ND-fan

I do believe we are recruiting better talent but one year's recruits won't suddenly turn us into contender in the summit. We have to have improvement of the players that are on the team now with additional talent to become a factor in the conference. We can't keep having years where we our loosing players to injury and expect to put quality team on the floor. Last night we are missing Anderson, Davis, Vanderwal, Wallace, and Gordon off the roster and i believe these are all scholarship players. That is 1/3 of our team and then we had Borowicz sitting for both of the opening haves we expect to compete with one top teams in mid major program. The next thing is probably won't have the services of Lane now for several weeks after injuring her ankle. Then we have Leet who picked up her third foul in third quarter trying to protect her we sit her but at time were down 20 points what do we have to loose if not try to let her play with the fouls but instead we protect her and then were down 30+ points by time she gets back in but then were trying to press where she not fast enough to play so she ends sitting for most of 4 quarter on the bench especially when were shorthanded for the game. The game management of this game stunk from the very beginning and i hope they look at this film of this game and not only from what players did but how they coached the game because there are alot of things they could learn about themselves. The other thing last night was we missed i don't know how many layups and not by younger players by leadership like Orth. Finally, one last thing i will say is we are terribly undersized in height and also physical strength to like of South Dakota. I look at their girl's size and lower body strength we look like children out there to bunch of adults. I will say with the above complaints were improved over last year but i think we need to address these areas plus number of other areas if were going to improve this team. I still believe Bernhard is learning and i think she can get the job done but she needs to be more open to public getting fans informed on what they are doing right and wrong. I look at her counter part at South Dakota you can go see her news conferences after the games plus her coaches show and she tells more in her one public appearance than Bernhard puts forth in whole season. Then look how the fan base follows this team and invested in them something to learn from.

also missing Anderson and Davis our 7 and 8 players off the bench. Also is Vanderwal out for the season or will she return before season end we could us another tall girl to just help for few minutes. I thought this would be much closer game but missing these players has hurt in our rotations. Second is Orth has missed at least 6 bunny layups tonight which hasn't helped. South Dakota has showed why they are rated but i don't think this has been great effort on our part. I don't think we well prepared for this game at least we sure didn't have game plan to beat them from the game we played. This is not good way to start the conference season and my guess is South Dakota State is going to light us up come Saturday. I feel we can't match up with them size or quickness at all. I think we gave up in second half and i don't understand saving Leet because of her foul situation and then she ends up sitting on the bench with 3 fouls. I guess i am confused what the game plan was and use of the players available. I think Bernhard will need to explain what happened.

They played alot better than i expected and if they could have finished like they played in the middle of second half they could have pulled upset. T played like the press he received coming into this year and Bruns is playing much better than anybody could have guessed for true freshman. Being down to 8 players may have helped instead of playing 10 -11 we had players that had to perform and new they were not going to be pulled as soon as they made mistake taking the additional pressure not making mistake away but just going out there and playing hard. I see where we getting core of young players that could be built around in the future.

I was impressed with women play tonight with exception of the turnovers you can't have minus 10 differential on turnovers and also not scoring in the paint but we had the shots there in the game but couldn't get them to go down. I wish we had another big girl to just to play a few minutes to give Lane just a little more rest. I think that is why we struggled offensively some in second half she was tired and it effected her shot and also her positioning for getting the basketball. Hoskins and Anderson will need to fill that roll as the season rolls along. This is such different team than last year overall play is up we should be one of teams in the middle of the conference by year end and that's if we stay healthy. This is team that could be contending in the Summit if they progress and add some more talent in next few years.

I hate to agree with you but i don't see us having very good time against NDSU especially with Nero and Sueker down. I don't think this will even be close we can't match up with them and i have feeling this will be similar result like SDSU had against KC. This looks like to me going to be pretty much 3 team race in Summit and were not one of them.

This is going to be long season especially if we miss Sueker and Nero are hurt. We can't loose our top two players to injury on thin bench already and if Howard did quit even makes bench that much thinner. Howard was not going to be big factor at UND because he had limited ability in that he wasn't big enough to play inside and not quick enough to play on outside especially when it came to playing defense. He had a roll where he could provide some offense but that would be limited playing time. This team just doesn't have the size to compete inside and players they have playing on front line are just not experienced enough to get the job done. I looked again we were out scored in the paint by more than 20 points and if this continues into the conference season were going to get lit up by upper teams in the conference. Looking ahead at NDSU were going to be eaten live in the paint they have experienced front line and bigger than we are, Our only hope for us is if we can shoot from perimeter near 50% we may be in this game but even then we would have hard time beating them. Sather knows right now the team they put together after last year's major turnover is not going to fair well in conference play. I hate to say it, but the pressure is going to be on him to turn this program around and i got to believe they will have to see significant improvement after next season. I have been thinking on this yes he was handed team that lack roster depth when he took over but again all weak players that were part of that first year either he inherited or he brought in have left. The problem is that we still have roster problems by players transferring out or we have just missed on their ability to play at this level. The current freshman class looks like we have turned the corner but we will need to retain them and build from there. The problem i see where fans are going to be upset is were going to have several teams in our conference like ST. Thomas that will have already passed us and they were just division III, Western Illinois who look like there coach has rebuilt them in less than two years, and even South Dakota who lost through transfer and injury looks to be farther along than we are. I still believe Sather can become very good coach but his learning curve and his assistant learning curves on recruiting and retaining division I players may have cost us year or two. Also I have to believe covid hasn't helped either and may be big factor in our recruiting and retaining players at the university. All i know is this going to be very difficult season and our record will show it at the end of the season.

I went to box score of Mayville state and Bemidji state the game was fairly close in first half and Bemidji blew game open in the fourth quarter. Voegeli only played about 15 minutes of that game and it was early season and Mayville played pretty much there whole bench in that game. It's always hard to compare by teams match up against other teams match ups. Bernhard said they didn't play very well but also said Mayville had several players of D I ability so my take is Mayville is probably going to be very good team in NAIA and North Star conference and watching last night i didn't see where Mayville was that out matched with the players they had on the floor. Also they had very good size for small college basketball team. This where i think UND has problem matching up with alot of top Summit conference opponents in that they are not very deep on front line with size. This team is playing better than last year but i think talent wise were behind top half of the Summit conference. I see next years class addresses alot of these issues and number of freshman this year should be better after year of playing or developing practicing. Bernhard is rebuilding threw recruiting and that takes time after how far the program had fallen.

Zac i guess i still disagree with you on our guard play because i think why we have regression at guard play is that we don't have player like Rebraca in the middle and yes the players haven't progressed but i never thought they were high quality guards but they filled roll last year when they had Rebraca. But when you had player like Rebraca in the middle that could score and create his own shot it just opened up outside for guards like Panoam and Igbanugo who are left open can hit that outside shot. Thats the difference this year that little extra time has effect on our shooting percentage. Also last year we had Nero and Ihenaco both guards that can create opening for themselves scoring and played better defense so they could just rotate those other two in situations where they could be real factor. Now this year we don't have inside presence and teams are exploiting this weakness. If you go back to Montana game we shot the ball well and Howard had career game both shooting from outside and inside and Tsartsidze had effective game inside and one of few games we were close to other team in points in the paint. The last three games we have been out scored in paint and also shot ball poorly especially when the game counted and after they had the game in hand they played deeper in their benches so some statistics get skewed then in overall game. I guess i think Sather was taking a big gamble on four year players progressing to next level because usually what you have in player is pretty much set after playing four years of college ball. But getting back to front court we basically have Tsartsidze sophomore and the two freshman because Sueker has size but he is more outside forward/guard than inside player. That leaves little experience at frontline position and none of them had played division i basketball. I think Sather may find something before years over that might work because he is as good as any I have seen getting best out of players. That's my hope he may pull upset or two in conference tourney. Also that other freshman guard i have to believe he had to be in there plans of replacing Ihenaco. I just think this rebuild now will take several years because it takes times for players learn to win and develop as team.

Zac you say und had major issues i would like to elaborate on that. Yes jones roster had issues but most mid major programs have weaknesses in their roster's but it did have some very good players on the team Sather inherited Rebracha, Stewart, Walter, and Brown. DAE as i remember was going to leave and Sather convinced in him staying and he did have good first year. Moody other player with some talent just didn't mesh or fit in what Sather was doing and that happens. I agree with you it has been hard recruiting to rebuild team. But the first year he was here the recruits of that year I contend are part of the reason we are at where we are. Danielson, Ramsey, and Urbonavcius of this class we only have Danielson good kid works hard plays defense and can rebound at times but has almost nothing from offense can be expected. This leaves us when we are on the floor with four against five trying to score. Also we could have used even just average big man with experience from this class but it has turned out these scholarship went to number young players. This may be best move in long term to get this team turned around but it sure doesn't help sell the program to the fans. I looked at your tv shots of the crowd and then came to student section it was empty and crowd was made up people like me older die hard fans. This is the change i have seen younger generation if doesn't happen now they loose all interest. Also it didn't help yesterday that Eastern Washington retooled with number of transfers and seemed to have pretty good team on floor that was long athletic. I was thinking what we couldn't have done with one more big man like they had brought in where we could match up against these taller teams. That has been my only criticism on Sather recruiting i thought he needed to bring in experienced big man that had played division i basketball for this year and that scholarship could have been available again next year. I just think we're going to see teams play us with bigs as much as possible because we're going have hard time to match up with them. Second we really don't have a star or go to player when we need scoring and that will only come from these young players and that will be likely Bruns but very difficult for freshman. Treyson looks to be very good player but like all recruits see how he develops as player. I think Sather is very good coach but like you say he has had difficult time to recruit in. Second i think he also had learning curve on players needed to play at this level but i see improvement in that area too. The problem is were going to suffer through very poor season and maybe another one until this group matures.

Sorry this was for mens forum i didn't realize i was on women's forum .

I think this years recruiting class has potential for some very nice players but the problem is that they were not ready to take on full load to compete at division I level. The loss of last years transfers like Rebraca and Inhenaco left void in this team that couldn't be replaced. Rebraca loss was real hurt because you just don't go out find another player of his caliber talent wise and team leadership. I understand his situation UND didn't have the advance degree he wanted and he been using his basketball scholarship to get his education paid for. Second he's getting chance to play at power 5 school starting plus getting high quality education. Inhenaco transfer i don't understand from basketball stand point because he would have been getting more playing time and he is playing for mid major school after the transfer. The other transfers i don't think has hurt us and we probably have gotten as good or better talent back this year in this recruiting class. Sathers first year recruiting class is where he didn't acquire any top level recruit that was class of Danielson, Ramsey, and Urbonavicius and two of those three already gone from the program and are replaced in this recruiting class. The problem is that has left us with void of experienced players compete with for this year. I think Sather is going to be good coach but learning curve to moving division I has hurt us in presence and then add in covid 19 year hasn't help him in being able to recruit. But looking at teams in Summit this year i think were seeing effects of covid with exception of couple of programs who were able to keep veteran teams. I think his recruiting is getting better each year and you can see it each of his classes of recruits and i expect next years recruits to be even better but its takes time for these recruits to develop and learn how to win. The key for him now is to retain top recruits and start having success but with these new transfer rules it's going to be tough on small major programs when power 5 schools and large midmajors programs are using small midmajor programs like minor league system when they have need to just steal it away from these small midmajor schools.

We don't have inside player that you can count on to score one on one down low in the paint. I think Sather and company blew it last spring in not finding another post player that can score down low. Urbonavicius could score better down low in the post than the players we have on the bench now and he wasn't very good. I think the three post players we did pickup last year could develop in adequate post players but we are far from that happening this year. They should have been looking for transfer that could have filled that roll for this year. Bruns is going to be star player in the future and he's getting better each game but he can't carry this team and shouldn't have too. When we have starting 5 out on the floor we can somewhat play with other teams but soon as we substitute were in trouble and as game goes along teams find ways to beat us and run the score up. This is going to be long season ahead for us we will be lucky to win 5 games in the conference and that may be way to high a figure. I wonder what Sather is thinking now because the group of kids he has recruited there are to many without real athletic ability to be playing division I basketball. This has to be priority going forward for him to get to next level of player to come here. Its possible because Jones recruits there were a number of them were at next level of play and he had them coming here. I thought we would be better but i just read print that Tsartsidze was real jem and he may be but he has ways to go and were already to conference season and we have no alternative with our next post players true freshman. Like i say this is going to be long season and we have ways to go rebuild this team and it may take even more next season before we can start moving forward.

yes you want higher goals but looking at this team now and other teams in the conference there are years where even moderate goals are difficult to achieve. This team is so very young and at this point has no real stars on this team. Now looking at rest of the conference the top teams in conference were able to keep there teams in tack and also keep their 5 year starters. Here at UND we lost one true star in Rebraca and up coming star in Ihenaco to transfers which has put a big whole in this team. We have choosen to go with young players and build a team from there but going that way were at least 1 to 2 years before where we can make run conference championship. What happened last spring put UND back to where we were when transitioning from DII to DI. Sather is really going to have coach and get most out this team to even have record close to last year. The coming year he has to land several high end recruits or transfer if this program is going to compete. I was more optimistic earlier but looking at last couple of games i can see were not athletic as we have been in the past. Jones was much better recruiter of finding athletic players and turning them into productive players and so far Sather has only had couple of those players like Ihenaco and Bruns and couple of these other young players may turn into some jems. I hope i am wrong on what i have seen so far but we have long way to go with this program.

We keep playing like this were not likely to make the Summit tournament next spring. I thought by now we have developed rotation we would want to play for conference but looking at tonights game were still playing everybody so this must mean were still haven't found who we are going to go with. The biggest problem i see we don't have inside game Tsartsidze the player with most experience can play some defense but hasn't developed a move where he can be effective scorer. Norman other experienced inside player is undersized to create a shot for himself in the middle. To be fair these are still young players developing. The rest of the players we recruited are freshman and are not ready to play large number of minutes. So without inside game puts pressure on the outside game and here again we need that inside game to give our players time to hit the outside shot and second right now this team is just not shooting period you can't have periods in game where your shooting in the teens. I guess i have questions also why we have Grant playing so many minutes he doesn't shoot very well, he gets lost playing defense giving other team good looks from not being there on defense. The best part of his game is ability to feed ball down to other players but overall i just don't think he ready to be playing. I thought this team would develop more and i was optimistic they would do that after Montanna game but since we have been going backwards or maybe not either it may be that other teams have picked up on weaknesses and have adjusted how they play us. If this case we may not be vary good team were to young, weak inside, and looks to me not as athletic as we used to be. We have some very good young athletes and our experienced players are very good role players but we have no real stars on this team like in the past like Stewart and Rebraca to go too.

The transfer portal is just a fact for all college sports and reason why players are entering can be any number of reasons and may not reflect on program or the coach so i think we need to get over it and move on. Yes, it hard to loose talented player like Weah but if were going to succeed we need players that are committed to the program and want to be here. Weah will have to find home where it meets his requirements and what he think's he can accomplish. I wish him well on this endeavor and hope things turn out great for him. I myself think and many other here think he may be making mistake but only the future will tell us which of is right and i believe people have right to choose their own paths. My only concern is that if Bubba can find equally or better talent to replace the people were loosing and getting these people to buy in to the program push us over where we are playing for championship.

I thought the same but i was really disappointed in the performance i had been waiting all week to be able to watch the team and then we had this performance. I still think this team has potential to be good team and i know they can shoot better than they have showed. I haven't given up in them and i do think were going to be factor in Summit conference but this year Summit looks to have number of good teams so i would like to see them start making some progress. I know were young but i think they have ability to be good team.

They looked better with Olivia Lane back and Borowicz we are better than last year but right now we are still going to have hard time in the Summit conference. The two South Dakota schools we are going to have hard time matching up against they are longer and more athletic than we are right now. Lane, Leet, and Anderson gets us part of the way there but we have no more depth at those positions to match up with their benches. Ndsu we should be able to match up with them were very similar in talent on front lines and i think we may be better at the guard positions. Western Illinois i think is quicker and maybe deeper on the front line. The rest of Summit i haven't watch play yet so i can't say how we would match up. My guess is we could reach 5 position in the Summit with a chance to beat either the 4 or 3 teams on given night but the Two South Dakota Schools are cut above the rest of us as it stands now. South Dakota State if they get Selland back and she returns playing like she did last year it will be very difficult task to nearly impossible of beating them. They would have very complete team better than last year especially with their new point guard Meyer. South Dakota is just experienced team with 3 five year starters back this year and their bench seems to be improved.

This game was over before it even began. The team looked like fawn caught in the headlights we looked scared out there and shots they were putting up looked like it they weren't even close to be made. I thought we might come out the second half with some fire to show them we were not going to lay down instead we looked like we were ready to go home. They could have just forfeited the way they played second half nobody was working to get open shot and thinking of making the shot it was they were playing with hot potato out there until they had to throw a shot up there. The best of group was Bruns he was aggressively trying to score and get open it showed he led the team in scoring. Our interior play was terrible, there big man had them so scared they were afraid of attacking the basket with out doing that they had no chance of putting him in foul trouble like he has been all season. Sather has to be not very happy with this performance. Looking at this road trip looks like they have taken two steps backward. I thought we were on moving to another level but now we need at least step forward to get back to where we were. Hard to access how we played defensively when we were shooting 5% for while on the floor and giving up i don't know how many turnovers that let them shoot layups lucky for us they couldn't hit a layup. This has to be big concern going forward because effort wasn't there hopefully going forward leaders of team step forward to not let this happen again.

Actually its 4 games in 6 days plus traveling to Florida for the final three games. I know other teams have played 3 games also but add in the traveling for whole day and it wears on person. It has shown up in shooting percentages been have dropping each day but it's good in long run to help develop this team. I think this team is playing better than i thought this early in the season. The problem i see going forward is Summit conference is going to very difficult conference this year the top 3 schools are playing already great basketball and have competed well against power 5 schools and then you add in KC and WIU already beating couple of power 5 conference schools this is going to be difficult conference. The transfers and 5 year seniors have made number of schools in conference much better than were last year so its going to be very interesting year. Then consider last year conference champion almost made the semifinals of NCAA tournament.

Chaves is going to need put some time in on this hire because its going to take someone that can really recruit talent, plus coach up this young talent, and then be able to keep such talent if we don't start winning right away. I am sorry this goes back to Pryor he got handed team that was young talented and he was good enough coach ride these players to successful record but as he was going along the cupboard was getting thinner and thinner until he needed to move on and when he did all he could get was division III job back in his beloved Texas. The Tiffen hire was just pouring more gas onto sinking ship and this goes to Chaves he just looked at previous records of Volleyball team and thought with his resume the volleyball should remain middle of pact in conference. I don't know if lack knowledge or just not high priority for him but is seems he has let women's sport lag behind. I remember Chaves coming here saying how he wanted to be AD to major hockey power and by god that was he has focused on. I like hockey but i love some other sports as much or more remember when they were just important and they were playing for things at national level and winning championships. I hated when people say were hockey school and i think it just limits what we can be our history has shown we had been power in Mens and Womens basketball, Football, and we were becoming that in Volleyball. The majority of college world follows these sports and if we are to get national recognition it will be in these sports.

This year has been team that has shown it can play with anyone but problem has been to finish people off in end of the game. I believe this is sign of young team especially at the skilled positions on offense and the defense was good but hurt by injuries. I have to believe were going to be better next year on offense and i think defense will still be quite strong. It will be interesting see how our young players develop and what we can add to this team the defense needs to add to lines in numbers and size. This team with a few breaks could have easily made the playoffs this year but it wasn't meant to be. I am sure to hear how it was all coaching but watching this team they are well coached they make very few penalties and they play well together as a team. I felt for this team but i also know were very close to being very good team that could make championship run. I remember coming from 80 and 90's when we had similar results until it finally all came together as program and i think were about to do the same again.

I take from broadcast that we have lost Gordon for the year. Borowicz could be back by the weekend. That leaves Lane does she have injury or she sick i didn't see her on the bench if were going to have shot at competing in the Summit conference were going to need her or we don't have size to compete with other schools which we saw today again with us getting beat down low and getting out rebounded. Bernhard statement that not knowing who was available for weekend would worry Montana or Montana State is just rhetoric because these coaches prepare there teams for the talent they have available and second right now i don't think anybody worries about us right now because were not that good of team so far haven't shown it yet this season. They are coming here to prepare there teams for conference schedule so they are working on developing their players and feel they can do this and still win the game. This looks to be repeat of last year with to many injuries only this time its front line players being hurt not the guards like last year. I don't know but sure looks like Bernhard is snake bit but freshmen she has recruited look to have talent and also some of the transfers look to be nice additions but can't keep loosing players to injury or sickness. The way things look right now we are in for long season i thought we could move up to middle of the pack in the conference but right now i have my doubts with how this season is beginning.

If we do replace coach i want a coach that has positive attitude and totally into believing in UND i didn't get that from Pryor that he had any love for UND, North Dakota, or anything with area. I remember watching him being interviewed on Big Sky TV and how he hated the weather and it was amazing people lived up here. You can't tell me that when this first things come out of his mouth this is not going to get you the upper hand on the recruiting front and your giving advantage to other schools your recruiting against because if they hear this they are going to use it against you. With Tiffen he has been rather low key and it was hard to get a feel what he was real like in day to day world. He also came when Pryor didn't leave much in pipeline for talent and then he had media blow up over the two players which i think was poorly handled by the University which should have been handled internally and can't but feel it hurt team internally and sure hasn't helped them recruit or retain players no matter what side of the fence you were on with handling the players. I don't envy the new coach because we are at the bottom of barrel as program now with one win team and i have my doubts we could beat division II teams and even some of the small colleges in volleyball. This is going to take years to rebuild and second i have my doubts on level of support UND is giving to women sports look at where we are in all women sports at UND compared to other schools in the conference. We have no upper tier program in conference and were rebuilding programs in most of the sports.

I don't know how are chances are to being selected to the playoffs but i have to think if we do beat SDSU they have to be not considered for the playoffs or am i missing something. They would have 4 and 4 conference record ending the season on two game loosing streak and would have 3 of their 4 conference losses at home. Also they there second half of season would have record of 2-3 not team showing improvement but declining as the season is going along. I see where most feel they are shoe in for the playoffs but i believe they have to be on bubble and will get in because of Missouri Valley conference and politics of the conference. That is why see our chances of getting in small being the new school to the conference and because of our record. I have feeling we will be lucky to get team to semifinals this year out the Missouri Valley i just don't see any of teams that don't have some weakness in make up their teams not like in past years where NDSU and other top schools in conference were in top five schools in FCS. I may all be wrong on this but UND making the playoffs i got to believe are slim at best especially when looking at latest rankings see we weren't even receiving any votes for the top 25.

What happen other night when we were missing number of players for the Weber state game. Why does everything have to be such deep dark secret around this athletic program just come out with what happened did number of players test positive for covid or was there something else. This is not good sign again where we have number of players unavailable to play for a game. We went through this last year and again everything was big dark secret how do expect fans to invest in team if they are not willing to invest into fans ability to follow this team. The team we put on the floor other night could not compete in Summit conference and would even have hard time competing in North Star conference of small colleges. I turned on the game saw we had short bench and no one even mentioned this through the whole game. The positive of the game was new player from Texas DJ Davis looks like she could be candidate for point guard if see can improve her shooting and the new recruit of Jodi Anderson looks like she could develop into quite offensive player before the year is done. From there it's hard to tell when we played with four small guards on the floor exposing Leet to cover up for our lack of size which led her to foul trouble. Let us hope we can get our full team back and we start developing into team that can compete in the Summit conference. I sound critical but more so disappointed that we have to start again like last year we need to have something positive happen if your going to get any fan interest in this team.