Hans8891

Kelly Armstrong is not an NDSU guy. As Governor, he will need to support both, but Kelly is definitely a UND grad and UND guy.

The other problem is that conference teams know our nonexistent half court offense. They put a fast little guy on Trey to take away his crossover and double him. We don’t adjust and he has 4 points on free throws for the half. Meanwhile all but one of our players have a 4 to 6 inch advantage across the board and we opt to shoot 3’s at a 20 percent clip. Finally with 6 minutes left in the game we make the adjustment to go inside and score - which we did - just 90 percent of the way through the game before we recognized the glaring mismatches that should have been easy to see. Credit St. Thomas. They play aggressively, overplaying everything. The way to beat that is fakes, back doors, and rotation - none of which we do. I still think there is some talent there but Paul really needs to make some changes to his schemes…

Kraft had way too many matador defensive series today but to isolate him from the rest of that defensive effort is patently unfair. We don’t know how to play good team defense. We don’t talk. We don’t rotate. We don’t know what to do on picks. We end up with Reggie on their big guy down low and don’t know how to correct that. 2 passes and we have someone left wide open for 3. When everyone shoots lights out against us, maybe we need to do something different. Teaching and getting buy in on team defense should not be this difficult.

Of 14 games, 8 have 20 or more turnovers, 6 have 20 or more, and unbelievably 4 have 28 or more. I didn’t think that was even possible. These kids are better than what we are seeing on the floor. This program needs a serious coaching overhaul.

That game was outstanding. Fun atmosphere and we played with fire and purpose. Do that in the summit and we can be contenders. We created tonight on offense against a very talented team. Such a difference when we move with and without the ball. Can’t wait to see if we keep this going…

It is really hard to believe where Mal has taken this once proud program. Gene Roebuck would have broken 5 clipboards by now. Of course if Gene were here, we would never look like this either. Dribble through zone press - turnover. Hold the ball forever and not recognize they are playing zone - bad shot or turnover. No defense. No fire other than Schiller. We are on course to surpass our own turnover record of 28. Likely going to beat it tonight. It is getting really hard to talk myself into going to watch these. Clearly time for a change…

Paul needs to tell these guys it’s ok to pass without holding it or dribbling for 5 seconds every time they touch the ball. No flow or movement whatsoever. Scrap that offense and try something different. Not a coincidence that our shooting is miserable year after year. Ball movement equals open looks equals better shooting. Not that complicated…. I still think there is more there than we are seeing but that offense is atrocious and has been year after year. The only way it works is if you have 2 lights out slashers as everyone else stands around and watches. We don’t have that. They had 9 blocks against us tonight.

They are definitely hoping to have Kraft step up in the 3 point shooting category. We just won a game shooting 43 percent from the field, 21 percent from 3, and 69 percent from the charity stripe when the opponent shot 53, 35, and 86 percent. Fortunately, we killed them on the board because that stat line normally will not result in a win. We have had 5 games around 20 percent from the 3 point line. That just can’t happen, especially when we are generally taking 20 to 30 of them. The Cancun debacle aside, I don’t mind the way we are playing at all, but we have to find some shooting. Yesterday, Weber held Trey everywhere (without getting any calls, literally having fistfuls of his jersey as he came through the lane). If we don’t find some other shooting, Trey is going to get doubled everywhere by everyone. We have to show there is another shooting threat on the floor. Panoam and Eli did a nice job of getting to the hole and finding the double and kicking, but we just have a hard time dropping an outside shot even when open. I loved seeing Eli and Panoam take another step, however, and penetrate hard, which they both can do very well. If we can improve our outside shooting, this team has some real potential. They are going to give up some points inside as we don’t have much rim protection or beef to prevent inside scoring. Matthew’s has the size, but is a problem if we have to switch. They are playing much better together than what we have seen the past few years and that is fun to see.

Totally agree. Mal still doesn’t get when to substitute and when to call a time out. Blow a 20 point lead and wait until it is damn near tied before finally recognizing there is a problem and calling time out. Plus not seeing what is going on on the court. Played well in the first half. They go zone and we continue to play an offense designed for man that allows them to sit in one spot and watch us hand it off 32 times at the top of the key with no accomplishment. Finally switched to get the ball in the middle but way too late. Stopped the ball movement that got us the lead in the first place. In subbing, she seems to have her subs set by time - somebody hits 3 in a row or makes great defensive plays? Doesn’t matter because the preconceived game plan says sit. For Gods sake, keep the hot hand in the game and get her the ball.

It doesn’t seem that long ago when everyone was talking about needing someone young and hungry that wants to bring the fire and win. That is actually Isaac, which is why the players are all in on him. He has made it clear with the players already that there are changes coming and the level of intensity and aggression needs to get ramped up and ramped up hard. It is that kind of intensity that makes me want to give him a shot. I’m not all that interested in bringing in a 50 to 60 year old coach at his last stop in a career mostly developed prior to the addition of the portal and NIL money. My hope is that we get someone in place that understands the reality of present day college football and is so damn good we are having to look again in a few years. At our level, that tells us we have had success in getting the right coach and will need to keep repeating the process the more success the program has. While I get the experience level at head coach is lacking, he does have perspective from both the FBS and NFL level and not just whatever we have done at UND for the last 30 years. I also get that he was part of a staff that did not have the success we wanted globally this year, but he managed to take an offense with an entirely decimated and inexperienced offensive line and a rookie quarterback with a whole lot lot of limitations and still put an impressive number of points on the board. The problem this year was not the offense. Talk to the players. Isaac has the fire and determination to win and won’t be scared to make the changes needed to make that happen. I really hope he gets a shot.

I am guessing Bubba is well aware of the fact that nearly the entire fan base is calling for him to be done. Even the football 360 crew, which used to include his brother, has run out of good things to say and are calling for change. His quote is an emotional reaction, albeit not a very smart one, to the pressure he obviously knows is there - and is warranted. There are a lot of things to say about his coaching (which has been said over and over in this blog and which I think is generally accurate) but to say he doesn’t care about his players is not right. The players will tell you that. The problem is he does not recognize his own shortcomings in coaching at this level and changing to a more modern brand of football. At his core, Bubba would still prefer the old 3 yards and a cloud of dust 1970s football he advertised when he first came - and a defensive scheme to stop that which nobody runs anymore. Couple that with an inability to recruit players with body types to play that scheme and here we are. I would love to see Bubba do some soul searching and decide for the sake of his players and the University that he should resign and go to the alumni office. Retire on his own terms rather than have his own personal legacy being canned after a 4 or 5 win season next year. In spite of all of the negativity surrounding Bubba, some of which has been consistently by me, he did help bring us out of the Mussman years. There was improvement in the program and the culture. Unfortunately that improvement had and continues to have a very low ceiling. It is time to move on and I would love to be able to thank Bubba for his contributions to the program as he makes a decision best for himself AND the program and resigns on his own terms. For all his coaching flaws, I continue to believe Bubba is a good guy - just not the right guy for this program. That may be a pipe dream but I am still holding out hope for now…

That is the defensive scheme we want on 4th and 2. Make sure our entire secondary is damn near in prevent defense. Is anyone actually coaching this team????

Nice play Navratil to create a turnover. Good for him in his last game as well.

Glad to see Bo and Quincy getting some looks today. Without all of the PI penalties, Bo would already have 60 plus yards. Would love to see both of those buys get at least one more TD pass in their last game in a UND jersey..

Actually it was a good call. Their entire secondary was about 2 to 3 yards off the line of scrimmage and Bo 1 on 1. They have no respect for our passing game. Have to take advantage of that. Stacking 11 guys against us is not a good recipe to run up the middle.