ND-fan

It would be interesting to see this game officiated with calling all the pushing that went on inside the paint today and clutching and grabbing. I think if game was back here in Grand Forks this would have been different game. Still could have won this game we need to shoot better free throws if we had just shot 75% would have been coming down being only down one changes whole game would have been playing ahead at the end instead of down 4 to 6. I still like how were playing and never giving up and were not get blown out even when we go down by 10 in the game. This team could be very good at the end of the season.

If that is case if it’s determint to what you trying to do as team and your not playing up to your potential then you have tough choice ahead of you as coach. Yes, she maybe offensive threat but doesn’t put into position where you can win no matter how much talent she has you as coach are paid to win. Then you need to explain this as coach and I believe she has to understand this may affect her playing time because you have to be control of the team and she is not dominant type of player that can be dominant all over the court which is my opinion. She is not like SDSU player of like Mya Selland or Chloe Lamb of South Dakota that were complete players on both sides of the ball. I hope your wrong on this because this team needs to get these players play rolls that are best suited to their talents.

Eastern Michigan game had few minutes or flashes of playing team offense but again relying to much on standing shooting the three ball. Even Midco announcer and former coach Val Sussex even wondered why didn’t they move Hurst into lower post in the fourth quarter. Hurst has talent to be really big factor if she uses her ability inside and be facilitator for others on team to create scoring. VanderWahl is improving and if her Hurst could work together in the post Und could become very good in the middle. Pemberton I believe is going to be special player and I only see her continuing to improve. My thoughts is Bernhard is going to have to settle on 7 or 8 player rotation soon and but this may cause some ego’s getting Bruced. I just don’t see right now where we compete with top four or five teams of the summit as we are playing right now I think we will be loosing games to these teams by 10 to 20 points. I still think this group can become good team but they have to play team basketball forget worrying about there stats. I guess bottom line is can this team mature and play together this year or are we going to struggle learning this in the end look at rebuilding year.

What I watched today had no assemblence of any organized offense we come down shoot a three or we drive the ball create maybe one on one but usually desperate shot thrown up. Also I don’ t understand having Hurst at top of key instead of getting her worked down low and giving her screen where she put up with position and probably get fouled.same thing with VanderWahl but more of shot over defender in the paint. I don’t know if the plan is to run and gun but I don’t think it will work. i wonder if after this weekend if Bernhard goes back reevaluates what they are doing especially now with Kacie down and develops offense more of team concept rains in everyone to more of team concept. I was optimistic on this group but I think tim3 is running out to develop into what I thought they could be. This could be repeat of Mallory’s first year when we had a lot of talent but never did gell as a team. I guess time will tell but time is running short for this years team.

That could very well be the case and not only for the players but also for the coaching staff they are looking for her to much and not demanding more from other players to step up lead as well.

It was terrible performance and i have to agree with most said above. This group needs to start playing as a team and start running some kind of offense. This coming down and taking 3 from outside is not going to cut it. We need to run some kind of offense where we get good shot from the paint. We have nothing so far to look take of our size inside when we have taller players on the floor. We need to look to inside to score and if not then kick out for good outside shot. I still think this group could get to become good team, but they are going to have to play team ball and not look for their numbers otherwise were never going to win this even goes down to Kacie. Bernhard is going to need also decide what type of basketball team is she going to put on the floor today she started small and then went back to bigger but it's time to settle on style then work from there to get performance out of this group of players. I knew were going to struggle with this group of young players and not having point guard that could control play but i thought we would be getting better by now.

Only transfer is Oberg and I was expecting more but looks like she is having back problems. Last two recruiting classes of freshman there looks to be some talent in several players from each class but they are still young and developing. Even Kacie didn’t show much until late in her sophomore season and that is what I am hoping we see this year with last years recruiting class. This team is going to take time to develop and we’re looking at Kacie, Hoskins, and Davis with some experience to build around it would have been nice to have couple more experienced players to help build a team around. Like somebody said they need to start play more as team and I think it will happen but Berhard is going to have settle on rotation and also to get Kacie to lead this team and get them playing together but this will probably mean Kacie being less of scorer and more facilitator for the team.

They came out flat today, but the second half was better with more hustle and played better defense. Hurst looks like she is playing hurt from what I saw today. Also, she needs to get better shape could tell she has been limited in working out on the floor to gain some endurance running. The offense side of the game needs to be work on get some rhythm and better shot selection. Kacie was trying to do too much and resulted in turnovers and bad shot selection. As badly as they played today, they came back and had chance to win this game against very good opponent. I think you could see from last game they had worked hard on defense with these younger players but then you see what happened to our offense. This is very young team playing out there, but they are improving from game to game, but they need to start putting together more complete game. The shooting needs to improve, and it will if they start running offense that puts them in good position to shoot the basketball. Pemberton and Horne look like they could see significant minutes if they continue to improve from game to game. Aumer to me is struggling right now and I don't believe it's not from working on her game skills. To me she has improved her athletic strength but in doing so she has lost some of her natural flow as athlete but that may come the more, she plays. Und is going to need her this year provide minutes in guard position. The freshmen getting playing time to me she's not ready yet to play needs more playing time and work playing guard position. I think we will see big difference by time we reach the break before Christmas and even then, we will have long ways to go before this team can counted on to win games on consistant basis. I still think they can be force by end of the year.

I agree with most of your analysis and this preseason conference schedule is going to be important in that they need to continue to improve and for them to gain confidence. If not we will go through similar season Malory had as interim coach. I believe that Kacie needs to be part of the offense but others need to work at becoming as important as is kacie is now. What I have seen lately there is to much standing watching Kacie to create some offense. This team has a lot athleticism with Kacie, Hurst, Beal, Pemberton, and Horne. Adding to this VanderWal and Oberg at post we have size depth to match up with most of teams in the conference but now comes hard part of getting this group to jell play as team and play up to their potential. That is why I’m so optimistic on this group because I think this group are winners and they want to reach goal of playing and being winners.

I am not delusional, but I see lot of talent on the floor for us but it's so young needs playing time and that is what we're doing. Hurst will help but will not turn this around for us. This team is going to have hard preseason especially with quality of the teams they are playing. I thought i saw some improvement over the Wyoming game in our defense but still a long way to go before you can call it average to good defense. Tonight, we played very good opponent that will more than likely will be in NCAA tournament could reach round of 16. This is squad put together of portal players with goal to win now and no building for the future. They can do that with NIL money and location recruit portal players. I would guess shortly number of players being seen on floor will shrink and we will start putting players that will become the nucleus of this team on the floor. So far i am impressed with the freshmen on the team its big transition to go against experienced players like we saw tonight and not to mention our sophomores who have to play as veterans for players who have not played alot of minutes. I still think we can be in top of the Summit if they develop and gain confidence in themselves. The big thing is are they going to wear down as the season progresses its long hard season and young players are not prepared for that mentally or physically. I liked how they played hard to the end.

I have feeling we win 28-14 but our offense will need to control the ball in the second half. USD has good defense but if our offense plays like it can we can control the ball. Our defense just needs to prevent big plays and stop them one or two times this game will come down time possession who is most effective in red zone. South Dakota has won conference games by getting lead and playing defense and winning close games. We need to do this them but with our offense controlling the ball on methodical drives keeping their offense off the field and keeping our defense rested and making their offense play catch-up instead of them playing keep away from our offense. This is what they did to the bison and sulki’s .

South Dakota State is experiencing wave of injuries for this season they have lost Timmer and Theisen for the season and now have Behrens one of their new recruits out for some time leaving them with 9 players. I believe this is going to make Summit dog fight for who could win the conference. So it’s important that this group of players come together and have a good season chance for them to win the conference and play post season basketball.

I thought this year Bernhard has done much better recruiting longer and more athletic players in Horne, Pemberton, and Ibrahim all are long look to be athletic. This is much bigger team than we have had in long time. Beal may a little under six feet but her long arms and jumping ability matches her up with a lot of six plus players. Then we have Hurst strength and ability to score inside and Bass looks to be similar player. The question is can we play better defense in post area and I believe that will come. Wyoming experienced team took advantage of that in the post but was good game for us to learn from and get better. i am more concerned about our offense it was good see Kacie score but we need her to have less points from her and more from the rest of the team. To win we need scoring from the team and having only Kacie scoring is not recipe for winning.

I see Hurst isn’t dressed must be injured and unable to play. Beal is really showing some offensive moves tonight. Und is showing a lot of athletic talent tonight. We have ways to go on defense and to get them all on same page. This group needs to get some confidence now with playing together.

I agree that Hurst,Beal, and Aumer will determine how successful a season we have they have talent move us to another level in women’s basketball. The question will be if they earn extra playing time from experienced players ahead of them. I also expect junior college transfers be contributing by end of the season. The freshmen I hope they can contribute in spot playing time and hope couple of them do become major contributors this year but past experience is probably not going to happen until they prove themselves on the court. I expect we will start with Kacie, Hoskins, Hurst, Oberg, and DJ Davis to start the season and Beal and Aumer playing significant minutes and eventually move into starting roles if play up to their talent. Then I expect VanderWal Wall to alternate with Oberg. The taller freshmen girls I believe will get some playing time to get them ready for the conference season. I believe the separation between top team this year and top 5/6 teams will not be as big as has been last few seasons. SDSU has had terrible off season loosing to starters to injury for entire season cutting their depth and also taking away bunch of their length. USD will have injured players returning but this is still a team that is rebuilding and I believe still has way to go but still will be above average team in the Summit. NDSU has some very good players returning but they will be relying like we are some very young players replace players that have left from last season. I think they will be upper half of the Summit but my guess is they will be closer to the middle than top. ORU, Denver, Omaha, will be contending but like us on how their new players respond this year. KC and St. Thomas are still rebuilding and will be dangerous will probably have few upsets through season and will be dangerous at tournament time. This should be fun season ahead and I believe we should be playing some basketball after conference tournament. This is most athletic team will have since joining the Summit.

I think this game comes down to our defense and reason for this we need to stop them and give our offense opportunities to take apart this NDSU defense which I think that can be had. But if we let them control ball and keep our offense off the field NDSU defense will look much better than it is. I believe if our offense can jump on them and offen this could be game we have been wanting for long time. If this happens NDSU will take big risks to get back into the game opening them up to making big mistakes and opportunities to control the game. We need control tempo of this game and I believe it starts with the defense. This what SDSU did to us and reason we look so badly and reason is SDSU is FCS team with FBS offensive line and NDSU has had previous years but now they are very good offensive line but not of caliber like SDSU. I don’t get so many of you if you thought we were going to beat SDSU at home with team they were returning from last year that pretty much destroyed everyone last years playoffs. It’s like you all given up on our team and lost all hope we will never win any big game if that’s the case your perfect examples fair weather fans. I disagree with number posters here on how we get to winning championship but I also believe your entitled to your opinion but as fans it’s our opinion it still decided by administration and people they look to guidance. The bottom line I believe we have to remember this and when we’re in middle of season we’re committed with team and coaches for this year and if you want change start working aDministration convincing them a change is needed. But let’s get behind this team and I think difference now is they need to have confidence to play games their capable of.

Mcfeely on Izzo said that SDSU is the class of FCS, and he feels only team in FCS has chance to compete with them is maybe Montana State and there are probably no other teams in FCS in nation at their level. He said Und is quality program but were tier under SDSU and this how FCS has been usually three top teams in the conversation that have chance to win championship but this year it may even be just one or two. I believe were in that class now with NDSU now, SIU, Norther Iowa, Weber State, Sac state, Montana, Idaho, and maybe some from other conferences top teams and these teams need to be at home to win a game in the playoffs. The power in FCS is in the Missouri Valley and Big Sky most recently. FCS football championship has been going for 44 years and schools from Missouri Valley have 15 championships of current members, Big Sky have 5 championships with current members, rest of current members have 7 championships and other championships won are by schools that have moved up FBS. Montana has two championships and Montana State has 1 championship and Youngtown has 4 championships but for current members FCS with the exception of NDSU only have one or two championships over this 44-year period. This gets me back we are in final tier before you we reach that one to three teams usually have chance to win championship even then winning multiple championship are rarity not common like NDSU did. I also believe that NDSU repeating this is highly unlikely in that it occurred when they moved to division I they were not competing like they are now recruiting. SDSU was not the program it is now, or did they have facilities or resources they have now, UND was division II and when they went to division I they also went to Big SKY harder to get kids out Minnesota to sign up because of not playing close rivals like NDSU and SDSU. Also, UM was down as FBS program and went through coaching changes so they were missing on a lot good talent that could have been developed. This Idea we change coaches and couple of years later were going to play for national championship is just a dream and after we have done this regressed I like to see some of poster's opinion will be then and I know answer just need another new coach that knows how to build program. Let this year finish out I still think we're going to finish much better than some of the people are pushing on here. Everything is achievable for record or predicted is still on the table we all knew SDSU was going to be monster of team with almost everything returning and depth they had.

I think this is becoming norm here on the site we have several people bitching all the time it’s never anything positive but complaints. I don’t think people realize how fortunate we have quality football program here I look at some other schools who go for broke and they have little bit of success then fall flat and end up with years of loosing. We have quality program with quality student athletes and we’re close to moving to the top of the division but I believe reason it hasn’t been good enough because of success of our chief rival and success they have had. They reason all difference is coaching but it’s more than that it resources, location like city for attracting athletes, gaining a reputation of success, media coverage locally and nationally, and finally getting one or two players that pushes you over the top to have that winning season. So far we have been moving forward on some of those fronts but regionally we’re known as hockey school and not a football school. This is not the case with our regional rivals their known as football schools until we have long term success at football any move we make needs to be made with understanding if we have regression just puts us back to beginning of winning fans over and be also as football school.

I get tired of this throw the coaches out everytime we loose dam football game when rest of the world knows that we have good football team. yes we have struggled in Division I football to get to elite level of teams but that was facing us when we moved to division I. The resources haven't been here to make that jump happened and we were told that from the beginning. Also to get here we have had to sacrifice number of other sports from UND to stay in budget. Second we were next NDSU where football is king and at UND its second this has had big effect on recruiting and our location media attention to attract players. The move back to Missouri Valley has helped in recruiting and recent up grades to facilities for football is help. Second our pay structure is that we have hard time to retain coaches here look we have coaches at NDSU and SDSU who have left here went to them. I also wonder some here are so against past coaches that have led up to Bubba i wonder if there is more to the critiism from past history with UND and these coaches. I would love to see some postive posting and things we could improve this years results.

I may be minority but all this talk of blowing up this program and starting new is just dreams of arm chair quarterbacks. I look at our opponent yesterday they went through same things we have been experiencing like us for over 10 years with up and downs but never able to beat top teams. Then all that has come together where they are at the top of the division. Second, COVID extra year I believe has helped them get to this point if you look at there lines they have a lot of seniors and number six year players which moved depth above normal what FCS program usually have. I believe Und is top 10 team in FCS but right now Sdsu is at another level and probably only Montana state is in that level right now. I believe NDSU has come back to the pack because new transfer rules and because UND, SDSU, and number of other programs have made in roads on recruiting. This important fact it takes years build recruiting network and then also recruiting top talent and what is expected with university in having high expectations in gpa from our student athletes in small division I programs makes it quite a challenge. I can remember now where we had coaching changes that program fell back so far it has taken years to get it back to where it was top program. Und has up graded their offense line this past several years and now they need to up grade their size at defense line and if they stay 3-4 also size and quickness at linebacker. This season now is for Und to win games that are suppose to win. Continue to build resume to make the playoffs and get better as season goes along. Because end of season who knows where everyone is at the end of season with couple key injuries some teams may come back to the pack. The team we played yesterday is very good team and they were playing at home in perfect conditions wanting to make a statement to FCS they are in league of their own.

I did not say they should just rush to fill the coaching vacancy but i am concerned about it getting late in the off season to have this big turnover of personnel. I understand we will have turnover but to have major turnover in one year when we are in process of building this program to next level is my concern. We had very good news today with transfer of Minnesota center of Oberg looks to be very good fill with our last roster spot and should fill weakness on the roster of giving us another big in the middle of the front court and she has experience at high level play. Mallory must be working her behind off with all that's going on with program recruiting players and building coaching staff. I still believe they need to find personnel in next few weeks and then it's going to take a lot of extra work to get everyone caught up and ready for the beginning of the season. I am excited to see this team play and develop this coming season because i think they have great deal of talent that could develop into something special because of how athletic their players are and now they have filled in some of the holes with transfers and new recruits.

I wish I had your outlook, but I don't, and you have said they knew who their replacement coaches were long time ago and you may have more inside knowledge than the rest of us. My memory of past teams and schools when things weren't settled early in the offseason this carried over into the season and before long whole season became disappointment. We are now sitting again two coaches short and were just few days away from August. August means schools starts in three weeks or less and following other schools this when things get ramped up with practices and start putting together the team and how they are going to play technically. Now we have to hire at least one coach and assuming we have other already picked out still have to announce his hire and get him on campus. Then after they get here get on same page as Mallory and get to know the players and build some relationship in short period of time. This lack of time working with players means to me come end of next season we have possibility of losing number of players to transfer portal. This is why i am nervous at what's happening, to build a program you need stability and getting players and coaches buying into that system they are trying to build. Look at SDSU they have achieved this and if were to catch them we need to do the same thing. The loss of three coaches something is going on and my guess is that were not competing on salary basis. I may be totally wrong on this but to have all the assistants leave in one year is not good sign for the program and will be used against in recruiting and sure has effect on our players we have recruited in the past two years. I would like to hear point on this because you seem to have inside information most of do not have and very little from Mallory or Chaves on this. I look at school from the South their coach I have seen just recently updating what was going on in his program Dom Izzo show and I think he was on earlier in the summer too.

Are they still looking for another assistant women's basketball coach or are they go with present staff. I was thinking they might have idea of going with one less and using that money to improve pay scale on the existing coaches and fill in with graduate assistant to fill fourth coach or i am blowing smoke with this idea. It would probably would hurt us most in recruiting new players and to have extra time of coach working with players to help develop them.

Does this fill out our scholarships or do we still have one available? I have lost track of where we stand on recruits and since we lost McCarthy this summer I thought we might have one free scholarship available. We will be very young team with exceptions of Kacie and Hoskins as super seniors and Davis as senior. The rest of the team will be made up of freshmen and sophomores for the coming year. If we do have scholarship left could they still be looking for experienced transfer player with a year left. This will be challenging season for Bernhard if she has to play with number of younger players who are bound to make mistakes as they are learning in the past she has shown does not have alot of patience with younger players but this year she does not have experienced players to fall back on. I expect this season will start slow and we will get better as the season goes on.

My reason for concern is this is not last years team with a ton of experience coming back and we’re looking to develop our young talent to play high level as team. I believe a lot of that happens in the off season. Second now we’re down two scholarship players and we’re still under sized to the other top teams in the conference. Coach Bernard is good coach but I also believe she needs assistants to help develop this team as well recruit new players. We have some great athletes on this team but I also believe if we’re going to make the next level women’s basketball we need to also to be getting longer like SDSU has developed their team. I may be over reacting but most teams are pretty much set for this up coming season and they figuring out final things to be worked on but we need to get two coaches in place here hired and moved here. Also are we going to be down two scholarship players for year and hope we have no major injuries that might effect us in season. These are my concerns and reasons I have gut feelings we could step backwards but again I may be over reacting and totally wrong.