Hans8891

I think we are nearly unanimous in questioning the 3 passes from the 2 yard line and not going under center when we only needed 3 inches on 4th down. I can’t understand what Issac was thinking on those. It just makes no sense to me. The remainder of the game, it is easy to be an armchair quarterback when one thing doesnt work, but those were the only plays that I can honestly say left me scratching my head in bewilderment. At some point, the players have to make plays. People on this blog have short memories. 3 weeks ago there was mention of Jerry as a Harlen Hill and even Heisman candidate (albeit not realistic). He has not played his best games the past two weeks. Underthrown balls, not seeing the open receiver, and not putting it in places that only the receiver can get to. He has had some really good throws too, but not consistently enough yet to be an elite QB that we can count on to put the game on his shoulders to win. He has had 4 opportunities to do that and has folded in each one of them. I think he will get there but he is a first year starting quarterback. He makes first year mistakes when the game is on the line. The defense was incredible yesterday. The offense was not, but lets be realistic about the offense too.. Like it or not, NDSU is the number one team in the country for a reason. The only team that has really put any points and yards on them was Beau Brunsgard and Youngstown, who is a formidable threat. Illinois state got 300 yards on them. South Dakota did as well, but only because they got 10 points in the 4th quarter with 3rd and 4th string defense down 44-3. Other than that, NDSU has hardly given up 150 yards to most teams all year. They are a legitimate defense that does not give up yards easily. We left some yards and points on them board to be sure, but their defense had something to do with it as well. I hard an NDSU fan on the way out the door telling his buddies how bad their offense was,. That is equally stupid. It clearly had something to do with our defense and not just their offensive ineptitude. We need to take care of business the next two weeks and we will be in the playoffs and are capable of making a run. We just need to keep making progress and hopefully Jerry will learn with experience and be able to take that next step. When he does, look out.

Smith is going to struggle with strength on d, but he has a wicked fast first step to the lane. He has left people in the dust several times in the last couple of minutes.

Our young guards show some promise offensively but are going to need a lot of work defensively. We play matador defense on vertical penetration. Defensively Eli can’t leave the floor or we are in trouble. Shooting has been very poor but getting open looks. Just not falling. Shooting 36 percent. Jones has gone strong on the inside which is encouraging. Kraft so far is the only one who has hit a 3.

Today was definitely not our best effort. We can argue with play calling here and there but this game was lost on turnovers and bad penalties. It was not Jerry’s best day without question. He had all kinds of opportunities that he didn’t connect with and the god awful throw away floater that cost us at the end of the half will likely give him nightmares for a while. Until now he has been very good. I have every belief he will come back and play better next week. We had some very poor tackling and angles we haven’t seen much of this year. It happens. We went from being an unknown before the season to a genuine contender. Back away from the ledge. Schmitty will get them ready to go. It will require an exceptional game to get a win over the Bison. As much as it pains me to say it, they are very good. But it is at home in the Alerus and not out of reach. The other two are very winnable games. Need to get a big and loud crowd next week and not let anyone hear a word Payton says and not just on 3rd down…

This team looks way better this year. Anyone thinking the d this year looked like last year clearly didn’t go to any games particularly the last half of the year. I still think we are on the right trajectory. Now we need to learn to finish. We had 2 good teams on the ropes but couldn’t finish. We have 4 games to figure that out and then see what we can do with the other Dakota schools…. Hate to not win games we have in hand but there is clearly progress occurring….

Should have put it away early, but good god with the calls in the last 4 minutes. Bailed out twice with pi calls on Grant that were iffy to say the least and then that last mugging with no call. Big sky officiating lived up to its reputation.

I only watched Ouse in the state tournament, but he has skills and length that will make him an offensive asset. He can shoot outside, he has reasonable ball handling skills, can hit the floater and pull-up jumper, or get to the rim - plus a lot of length. He will definitely need to hit the weight room, but if he works hard, he is long and could be a matchup issue. More of a Grant Nelson type that could beat 4 or 5 type guys off the dribble from outside. Like most North Dakota players, it will be a significant jump in physicality and learning to play defense at the D1 level, but he moves well and has good ball control for a 6’9 kid. I like his potential.

Ok. We officially prove we don’t belong in the championship. We can blame Sather all we want, but your players have to not throw away the ball everytime they come down the court - even when unforced. This is ridiculous….

We should not have Trey playing point this much,. 9 turnovers now. They are well coached and know they need to use smaller guys up in his grill to prevent the crossover and we can’t figure it out. Take their shorter asses down on the block and go to work. We are not a good enough 3 point shooting team to live there, especially when they are overplaying the perimeter. Granted, they naven’t missed the last 67 possessions even when the defense hasn’t been bad, but our ofefense in the second half has been non-existent…….again…..

Need to take advantage of our length and athleticism tonight. They are well coached and will overplay the perimeter with help on Trey. Need to get Eli, Meier, and Mara going early to the hole and using our length and athleticism tonight to open some room for Trey. We have length mismatches. Plus we need to do a better job switching on perimeter and talking on picks. They move well and look for the open man. We play smart there is no reason we can’t win this thing…

I wonder what the time differential would be in how much time DU had control of the puck versus UND. 36 minutes to 4??? We have no puck control whatsoever? Dump and chase everything - including out of our own zone…. Berry apparently doesn’t believe in actually trying to complete a tape to tape pass. Every game….

There was discussion of many of the issues being raised. With respect to cost, it is not common to have tailgating prices close to regular parking costs. They are usually at a premium. Sometimes a very steep premium. What we have just doesn’t happen anywhere else. There are added costs to tailgating with bathrooms, patrol, cleanup, etc. it did go up from 60 to 100 bucks per spot - and yes, it is per spot. However parking also rose from 5 to 10 to now 15 per spot per game. Do the math. If we make home playoffs (and I believe with Schmitty we will), it is cheaper to have a tailgate spot than pay parking for each game. That is not realistic. there was also discussions of other things that make tailgating exciting like bands, fireworks, etc. those all cost money to create. Raising it to 100 per game per spot is idiotic and would kill it. But I do expect it will go up some over the next few years - and I think it realistically should. I am a tailgater that has 5 spots that will be affected but understand it is the right decision. you are correct that some who bring cars are part of a group and tailgate elsewhere. That is part of the balancing they are trying to evaluate. When the players and recruits come through, they want that to generate excitement. In the portal world, you recruit new players but you continue to recruit the ones you have. Some of that is the vitality they get from the atmosphere created. there was discussion of students and the mess associated. It was noted that this was one of the first years in a long time that students stayed past halftime. We want students there - period. That is part of creating that atmosphere. If that means we all have to take a step back and remember what we were like in college and not through the rose colored glasses of “we never did that”, then that is what we need to do. It is amazing to me how many of my rowdiest college friends forget what they were like in college. They always encourage students to use the garbages. Unfortunately that does not work very well. I for one will accept the trade off if we get kids to games and they stay and help the game day atmosphere we want in the Alerus.

Good grief people. They invited existing tailgate spot holders based on the forms we all fill out for tailgating spots. I did go. It was a good meeting. They sought input on how we could improve the tailgating experience, including discussing a survey sent out to the same group. It included exciting things like port-a potties and garbage can availability. They asked about ways to improve the vitality in the tailgating area. Some in the tailgate area just use it as a space to park, which does not improve the tailgating experience and they would like to figure out how to address that without getting into issues with long time ticket and tailgate holders. They would like to see less spots just used for cars, especially in the area of the hawk walk and the spaces up front where they would love to see an active and populated area for tailgating. They talked about how people liked the fireworks, live bands, other extras that people liked or don’t like. How to keep people from going into the active areas less than 2 hours before game time when the area is crowded and cars don’t work very well to get through - and technically are a violation of the tailgating rules we all sign up for. There was discussion about how many hours before the game people would like to be able to get in and we talked about extending the time after games to be able to stay and enjoy the atmosphere. We talked about the fact that tailgating costs would likely go up since right now it isn’t any more expensive to have a tailgate spot than it is to park for 6 games - $90 v $100 per season - and even less if we have home playoffs. There is a waiting list for tailgate spots right now. They talked about preferences for game times, with strong opinions that we would like to have another night game and not noon games if possible - prefer 2Pm games or later for tailgating purposes. There is no overlap next year between home football games and hockey games. That is the report on the meeting. It was a good discussion, but not overly well attended. There were a few tailgating regulars there, but not a ton. Schmitt stopped by and thanked the group, but overall it was an informational and brainstorming session.

He had the ball knocked out of his hands with no time left and heaved a turn around 3 that was nothing but net. We just can’t catch a break.

We still need better offensive movement and not get lulled into one on three dribble mode, but we did play better defensively and not give up wide open 3’s all night like we have a tendency to do. We had the one stretch where we had Woodson, Deng, Kraft, and Reggie on the floor at the same time. That is not a lineup we want on the floor together. Need to recognize you need some defensive team players on the floor at all times. Went from a lead to 5 point dogs in no time in that stretch. We had a good shot against the top team in the conference in their barn. Their game winner was a prayer - unfortunately that prayer went in…