ND-fan

What is it with number of you it seems no matter what you're never satisfied with basketball program. I get from your posts you think were going be this dominate basketball power that will be one of top 20 programs in the nation. Its not going to happen were small mid major division I basketball program with two other dominate programs above them in Hockey and Football which limits amount of money and resources we have and its a fact. I was feeling quite pleased after playing SDSU, USD, and NDSU that were right there with those teams and have a team with more growth potential than those teams showed. I left last weekend feeling if this team improves by end of the season they could have shot at winning conference tournament. Thus chance to play NCAA tournament and get some national recognition which would help in maybe getting new recruits to come UND. The playing in NCAA in tournament is the goal long term and to win a game and maximum to win two games but that would be very rare occurrence. The deck is so stacked against small mid majors doing more than that is highly unlikeyl because of needed resources and getting national attention to attract top of the line talent. Now not to mention were in northern cold climate and small demographic area were not going to become this top 20 program in the nation. Look at Minnesota they are complaining they have hard time attracting top line recruits north to play and look at there resources. Second is were not going to top conferences like big 10 or big 12 which would help in drawing because of the conference. I then will hear from you that Hockey does it but look here this small sport in terms of Division I schools where about there are only about 80 schools fielding a program and has been northern tier group of schools that field a hockey team. Football is unique in that its basically small school division I class which i say what the small mid major basketball programs should be grouped together for year end tournament. Also with the new rule changes on transferring schools like UND do develop basketball talent they are usually plucked away in there last season or even there last two seasons. But getting back to this UND team i see alot of potential and past year with covid its hard to develop a team like UND. They need practice time and game experience but this year with way the schedule is you don't play a game learn what you did wrong and come home practice to improve on what you did wrong you're playing another game next day. This team had only two starters returning and one them has been injured so you have whole team at times on the floor that have not played with each other much so mistakes are going to be made. Also takes time for a team to get together play good team defense as well as on the offense side. I noticed this year you really see difference in teams that are returning large core of their team to ones that are rebuilding again like UND is. I guess I went off here but I get tired of this negativity we were one game last year away from the dance with a team that did not add any depth last year which is my major criticism of Sather since he came here. If he would have added one or two players last year we would have had good chance of winning the conference tournament. I still give benefit of the doubt because he wanted evaluate the program before he did anything but i still hate opportunities lost. I am optimistic that the program is heading right direction the next thing is to get fans back especially student body but i am afraid hockey sucks air out other sports at UND which SDSU, NDSU, and USD don't have to contend with which makes basketball followed sport for those schools.

The men's basketball it was aired during the game the DAE had ankle issue and same with Wilson for SDSU he had sore foot would not play. So tell me how this can be done but on women's side we had nothing mentioned about players. To me it just seems inconsistent on reporting of these teams. I agree that i don't think its disciplinary but it sure would helpful for people following the team why were short contributing players. If you look at the major programs if contributing players even have blister its on national sports. Also we hear anything happens to hockey team just look at current story of being short handed because of injuries and now we have several players from women's team not playing not a word. I will bet you this information creates interest in what's happening with hockey and why they are struggling right now to explain to fans what's happening doesn't women's basketball deserve same type of consideration too!

I though last nights game showed two teams that was playing its third game in three days. Also with way things are now your playing with no crowd to help generate some excitement to get the adrenaline flowing. It especially showed with UND' s free throw shooting if they would even hit normal free throws the game would have been UND's by 5 to 6 points. The number missed free throws was even greater than showed because alot of them were front end of bonus free throws. Refs let players play otherwise we would have seen who's bench would have been better. If you look at these four teams there is not much difference between them it all depends on how well each of them plays and shoots the basketball. Look USD beat SDSU in night cap so you see on any given night these teams can beat each other. The big thing is how much will these teams improve by end of the season. I look at UND and NDSU both having high upsides with NDSU need to find more offense out there young freshman and UND needs to clean up there ball security and needs to improve there outside shooting percentages. Both are capable of playing good defense and i think that to will improve. SDSU is most skilled team now and if Wilson return could mean they have most complete team right now. The big question is can they stay healthy and not get upset along the way. USD I think is a year away again but on given night they could beat you which was proven last night in them beating SDSU. My guess is that we have at least 6 teams that are all pretty close and way things are scheduled this year i got to believe it will lead to pretty close conference records. This will all come down to who gets hot at conference tournament but i wouldn't be surprised at least 3 of these teams are in semifinals and for sure one of these will be conference finals.

Talk of playing under the radar in Wisconsin for women's basketball they played Wisconsin today and still nothing reported other than on Und site. Second what's with roster no one is giving any information on why we haven't seen Keplin and Borowicz for last couple of games are they hurt is because of Covid restrictions. Its like it national secret for not playing. If I have any fault with the new coach she needs to more public and talking about this team that's how you get interest in this team. You need to get information out to the public so people start investing in this team and you as a coach for the future. Brewster used up any good will UND had with women's basketball last couple of years with fans. Even when things are not going well people like to see what you are doing to overcome these struggles and people begin to invest and believe in you as coach and the players. Yes there will be criticisms from people but it puts you out front dealing with perceived problems and lets you tell your story of what you trying to accomplish.

I was thinking that may put Ihenacho on Freidel he could maybe shut down Friedel because of his size and speed. Then put Nero on Arians to begin with but if they bring in Easley like they did alot last night than they would move Nero to him and move Sims onto Arians which could be very good matchup because Sims is bigger and I think he's hair bit quicker than Arians but Arians is such intelligent player which makes a very interesting matchup. If Wilson plays then UND has harder time matching up to SDSU because it puts two power front line people .Suecker would be at disadvantage in the lower blocks and Rebraca would have his hands full with Wilson.

You maybe right the Summit Conference is there but in my mind would be to be truly respected mid major conference would be that when selection time rolls around they would be getting 8-10 seed and possible to have more than one team from the conference. Also would be nice if they could make run in NCAA tournament like Northern Iowa has done or Bradley did as mid major. This i believe several of the programs are getting closer to this goal and I see UND has the possibility of getting mentioned in this group as well. The above analysis of cupboard was bare is pretty much right on. But look at the talent that Jones left here Marlon Stewart, Rebraca, Eikens, Walter, Brown, Igbangu, and Urbonavicius that have been on the team or still on the team playing for Sather. A lot of places you would have had to come in recruited most of team to just play the first season. Yes there were bust on the roster but all coaches have busts on there rosters even Sather looks to have one now on the team nobody is perfect in finding players its just part of putting a team together.

Sather has done a good job since he has come to UND. But I would say that Jones left the program with number of good players to work with otherwise we would have been looking at total rebuild. Instead Sather was able to learn the Summit Conference and he had enough talent to compete and was able to reach Conference championship. Now he has been able to build with talent he had in place in the program and on his way to building program that should be able to compete next couple of years. I think UND could see where it will be one better teams in mid majors in next few years and if were able to continue bring in talent for number of years. I think Summit Conference could become highly respected mid major conference with number quality programs in the conference.

Sims does a lot of things on defensive end for UND. Sueker i think is going to make big impact before this season is over. I think this team could be really good by end of the season. I just see a team that if it develops could have scoring from all 5 positions on the floor. The big question will be how much can they step up their defense to get to them become a team that can expect any time they step on the floor.

I see because of testing issues game was cancelled with Old Dominion . It appears they are still dealing with players having covid or at least coaches and people around the team. Not great start to get program up running after change in coaches. I hope things start to change for the team.

This team UND has now could become quite good by end of the season. They have size and speed and number of them are real offensive threats. The new point guard Ihenacho looks like he could become quite special with size and speed. Also they are much deeper than they were last year and Sather saw the benefits of having big outside off guard like they had last year only he is following that plan but he recruited two players of that type in Sueker and Sims for this year. Also this team he has now put together because of rule change this year will have two years of being together after this year which could make them very good team in next few years. I got to believe future looks bright for UND men's basketball.

My take on this team is it needs good point guard and rest of the talent on this team is quite good and if you had top point guard they would be contending in the summit. I look at Montana State game and thought if you put their point guard on UND team how different UND would look as a team. Having a point guard that can shoot and drive would open the game up to all other girls for UND. It opens it up for Fleecs and Leet because opponents couldn't double down from the guards because they have to respect the point guard ability to hit from outside. Second they could set screen for point guard to drive and then have it fed back to them when defense would be collapsing on driving guard. Now to defense having top point guard means you shut down your opponents ability to drive down on your front court getting them in foul trouble besides out position to rebound the basketball. North Dakota hasn't had point guard since they went to NCAA and that guard got hurt and Brewster did his thing once somebody got hurt didn't want to use them again and started playing mind games. Mallory its far to early to see what she will be as head coach and for sure she is dealing with more issues than normal new head coach would be dealing with because of Covid. Like somebody said she had only one scholarship to make changes to the team and i will give her credit it was invested on point guard but i don't think Wallace isn't type of player that i was describing above. But circumstances we have today i don't if it was possible to find player like Montana State got last year with way Covid has shut down the sports world.

Who's going to be the starting quarterback for this team. Also I have no idea what we have for talent at quarterback and what type of talent we have. I look at the present roster and i see 3 very young people competing for quarter back. So someone put analysis forth on what we can expect from quarterback and will we be able to throw the football with these prospects. I would prefer to have some experience there at the quarterback position but that doesn't look to be the case for this year. Schuster played some last year but didn't set the world on fire either. I got to believe if were going to win MV will need to be able to pass the football just to many good defenses in MV to rely on running game need to be able to mix it up to have good offense in this conference.

I thought this last year it seemed to me that Sather passed on needs of this team and when we got into the season those needs showed up in make up this team. His two recruits Danielson and Ramsey sure didn't fill the needs of this team for this past year. I have got to believe if Jones was here he would have brought in another point guard either Juco or graduate transfer to build depth and then we could have used small forward that could drive and shoot from outside which my mind probably would have been graduate program kid. I have got to believe he just didn't see the potential of this team when he first came here and talent he did have. I also got to believe he's learned from this season that division I basketball different than division II basketball on how you need to compete and what you need for skill levels to succeed. That's why i do believe in Sather in that he is very intelligent and learns very quickly what he needs to do become successful at what ever level he's at. Because i find it interesting the players he's recruited for next year are similar to what left UND but several of them may even have more athletic ability but are same size and will play similar roles on next years team. Only player so far he has not totally found is Stuart in point guard but he was in running on several players that were similar so he was trying to put together similar team that like team he inherited this year. Sather has basketball knowledge and shown ability to adapt i beleive based on past year, and for most part players returning seem to have bought in, and one thing he does extremely well is getting along with media. The next big hurdle will be his judgement of talent to see if they play to up to what been represented to us. I believe we should have competitive team for the Summit League for next year.

On paper these new recruits look like they have potential to be very good team but we will not know until they start playing together. I got to believe putting a team together right now has to be difficult without actually seeing them in person because you get a feel what each individual is when your around them seeing them respond to you and others . I believe coach Sather has ability to work with players because of this last season where he got players to buy into changes he was doing without loosing them before the start of the season. Even these players he is bringing look good now but few may not pan out over time we will see where players are here they may move on in time its part of the game now. Coach Jones brought players in that were deemed projects and he would find a few jems but a lot were here couple of years and if they didn't pan out they moved on to where it was better fit. This is what happening this year with Sather number of these kids haven't developed like they thought and now are moving on. This is why UND always took time to develop the team but by the end of year they were one better teams it happen again last year with Sather and even under Jones we had this where UND good runs in conference tournaments. The problem with this to average fan loose interest as team develops because you have times when team doesn't look very good but to people running the team they see big picture and are looking for end of the season. The fans want team to be winning all way through the season but being mid major this hard to achieve to have complete team developed to compete the whole season. South Dakota State had one of those teams two years ago but in the end they couldn't win at end because one teams like UND put it all together at the end where they were better than South Dakota upset them. To many on this site don't understand this is not like our hockey team where we are dominate team from beginning to end and same thing for football which we are trying to achieve to be dominate for the season. Basketball for Mid Major is trying to find very good raw talent and develop it each season and hope you catch fire at end and have a good run into the tournaments. There are very few Mid Major programs that can consistently make big runs year in year out in basketball and if they are usually private or ivy league school and basketball is there big sport. But getting back to UND it appears we have put together team that could develop into conference contender if things fall together.

I hate to say it Forum communications business model has brought about a lot of this drop in advertising and people buying there papers or even listening to there news casts on TV. They have consolidated everything around there Fargo/Moorhead for there news content and weather content. The Grand Forks Herald emphasis also was changed in that its chief mission on sports side was UND hockey and I have been a fan of it but there were other things I also was a fan of than UND Hockey. I used to like it when they covered the UND's Football team and Basketball teams but in past year no matter what the lead was the hockey team to be honest I got tired of this. I also have interest in high school sports and not just the Grand Forks schools plus the Thompson connection for the class b side of things. I know for a fact a lot of people outside Grand Forks and Fargo have expressed opinions and lack of understanding of what we wanted in content didn't count and they didn't care if they had our business or not. But I bet you businesses that did do some advertising does care and saw they couldn't reach customers through Forum communications media they went elsewhere they could reach us. I don't know where we are heading but for print to be viable the printing of newspapers has gone the wrong way instead right way now because print by saving costs means by time we receive a newspaper its two days old on what your reading and has no further in-depth reporting like it used to do. Instead of consolidating printing I have thought why can't they small little printers that brings printing and delivery of the newspaper closer to their customers and also cost of moving newspapers around the region. Second this would allow them to regionalize their print media by having different sections printed for different regions making the paper more appealable to ifferent regions than trying to force people to just follow whats happening in Fargo metro area. These are some thoughts I have been having for some time to change the business model.

I don't see anybody to take Stuart place at point guard for next year and without that we are serious trouble for the coming season. It was bad enough this year because if Stuart had to sit we had nobody to replace him on the floor and game could soon get out of hand. I don't see any of the new recruits that can fill that role and there was nobody to fill that role off the bench or we would have seen that player. In today's college game top point guard is must to compete against other teams. I believe that is why both UND and NDSU were in conference championship is because both of them had two of the best point guards in the conference. Other wise the new additions we have added should replace or even improve the team in our other positions. The question I have is there still room to add a player for this coming season.

Und is not that short of team as you are stating we have 5 girls over 6 feet tall and another three girls are 5-10 or better. I agree we need work on physical strength because at times this lack of strength effected our rebounding and defense for this team. The reason you talk about being longer and leaner is because with Brewster he could end up with four guards playing at times and taller players on the bench. Some this was style of defense he wanted to play led to a lot of fouling because we had a lot of reaching and slapping at the ball instead of putting body between the player and basket. Second we never ran offense to put a lot of larger and leaner players in positions where they could score and succeed we were just running up and down floor putting up rushed shot than playing as team getting good looks at the basket. It will be interesting see what changes she makes this coming year for the team I sure hope she makes shift to defense that leads to offense. Also UND needs to get established point guard and I think we have couple candidates on the team that could fill that role but all of them were freshman this year it will be interesting see if they can step up and fill that roll. If this team plays better defense, cuts down on turnovers and cuts it foul rate we could see dramatic improvement in this team.

I have no idea what she will be like for a coach but bottom line I got to believe that AD has to have enough confidence in her to run the program for the coming year. Chaves must have enough knowledge to believe she can do the job and if she does could become the next permanent head coach of UND. So far is telling fact is team has not lost a player request to enter the portal. My gut feeling is she might be excellent coach and if she is responsible for last years recruiting class she has ability to recruit talent. Now the recent recruits look to be talent to fill weaknesses on this team this past year. The interviews she has given I like to hear that she wants emphasize defense in her coaching and from playing days she was known for her offense so if she can manage to get better balance on this UND should improve immediately. Also if attitude of team just improves it means we are way to improving this team for the coming year. This past year we started the season with a lot of positive attitude and we were winning games by end of year we were looking at team that was not like it was having fun out there and some where in between team looked lost and had lost confidence in themselves and were looking for direction and none was being provided by head coach. Bernhard should know what needs to be corrected and improved after watching this team for last few years. I wish her best and will be fan watching and cheering on UND.

I know with all other things going on in the world this may not seem to have much priority but I thought I would bring it up just to get people thinking of something else. I also got to believe that AD Chaves may have more time to devote to it now with all of college sports shut down currently. I have no idea what UND or what AD is thinking on this are they looking into UND ties or are they going to go outside looking for totally new blood for the position. I have to believe it will be attractive position for new coach because there is talent here and has been successful program in the past. I would like to here people with more of know or up on people who are available for the position.

The way things are being done now in the US I wouldn't be surprised if 2019-2020 seasons will be do over next year where players will be able to have extra year of eligibility given to them if they so choose. Since they already have opened the door to spring athletes and since the winter season was not completed I can see them giving extra year of eligibility and having schools being able to have larger number scholarships. Other reasons for this will be that recruits coming in will have not had their high school complete seasons and way things are now I doubt were going to have normal year where these recruits are going to play on AAU teams come spring and summer. Second the teams are not going to be able to work out like in past over the summer and we could still be dragging on with convid-19 even starting next season. The way things have been handled in past has since long gone by with how were handling this virus breakout. I am thinking right now that football season is already in jeopardy for this fall. The way they are trying to control numbers on this sickness is its easily going to stretch out more than 6 months and my guess it will be close to year to year half before we get back to anything normal. I also got to believe that baseball will not be played this year and same thing for golf. American people are going to have to find themselves something else fill their free time for at least remainder of this year other than sports.

I don't think cupboard is bare at all this team overall has a lot of talent and were a lot better than most people think. With the right coaching this could be a team that is contending even next year with addition of player or two. Contrary to what people think we do have long lean forwards on this team Megan Zander, Fleecs, Lane, Jarnot, and Orth plus we have Leet very capable center and Vanloo a project but shows potential if they could work on her for speed and quickness. I think she could become player that could become good center and physical presence on this team. The smaller guards can play at this level and if used correctly could become quite offensive weapon for this team. Look at NDSU how poorly they looked last year and how much they improved under this coach this year and now think of this team they are much more talented than overall I believe than NDSU was last year and with right coaching how far they could progress. Then add in couple of new players to fill in our weaknesses this team could have fast turn around. The big key will be keeping these girls here and so finding new coach that they can buy into now is quite important. I am impressed with Chaves I didn't know if he would be willing to make the change because its always hard letting people go that have been here long time and have done good things for the University. I think it will be good for both UND and Brewster I have thought for several years his heart was not here to coach anymore for what ever reasons. This was good time for a change.

Chaves is going to need to make a decision here in next few weeks with women's basketball program. If he is going to mold this universities sports program for the future he is going to have to start making some tough decisions. The universities women's programs have taken severe hit in last few years. Women's hockey has been eliminated and Volley program had success but much of that success was from fired coach because of personal problems and we have seen nothing but decline in the program. Now we have Women's basketball that has been heading wrong way now for more than 4 years and when current coach was handed the program it was pretty much ready to compete in Division I and two short years was conference champs and NCAA qualifier. The women's programs from athletes we have in the program seem to be above average academically and what I can see at women's basketball side we have recruited talented athletes but were not getting to play and abilities of their talent. These athletes from efforts and their public comments are willing to learn and compete to become better as a team. This leads us to coaching and we have had several assistant coaching changes but bottom line is that program is not improving and their comes time for a change. Brewster has done good things for the program but I just think their comes time when both parties need a change. For what ever reason basketball that Brewster wants to play either his talent is not right for the game or style he wants to play today will not work to produce a winner year in year out but bottom line is he needed to adapt to style of basketball that produces a winner. I know for what I do for living you need to adapt and find things that work either that you fail and go out of business. I think he has been given time to make changes and when you evaluate the program you can't have team that has high foul rate, high turn over rate, and poor shooting performance and not see improvement in over four years but instead those numbers keep climbing. This is not to mention other fundamental flaws the team continues to make this gets back to coaching and philosophy of kind of basketball your going to play. Chaves needs to step up now prevent further decline in UND sports which has been known for high quality of teams it put forth.

I continue to follow the Big Sky Conference and I miss some of the competition we played there. I was at Montana State women's basketball site they had article there about Fallyn Freije and there she said for some reasons she came to Montana State. https://msubobcats.com/news/2020/2/22/womens-basketball-unflappable-fallyn-freije-lets-emotion-flow-after-leading-cats-past-lady-griz.aspx. I found it quite interesting and remember Brew was said she was to take a lessor role here at UND and now see the kind of success she having out there where her talents are being utilized. I feel we have seen this recently with a lot of UND players and I think its time AD needs to look at change coaching here at UND. Brew has done a lot of good things for the program and he now again has recruited I believe above average talent. I just think the program needs a change because were not seeing development of this talent and also I believe were not putting this talent in position improve the talent they have as players. I am reluctant for advocating change in coaches because to many times us as fans don't understand what's all going on with a team but to me things have been going wrong way now for number of years and I have not seen any improvement in our quality of play and I do not believe its because of the talent we have. I look at NDSU new higher seen what he has done with talent he took over and how they improved as the season has gone along and I look at us with the talent we have had and if anything we have not improved much from the beginning of season and this has been happening now for several years. I believe if we can higher the right coach we can compete with anyone in this conference which means we should be able to compete at national level.

I agree and you can see the talent she has and I think it comes down to confidence which is so important for athletes to have if they are going to succeed. She has that size to play the wing for UND which should provide her with opportunities in mismatches to become effective scorer. I just think she needs to start having some success and I also think coaching staff has to start believing in her even when things are not going good and if not they are just wasting her talent. She reminds me a little of like Maddie Buck in her size and her offensive abilities more of perimeter player not inside player which they are asking of her now to play.

The freshmen on this team are talented and are going to get better. Leet was player making the jump this year in what she had learned in past couple of seasons and not having her has hurt this team defensively and offensively. Jaclyn Jarnot has struggled as the season has gone along and I don't know the reason for this but I have seen this with other players under Brew. I wonder if it not where these players are put in position to succeed and soon loose confidence in there game. I don't see how we haven't addressed the turnover issue this has been problem now for at least 4 years and has been getting worse. This last game we had 28 turnovers to Western Illinois 15 reflecting 13 minus turnover at over a point a turnover this alone is where we lost this game. Not to mention amount of fouls we commit a game and points given up on fouls. Pretty hard to overcome these two areas and win a basketball game. This game is not only game where this has been happening for UND and I have seen no addressing this either in there play or even coaching staff talking about it. I still like this team and they have a lot of talent if it is used right but right now were off track with style of basketball were trying to play especially in the Summit league.