go win some games!

Regardless of how the regular season finished, and how the SLT goes, I think you guys have a good shot at a WNIT bid. Nothing guaranteed like with NDSU, of course. But often that tournament has to go deep into their wish list to get teams. For some reason, eligible P-5 teams often turn their noses up at it. Pretty arrogant, if you ask me. Post-season opportunities are a nice reward for your players' hard work, and provide valuable experience IMHO.

Yeah, it's pretty bad right now for the Yotes. If there is any saving grace it would be the parity in the conference (outside of the Jacks) is giving most teams an opportunity to climb the ladder in the last 3 or 4 games. Just depends who is playing the best right now. UND has a great final 4 games, (ORU, KC, UST, WIU). I could see you going anywhere from 4-0 to 1-3, with the most likely 3-1, losing to ORU. No chance of getting beat by KC. I think you have a good shot at #2 or #3, but could fall to #4 also. USD's schedule is similar, but a little tougher with Omaha, Denver, ORU and KC. I think we could go 3-1 or 2-2, and likely end up at the #4 or #5 seed. Not great, but that's what we were in 2017 in Dawn's first year, too. At least the final two weeks will have meaningful games. *shrug*

Yeah, I don't think that is a very controversial take. State probably would have gotten in last year, had they not had some early struggles in the non-con that wrecked their NET ranking. The controversial part is where you are calling USD a 2nd place team this year. SMH I appreciate the gesture, but this USD squad has been too inconsistent to be favored to finish 3rd, let alone 2nd. We could plausibly finish 4th or lower, depending on how this team develops or doesn't (or if we have any more injuries). I'm hopeful they will figure it out by the end of the season, but right now I'd be very happy with a 3-seed. This year is strange. During the non-con season It looked like the conference outside of SDSU, NDSU, UND and UST was significantly weaker than last year. Like REALLY bad. But since the conference season started, USD, ORU and WIU have looked dominant in individual games (all very streaky/inconsistent), and Omaha has looked much better recently too. Is it an illusion based on bad teams playing each other? Or are these teams coming together and figuring it out? Who frickin' knows...

I'm not in the know, but PrepDig is at least a good reference. Not every state does PrepDig rankings, but many do now. I couldn't say on your Canadian recruits, but it looks like your setter might be the star of the class. #9 2023 player in Minnesota, #2 Setter https://www.prepdig.com/minnesota/rankings/2023-rankings/?position=S The Libero looks like unranked, but listed as the #16 Libero in California https://www.prepdig.com/california/rankings/california-2023-rankings/?position=DS/L I don't see the MB on the Texas list, but it is a big state, and you can only scroll down so far without a PrepDig account https://www.prepdig.com/texas/rankings/2023-rankings/?position=MB I don't have a PrepDig account, but I find these pages by directly searching Google for "2023 player rankings (state)"...

Well, believe it or not, UND is still not out of the race for regular-season title. If you won your last 4 and the Yotes lost 4, then we would be tied. The H2H would also be a tie. If NDSU overtook Omaha for 3rd, your win over them would be the difference.... otherwise we have the edge with Omaha and Denver. But that's an extremely low probability scenario. The point is that with four matches left, you still have literally everything to play for. Not bad. I think you will end up 4th or 5th, but who knows. It's nice when there are a ton of meaningful matches at the end of the season. Hopefully fans are still paying attention, instead of pivoting to basketball.

You could drop to a six-seed at worst. Kansas City in seventh place is four games back from UND, with four games left. You win a tie based on H2H wins. So you’re in. Question is: would you rather have NDSU or Denver in a first round? I vote Denver.

Well done, Hawks. Looks like we will have 5 or 6 title contenders in the league tournament this year. Things might get a little wild. Funny how the right coach can sometimes turn things around quickly. Wish we could find a “Tupac” that coaches football. see you in eleven days for the rematch.

Yes and no. Woodin (the Freshman Setter) got her first extensive action of the year at setter (was a serving specialist before that) @ St. Thomas, playing some of the first set, and the entire second set before they put Schram back in for the third and fourth sets. I assume she was injured then as well, but they thought she could rest it and play through? Woodin then started the entire match @ Western Illinois two days later (this was three weeks ago). Schram then played exclusively for the next two weekends (probably through pain), and Woodin played the entire SDSU game last Friday, with Schram in a boot. Stress Fracture, out 8 weeks. So she is done for the season. Woodin was class of 2022 at Elkhorn South HS in Nebraska, All-State as a senior. Broke that school's single season and carreer assists records. She was ranked the #14 overall player in Nebraska by PrepDig for 2022. Not a tall setter (5'-6"), so there's that. But she did get two block assists at Western Illinois, and one at SDSU. Not ideal for us, but she did seem to play well against SDSU. I don't recall any setter dumps in that match by her, and it felt like she wasn't setting the middles enough in the early sets, but... what do I know? Might be hard to game-plan for tendencies of a newer player, especially at that position.

I believe that after a H2H comparison, the records of the tied teams are compared to each conference opponent, one-by-one, starting at the top of the rankings. So if there are a bunch of teams tied for first, like in your example, then the next team down in standings is what would be compared. If that is still a tie they look at RPI ranking. Keep in mind that tie-breakers in the Summit are just for seeding (and determining next year's host), Co-champions is a thing.

This is exactly correct. And I'm quoting you..... Great reverse-sweep win. I think at this point the only way Tupac doesn't win COY is if NDSU wins the regular season. Great hire.

Just something to note- Omaha switched from (former SOY) Clarkson to a two-setter system after their SD trip. Just like last year when Coach Buttermore switched from Senior Mountjoy to Soph Centeno at Libero, but kept (former DPOY) Mountjoy in the lineup. Basically had two liberos out there most of the time. They were the #1 defense last year (and won the regular season). I think Buttermore is a really good XnOs coach. For your coach to go from winless to a top-6 or top-5 season, I assume he knows what the hell he is doing, too. Especially what he has done with Norris, giving her more opportunities. I'm also thinking he is a good "culture" guy. Winless seasons can just totally gut the culture and locker-room. I'm surprised you guys aren't happy with taking Denver to 5 sets, but I guess that just shows you are a fanbase with high expectations. Nothing wrong with that, but I'd say enjoy the ride. This is a season to celebrate. And BTW, feel free to beat the Bison again. Thanks in advance.

If UND is able to get into the 6-team SLT after going winless last season.... I have to think that's Coach-of-the-Year territory. If a coach outside of the "big three" of USD, Omaha or Denver wins the regular season, like at NDSU or SDSU (who are surging right now), then I'd say it probably goes to them. Or if the Yotes win out after the loss at NDSU, our Coach Williamson might win it because of the 11-1 non-conference season. Barring all of that, I'd say it would be Coach Tupac's to lose. Either way, that would be huge for your program. As I've said before, I know our programs aren't "buddies" or anything, but UND has shown a lot of fan loyalty for your women's programs. And I respect that. And you don't wear blue, so that's good too. Would much rather have our girls play in full arenas all over the conference than empty ones. Even when Denver has been dominant, their fans just don't show up for WBB or VB. Having all or most of the "Dakota 4" be good in any sport is good for conference attendance typically.

Called it.

Just dropping in to say the Hawks seem to be showing some signs of life, which is pretty impressive given the circumstances of a new staff and lots of roster turnover. UND was predicted (by MasseyRatings.com) to win both opening matches, but not as handily as you did. I haven't followed your roster closely, but maybe the new coach is starting to solidify some things? Anyway, just wanted to congratulate you all on some incremental success. In my uneducated opinion, you guys look like the best candidate to move from the bottom to middle tier, and should be competing with KC and ORU for that 6th Tournament spot by the end of the season, if all goes well. I think KC is ripe to be upset. A 7th place finish would be progress for Coach Tupac, too. Would be positive momentum for next season. Good luck.

I wouldn't talk about players in the portal as if they are already gone. Some end up returning to their school. I don't know what the percentage is, but it happens. I mean, right now there are over 1,000 women in the transfer portal. That's something like 20% to 25% of all available D-1 Scholarships!

I know SF isn't Las Vegas, but the tournament itself is a lot of fun, especially if you can sit with and party with your own fans. Don't take my previous comments as scolding or anything. I want to see more green down here to help us drown out all the blue. Coyote fans have been upset with the exclusionary seating practices in the past, too. Mainly because the Jacks fans were on that train early and often. But now that things have opened up, opportunity-wise, we all need to get to the tournament to make it a little more representative of the conference. You will still always have a majority of blue fans, but that is just because they have taken the initiative. They have a lot of pride in their support of the tournament, and there's nothing wrong with that. We just need to get a little more balance in there to temper the enthusiasm, and calm down the blue-birds. I doubt we will ever get many fans from Denver, Western or KC, but that would be true anywhere. UND and NDSU (and Omaha) all have the potential to build up a contingent at the SLT, and I'm all for it. So come on down. I'll buy you a $9.00 Coors Light.

Those policies ended this year. Going forward everyone has an equal shot, and each school gets an allotment anyway. If you want to sit in the lower bowl, you have multiple opportunities to do so. If you want great seats, you have an opportunity to do so. (just get them when they are first released). I didn't have all-conference passes, but still sat in the lower bowl for every game. How? I just bought tickets the day of the game through USD. They bought unused allotment tickets from other schools. For one game I was standing in line at the box office to buy tickets when a Premier Center staff walked up to me (and everyone else in line) to hand out free lower bowl tickets from unused allotments. You want to level the playing field? Buy tickets. have your AD bus your student section down there, and promote the tickets with travel packages, or something. Host an alumni hospitality room. USD's AD has bent over backwards to get our fans there, and we are just finally seeing the results of it gradually over the last few years. I get it that Jacks and Yote fans don't have to travel far, so there is a convenience factor. But now that their exclusionary practices (like 2-year passes) are gone, what would be a better location to host? Minneapolis and Omaha don't care about the Summit. Having season champs host is fine for low-major conferences and non-revenue sports. I'd like to think we are better than that at this point.

I agree that the final margin was not indicative of the game. That was around a ten-point game until the end with all the intentional fouling for an extended period. Good game! UND should finish in that #3 or #4 spot, barring any strange occurrences. If that happens, Malory would get my (imaginary) vote for COY. I was pretty skeptical of the hire, thinking it was the easy button. or a decision based on economic$. Clearly she can both coach and recruit. Good luck. Hopefully the blowout by the Jacks, followed by the close game with the Yotes gives the rabbits a false sense of security... That was the plan, right?

Congrats on the surprising start to the season! I thought you guys might be improved (hard not to), but I certainly didn't predict you would be in the #3 spot at the halfway point of the conference season. For a while #3-9 was a real jumble, but I think it's clear you guys have earned that spot. Keep it up. When your women's teams are good, your fans actually show up, unlike most of this league. That helps grow the sport. You will be big underdogs going into the USD/SDSU games, but who knows? It's basketball. Stranger things have happened. Feel free to knock off the Jacks. Defense travels, so I wouldn't bet on a win in the Yotes game, but you could keep it interesting. Good Luck.

https://www.grandforksherald.com/sports/basketball/7002447-New-UND-womens-basketball-transfer-from-Texas-Tech-wants-to-give-it-one-more-go Didn't see anything on this in your forum or on the team twitter. Not a big deal, I guess?

Charlie Creme is basically ESPN's "Joe Lunardi" of WBB. Up until the loss to Omaha, he had the Jacks as a 6-seed for many weeks. The Monday bracketology moved them down to a #9-seed, but still easily in. USD has been listed as an at-large #10-seed for many weeks, and is now listed as a 10-seed AQ. Recently Creme wrote an article that basically said that if USD doesn't now win the SLT, the Summit would get 3 in. As insane as that sounds, Creme has been doing this for a while. Personally, I think we wouldn't survive a loss, but who knows? article: https://www.espn.com/womens-college-basketball/story/_/id/31025577/no-1-seeds-women-ncaa-basketball-tournament-set-questions-remain-rest-bracket bracketology: https://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/30423107/women-bracketology-brackets-all-shapes-sizes

No idea, but I can't think of a reason a new coach wouldn't want to have an extra senior player with her size and skills on the roster. She wouldn't be taking away a roster spot, weather she gets minutes or not. Unless she is some kind of bad-attitude diva (not likely), that's a no-brainer to me. Bummer the other two aren't staying.

As I understand it, all winter sports will get a one-time (one-season) waiver on the scholarship limits, but only for a team's current seniors that choose to stay and play an additional year at the current school. So for UND's women's team you have three seniors. If any of them decide to come back and play an additional season, UND would be able to increase the number of scholarships by up to three. for only next season. I watched the senior spotlight for your team at halfttime on Midco, and they were focusing on Fleecs and Reinke. Both were saying they would miss the team, so I guess either they are choosing not to come back, or UND isn't going to pay for additional scholarships? Also, what about Leet?