ND-fan

Since we become member of Summit conference its always been that everyone is talking about SDSU but for most part they have been good team but by end of year somebody comes along and knocks them in conference tournament. The difference in number of these teams is not that much and if any team has off night and other is on it can end in upset. I think alot of this has todo with most of the teams are made up younger players and its hard to get consistent play night in night out. I look at Und they have couple players i think by end of the season will be hitting the outside shot but this team is young team with no seniors on the team and it makes big difference to have senior leadership. UND top seven only Rebraca and DAE have experience playing in the conference and DAE is only about 85 to 90% coming off injury. KC plays a game where they foul and play physical basketball wearing you down and i believe that what's happened Sunday it showed from the beginning of the game we were slower and showed up in our free throw shooting. This team I think is going to get tougher mentally and physically as season goes along and I think Sather has been working on them to get better in this regard. Last years team was led by three seniors and NDSU was senior led to and both reached conference finals but this year in Summit there is no team that is senior dominate so it should be interesting year.

Mallory if she new that these players were not going to play for her should have then talked to these players about there future with the program see if they could move on or found alternative for their scholarships to where she could bring in a players that would meet the program needs. Yes she should have known what their abilities were being here for 8 years as assistant coach. The front line talent on this team is above average and could even be better if they had good point guard. I even as fan can see the weakness on this team is in their guard play. A top of line point guard would open this offense up on this team but you can't have guards that are shooting 25 to 35% from the outside because what's happens everyone just doubles down on bigs inside to where we struggle offensively. When we shoot the ball effectively we become pretty decent team which has shown up in all of our games but we can't have quarter where we shoot 25% less for whole quarter you'll never win any games to much so we end up with 33% percent shooting for the game. I just looked at our statistics as team were shooting 36% for the year and from three point line were shooting 29% you can't win basketball games with that kind of shooting no matter how well you are playing defense. Teams against us are shooting almost 41% from the field and 35% from three point line. A comparison by other teams in league is as follows: Teams FG% 3PT% OPP FG% 3PTS% PTS per Game Denver 39.7 33.6 45.2 34.2 69.3 KC 42.8 36.0 40.7 32.9 73.0 NDSU 43.2 40.3 38.5 24.7 74.2 OMAHA 30.9 24.6 41.3 31.9 51.2 ORU 31.0 26.5 41.9 34.3 57.1 USD 44.6 33.5 36.4 33.8 77.1 SDSU 43.2 33.1 37.8 27.3 69.0 Western ILL 37.2 28.1 43.3 37.4 65.1 UND 36.0 29.2 40.7 34.8 67.0 The above statistics show about middle of pack in Summit on defense and near the bottom on offense not a good place to be in for the rest of the year. Also of teams that are lower tier on the above chart we only have Western ILL. at home so even where we are better statistically we will have to play them on the road. This is why i think we could wait long time to see our first victory for the year and longer we go harder will to get that victory. yes were not shut down team defensively but worst is we used to be one leaders on offense with defense were playing now would have added up to more wins. In todays basketball you need to be at least 32 to 35% from the 3pt line and were far from that now.

Bernhard got out coached today she played right into KC hands playing her starting 5 all the way for the game. When your up by 12 to 15 points should have played her bench some resting her players. KC basically worked at wearing them down as game went along. I don't understand not using your bench more than she did you have to know they are going to be spent by end of the game or in foul trouble. She had more of bench against NDSU and again same thing happened she came to end of the game with wore out players not shooting well and step slow having hard time getting to the basketball. Second is should they have looked at lifting redshirt to just add another player available especially when two of your subs are front court people. This appears to me this is just going to be lost year for women's basketball burning up eligibility of number of our players when we were close to having competitive team if we had point guard that could create offense set up our big front court. I haven't given up on Bernhard but I don't see yet where she learning from her mistakes and she got to let the bench play and they will make mistakes but if you don't you'll never develop team that can play for the long haul. This whole preseason she has played at least 4 players near 30 minutes a game and next 3 players near 25 minutes a game not way to build up a bench you can count on. I look at our schedule playing ORU at there home is not easy place to win a game, NDSU is going to be tough win even at home, and then we go SDSU which I don't even think will be close games. So we could easily go 0 - 13 not what is expected from UND women's basketball and its going to be hard sell to public to continue with this coach if this happens. This is not all on Bernhard but to sell yourself you need to start showing improvement in the program some this just communicating to the public. The AD office should have been here also helping but I get feeling with this AD has fallen in love with Hockey that is what is sold to the public but not all people live and breath hockey. Und was once basketball powerhouse in upper midwest especially in women's basketball.

UND is sure keeping women's program from public eye for opening the conference season. So far no pre game release by UND for women's basketball. Haven't heard how ticket sales have been for the games coming. Usually by now they would have press release especially coming into New Year but not a word. Also how many players will they have available for the conference season. The last game against Toledo they dressed only 9 meaning we have 4 players unavailable as of our last game. Interesting in that there has been no explanations for why so many players are unavailable. We have heard three are injured in Lane, Borowicz, and Wallace and looks like Keplin must not going to play when there we have been only dressing 9 players. The big thing is were missing right now three guards for the conference season and that is weakness of this team especially from offensive stand point. I just don't get what going on here its like they trying write season off and hope nobody even notices we are having a season.

I was hoping for single game ticket sales but that is not the case. I like attending several games a year but it all depends when and what is permitted by schedule so I have never bought season tickets i have looked into them but i felt i lived to far away to be able to attend all the games. Liked it couple of years ago when they sold the Dakota package i bought those tickets those were games i had most interest in for both men and women's. I hope maybe they can do something like that yet this year like package deal. When you have couple hours drive it hard to make all the games but i like to support the teams as much as possible.

We could see where we have fans by spring. I think majority of Americans will have been vaccinated by then and we will be returning to more normal times. I also feel there could be big crowds because people are so tired of being cooped up they will want to get out enjoy things again and i don't think people will stand for isolation after we have been vaccinated.

I just got done watching UND's last game and I had to chance to watch SDSU last couple of games I have come to believe this year is going to be lost year because of the level of talent we can put on the floor to other teams. The big difference is not on the front line of UND but is the back court. Our guards undersized and lack strength to play against a lot of D-I teams. Second is not one of present guards we have can create a shot for themselves and even when they take a shot its low percentage were going to see them hit that shot. Manson who is now playing has best shot but she is undersized against majority of D-I schools we have played and will show glaringly when we play SDSU. I think Borowicz maybe could grow into a becoming a good guard but she is hurt now and we have no idea of when she will return. Lilly Keplin last year showed most ability of shooting especially from beyond arc. She has not played since the first game and no reason for not playing so i assume she will not be available for this season. Maykla Wallace what hurt in NDSU game and i got to believe we will not see her for some time. But getting back to the team that has been playing on the floor we do not have a go to guard that can create scoring and hit outside shot. The lack of outside game takes away from the strength of this team which is front court because every team is just packing in around our big girls. I wouldn't be surprised that lack of wins continues for this team and looking at the schedule it could be well into second half of the conference season before it happens. If we do get a win it will be in this first series. UND is going to turn around this program its going to need put priority on finding good point guard. Its going to be long season with many 20+ losses this year.

Well it has done some of that look at NDSU attendance levels for basketball they are no where they were back when I was young and they sure are not what they were at UND. When UND and NDSU were division 2 there attendance for both men's and women's games were I believe double what they are today. It was not uncommon that Hyslop was near capacity which I believe was around 4500 people. When UND was part of NCC SDSU, NDSU, and USD games were hard ticket to get to see because alot of the time they were sold out. The NDSU game was especially hard ticket to get and even back in that time games were televised locally because of large fan interest and there were many different articles about games in local paper. Now today UND hockey has taken all that interest and it shows in fan attendance, TV rights, and media coverage devoted to the team. Same thing goes for NDSU football its the sport that garnishes most attention for the school. The difference in fan attention was when they were division 2 in basketball they were one elite teams in that division both in men's and women's programs people could identify that they were playing for something they had chance to become a champion. This why i believe why we see where Und fans interest is in the hockey program they have chance to win championship and same thing is for NDSU in football they are power house FCS football. Now you come to basketball its about winning Conference tournament and getting to NCAA tournament but having reasonable chance of winning national title is not going to happen. Yes i like to be competitive but that's not going to happen with small mid major team you can be competitive in your conference and similar small mid major conferences but when you play upper tier of division I schools winning a game or so from these schools is best you can hope and if you do better than that they won't schedule you. Its way been all my life and nothing has changed and probably will never change. PS if they wouldn't have created FCS for football same would be for that sport teams would be playing to win conference title.

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.