Hans8891

If we don’t have more than this, we will be lucky to win 2 games in the conference. We have zero team defensive skills. Not much for individual defensive skills. An offense that doesn’t generate anything. We have 5 assists so far. 30 percent shooting when we don’t turn it over - which is a third of our possessions. No shooters other than Trey. Ouch…. Finally a few minutes of pushing up the floor resulted in a couple good looks. Need that more - half court offense is nonexistent. CSU is good but we don’t look like we belong on the floor with them.

Struggling defensively down low as expected. I was hoping that we would look better offensively. Paul needs a different offensive look. Way too slow with limited movement. We don’t have BJ and Ihenacho this year to simply create on their own. Will likely need to be running this year or we will be in trouble relying on this half court offense. Some good athletes, but not much for shooters that I am seeing other than Treysen. Not a good recipe unless we can really create off the dribble. That hasn’t happened and we have way too many turnovers. 15 at the half has to be near a record. Eli seems timid. He is going to have to create for them to have success, especially if this is the offense we are going to continue to run

Maybe this is the catalyst to actual change in this program. If Chaves is really accepting of this as expectations for this program, he needs to find a new career. I am very happy with what Isaac has been able to do with his side of the ball. We lost our entire offensive line, had no idea what was going to happen with quarterbacks, and he made it happen for the most part with offense in a difficult situation for returning players. Our “defensive minded” head coach and his in program protege did not lose everyone in the portal but managed to give up more yards and points every week. By the end of the year, we should be able to give up 60 - and we will still be playing the same schemes. And the press conference after the loss will contain the same platitudes we have grown accustomed to. The notion of insanity has been defined as doing something over and over again and expecting different results. Welcome to UND football insanity.

There is your answer as to why they haven’t run the ball. Not much there. Other than a few drops, passing has been fine. When we haven’t gotten it, we have drawn a penalty. 2 running plays in a row there with no room at all. I would have rather seen a pass - those have been open plus give Simon an opportunity to run against a stacked box.

Somehow I suspect that even Bubba will recognize that we need a change at DC with the disaster we have seen the last two years, partially to take the heat off his own involvement in this debacle. If that happens - and it certainly should happen - for god’s sake, get someone other than the usual Bubba disciple on the defensive side of the ball. This needs an overhaul - badly….

Just when I thought our defense couldn’t look worse, our adjustments from halftime prove me wrong. Poor tacking, nobody sets the edge, no pressure on the quarterback, and in spite of not putting pressure on the quarterback to contain him, we can’t contain him either. Our schemes suck and our tackling is worse. We are returning to Mussman football where the offense looks good, but has to in order to offset the 40 points given up by the d every week. This d is just painful to watch. Again, against a very poor team on the road. Unless we have a miraculous change due to the Alerus, there is now way we give the South Dakota schools a game unless we just don’t punt for two weekends in a row.

Hands down the “4th down go for it in our own end with a lead” against the Bison. I just assumed in the stands we were trying to draw them off and call a timeout if they didn’t bite. Nope. I was wrong…. Even the biggest of Bubba fans were left scratching their heads in confusion on that decision.

This can’t really be a surprise to any of us. We have gone exactly as expected other than a very pleasant surprise with Montana. The O line has been better than expected with all of the transfers but a better program stacked the middle with no real threat downfield at quarterback. Not much we were going to do without showing any potential to back 10 off the box. Even going to the outside their corners sold out every time knowing there was no risk. Defensively their offense is just better than our defense. We got manhandled at the line. They do have a dual threat quarterback and he made plays. And it’s a road game that Bubba has never shown an ability to be ready for. Disappointing but definitely not a surprise. Need to find a way to unstuck the box against us or playing top level teams will not go well.

And the old Simon resurfaces…. Trying to find a bright spot as it is clear they are running with Simon no matter what throws he makes or doesn’t make…. But it is getting harder to do…

Simon with a great fake and nice throw. If we can keep this Simon, looks like a different team.

Bo was wide but it was still a good throw. We have had numerous open opportunities where Simon ends up 5 yards short, but that was in stride and a nice throw. The passing game has been hard to watch but that was a legit nice pass. Good work Simon. The coaches are clearly not going to change horses so hoping this will get him some rhythm and we can unstack the box a bit.

We also haven’t seen Simon look to run which is clearly his strong suit. If he is going to be the guy, he needs to make things happen with his legs to open up the short to mid passing game - . Deep pocket passing is clearly not his forte….

Every pass over 15 yards becomes a curl pattern. He needs an earlier release as I don’t think he has the arm to get it past the receiver if they get very far down field - but we have to get at least 15 or 20 down the field or we will have 10 in the box the rest of the year.

Dixon is out but we have gone 1-5 on the cb depth chart and nobody wants to cover anyone. Couple that with minus 1 passing yards and 7 rushing yards halfway through the first half against a team we are 4 touchdown favorites. There better be a royal ass chewing in the locker room at half. Nobody was ready to play,,,

Of the 5 incomplete, 2 should have been caught and were not Simon’s fault, one bad read to Bo with no chance, and 2 balls that were wide open and missed by 10 yards. Not sure what happened on those 2 but the rest have been okay other that a very bad read to Bo in short triple coverage.

Can simon really be that inconsistent on wide open short passes? Like his competitiveness but man he has to hit easy wide open passes and not miss by a mile…

That is exactly why Bo should not be our punt returner. Last thing we need is to lose Bo on a return we never intended to be returned anyway. Someone on a 100 man roster has to be able to catch a punt….

I disagree. Eli has shown that he has very good playmaking skills. He has very good vision for th open man. No question exists that Tyree was better suited for our half court offense where it was essentially whatever he could create without much offensive movement from anyone else. Tyree was good enough to make that happen against most teams. However even Tyree, as talented as he was, struggled against better defensive teams hen we were forced into our half court offense - i.e., Omaha, KC, St. Thomas, NDSU, and SDSU. We played better when we played with pace. Our half court offense was not our strong suit even with the athletic skills of BJ and Tyree. I hope that Paul will adapt a better offense to the tools we have and find a wat to get Trey some better looks. With a better offense with more movement not entirely reliant on the singular playmaking of one or two players, I think Eli can fill that role very well. He is an incredible defensive player. He and Tyreee both made some unbelievable passes at times off the drive. Certainly the addition of Tyree was huge for us. But we also had the emergence of Amer the second half of the year which was also a game changer. Don’t get me wrong. I wish like hell that BJ and Tyree were staying. I think we would have been the team to beat in the summit with those two,, but that is mid major basketball at this point. I cant blame them for taking the opportunities that present themselves. We will definitely have some holes to fill, but so will others in the summit. I like the pieces coming back if we can find a few key players to fill holes, particularly a 3 and a big man. I hope Kraft comes around next year, but we could certainly stand to add more shooting depth as well…. We do that, I think we can be in the hunt next year as well.

SDSU tried to do what we did. Took a 22 point lead with 6 minutes left, played clock management and didn’t score for 5 minutes. They actually gave up more of a lead than we did but had 22 to play with instead of 12. One reviewed call that was close could have given Denver the ball back with 30 seconds to play and down 5. Was an epic collapse. Another classic example of changing the game plan that got you the lead in the first place with way too much time left. Game should not have even been close. 20 plus point lead all game…

I think that is possible. I watched a lot of him at Red River. He and Reis Rowekamp got all of the attention from opposing teams and he still managed to get 20 to 30 points shooting a high percentage from outside. That came in a Red River offense that does nothing to get anyone looks other than what you create yourself. In the rare event he was truly wide open, you could pretty well count on it going in. He has a quick release and could get shots off in traffic, as well as hitting floaters off the dribble. The speed and physicality at this level is obviously different from high school, but if he catches up to that, I do think he can help us offensively. He had a lot of work to do on the defensive side of the ball in high school, but I am hearing the same thing as others - he has come along way in that regard as well. I don’t know how big a role he will have, but I expect he will see the court next year in some capacity, even if it just to come in occasionally as a zone wrecker.

I don’t disagree with the thoughts on Kraft. I will be very happy if he improves defensively enough to be a regular contributor. That will be a question mark. He has a pure stroke. What I do think he can do is provide some time off the bench when we need a shooting threat. Trey can fill it up. Tyree and BJ are great, but not consistent outside threats. We struggled against zones and match up zones that cut off penetration by BJ and Tyree. Eli came around nicely at the end of the year from the 3, but our next two answers were Brady and Elijah. I am very confident Kraft’s shooting will eclipse that by miles. How well the rest of his game will translate remains to be seen.

If everyone comes back, we will have a great nucleus to build around. Kraft will add to our 3 point shooting ability. He is a better 3 point shooter than anyone we have put on the floor in a long time and has a quick release. He will have to make the adjustment to speed and physicality and show he can play d at this level, but should be a nice compliment to our already very good guard rotation. We need one or two bigs that can step in. Amer has been a great find, but need one or two others that are game ready. My hope is that Paul will revise the offense in the off-season to find a way to get looks to Eaglestaff and Kraft outside with some off ball movement rather than just rely on whatever Tyree, Eli, and BJ can create off the dribble. Getting some quicker reversals would help with the outside looks and should open up the lanes for our slashers as well. Against aggressive d overplaying wing passes, we settled for non-existent movement and poor shots at the end of the shot clock far too often, i.e., the Kansas City, St. Thomas, and NDSU losses.

Schiller will be a great addition and may well be a Kacie type player. Pemberton is likely to develop into a very solid player as well. Ibrahim has potential. Hurst can score but has to at least attempt to play some defense - which has not happened so far. I still think Beal has real potential. Her athleticism is off the charts if we can put her in the right role. After that, we need to recruit length, speed, and 3 point shooting badly. Those are necessary adds if we want to get to the next level. Right now, we are too small and too slow. Usually, that equates to good shooting, but we don’t have that either. On the other hand, if we actually had an offense that creates open looks, our shooting would likely improve. Mal needs to abandon whatever that shitshow she has now in favor of a real offense that creates something more than letting two players go one on four. Kacie made things happen on raw talent, but certainly not from anything the offense gave her. Nobody else could generate much of anything except 20 plus turnovers a game. Next, Mal needs to learn how to coach team defense skills and what to do on switches. The number of defensive screwups this year was nothing short of embarrassing. It was no fluke that other teams saw triple digits against us way too many times in one season. Mal was part of a. Roebuck coached program that knew how to win games. She needs to go back to the basics of how that was done if she wants to continue in this position. If next year looks like this year did, we will be lucky to have 30 fans at a game. I am still hopeful she has it in her, but this year was an absolute disaster to watch.

King had a tough charge. However, for the last 3 minutes we had no penetration from anyone else. He was at least trying to create something instead of just wasting clock. We sat around outside and allowed them to force us to the perimeter and take shots at the end of the shot clock that we really didn’t want to take. Played not to lose instead of playing to win. Classic coaching mistake with a lead. Worry more about the shot clock than the opportunity to score. We didn’t score in the last 2 1/2 minutes as a result. That and a few lucky breaks on rebounds and that was the game. Credit Fidler. He made huge shots down the stretch when he needed to. We did not do a good job of getting the right defenders on him in the last 5 minutes, but they had a lot to do with that as well…. That was our game to finish out. We just didn’t do it. Unfortunate because I think the tournament was shaping up nicely for us. I had way more concerns with KC than Denver, but we will never know now….

Omaha definitely playing like they need the win more than we do Beating us to every loose puck right now. Even on our power play they beat us to pucks in the corner every time…