ND-fan

I was looking at our schedule we only have three games left we are probably locked into our 6 or 7 position but one win would probably lock in 6 place finish. A bigger factor would be if we would be able pull off upset against St. Thomas would probably change who we would play in opening round game of tournament. My guess we would end up playing Omaha a loss probably sets up against SDSU or St. Thomas. My feeling I would prefer to be on opposite of bracket of SDSU. If that would happen I think NDSU and USD would. Have greater chance of beating SDSU then we would again. Also I think we could beat Omaha we match up them best top 3 teams. Second I think KC could pull off upset of St. Thomas because they have talent to beat anyone on neutral court. Also both Denver and ORU could be difficult in opening round these young teams are much better than at beginning of the season. SDSU is probably favorite especially basically at home in front of their crowd.

I have question I believe it was reported that President Armacost had input on football hiring if that was true. I had to believe Armacost had to approve additional money and commitment for football. The other major sports needs similar commitments and changes in these programs like football received this December for the coming year. I know there are posters that are in know what is happening and how university address the problems in athletic department. This has to be communicated to public because people are loosing good will.

Mallory after game interview said the changes made after halftime were suggestions of Hutter which explains a lot. The only positive it appears player like Mallory. I wouldn’t be extending her on one game win when you look at her total record but nothing would surprise me. The big question to ask do you believe Mallory can make us contender for winning conference in next two years. If Chaves does that his job she be tied to his next extensions.

We play the bison tomorrow night what are peoples thought on the game. I thought we might have had chance if Bison had played SDSU better on Wednesday night but I have feeling Jory going to have them motivated by there poor play Wednesday. If we play like we did Wednesday the game will be over at half time. I expect Demers to have better game around but the problem will be if we can control basketball. Second if we run any offense but will we play one on one offsense with very little assists and scoring coming individual basis. My guess we loose by 16 to 24 points. Chaves and Armacost got to be there unless they both travelled with hockey team. If they are there I hope they attention.to product and quality play compared to what we have to the Bison because both coaches have been in charge same amount of time. This should show we need a change at top.

The season is almost over and I am hoping for the end something I never would have wished before but plain fact is I just want to see if we’re going to finally make a change in coaching. I thought tonight ST. Thomas has been just four seasons in conference now they are sweeping us in conference season. I look at this basketball team they deserve better coaching and I believe if they had better coaching we battling for third in the conference. Hard to know how much better we could be but I know we have enough talent to reach that high. Chaves if he does nothing should also be fired but way it looks to me he has decision on basketball teams and may have to address hockey too if we do not make the tournament. This after football and women’s soccer changes. The whole athletic program is in mess we don’t have one winning program for the year.

I am too!! I am so frustrated and if I can see why we’re loosing why can’t division I coach see it and if not that Athletic Director who responsibility is to have winning programs.

Larkins today had 47 against NDSU but the Bison won by 10 with controlling rebounds and only committing 9 turnovers proving we could have beat USD if we could control the basketball. The game is about winning shooting possessions and shooting good enough percentage to win basketball games. I watched SU game to see how they would play South Dakota.

My opinion Mal has learned nothing in her tenure as coach here when putting game plan or making adjustments to counter attack opposing coaches moves. I could believe point that assistant coaches aren’t doing there jobs but I think it’s case of head coach countering what your teaching and rewarding bad performance by playing players when they keep making these mistakes. To point of you as assistant just follow her lead. The reason I don’t believe it’s the assistants in Mallory tenure we have been through three different sets of assistant coaches. This problem is at the top and has gone on way too long. Chaves made this hirer which was mistake which we know now but big mistake was extending her contract for several years. President Armacost needs to step in at athletic department fix the department we need higher standards on performance not just student performance in classroom and community service but that we expect winning on consistent basis. then we need to compensate these individuals well and provide all resources so they can be successful. We have problem when we have loosing streaks of 5 to 10 years against our conference opponents and gap is not even closing with these opponents. I think this has to start at top of the department we have done this on academic side it needs to be done on athletic department.

Was Chaves there how can you as head of Athletic department watch this and not even have some comment to fans of UND on performances this women’s basketball team has had last few games. A division I team averaging over 20 turnovers and now a game with one assist for the game. Just those two stats you know we lost by double digits. How many games this season have we exceeded 20 turnovers? Also the team gave up some where in last part of third quarter. Also we didn’t have many shots at timeouts don’t want us to see what’s happening on the coaching either. I think this is worse this season of coaching than her first season when we won only two games we have enough talent to be better than this.

South Dakota made adjustments but we have not adjusted run any kind offense to much individuals play just said one assist. Hutter gets us prepared then Mallory slowly through game reverts us back to what she has been doing for tenure here. To where we are making turnovers and playing for our selves. I am so tired of this nothing changes. Val Sussex I can’t stand to listen too either has no concept of what’s happening on the floor and never even mention some criticism of coaching moves or what we are not doing.

There is discussion on men’s basketball sight about extension for Paul Sather but nothing here about Mallory Berhard extension or even I should she continue as Head Basetball coach at UND. I don’t think rest of season record could result to lead to extension unless she would win Summit Conference make the NCAA tournament. The latter would be winning back to back lotteries. I wonder where are the UND faithful on this seems to be very quiet response.

Because athletic department has been my observation is small group.of people and donors and alumni are big part these people are close and friends from top to bottom and when things get to where needed change they take care of people like Mallory and Bubba. They then always have money to make it happen. There have been just firings like Chris Mussman, Brewster, and Logan but these were coaches not part of inner UND family and Grand Forks community. This is my observation from afar and have seen this over the 50 years I have been following UND sports since I was junior high.

I agree Mallory is green through and through but problem is she hasn’t been able to become coach many thought she could become. It time for UND find her position she can still contribute to athletic department and women’s sports. The UND family needs to step back see the facts of where we are just like we did with Bubba move on.

Larkins looks like she beat us. What beat us is the turnovers we give up to many possessions and those possessions turnover turn into points to them. We out rebounded and shot better percentage but it still was not enough to offset the turnovers. Foul shooting was 60% but season average of 78% would have netted us another 4 points. Not mentioned how we had to pressure them to stay in game resulting putting them to free throw line 23 times. Reason we even got back in this game was they continued to shoot three point shots at terrible percentage and still we couldn’t come back. Take back turnover points to even 15 which should be on high end we win by 6 points even if Larkins scores 40.

All you can say is 20 turnovers and points off turnovers 31 to our points off turn overs of 6. I could say number of things but we’re trying to play fast again and guess what return to same old results turnovers and we can’t win games like that.

We’re not running any offense it just push try to create drive and score. This is Mallory game up tempo game then one on one individual scoring and offensive rebounding scoring.but all individual. Announcer said we’re playing like we’re at track meet. This is not formula to win and be successful in the Summit. The result ends in loss, Ruth Sinn out coached us and just played fundamental game and team game. Mallory lost patience and goes back to her style of basketball and we were never in the game really and we lost. This should have been winnable game for us playing at home but we just took step backwards again or should I say returned to what we have been for Mallory’s tenure as head coach. Chaves and Armacost I hope were at this game because they should not be pleased with this performance when St. Thomas is beating us now regularly even in their probation period transitioning from D3. I thought we had chance finish 5 in conference now we’re looking at probably finishing 6 and maybe 7th so we will end up probably playing SU ending our season having 3 loss season to them.

I was it in other day look of condition there have to be code violations other mechanical things not up to standards the city can start applying pressure so the cost and hassle of not being in compliance becomes reasons to sell. Grand Forks needs to improve its shopping or people will continue to go to the south. My wife complains about selection and nobody selling different things in Grand Forks so she continues on to Fargo or goes on line to find the products. Grand Forks has demographics and regional shopping area to support number of stores but needs to have facilities to support businesses in prime area of shopping where the mall is located. The shopping is essential also for large designation casino they provide entertainment but people if they come and stay need full array of services to or they will go farther to find that.

The need to have Columbia fixed seems to me to have casino built the two are tied together can’t there be.some economics put together free Columbia mall to new ownership and the city finally to start rebuilding there consumer shopping in the community. I have to think condition of Columbia mall there have to be some political solutions to force change of ownership and now if tied to casino there should be investors and money for this to happen. I would think this might be opportunity to fix major problem with Grand Forks because until this is fixed. It will limited Grand Forks growth for all sectors. Even for university and getting new employers to come to the area and retain younger generation want to live here.

I am advocating for new coach for us. My point is that even our assistant head coach would be step up for us then where we are now and who next coach should be based on who is best candidates for the position. When the season is over women’s basketball needs to be addressed we shouldn’t be in lower half of conference but one of the teams in Summit that is considered to play in NCAA tournament. Traditionally we have fan base and looked at place to go to for women’s basketball but that has slipped away in last 10-12 years. When we have records like we do against other Dakota schools we need to make changes.

I agree with your last comment and I would bet if Hutter was head coach right now from beginning of the year we would have winning record and would be competing with SU for second place. This with talent on this team as it stands now. I would even bet we would view number of players in even more positive light because he would have worked on fundamentals and execution of playing defense and offense. When I was young UND had top flight coaching for both men’s and women’s basketball but standard has slipped Tom Clifford would never put with this kind of performance. I think our current president has held academic side of university to this I hope he turns to athletics side as well

Mallory’s record against SDSU is 0-11; NDSU is 1-10, ORU is 2-10; USD 2-9 and St. Thomas 3-3 most of our wins have come against Omaha, Denver, KC, and Western Illinois. This up to current games and including her interim coach year but we’re almost done with her sixth season people on this site demanded change of coaches when Bubba was slightly over 500 and had played competitive games against Dakota schools. Then look at Mallory record and there is no curve upwards in the program but Chaves has continued to extend contracts. Where is expectation of winning but accepting to be bottom third of the conference. Women’s basketball of sports we have potential where we could be factor where we could regularly go to one of national tournaments but this slowly slipping as Women’s basketball becomes more popular. We need to find a coach that wants to build a winner and it could happen if we hire new coach. I am going to say something controversial but if we look at male coach probably could find high qualified coach cause majority of schools are still into DEI and top of that would be able to retain coach like this like SDSU has because large universities aren’t hiring male women’s basketball coaches. I am not against hiring woman coach but it’s hard to find applicants because of great demand universities are placing on meeting DEI. UND needs to look to change coaches because Mallory has been given enough time and program has not improved in 6 seasons . This is my opinion I am sure there other people feel differently but please why we should continue as we are now.

Demers can play better than she did Saturday and I think she was trying to much in being in rivalry game especially with local fan base that follows her from Grafton. She is undersized at the post at listed 6’ 1” post player but I think she is probably closer to 6’. Somebody said why they didn’t the play her and Ibrahim both and I though that possibility too especially when Horne was in foul troubled but I also could see would have caused problems on ball movement on offense. We definitely need another girl with length who can play the four spot on the team. We have Mathern and Piekney to play there and both of them are also undersized for playing the four. I like our new recruits coming in but we need another post player since VanderWal they have given up on for playing any minutes now in conference season. I think we have to many guards that are taking up roster positions that are under 5’10”. When UND went to ncaa and won conference championships they were long these were teams roebuck had recruited before retiring he could see what was needed to play at this level. Mallory hasn’t given up on up tempo team concept and it reflects on her recruiting.

I was wrong it wasn’t Draper but number 40 who was guarding Pemberton that held Schiller and Ibrahim was at top of the key just standing covered by Draper. Nobody else moved on play with Aumer going to near corner and Pemberton going to far corner. There were no other people screened or moving towards Hurst. Everything centered on Schiller receiving the ball SU held Schiller enough in crossover that her defender was right with her. I was right before the key to the play Schiller needed to be open after cross over otherwise Schiller had to get open enough to get pass to her. There was secondary person to get the basketball I then think Schiller then would drive basketball with one on one drive to tie the game.

I just pulled up the replay of the game and I not sure what the last play of game was it started with Schiller at bottom of the lane and Pemberton at elbow and Ibrahim at near top of the key. Aumer at sideline close Hurst taking the ball out. Schiller and Pemberton cross each other rubbing each other but Draper runs into Schiller kind of holds Schiller for second and Schiller moves all way up to Hurst forcing her defender to Hurst then looking for pass from Hurst who over throws her and SU recovers loose ball. Pemberton when Schiller is moving up cuts to far corner was open for second in far corner. Aumer had moved to near corner. Ibrahim moved down the lane. Now I can’t understand why play ended up with pass ending up in the bison half of the court. If there was any chance to get ball in quick scoring position it should have gone into Ibrahim who was pretty much ignored by Bison or hit Schiller after her and Pemberton rubbed to shake off defender where Schiller could have driven from there with safety valves of Aumer and Pemberton in the corners. I think Draper dropping off Ibrahim cut off Hurst entry pass to Schiller then whole play blows up. Hurst should have then enter pass to Ibrahim where she could have passed to either outlet or she could have shot at the elbow where she has hit shots this season. This play was all Mallories play Hutter and other assistants just stood and was never involved even at beginning of timeout. Only thing was hearing play Hutter got Hurst to check in. When play blew up I did see Hutter throw his hands up when play blew up and through his back and just sat there. I am sure Mallory wanted this ball pretty much no matter going to Schiller but SU just played defense that way. Also Pemberton going to far corner took her out play for getting shot. This was to way complicated play and you had your best players moving away from the basket instead of play going down hill toward basket especially when your out of timeouts. I may don’t see how this play should have worked but evidently our player’s weren’t able to execute the play either. If anybody else sees something different I would glad to hear what I am missing.

Mallory since she was named coach has believed in star system of lead star with several skilled players that help complimented , that star player. She has never invested in developing team concept and offense concept running offense that creates offense by running that offense will create a good opportunity to get high percentage shot by running the offense. We again are creating this star system with Schiller but we also have star scorer in Pemberton now leaving very little for the team create assist to score. If your one of other players you take your shot whenever you get opportunity so very little concept of running offense that creates high percentage shots and winning by controlling possessions and winning the percentage over your opponent in successful possessions. This also reflects on turnovers and definitely assists. Yesterday NDSU runs offense that finds player who will have highest percentage of scoring. They got away from this in second quarter and some of that was from foul trouble. If you listened to Jory there coach he pretty much said that going into half. The second half did make this change and they gradually controlled second half on winning scoring possessions. They found Koenen on inside because we had hard time matching up to her size length and especially with how they got ball to her down low and we had no help for Horne to stop her down low besides fouling her. Which resulted in her fouling out. Mathern didn’t have much better luck until late when she blocked shot but referees had called fouls several possessions in row before that so let lot contact slide. This is how Jory has beat us 10 out of 11 times and how SDSU has beaten us for years. I have hoped Mallory would learn this but she wants to coach liked she played aggressive and up tempo but that is not how you win consistently. It works when you are deep in talent and out class your competition like we were when we were in division II but now when we’re like teams we played in division II and not going school with dominant talent. NDSU found this out when they moved up into division I and went through over 10 years of loosing but after falling to terrible program they went out found coach Jory that has transformed the program into program that is going to as successful small midmajor program can be in division I basketball. I thought maybe coach Hutter would teach her something but I don’t think Mallory can change but UND needs to change if we’re going to be successful.