ND-fan

I was just looking at the standings if Omaha should get two more wins yet this season other than North Dakota it would mean that for North Dakota to make the playoffs in Sioux falls they would need to sweep to just to reach number 8 seed. Omaha remaining games 1 with WIU, 2 North Dakota, 2 with Denver and 2 with Kansas city all the teams fighting to just get into the Summit tournament. Also all those teams will have played less games than us so we need to have more wins to get higher win percentage to qualify for the tournament. We could easily miss the tournament especially if it comes down to needing sweep on the road in omaha. I watched SDSU and USD play this weekend we have alot of building to do to reach their level of basketball. These teams were are athletic and physical to say the least compared to us. Saturday's game was gem to watch two good teams play nose to nose game and how these teams can score and shoot both on inside and outside. They are both deep with talent and going to their benches doesn't mean fall off in their ability to shoot the basketball. Both of these teams top four guards can out shoot anyone of our guards at the present time. Also they are strong physically and in size but also quick enough to stay with their opposites especially USD. We will get to see that this coming weekend when they come to UND. I believe are front court players will be able to hold our own if they do not get in foul trouble protecting the paint from the their guards penetrating. The two South Dakota schools are where we were 25 years ago here in North Dakota with UND and NDSU having best teams and coaches in their conferences we have some work ahead of us if were going to catch them.

Denver series is going to tell if UND has turned a corner for the program or if we return to what happened with 0 and 13 start. The game we won we saw better shooting from our guards than we had for all season on game one. The second game we started the game again shooting basketball quite well and we lead most of the first half. Then we came to second half and again we saw where we shot ball poorly and we lost our lead and lost the game. This is going to be big question now with Denver are we going to have better shooting or are we going to have what we had before with shooting percentages in 30's. I hope to see better production out Borowicz as she regains her form after such long time being injured. If she can start to handle point guard duties and start scoring as she is capable of we should see some improvement in UND. We need to have sweep but i know that is asking alot for this team on the road. Definitely need a split or the season will basically be over for UND. If this team is have any chance at Sioux Falls we need to some how reach a 6 seed which i don't even know is even possible yet. Other wise we will draw one of the two South Dakota schools which i don't think we have any chance of beating especially when were playing in Sioux Falls.

They can't afford not to have player that can't hit open look once in while i can't remember last time he hit a three when it mattered in game. It something he got to work on to hit open shot he's got form and ability to shoot but he's now has to get confidence and show he can hit that shot.

I watched part of the game he's got talent but he is kid that is going to take time to develop for D I and from what i watched i don't think he's going to make immediate impact and being starter or playing huge minutes his first year. I think they will need to do quite a bit work in weights to get his strong enough to play defense at the D I level. I think he's good recruit in long run because he is athletic and show's skill but like all new recruits it will be how he adapts to this level of play and how hard he works to develop that talent

A sweep this weekend would put UND in position i would believe to no lower than 6 in conference and that would be assuming we lost rest or our games. I think were going to end up either 4 or 5 depending on how we do against South Dakota but this weekend a sweep would put us in position to go as high as 3 in the conference.

Western Ill. looking at their team will be tough match up again for UND because we don't have the guards to match up with them. They have several smaller guards and couple of larger long guards of 5 10" and looking at their stats this team has four five people that can hit outside 3 so we are going to be challenged defensively with them. If they have poor night of shooting we would have a good chance of beating them but they always when we played in past they have been very quick team and i see they also have one post player that has been scoring quite well even with poor shooting if they drive and dish to post still may be tough to get stops. Like all the games this year its going to come down to guard play if we are quick enough to defend and can find somebody to hit few open looks. I wish we could just see this team if it had couple of quick guards that could score both from outside and from driving you would not believe how good they could be with our front line of girls. I believe they would be challenging for conference title with the right coaching.

I have question were seeing all this building downtown but my question is since Covid has happen businesses all over the country are moving away from having there people coming into offices working on daily basis. They are working from home and using zoom to meet with fellow employees. I have cousins out in Washington where Boeing is selling off office space and working from home and i know this is true because my cousin is one these people and he has number other people working under him doing the same. So getting back to here in Grand Forks i am wondering where are all the businesses that are going to set up full offices are going to come from when the trend is moving away from owning or even leasing property to provide office space. Same thing is happening in other cities too I have relatives in Denver where real estate agencies that have four story buildings that used to have building full of people now have only four people coming into office daily and rest are now working from home that is what they think how it will work in the future. I worry and wonder if Grand Forks has great plan but world is changing that it may become a bust for the city. These are just some thoughts i may be all wrong here but i think future of downtown cities from very largest to even small cities like Grand Forks times have changed in just last year that structure of cities may have changed where people work are changing also.

Do you think they are going to let this transgender policies destroy women's sports in US after 40 plus years of title 9 to get women's sports to where it is now. I just don't think they will let go that far. I think politics will change when they see it could change women's sports across America were already seeing some work on this at state level and i got to believe people common sense is going to prevail. Also i don't see how this will translate to world women's sports because if this happens it will kill that also. Its going to be interesting but when the average American who see where there is no opportunity for girls to compete and get scholarship to go school are going to become quite vocal and also become a political issue.

I am not picking on Tiffin but wondering what level of support is coming to the Women's programs in recent years its just not scholarships but total effort to recruit players here to UND. I know there is no expense left for us recruit hockey players and amount of support i believe its like no where else in the country but the question lies at what expense to other UND sports. Yes hockey generates a lot of revenue but i still think this UND athletics is team effort in developing quality sports department. I know there other ideas and feelings on this but UND in the past was known for more than being hockey school we had highly regarded football, basketball, and volleyball programs and we were starting to build programs in soccer and softball. I believe this all can be achieved.

What's happen to UND women's sports in last few years cancelled hockey, basketball is mess, and now hockey is going downhill too. Just three years ago we competing going to NCAA tournament and now in all these sports were bottom of league and plus we lost women's hockey.

Ihenacho is very important piece to UND if its going to make a run at the end of the season. But the next biggest piece to the puzzle is getting Sueker on track before the end of the season. He was recruited for his size and his ability to hit the outside shot and so far he has struggled all season on that aspect of his game. We saw flash of that against NDSU last Saturday and I thought he may have turned the corner but this weekend looks like he took step backwards again. I think its matter of confidence and he's still adjusting to speed of the game which i believe why he is struggling with his shooting. I consider him and Sims in same boat in that they talk about Juco transfers it takes almost whole season for them to adjust to this level of basketball and then you put in abnormal year with Covid its going to take time to get their expected level of performance. The good thing is both of them get extra year and if they do reach level of performance they were recruited for we could have pretty good team in next couple of years.

Its pretty bad when your best outside shooter is your center for the team. I watched tonight's game for the most part we were not taking shots it was just throwing basketball at the rim hoping it would go in or one of other front line could rebound it put it back up for layup. I also thought were beginning to see where this team is starting to give up and i never see where they are having fun on the court. Second i wonder what were looking for on offense were not working ball it seems to get person decent shot at basket. Also were not setting screens effectively either setter is not proper position or person for who screen is for is not using screen to get free from the defender. I can go on but our guard play is terrible i think our guards that played tonight went 7 for 27 for 26% and one guard i think of more as forward than guard had best percentage. Also our guards dribble and hold ball to much instead of passing making the defense move where our front line with proper screening and posting should get a look inside but again i don't think we have guard that can hit outside kick out when middle is jammed up. I think best guard if she can get setup is Garvey but she's has weaknesses on defense so your caught in catch 22. Right now they have so few options at guard when you don't have Borowicz, Kepler, and Anderson all out and this new Lane girl not ready to play yet. It looks to me this team is going to be challenged to get a win this season. I look at Western ILL and look how they pushed South Dakota this weekend were not close to showing we can do that so i see where we could loose those two. Then following that is going out to Denver never easy place to play and reading about them they have excellent guard play so how do we match up with them. Then it comes down to Omaha other team without any wins in conference but were playing on the road if we haven't won a game by then we will have probably sweep to play in Sioux Falls because split i believe would go to them even if they are winless because they would have higher win percentage because of playing fewer games than us. I believe we will be fighting for win this season in next three weeks and i sure hope it comes sooner than later for longer it goes harder is going to be to get that win.

I just hate this i have both Midco plus and ESpn Plus and i don't think i can get game unless you buy another access to Jackrabbit sports which i am not going to do. I miss when we were part of Big Sky and free access to their games on Big Sky tv and Pluto tv. This is something that Summit needs to work on getting where a person can watch their games on consistent provider. If Midco want to televise these games they should televise all the games its a way to grow the brand of the Summit conference.

The Jacks on paper should run away with these games especially at home but this year seems to be different in that its tough to come up with back to back wins. I also think that all time the Jack have had off is going to affect how they play as much as you want to replicate it in practice its not the same as actual game. I do think UND is going to have match up problems with the Jacks and i worry we will get into foul trouble. The big question for me is how Wilson plays if he has all his game like he did last year Grand Forks it will be long night for UND. Because last year he scored from three point land and when you came out defended he blew by for bucket inside i am hoping his outside game in not quite there yet. I also think if couple of UND players are on going to make it difficult for Jack to match up as well if they play up to their abilities. This series comes down to whether if UND can elevate its game to play with the Jacks because they are most complete team in Summit just ahead of NDSU at present time. I think UND can become one teams considered for tournament run but they need to now show their abilities on consistent basis night in and night out so far that has not happened. Also they are going to show they can shoot like they did last Saturday.

Will they wait until end of the season because candidates wouldn't want to commit until end of the season. I was thinking they would want to get head start for the new coach to have time to evaluate team and talent they have and also so they could begin recruiting new talent. Also we have already signed several new players what happens if we do get coaching change to those players. This is one time Chaves put off decision hoping that promoting from within would solve the problem but I think it only got worse and going to take much longer to rebuild. Kiyoat is right our front court can play with any teams in Summit conference but when it comes to our guard play right now maybe our present guards could fill certain rolls at guard but we need top end point guard and just other guards that are quick and can shoot the basketball. Lane girl i sure would hate to see leave and if her sister is coming probably another good front court person. Zander i think with right coaching is going to be presence in next couple of years. Fleecs and Leet if they would come back i would think any new coach would like to have size and ability for extra year giving him time find player he would want to recruit. Gordon and Jarnot I would think if they come back they would be accepted because of their size and both are quick enough and can shoot but not consistently but with different coaching who knows we might see totally different player. When it comes to guards it will come down to new coach if they come back and if they will fit in style of basketball they want to play. The funny thing is go look at there stats team should be in the middle of pack in the standings but the fact is were 0 and 11 and heading for 0 and 13 by end of next weekend. Also our schedule doesn't help either teams that are in lower half of the conference we only get Western ILL. at home and others on road and we are not very good road team past several years so even if we would get sweep with Western Ill. at home its going to be hard to pick up wins 3 and 4 even go to Sioux Falls.

I don't think so and if we do go it will be as number 8 seed meaning one and done faced up against either of the South Dakota schools. Like i said this in previous posts its like we just wrote off this season and they will address what they are going to do next year. Sad part is it wasted number of girls eligibility and effort plus how program is perceived by potential recruits and by the fans of UND. Und women's sports have fallen on hard times since budget cuts we lost Hockey team, and our highly regarded volley and basketball programs are not at the levels they were 5 years ago.

I do too they deserve much better help in getting to win. Bernhard i still like but I think she doesn't have enough experience right now to coach at this level and UND doesn't have tim to let her figure all that out. I think she needed more time being head coach at lower levels to help in game management and developing program she can teach and know what she wants her to team perform. I also think it would have been good if she had coached under several different coaches and programs to get different perspective on coaching and understanding how to look at things differently from new perspective. There may be more things going on than we know to on what changes she could make with the program and for sure this has been tough year to deal with Covid. Yes he has had tough luck with injuries and Covid but she also started the season with players on the roster evidently she or coaches were not going to fit with her. Also there have been several players evidently not available for what ever reason and if this was the case she should have looked at least for mid year replacement with this years rules hardly year to try to play short. I look at UMN where they brought in Borowicz sister of one of our players early to play at mid season because of this years rules and she already is playing the second half of the season. I believe this season may be one of the worst in program history for wins and losses when it all said and done. The sad part of this there are number of good players on this team and they deserve better but i am still proud of them for still playing hard and trying to get to a win.

I think this game was growing experience for the team it will be interesting if they can repeat this performance and even get better which i believe they can. I don't think Urbonavicious was in dog house as much he didn't fit into UND's game plan where they were going with quickness and movement. I do think it was teaching moment for Nero he has talent but he wants to create off the dribble which slows whole movement down on the offense until everyone is standing around. He has all the tools to play Sathers styleyof basketball but he's going to have look to pass first and not so much one on one dribble offense. But back to Urbonavicious NDSU Nelson just exploited him so much night before with his quickness both offensively and defensively it made it impossible for Rebraca to work inside with both them in paint position. So tonight they just had Rebraca in paint and made Nelson come out the paint defend much quicker and more outside shooting threat thus it opened up the paint for Rebraca to work. Also when they played Danielson less his presence was replaced by Panoam, ihenacho, and Igbanugo all of these players are much more offensive threat and there defender has to defend. If Danielson is going to get playing time he has to begin to start hit his open looks you can't continue get large minutes if you can't score and contribute offensively. I think he will find that before he is done at UND but its something he has to really work on if he going to play significantly in the future. Finally Sueker had game where he showed why he was brought in to fill role for UND that last year was filled by Walter last year and Sims before he's done at UND i believe is going become outstanding player in this league because defensively he's already getting there and i think offensively its going to come too. Zdosch was right the loss of DAE is going let some players have opportunity show what they can do and also clarified that they will be called on. Next weekend is going to be real test for this team and we see how much they have grown as a team. I am still optimistic that this team could contend for conference tournament championship if they can put three straight games together but we won't know until end of the season.

I have to say game pattern remain consistent with this team the third quarter where we come out shoot under 30% and tonight it was new low for the year 7.69 % for the third quarter beating earlier game with Toledo where they shot 8.33%. If its not third quarter then its the second quarter where they have shot under 30% couple times this year. The players may have some responsibility for this but i got to believe its coaching when it is this consistent game after game we have poor shooting for a quarter. I believe opposing coaches are making adjustments and were not adjusting soon enough so we loose a quarter very badly and fall so far behind we never quite catchup from that poor quarter. I see other little things where i believe where were missing advantages we have but we seem to stay to scripted play book week in week out with only changes has been we been real short handed on players. I feel bad for these players because they are a lot more talented than there record shows and most are good division 1 talent. Its like the Titanic just keeps plowing ahead in iceberg filled ocean at full steam never making any corrections and we know how that ended.

I agree the team needs to play better offensively but from defense side of basketball game they did not play that badly and considering we have hard time to match up with Ndsu. This NDSU team is very good team and is very big team that is good athletically and is patient about finding there offense. There point guard is big at 6ft 6 even when we have ihenacho on him who has good size is still couple inches smaller. Then you have two 6 10 big man that move well and can shoot from outside or even drive with basketball puts a lot of pressure on us to matchup. If we go big we are touch smaller and our second big man is definitely slower than there's. We can match up at the other two position height wise but we have to maintain contact with player otherwise they will torch us with cuts we can't catch up if were sagging to help on other three. NDSU offense weakness at times they can become poor shooting team and if you as team can score consistently on your possessions you can build a lead to where they have to start hurrying there offense further exposing there poor shooting. For UND to beat this team it is important that we hit the outside shot to spread there defense and second when we do get our open cuts or shots in paint we need to hit those shots. Tonight we missed a lot of good shots in the paint. But we can't have shooting night where we don't hit a three until 3/4 of the game is almost gone. Several of these players were brought in because they had shown they could shoot the 3 and its time now they need to step up get the job done. Last nights shooting of 36% is not going to get the job done especially with the way SU controls the boards. Also we need to take care of the basketball we need to win the turnover margin with SU to offset there rebounding edge. I think Sather will make some adjustments to help his team but the team has to come out be aggressive in moving on offense and finally show they tired of getting pushed around and show them they can beat them if they play there game. In short they tired of getting beat and there not going to roll over every time they meet.

I just read Sather's statement in Grand Forks Herald I think he was kind of caught off guard by DAE decision but at least he communicated to fan base and where they were going from here forward. I think this was also learning experience for Sather too in that top recruits at division 1 level are different animal than he experienced at the division 2 level. I hope in long run its both good for both parties but i do think it changes UND prospects for rest of season it takes away additional depth they were counting on and now they are going to need to find consistent second option on the floor to score to take some heat off Rebraca . DAE gave them scoring option plus for his size he did good job rebounding creating offense off that rebound and allowed them if wanted to go small still had good chance of controlling the ball off the boards. I think it is going to put more pressure on Sueker to pick up his outside game and he will definitely have to be able to play more minutes now.

I want to correct my above statement it wasn't 25 years ago in was in late 70's and early 80's number schools went Division 1AA another correction. The difference also was reading was Big Sky came from large college division prior to 1973 and competed in Division 2. Where North Central Conference was always small college and division 2 in all sports. But reading some on history from 72 to 73 we are similar path on how college sports are going to be structured in coming years.

I guess i forgot about the football reason. But what i was thinking if Western ILL. leaves the Summit i would think the Summit would be looking for another school to get back to 10 schools. I also think if big 5 conferences go separate from Division 1 will the remaining Division 1 schools all be part of one division group or will we end up with two different classes here again. My thought we will be back to where we were in division 2 some 25 years ago when number of schools will want to curtail scholarships to cut costs and make everyone more equal than top tier of remaining Division I athletics. So we could end up with two separate divisions for football with upper tier being able to play against the big 5 conferences as pay date for these schools. History has way of repeating itself because if you look back a lot of Big Sky schools and Missouri Valley conference were division 2 but they then went to then was Division 1A. The old North Central Conference schools which we were apart of stayed until Division 2 had become so watered down and wanting to still cut back more they to left. So my thinking is are we going to see something similar to this again only we will want to stay in this upper tier of Division I schools for football.

I have question if the Summit is looking for 10 th school why hasn't Northern Colorado been looked at. They are much closer to number of the Summit league school for travel and they would have natural travel partner in Denver. Also Denver has direct flights to most of the schools in the Summit league much easier traveling and costs would have to be lower than in the Big Sky. Is there are other reasons for not wanting to be in the Summit.

I have a question when he references the changes going all the way back to 1973 is NCAA looking again at the makeup number of colleges that have moved up to division 1 status in last 10 years and are they going to make changes to requirements for division 1 status for colleges and also for other divisions in NCAA. I also think other things he said had to do with finances of athletic department going forward and i have to believe they are also looking to improve on facilities because number of them will need updating near future to keep pace with other conference members updating of facilities in last few years.