ND-fan

Yes she is and I hope her body can hold up with amount of minutes she has to play each game. Dan inter is quite important as well with her rebounding defense to the team. I was hoping we would have developed our freshmen more but again we going with basically go with iron 5 with minimal rest with top 8. This has been our pattern now for at least 8 years it worked in the division II era but now in division I era this is not winning forumula. You need team of at least 8 players that are interchangeable and stars like Borowicz play significant minutes but are protected for the long haul. Only when your at end of the season you go to iron 5 mentality and even then only when necessary. I think that what coach Johnson has learned atSDSU when they have lost Selland over her career they have added talent on roster giving younger additional playing time to attract that talent and also playing on team that will be mix for post season play. This is my opinion and I am sure there other opinions but to me were relying on several key players to play whole season and stay healthy and productive to win not high percentage way to be the odds. So whole season can basically can collapse on one play in any game and then we’re giving playing time to one of the younger players in hopes of keeping season alive.

Tonight’s game other than bench getting some playing time not very much to be gained with this competition. I wish when bring in freshmen they play with other starting players I think they would learn more. There next game will be better test I see they beat NDSU by double digits.

We will see big difference in athletes we’re competing against tomorrow and everyone going to be saying what happen to the defense. My hope that we make them have to work for their offense and we can run our offense with some consistency. This team should be a lot better than pacific and we’re playing on their floor. Also it’s going to be in front of big crowd so I hope we don’t start with bunch of jitters. Still a good game for us we can learn if we have people that can step up their game playing against talent they pocess.

I am surprised on SDSU not so much their record but how they are playing and struggling at the point guard position. Second i find it very funny but i guess its the way college basketball in the recap of their game against James Madison there was no mention of their former player Noah Freidel. This is after he was James Madison leading scorer against the bunnies. Henderson and SDSU seem to be very touchy on this. I just thought they would be farther along but Apple injury i believe is not going away and now they need someone to step and be leader of this team and that is going to be determined. NDSU is rebuilding and i still believe they will be factor at the end of the year. ORU is going to be there at the end of the year. USD all experts say they are going to contend but what i have seen is they are weak on front line and there guard play is extremely streaky and i have my doubts Plitzuweit will be able to play the minutes they will need in conference season. Denver record looks good but what happens when they are playing more challenging schedule. ST. Thomas could quietly put together another solid season and be factor at the end conference tournament. Omaha will be team that look good for week or two and pull off some upsets but i believe they are rebuilding will need another year. WSI i don't know much about but just don't think will contend. KC is rebuilding and will take at least year. UND is big question mark and i think they're going to be alot like Omaha play brilliantly for week or two and then just be searching for something to work right as teams adjust to them.

This is what i have been proposing for some time with the Big Sky and parts of the Missouri Valley conference forming FBS conference if it was done right it would be split into east and west divisions where they could have four team playoff at the end of the season to determine conference champ. This would make it possible for top teams also to be bowl eligible if they want. I also think if done right with the regional cable company this could become regional brand in football and would be of equal interest to large schools in the foot print of this conference. But this is going to take some leadership from some top shools in these conferences.

I think he is dealing with effects from last years injury and he may get better or time is running out and he looses playing time which will be to bad for him and us.

Yes, congrats to the Bernard’s. This much more important than basketball and Remember what’s more important and again congrats.

I watched this game we started playing the very familiar style of game we have played for years and on top of that we were shooting very poorly. Then we struggled for next two quarters but things were different we started playing our younger players more minutes and they had much larger roles when they were playing. Also they started playing a more pressuring defense against much larger team and by coach Motherwell urging of players they started to force Manhattan to go left in running their offense which seemed to turn game around . The young players seemed to fit better in this different style of game and we learned how to win a game ugly something I haven’t seen us do ever. This was first game where Hurst and Beal played minutes in teens for the game. Also Vanderwall played few minutes but type of game and who she had to play didn’t fit to abilities she has now but I think it was still learning experience for her. But getting back to Hurst and Beal we saw flashes what they can become and with Borowicz leading this team and rest team filling in different roles this team may develop into better team. Having Bernhard missing for few games might be learning experience for the program by doing some things differently.

Playing way to conservative both sides of ball if don’t do something before half game is over. Offense is predictable running on first second down and throwing on third down. Offensive line is getting beat. Defense is playing like normal just giving up big plays.

Yes, but what I see us doing and hearing our head coaches keep saying is we do it UND way that was fine when in the past we had all success year in year out. But that has happened for quite a while here and our talent we recruited seems to reach plateau and doesn’t to progress. My experience in my business if your not progressing you look at your competitors see what they are doing and if you need to change approaches to improve what you are doing. That is why we higher consultants to help us evaluate what we’re doing to get better. What I see with South Dakota State they play there freshman in pre-conference season and by the end of the season they have team that is deep and in position to win conference and also compete in the conference tournament to win it. I also wonder if this has effect on getting top talent because they know if play hard want to learn to play in their system they will get playing time. Here we play experience players and by end of the year they are worn down or injured so we come into end of year struggling and players are frustrated because everyone has figured what we do and it gets difficult to come by wins. Yesterday coach Motherwell did play our talented freshman more which I was happy to see. The problem is we are near half way through pre-conference season our freshmen have only played a few minutes so we’re behind on development of them. Yes we have couple good wins but they will mean nothing in the end if we’re not ready to compete for the conference. I guess I have rambled too much here again but this some my thought process on where we are. Bottom line is I just wish there was some more review of sports it’s not women’s basketball but all the sports because only correction we have is firing coach or if it has happened number of times then AD and the coaches. This what I find kind of funny we have institutions teaching people how to learn to compete in their future careers and then when comes to athletic programs they don’t follow what they teaching in education programs.

Every time we get sped up like this in games like this we start throwing ball away and getting ton of turnovers. It’s good to see the three freshmen getting more playing time even though they are making mistakes but it something to learn from and to be used for teaching in practices. They are ones making push here at the end to close the gap some. This team needs a win and they need to learn offensive pace to play at they can win with when they speed up defense they have to remember they have to work their offense. I just thought we would be making it next level for this year and here we are again fighting to get to where we were last year. I just hope we have light go off we make the jump. I don’t know but it feels like program is stuck in this continuous loop of progressing so far and we can’ t break through to next level. I sometimes instead making wholesale changes in coaching personnel they just need somebody from outside to help coaching staff identify things that are hampering them from moving ahead could and with a few changes the direction the program could start moving forward. I just feel it not large changes but small changes that make a difference in teams performance but when your so involved with program coaches don’t even realize that they are missing these changes or their thought process doesn’t even go there. I think this where the AD’s could help with establishing this in their job performance reviews of coaches because even if coach doesn’t make changes it at least make them to think outside the box. I may be totally wrong on this but even in my business we higher different consultants that review what we do looking to improve the business and I wonder why it doesn’t more at this level sports.

The officiating in this game leaves something to be desired.

I have to agree with you and after watching this fall majority of the teams in Summit would have difficult beating their second five this year. They are deep and big and also very quick will be difficult to match up too. Coach Johnson has built quite a program and I don’t see it changing much as long as he stays SDSU. I just wonder how long before somebody gets him to move my guess will be Minnesota is calling on him with big money offer soon if they continue to loose.

The fact is the NCAA created this division of football the problem is power now after last years defection of James Madison, Sam Houston and several teams over last few years now rests primarily in Big Sky and Missouri Valley. If they are going to keep this division viable need all these other conferences to have success advancing in tournament you need regionalization guaranteeing these conferences reach closer to final . Also it helps these conferences to get home field advantages. I don’t see where this division goes in the future because this is basically what division II football was 40 to 50 years ago with large number of same schools. The solution for Big Sky and Missouri Valley is the top teams need to create FBS conference and getting themselves aligned with regional cable network to help fund a conference . If enough schools went they could have east and west conference with conference playoff again way for conference to succeed financially. They just need core couple of schools to work on this to get this organized. The rest of country is not very much interested or cares much about this region in the country so like may things we have here we need to develop this on our own and grow it into something special people would be very much interested in. Just my dream what we could become without having to fight politics and big interest of the coasts.

This team is going to improve the question will it be enough to be competitive with upper tier of the conference. Is it me but Sue ker doesn’t look same as last year. He seems to be so stiff and not as fluid playing the game is it from foot/ankle injury or he looks stronger but is more muscle bound. I maybe wrong on this but I getting to feel he is not going to as much factor this year. I suspect your right on Eaglestaff that shortly he will be starting. It will be Suecker, Omot, T, Eaglestaff, and Trent, and subs will be Danielson, Brooks, and Mathew’s with Norman seeing playing time when some offense is needed because if Eaglestaff becomes threat outside his role becomes much less because of his liability playing defense. Booker could gain playing time if he can show he can score from perimeter because he can play defense. Nero will have roll if he can return to before ability of playing defense against strong driving guards and will take shots that fit into offense are good looks. Danielson this year so far has developed outside shot that hasn’t been liability and makes him enough offensive threat teams need to play defense him. Grant will only get additional time if other guards can not produce but he needs to work on his offensive skills . This seems to me how the rotation will eventually develop but looks like team is going to be looking up at end of the season and it’s time will come in next year or year after with adding more talent to this young core of players. The question will be can we retain our talent to build team that can contend for the conference.

We’re going to see a lot of that if we are going to stay committed to girls with experience because then we’re going to be putting team with no girl over 6 feet in height. Montana had always at least 3 girls over 6 feet tall and most of time it was over 6’ 2” tall. If you noticed they were ones hitting the 3 point shot at top key and they had very quick point guard White doing the penetrating and dishing off to one interior big girl or kicking back to one bigs for 3 point shot. This why I have been critical of Bernard recently because I have seen this before with her before but I also saw last year where she played number girls that struggled at times but became better players as the season went along. But at same time I also saw she had hard time playing freshmen last year and it showed at the end of the year. I look at Johnson (SDSU) and several other coaches Summit Who play there young talented freshmen resulting in them getting much deeper roster at the end of the year and gives them much deeper team year in year out. Second SDSU has been able to retain there players. I just hope she changes her position as year goes along or it’s going to be long difficult season. I wouldn’t be surprised we do play more players because we’re going experience some injuries playing this small team forcing us to play some additional players. I may be all wrong on this assessment and willing to hear other opinions where we are. I look at our mens team look how we’re playing number of freshmen and even starting them over number experienced players to get better this year.

This is not to going to work we need to develop inside game. We will make it interesting until second half then teams with larger size will just wear us down and injuries will start to develop. Gordon I don’t believe scored inside with person on her tonight. Hurst did but only played a few minutes. Vanderwal only played maybe 2 minutes I don’t see how this gets her ready for conference season. Again we hardly played Beal more than few minutes. If I have major criticism of Bernard is that she will hardly play younger players to let them grow and develop. If your going to recruit highly rated players need to play them and get them ready for the conference season and pre conference season record will not be great but that is how get a team that is deep and can challenge in the conference season. Also Did Borowicz get hurt at the end of the game she was on floor holding her leg like ankle or knee was hurt. Again this I believe how small mid major schools can put a team together compete because they will ever be able to recruit and retain enough talent year to year because competition for talent and transfer rules have changed college sports.

I have watched about everyone but Denver and Omaha catching part all other teams in Summit of their games and I can tell you we have hard time equaling last years record. Second omethingwe have zero chance of beating SDSU this year. There freshmen look better than our freshmen and they are getting playing time against very good programs getting better. We will not be able to match up with them because they are bigger and deeper than we are and they are just quick or quicker than we are. I guess I don’t understand why we didn’t bring in front court player through the portal. NDSU did bring in number of front court people and they are looking like they could be second best team in Summit. USD will be very similar to us not very big in the front court and very young there. I am disappointed because end of last year with thought we would have Lane to build around our front court and the returning players I thought we were ready to start contending with thought we could go WNIT tournament. Now we’re just using up this above average back court talent because we didn’t address this glaring weakness on experienced front line. This is what I am seeing maybe I am missing something and don’t see something but it appears we’re having hard time constructing team to compete with the top teams.

UND will again have hard time stopping Bison and I suspect they again will open up the game with passing to their tight ends and then will open up the run. Offensively it will come down to Ol line because SU defense strength is in their secondary. If we can move the ball running and short passing game we then control the game. I think this game is winnable if we can get up on them making them have to move away from ball control game. Also this will take the crowd out of it. It will come down which team can expose other’s weaknesses

I heard USD offense and their defense will be returning large number but at same time their fans are calling for Nielson to be fired. The question then comes do more stay with the program if he.stays or let go. If they do have number of transfers would be interested in them or not . Just something I was thinking about after the game how this years transfer have been big addition to the team. I think transfer we lost on the defense has had impact on our defense this year.

I think from the first game we have some talented freshman players and I expect growth through the season but will they progress enough to catch up with the top teams. I watched SDSU in their game at Akron I was expecting them to to be looking for people to fill void after loosing Wilson and Schierman. But what I saw they have added two players both freshmen it appears they have added talent that compliment’s the experience talent they have returning. It also appears that other schools in Summit have added talented freshmen this year so it’s going to be interesting year in the conference. I think how we do for the coming year will be how well Sather and his coaching staff can develop this group of players.

VanderWal helped tonight but still a lot to work on. McCarthy only played a minute is she hurt or is she in dog house. Beal needs to get more minutes I think sh can become factor before the season is over. Hurst will need to continue to play. I don’t think we’re going to be able to contend relying on small line up in conference season we need to have some size on the floor. The South Dakota schools are just going to eat us alive with their size and especially Jack Rabbits will just control the boards if we don’t develop our big players. This is going to be interesting season if we can develop some players to make run at the end of the season.

Bernhard showed that she could become a good coach last year but If I had complaint or criticism is she has hard time playing young players and I believe she has not a lot patience with mistakes these players make. I look at SDSU where coach Johnson plays his talented freshmen each year and by the end of year they become factor for them giving them quality time. This years recruiting class having high end talent so i am hoping we see a change in her coaching. McCarthy didn’t get alot of playing time last year when she was called upon she showed potential of being good player and now this year with loss of Lane she is behind on playing and learning time. I see this happening again with other players again this coming year. We may not have these players for there full college careers so faster you develop them and getting them playing them quality time the better it is and maybe keeping them. I agree with other people on the board we are short on number of taller players especially experienced players. I am still looking forward to the season but am concerned if our taller players are not ready to play at this level then we should have been looking to the portal to shore up this weakness.

To shoot the three you still need to have inside game and without that it becomes easier to defend against the three. We don’t have more than couple of threats to shoot the three on floor at a time. If we have injuries to all tall players this does become immediate concern fort how long are they injured and how much playing time will they get. This is not how I thought the season would begin. Mallory and staff are going to need to figure how they are going to develop inside game in next few games. Without inside game we loose our advantages of quick and offensive guards because we can’t control the game on inside without help from these guards to help defend and rebound. I am still optimistic we can do this if our tall inside players are healthy and can play

I was looking at the live stats we played game with hardly any of our biggest players very many minutes. Hurst I believe played played 15 minutes, McCarthy played 1 minute wondering if she got hurt, and VanderVal and Jardine didn’t play. Then we had Bieniewicz did not play one of larger players and was brought in shoot the three. So what are we doing here in exihibition game I thought this would be a time to give our big players some playing time. I would like to see explanation on why we’re playing experienced players already 30 plus minutes in this game and we still lost I don’t see how this helped us any. We need to develop this team the players we played tonight is not going be a team that can be in the top of the league without getting some production from are big players. if these players are not ready to produce then we better be looking for transfer to bring immediately because we’re not going to be factor with this small line up. That’s my opinion I hope to hear what the plan is or it’s going to get worse with the fans because expectations expecting improvement over last season with highly reguarded recruits.