ND-fan

Mallory said we have couple commits then we have at least one more leaving the team because I think we only had 3 in the last year eligibility and then we had Jardine transfer for the fourth opening and we already have 3 signed leaving one. It will be interesting who they will be signing and if they will all be high school recruits. If that is the case we will be going traditional route women’s basketball but on the men’s side we will be going more the judo or transfer portal route based on Sather response if your going compete in conference takes experienced players to win. This is what he saw in the Summit tournament. Is there that much difference in winning programs mens and women’s basketball.

I agree with your assessment of the team and what is needed to get better. The question is what you do with Hurst she has some offense talent but if she doesn't improve on defense I don't see where you can play her because whatever positives she has on offense is given back on defense. The other question I have Cottingham didn't dress for the last game was their reason for not dressing. also, your comment on attendance is worth mentioning we were still fourth in Summit in attendance but how long can we go and not erode that attendance. Finally, I see on the men's side Coyote fan called UND'S presence of not having band and cheering squad not up to standards show lack of support from UND Administration. I was not there but maybe people who attended if there are any grounds to this comment. I have my own personal feelings on UND administration over years and how various sports have been handled and supported but I choose to not go there.

The first correction I think they need is to fix roster construction for the team. They need to lay down a plan on type of player they are looking for to play the type of game they want to play. This means even if they find talented player a lot of athletic abilities that may develop into good player if that player will not fit into type of play and have talent and physical skill to play that game then they need to pass. The present roster seems a mess in that they have recruited players on athletic ability only and not if they would fit into roster play certain role and if they are willing to be coached developed into that role. The second correction what type of game are they going to play and then develop offense and defense that can be successful with that style of play. Then if we have above players who are expected to play that game is to get players as team playing and executing fundamentals to be successful and to win with this plan. We have played too much of couple star players we build our offense around instead of offensive strategy where we play as team and take what the opposition will give us in our team format, but this doesn't mean we won't have star players, but we are going to win with team concept.

The Season has ended in big step backwards from last year. The team dropped from 19 wins to 9 wins and ending season with 6 place finish. We were last in so many statistics for the Summit in following scoring margin,3pt. percentage, last turnover margin, assist / turnover margin, and last in assists. In most of stats for the conference we were 6 or worse. The only positive we were better in totals for rebounding but again margin of rebounds to opponents were 6th. Then we are losing Kacie Borowicz who accounted for 29% of our scoring and Sammiyah Hoskins who was solid player that provided us rebounding. The question for coming year who will step-up and provide leadership for this team. We have Pemberton and Hurst our next leading scorers who will be returning. We have 3 recruits coming in Schiller, Mathern, and Volmer with one scholarship yet to fill. We will need to develop our young players and improve on our fundamentals to turn this ship around for the coming year.

All we need now is for the hockey team loose playoff game they should win now going forth in the playoffs. I hate to say it, but this is going to be very disappointing year lost playoff game in football, come out of Summit tournament 0-2 for basketball, and way this year is going same thing for hockey. This year so far, we only have had men's basketball and hockey with winning records and now with the basketball team losing in opening round of the Summit tournament it has turned in to losing season. The remaining sports except hockey our records look like were going to be in the bottom of the conference. I long for the days when UND was top conference in basketball, football, and hockey and had some success in other sports.

yes Kacie has had great career at UND. Also I want to give thank you for Sammiyah Hoskins for her play at North Dakota and coming back for 5 year also.

The season been over for long time since we lost to St. Thomas in January since then we have lost to all the teams above us and margins of loss have grown in each of the second meetings. Mallory needs to look where we are at this roster is a mess we don't have enough of the players that can challenge to compete in the Summit. Looks like we will see some transfers right away after the game i didn't see Cottingham on the bench.

Come on these are type of players were trying to get here if we don't get talent we will never improve. Second, it's hard-to-get talent and don' t be so negative you can criticize but if you're that unhappy find team you want to be a fan of. I have been critical of Mallory and some of the players but when they are playing, I'm wanting the best for the team.

I was just thinking about the above comment that Jardine has transferred since December but it hasn’t shown up until I mentioned she had transferred. It shows that athletic department is not paying attention to details it small detail but it’s detail and I wonder if this happens in other areas and if that is case if this happening more wide scale than we can see is this part of the problem. In business little details often affects the bottom line for your business. This starts at the top and if your manager in business you need information to be current and correct to determine how each of things are performing. The point I am trying to make it reflects on the AD and somewhat on the coach. It also reflects on media if they knew of the information why wasn’t there question on this and this something we can see as the public how many other things are buried on the program. I think this is also needed to force Athletic Department and coaches to at least let people know we are following what’s happening.and making them what’s being done or why they are where they are. I believe questioning of coaches and AD keeps them to justifying and explaining what they are doing and it probability makes them question themselves and work harder to prove they are right. I can of many reasons this is not happening at least to the public and many of you may know more but I think it’s wrong.

I assume UND hasn't updated her on their website, and she wouldn't be on Western Colorado roster till next year, she is recruit for the coming year. This will give UND another roster spot and we will see how Mallory fills this spot.

I see that Darcy Jardine is in the transfer portal and is transferring to Western Colorado University a division II school. This is where Erica Lane is also now playing at.

Yes, roster is mess because we had team with 6 freshmen with most not reporting until school started, then we had sophomore class with that we were putting all are hope in they were ready to play and compete this year. This has not been the case there are many reasons and here are my observations. Then looking at that class only one that had any extensive minutes last year was Hurst who looked like she could score. This was pretty much right but with cost of her not even close to be ready to play defense and most of time in foul trouble. Beal was next figured into getting significant minutes but looking back she only played 9 minutes a game year before, and she had struggled to find her offense but has tremendous amount of athletic ability but hasn't master it yet. I believe she needed to be put in position where she could succeed on the offensive side of her game. This hasn't happened so she again only got limited playing time. Vanderwall is next she has shown flashes good play but if she matched up on mobile center she is gets beat on defense. Again, another player we had no offense that could put her position to succeed with her talents. The defensive side of the game if we played zone like Mayville state used where they had their center play the middle and others played matchup zone, I believe Vanderwal could played and been effective enough to stayed out there and would have been rebounding presence. Aumer expected to play but hardly got any playing time last year only seeing 3 minutes a game last year but expected to produce from get go. She started slow but did play better and did get starts toward the end because of her hard work. Jardine not even close to contributing. Then we have no Juniors last one transferred late in the summer. Then we have what I call the Senior class Kacie being expected to carry the load and did very good job, but it would have been much better season if she could have more support around her. Hoskins again playing out position held her own but i think she was worn down both physically and mentally from this season. Davis brought in play defense but had to play additional minutes becoming liability on the offensive side of the ball. Finally, we have Oberg who I believe was hurt for the first half of the season but did play role she was brought in last half of the season. Mallory should have seen this coming after we finished last season and should have been looking into the portal to find at least two players to go with Kacie that could have started right away for us. We would have had two less freshmen recruits but starting 5 could built around develop some of these players. This is why we are now losing games by 40 to 50 points and have team now that is no better shape if not in worse shape to start next season. I don't see how we fix this unless we have more roster turn over again coming after the season. But what I am afraid of happening we will lose the players we could build around in the future. I am disappointed in Mallory I thought she was more on top of the program but this from my point of view she was not ready to coach at this level but i believe she could become good coach, but it may not be this go around.

I would like to say the Canadian girls we have recruited if would look where we are located, we should be recruiting into Canada we have done it for years for hockey and football. Ibrahim is from Winnipeg only little over 100 miles from us. Horne is from Regina Saskatchewan about 450 miles, Vanderwal is Strathroy, Ontario which is quite distant, but Ontario is big Province next to us, Owen is from Quebec, but she was playing in Nebraska, and Finally Pemberton who is from British Columbia but is type of player I believe we should be recruiting she 6 feet and quick she was playing right away as freshman. The fact is North Dakota only has so many division athletes and number of top players in the state have been recruited to larger schools from out of state in recent years. Even NDSU has only one girl on the team from North Dakota she from West Fargo a hometown girl. The real stars on their team are from Iowa and Illinois both long distance from Fargo. Number of their players are from Twin Cities but here again this has been hot spot for recruiting number of girls are going all over the nation as well as the Summit recruits Minnesota hard. NDSU has girls from Australia and Oregon, so they are recruiting big area also to find talent. The premise that it should be large number of girls from North Dakota is not feasible with size of our state and how big division I schools now recruit even in North Dakota especially when most of players that go division I come from AAU traveling teams that coaches follow religiously to find talent. The biggest thing that will help recruiting and getting some more local talent we need to start winning that attracts good players and also gives leg up because everyone wants to be winning program. The recruits from Canada are for the most part is the type of players we should be looking. They fit into modern plan they are either tall or quick or both, but they did start behind because of not getting here sooner for practice last summer. I believe it would be great to be able to recruit locally to fill our needs but that is not possible if we are going to be competitive in Division I basketball.

Zander struggled at this level when she was here and the reason for it is average player in division I is taller and bit quicker and that had impact on her performance. Now she at division II probably better fit for her and she closer to home and she has regained her confidence playing basketball. That has been the problem with UND we have been recruiting players that are in between they can play division I basketball but they are bit undersized, need work on their skills to play at this level, or just play certain roles for us. Now look at SDSU and now NdSU look at their rosters their players they are taller or quick players that can shoot and create their own offense. Second they are bought into playing team offense and defense. Now we have several players I believe that fit into that profile like Pemberton, Horne, Ibrahim, Beal, and there may be couple others hard to know because haven’t seen much of what they can do. The rest of players there are several that could fill roles on this team. The problem is the above mentioned needed work and time to get to becoming starters and all of them except Beal we’re Freshman not ideal situation to be in. Then we had Kacie elite player and Hoskins who was playing out of position playing with her not ideal position for building a team. Then we add in we didn’t coach improve fundamentals and got away from team concept of playing defense and offense. Then look at new class we have probably girls with potential but need time to develop. We needed players that are ready to play right away either as elite freshman or transfer player that can contribute right away as the above players develop. We need to be looking for players that are tall and quick ready to play by end of their freshman season instead of always trying to develop a player that may become a diamond.

This team was picked fourth behind SDSU, Bison, and USD. With ORU and St. Thomas behind us. Also, we were expected to win 20 games, so we are far from what was expected last October. Also, it was mentioned Reaching the Summit website they were surprised with only two-year extension for Mallory. This leads me to believe the AD had some questions on her coaching and they wanted more time to see if she was going to meet expectations. I think Mallory can coach at this level, but question is how long is going to take before she is ready, or does she need to go back learn more as assistant and at another program. She maybe should be looking for higher DI assistant position and start working her way up that way keep a clean resume for the future.

I agree we are not near the top of the conference but right now the difference for us being 6 in the conference and us being fourth in the conference is obtainable if we were getting performance out our existing players. Matter of fact we should be close to the third-place team in conference (ORU) with a chance of beating them. Then the top two in conference we should be able to hold them under 100 and be within 20 points on average night not 40 to 50 points behind. I believe with the proper coaching number of these players would be significantly better than they are playing at now. I think we have several players on this team now that could become all conference players if coached right and played in system where their skill could be utilized. Several players on this team I have no idea what type of player we have. Then there are several players I think should be encouraged to play elsewhere at lower level because they don't have future in Division I basketball. What I am afraid the players I hope stay are likely the ones that will transfer out and we will be left with the ones that should of left. Mallory is going to have to grow as coach this next year and if I was her, I would go to Roebuck and just go to him and get his opinion and get any suggestions he has turn this program around. She needs to be brutally honest with herself and needs to make changes even if she has to let people go both on the team as well as coaches. Second, she is going to have to sit down with her coaches plan how they are going to fix this program and then meet with players see if they are going to buy into whatever changes are needed and how these players will need to work on to get to the goal she has for this team. I would go as far as getting outside look from somebody else on what needs to be changed to turn this program around. My thought is they need to identify exactly type of player there looking for and if they are going to be player that can play shortly for this program and become major contributor. Jory Collins seemed to have done this and he has significant turnover in players to get to this point where they are at now. This program is fixable and for women's basketball there are number of things are in place to make this program a winning program one of the top programs in the Summit.

Sioux 100 my posts upset you, but I view my posts on perfect English is not primary worry, but to get my thoughts out there in limited amount of space because I have rather long posts and I don't want them consuming any more space. This blog/forum is medium to just get your thoughts and ideas out there for people to evaluate not formal paper. I am sorry it bothers you, but it is what is.

I think we have DI talent on this team but they have been failed by coaching staff this year you can see it pretty much in all phases of our game. This group of young players have not been coached in the fundamentals of basketball it shows when we play teams above us. We don’t play as a team it shows in our defensive play with lack of rotation and switching to cover players. The top three teams in conference scored 100 against in final games of the season. Mallory has talked playing team defense but we haven’t been able to do this. Second we haven’t had any offense that involved team scoring concept and we relied on Kacie and then Kiaha Hurst to provide offense and then Pemberton to create offense from her rebounding or fast break points. The worst part is this was acknowledged when we played Bison when she was interviewed. I was very disappointed in this comment because I believe this some of our problem we believe in star system but top teams are working to get balanced scoring from their teams. The next is we have recruited players with some great athletic abilities but if anything these players have gone backward. this team did not improve much over the season and puts us into where do we stand going into next year. Also we’re losing Kacie for next year and I don’t think we can pencil in any players beyond Pemberton as probable starter. Hurst has to much baggage to account on for us to improve on. She does’t play defense and her offense mind of her getting her offense doesn’t make for team concept. Then we have freshman group Horne, Cottingham,Owen and Ibrahim will need more time to develop into starters. Beal has the tools to start but we have not developed her tools where she is ready to start and be counted on to start next year. I think her offensive confidence is all but gone and she has forgotten to be offensive minded when she has advantage. I could go on others but each them can have roles on this team. I believe if we get any openings we need to look to the portal find some talent ready to play and start. The year after that we need to find some players with length and can play as freshmen. I don’t see Mallory fixing this all next year but we better seem some big moves forward in the development of this program. That starts immediately after next weeks loss which is going occur like clock work and I feel for Kacie and other senior players leaving this team. This year is pretty much lost year and two steps backward for the program.

I agree with you 100% on your comments about the team. I thought getting Bledsoe and one of the other coaches new to the program would have brought about some improvement in the offense of the team. Mallory offense is pushing the ball up creating something off the push but if other teams get back make them go to set offense, we then seem to have no offense to create good shot either inside or outside. I believe that is why Kacie had so many passing turnovers this year because of our lack of movement in our offense and not having offense they can do some reversals to get some openings in the defense. Then playing defense has not been there but with Hurst not playing defense when she is out there to be fair to some of the other players it's like playing 5 on 4 for defense. Also, when you play this many players as Mallory have you don't get players getting used to each other and playing as team. It's funny two top teams in Summit both have lost players this season to injury or leaving but play best team basketball the same with our men's team they have pretty much settled into 7-man rotation with occasional 8 man to fill in if one guard positions get into foul trouble and then again if Bigs get into foul trouble. I believe next year is critical for Mallory. She is going to have to show significant improvement in the program to where we are closing the gap with top teams of the Summit because now these are her players entering her fourth season. The end of next season i believe she will only have one year left on her contract, so AD is going to have decide what to do with her and what is best for the program.

NDSU has reached the level of South Dakota State, and we are now just above the bottom of the league group. The funny part of today's game is that it was one of our better games offensively especially with Kacie's performance. Also think we got to see that Ibrahim is going to become good player for us on inside she is long and moves well. She fits what teams are looking for now in four and five positions. Pemberton is also going to be good player and she is tall enough to play up to four spot but she fits 2 or 3 spots. Hurst can become star, but she is going to need to work on her defense and quickness because if she can't becomes too much of liability when she on the court. I think Horne has future on team but needs off season on working on different fundamentals and developing her talents to play at division I level. Aumer is type player all teams need leader in showing hustle and putting it all out on the floor. The rest of team I don't know how they are going perform and if another year development could change our perceptions of them as players all of them are still young players. The new recruits coming look like have potential but i have my doubts if they can play and make immediate impact right away in their freshman season. The last recruits we had like that was Freije and Klabo. If we do end up with open roster spots, I sure would like us to look to transfer portal see if we could find couple players that could give us some more length and could play immediately and let this young group learn and develop some more.

That is likely to happen that I agree with I see no way does UND can compete with NDSU for full game as we stand. I think the game could go like this we play with them for five to 10 minutes and then we go for five to 10 minutes of hardly scoring and fall behind by 20 points by end of the half. Then get further blown out in the third quarter until the fourth where we bring it back to near 25 points. The other we stay with them to half and loose big time in the second half when they make adjustments, and we try to play same type of game we normally play. I just don't see any way to compete with them for forty minutes unless we play different game than we have shown all year. We don't play with high enough basketball IQ to beat them, and we make too many mistakes that should have been corrected by now. I know this will never happen, but Mallory needs to be questioned by media on style of basketball and how close are they to playing it to have winning program. The next question is on type of player we have been recruiting here at North Dakota where the top programs in the league are recruiting longer players that can play both inside and outside can score of the dribble. We on other hand have been recruiting between players guard that is taller than some quick point guard but smaller than forward and again undersized player to play the forward spot that playing out of position. Examples of this has been Hoskin and last year Gordon. This year out of our 6 recruits to be here more than year we had three recruits fit this longer length our other schools are recruiting in the Summit they are Pemberton, Horne, and Ihbrahim fit this mold but because of coming in later seem to behind the curve to be ready to play. If that was case, we should have looked at redshirting them getting ready for next year. Then we had Owen, Cottingham, and Bass (who did redshirt) out this group that may have potential, but we have had to play these players out of need. I think Cottingham and Owen in the future can be role players for this team and may get significant minutes at time. This brings us to our sophomore class here we only had Beal that fit what other teams are recruiting has tools, but her shooting has not improved if anything it has gone the other way. Aumer has developed to where she can fulfill some of the minutes in the top rotation. Vanderwal can play role if she has player, she can match up against in traditional 5 spot, but she can't play if she gets matched up with this tall lengthy player that can move and dribble drive to basket. Hurst plays because she is best, we can put out on the floor to play 4 or 5 but she can't sustain any minutes because she is in constant foul trouble and wants to shoot all the time. So now we are left with Kacie, Hoskin, and Davis to fill out the starting and we have added Pemberton who has played well and doing good job for true freshman. This puts us with bench Vanderwal, Aumer, and Oberg and the freshman to fill in as reserves not particularly strong team to put on the floor. This gets back to roster management I believe instead of couple of freshmen we recruited we needed to look to the transfer portal where we could have picked up couple of experienced players to play with Kacie. These are some of criticisms I have with Mallory because if I can see problems with the roster, she should have been all over this or even her assistant coaches should have been in her ear about this. This is where Mallory inexperience has shown in running of this program and now is she going to change improve upon her approaches or she going to continue in this path. These kinds of decisions are going to make impact on her future with the program. I would like to say in all confidence Mallory is going to improve but I have doubts because she can become stubborn, and her temper can get in her way to making good decisions I see it on the floor. I hope she can improve and start making better decisions because I do like her, and I think she could become very good coach because she has players buy into her which I think is real positive.

Und controls its destiny if they win there next two games should have piece of conference championship and if they win next two should then win final game giving them conference title right out. This could end up with two teams tied for second place, and four or five teams tied with record of 8-8 for third place, if things went right not more than game separating these places. Sure, going to be wild finish in the conference and the conference tournament.

Mayville did win but they also nationally ranked team NAIA and I believe they are at 12 in the nation. South Dakota State played Dordt Iowa and was behind for large part of the game too at home but pulled out 12-point win in the end. If you notice not a lot of the teams in Summit schedule many local division II schools either because on given night some of these teams could also beat Division I school from small mid-major. Mayville also gave NDSU all they wanted for three quarters before they played us and don't think they learned something playing another division I school. Contrary to what many think difference between teams in various divisions is not as large a spread as you think and on given night when division I is not playing well it can happen lower division team can win but it is very low win percentage. But getting back to UND I would agree with you as it stands now our players are not showing they are capable of playing on top teams in the Summit. I think Pemberton is probably our only player for next year would be considered as player that could play minutes in top rotation. The point i was trying to make earlier is Beal who came here as highly rated recruit is not playing up to her potential. If anything, i would say she is not even playing as well as she did as freshman her shooting now, she isn't even making a layup. I look at NDSU players there shooting has improved dramatically and if anything, our recruits shooting has gone the other way. Hurst to me is most frustrating player on this team she has talent but continues to make same mistakes over and over doesn't seem to learn she needs to quit doing these dumb mistakes. The reaching in fouls instead of keeping her body between the player and basket, taking those threes when we need to run some offense, and not working down low to get position to score inside. The thing is we let this slide, but we continue to start her and reward her by starting her or not taking her out when she doesn't correct these things so how do we improve if you let so call star get away with things like that. Aumer has made strides this year and she is getting smarter about her play but i am not sure she is quite quick enough to play large minutes. Ihbrahim if she has good offseason works on her footwork and her shot could become very good post player. It will be interesting if we see improvement by next year because i think she is better than Draper was when she came to NDSU. Same thing for Vanderwal but hasn't made much improvement in the last year. This is what i see our players are need of coaching on development skills to make them better players. Final criticism is what kind of style of basketball are we trying to play with this team it looks more like independent amateur basketball team running up and down the floor just trying to create your own offense not team concept where you run offense creates openings for best players to have high percentage of scoring each time you have possession.

Right now, I say Jory is better coach, but jury is out still some on him too. This team Jory has recruited that is playing right now is better team than Mallory has recruited right now. The difference is he recruited Elle Evans and Draper to his team two years ago. Their length athletic ability right now far exceeds any talent we have recruited so far, we have on this team. The question was this talent any better than the talent we recruited two years ago or has Jory coached them better to develop better and also coached them to play controlled game that we don't have 20 plus turnovers a game, that take good shots and have your players taking shots you want out your offense. Second that our team play a better team basketball. Mallory talks about defense, but we can't play consistent 40 minutes of defense. I get it were young team, but I haven't seen that much improvement from the beginning of the year. I hear play by play color announcer say that's not shot you want to take but it's okay because she made it, but real good coaches don't let it slide like that usually pull their player bench them to teach them that is not acceptable for what you want as coach. I think Mallory let's this happen too many times to where we get to this undisciplined style of basketball. I will also go farther this season started last spring when we lost assistant coaches and i feel took to long to get in place to be prepared for this team which everyone new was going to be young team. Second, I heard today on play by play they weren't able to get Canadian players until school started further putting us behind on development things like this can't happen to this large a group of players on team. I just think with this young of team needed all time they could get for development. Here again Roster construction should have been looked at we could have added transfer that could have played right away. These criticism about little things may be overboard but good coaches i have found always pay attention to little things like this. Mallory will be back next year but i think she will be short rope things need to improve in quality of play and look to have team that can compete game in game out and if we see another year like this year the AD is going to have to make some hard decisions about the program. Und provides many opportunities to build a good program with facilities, resources to keep good players, and still has above average fan support and if we would start winning consistently this could even be better. I thought we would have some growing with Mallory when she was hired but right now, she has plateaued and that is not good enough to be long term coach for this program.

The three recruits we have now all are guards and Schiller appears to be true point guard at 5-7. Mathern and Volmer are guards but kind of inbetweeners in that they are about 5-10 to 5-11 and on high school listing Mathern is listed at 6 feet. If the roster doesn't change from this year will have Davis, Aumer, Cottingham, Beal, Owen, and Bass plus the 3 recruits at guards, Pemberton, Horne, Hoskin at the forward positions, and Vanderwal, Ibrahim, and Jardine at the center position. I haven't seen Jardine on the bench is she hurt or is she not on the team, but she is still listed on the roster. Also, will Davis comeback for covid year. Otherwise, our is roster is full for next year unless we have some people leaving. Yes, Kacie has been playing a lot of minutes at point but just think if she was playing alongside Paige Myer of South Dakota State she would be scoring in high twenties and having much better looks at the rim than she is now. How we compete going forward with this team is pretty much baked we are what we are now. If we make a run in the Summit tournament it will be that we got hot shooting the basketball.