ND-fan

I wish they call some travel when we are preesing

If they are win this game need to get run right away here now.

I have been reading past couple of years and people wanting Bubba job on performance and I am no expert on football, but complaint is he hasn't advanced and won national championship like to the school to the South. Second, he hasn't won enough playoff games and in general to some on this board worst coach ever. I so then went back to all the conference members complied each team record for the last 5 years. I do know there is difference in strength of schedule and UND was independent for two of those years playing a Big Sky schedule. Here again i am sure there can be all kinds of different arguments but over 5-year period a lot of that disappears with variances. But this how current Missouri Valley records stands after 5 years. 1. NDSU 64-7 2. SDSU 51-15 3. UND 30-23 4. N.Iowa 32-26 5. ILL. ST. 27-25 6. S. ILL> 28-29 7. Young. 21-27 8. IND.ST. 19-26 9. MIss. ST. 23-32 10. USD 20-30 11. W. ILL. 9-35 Well i found interesting UND had third best record in the conference but compared to the two top teams in conference we are far behind. The question then comes are we far behind the top two teams because of coaching or is because of not being supported by university enough or because we haven't had level of success to help build the program to next level to compete. I am not expert, but these numbers above show me we are much closer to catching the front runners than we are to falling to the bottom of the conference and I believe after watching last couple of years it basically was short couple high-quality starters to push us forward and then also more quality young players to give us depth through the season. I am sure i will get blasted with this analysis but sometimes people need to see some actual figures than just opinions.

Poorly officiated game all the way around especially end of 3 and beginning of the 4. We still had our chances to come back but couple of call were three point errors against us. I sure hope that conference has some grading on officiating because there has to be some account ability to get refereeing better. What I saw there were blown calls both ways but it sure looked like homer job to get home team. Back into the game. I don’t believe that was the case but I believe officials were not position to make good call. Second we’re seeing too many flops or fall downs to get a call. the bottom line is we need to g et ready for the tournament and win our first game or otherwise all hard work put in for the year just goes away. I believe if we can win two games in the tournament we could be looking at post season play. Who knows what happens if we get to championship game we have opportunity to win the conference and that’s why we play the games. this has been good year and program is getting better and our young players are looking to make that next step forward next season. The players that are coming back next year know they can compete and played enough to know what they need to work on for the coming season. All we need to do is win get our opportunities to play in the post season to finish out this year.

Western Illinois will be tough game tonight even though on paper we should win. They are always prepared and they seem to like split most of their series with conference opponents. Ideally tonight we would win and NDSU would lose and then on top of that would be USD would lose 2 this week and Denver win Saturday then I think we would be covered if we were in tie with NDSU. I sure would like us to finish in the number two spot for locking up post season play. A sweep this week and winning games at Summit tournament would get us to 20 win game season also helping our chances in the post season. Just win tonight and Saturday and I believe everything will fall in place for this team.

I too had questioned on Bernhard but felt she would become good coach just thought it would take her several years to gain that experience. I was wrong on that and looking back interim year was unfair to her holding her responsible for outcome but would not give her full control and knowing she had time to make changes and would have time to do so. Also limited her on recruiting because would be difficult to get commitments from recruits not knowing if she was going to be their coach through college career. I think she is getting better as she goes along because she is learning how to handle team and getting better at constructing team. I impressed with this group of payers and not only how they play but high quality of individuals and, they represent university well will become very successful people in their lives. I think the future looks bright going forward it now will take time to build program to reach level where they can compete to get to next level in division I basketball but takes time by building reputation by becoming winning program year in year out. Quite a turn around in just few years .

I have been looking at standings there are so many different out comes that can occur after this last weekend it going to be hard to figure out where everyone settles. Like if USD would loose two this coming weekend they would end with record of 8-10 which could end in three way tie with Denver and Omaha or they could end up behind Denver something that could effect UND and NDSU standings. That is not mention what could happen to both UND and NDSU on how they play this weekend so the out comes are to many to worry about all we can do is work on getting sweep this week and let chips fall after that. I think if we win out this weekend would have real good chance to get second place and if bot we get third place. I sure hope we get second place because would guarantee us place WNIT. What ever just win and see what we can do.

If we end tie for second place what are tie breakers? I know it’s head to head record but each these teams have so far split with each other so what is t he next tie breaker is it point differential on head to head. Then what happens if there are three. I know there is long way to go but just thinking about possibilities. We need to win Saturday and it will be tough day with senior day always tough to win on special days like that. I was surprised that Manson didn’t use her extra year and Gordon finally is showing what type of player she can be after losing two years of basketball but I can see she ready to start her life after school. All the girls will be missed and we as fans should be grateful for their time at UND.

Thank you for that and I thought it was based on strength of schedule from in the past seemed like we we have never been in the tournament. These coming games are meaningful and it going to be fun to watch.

Is that guaranteed spot for WNIT based on their conference record. I didn't know that I always thought it was invitational tournament based on strength of schedule. Is that change since we have been in Big Sky conference because when we tied for conference championship, we were not invited to WNIT then and i believe we were asked to the CBI tournament and lost to Weber State which lost in the championship that year in that tournament. I sure hope we take care of the business this week if we play like we did this past week we should come out week with couple of victories. I didn't think we had shot at getting second place after we took loses to KC and losing at NDSU early in the season. We come long way in the last two seasons to where we are playing meaningful games now at the end of the season. I sure hope they are using this for recruiting if they can bring in potential recruits for the excitement playing meaningful games.

I don't know and nobody knows but I can tell you team has improved week to week as the conference season has moved along. Today's team on floor and people on the bench they all looked bought into the game and that is all you can expect from team when it's performing. The questions are where are they at the end of the season and i don't see how coaches are to deal with that in this time when players have so many people in their years telling them that the grass is greener elsewhere and in fact that isn't true most of the time, we have seen that with some of the players we have lost. We have seen how this coaching staff has found young players and developed them but to lose them and it's just not us but most of the teams in Summit conference and is happening much more often with changes in rules on transferring players. Look around the Summit how many of stars will we lose again this year if schools from bigger conference come knocking to improve their team for the following year. Nelson from NDSU could very well see this like Scheierman from SDSU going on getting NIL money and chance to play on national level. We haven't had that type of player, but we have had players that school trying to build out their roster for depth have come in basically poached young talent and if it doesn't work out are cut or just sitting on bench and used to play there starting lineup. I believe they will extend Sather contract after the season and my gut feeling were going to keep our players for next season. I have my reasons for this but i believe it comes down to this group of players seem to be more bought into this team than previous players we have left previous couple of seasons.

We just need to protect home floor this next week which we have done most of the year. Also, I think it has been good that young players have been able to come in put important minutes out on the floor giving our starting 5 players rest. I think you see it in Kacie she has gotten her legs under her again and not leaving shots hitting off the front of the rim and especially on the 3. Manson has worked on her shot as year has gone along and now, she brings that element to the team of spreading the floor for our post people can drive on use their quickness down low offsetting our smaller size. The team is pretty much in control of their destiny if they just win out. It would be really nice if ORU would beat NDSU next week this would put us up game to go to get second place in the conference if we take care of business. I never would have thought that both ORU and NDSU would lose both games this weekend, but I guess should never take anything for granted in the Summit.

Both go down were tied for second.

NDSU and ORU both down going into the fourth could we hope for both them to loose and Und could come home tied for second.

Swsiouxmn you’re so right, which I didn’t think possible just a few days ago. If they win out they would have good chance for second. Omaha is going to be good test for us tomorrow. NDSU is going to have hard time in Denver it always tough road trip. If NDSU would loose in Denver we could be tied for second in the Summit and ideally would be Western Illinois pulling upset over ORU. This would set us up for big week next week in Grand Forks.

I have different opinion UND must have quality coaches when even the mighty NDSU has come to poaching away one our coaches. Second i see he had been at FBS level but was let go after they had fired their coach he had followed from Northern Illinois. I suspect he is trying to leapfrog his way back to FBS and he is doing this by using his connections in MVFC, where he started his football career. I think he probably took our job last year because it was best job he could find after being let go. In this jumping to job to job he be better hope not to land on spot where coaching staff gets let go by head coach firing because i think he will have used up some good will with coaches he left after short period of time being with them. Finally, i also think he has to believe that Entz is looking to move on to FBS or by chance SU moves up to FBS. Yes, we may be underfunded to top programs in the conference but i also believe were still in upper tier in the conference on funding for football. This is to be expected when our number one division sport is funded as one of highest in the nation and continually looking to be funded to stay ahead of all other schools in funding their program. The football program is better shape than other sports in amount of support but whole athletic department has been underfunded for number of years and beginning to show. The administration has done good job in updating and building academic part of university, but they now need to work on athletic programs as well to help attract future students and advance its brand to greater public nation wide.

I agree with you it has to be athletic players like in mold of Evans in NDSU or Myer from SdSU that can run the floor and can play defense. I would think Beal should see that she is line to get significant playing time next year and her potential will be limited to herself she already has shown she can play defense and be able create scoring for self down low in second chance opportunities. The next part of her game is learning to develop outside shooting consistency and to be able to make tough shot while being heavily guarded. I truely believe that she can make that next step but she is going to need patience in achieving that goal. But getting back to recruiting we need to start recruiting players with length if we want to make the next jump in women’s basketball. Aron Johnson at SDSU is doing that now because if want to win and have chance advancing in NCAA tournament this type of team you need and should I say also quick and fast point guards which he appears he has at least 3 of them on the roster. If we’re going to finish in top of the conference we need to sweep this road trip. Then we need to also sweep our next home stand. If we sweep next weekend we should over come USD in standings by a game. Then the falling weekend if we sweep and NDSU also beats ORU we should be a game up on ORU. This will leave us with our last road trip and winnable road trip and with ORU and USD behind us a game with final week end playing each other and ORU with game against SDSU. The key we have come to crunch time in conference play and we have not left ourselves much wiggle room to get to number 3. I would like for us to.finish up 3 to be opposite SDSU for the conference tournament. I may be missing something but this is scenario we need to have chance to reach conference championship game. This would also be big boost for recruiting and retaining players.

Beal is freshman and she needs to work on her offense especially her shot. Her time is coming if she continues to improve. I have been happy with these younger players getting playing time I still think they should had more earlier. Loosing Lane last year really hurt the potential of this team. I was hoping they would have brought in portal player to replace her we needed one experienced player who was legit number 5. Every time we come up against team that is deep with length we have struggled and look at teams ahead of us four of them fill this bill. That is why I think we will have hard time getting seeded higher than fourth and more likely 5. I was looking at next years recruits they are listed as guards but two of them are listed at 6 feet and third one is listed 5’8”. I also think we should have at least 2 more and could have additional if some of our seniors don’t come back and use their COVID year. With our remaining scholarships I hope we can find couple 4 or 5 to help us get a little bigger. I wouldn’t be surprised if they redshirt Jardine next year to help her develop she has size that could become quality post player and she would be trading development year for best year. My hope is they can find at least one experienced post player to play with kacie where they can make run for the conference. Next year will be pretty much end of the COVID extra year players. SDSU, if look at this team this team would look completely different without extra COVID year they would still be good but not this deep and experienced. They would not have Selland, Burkhard, and Gylten three starters off this team and Nelson and Thiesen would be seniors this year. The COVID eligibility extra year has helped several teams this year and will be big factor next year. This years team is good team but their Achilles heal is they are undersized and they need to play nearly perfect game to win against another good team especially on the road. We just need to continue to recruit and hopefully can build roster that will be competitive and be able to be conference champ.

I have Relatives That are UND alumni and their two children have looked at UND and their parents were in favor of them coming to UND. The oldest one isn’t involved in sports but she visited the school loved campus and what Und offered in her field and great package in scholarships but after she toured the town town saw what the Town offered for shopping and things to do she looked else where and went there. Now there youngest is athletic and is prospect for playing volleyball and already has been recruited by Montana State and several Ivy League schools as sophomore in high school but here she is not interested living in cold weather climate. I believe the kids today have higher standard or should I say it’s just not scholarship or even if institution has educational standards they also looking for it also has to be place where they want to live and socialize to like where they come from or they want. Todays kids are much different then when I went to school and probably even most of you when you went to school. Today that is why we see so many transfers and when they transfer they know what they want and by success rate in transferring I also got to believe even if they don’t get what they want will get their education by another way than continuing playing sports. I thought differently just couple years ago but I see it in my young adult children and now seeing it in kids that are coming to college now by way of my family they have requirements and if don’t meet them they will move on either finding in athletics or doing it another way.

Location of us being the very most northern school in Summit does have large effect on recruiting. I see it mentioned number of times on other school boards the weather and cold we have here is used against us in recruiting. The next thing is Grand Forks has fallen behind in shopping and things to do in town compared to where our recruits are coming from like greater twins city area so it becomes tougher sell. Then you come to facilities we have slipped to just average at best for facilities and looks to be years from any updating. Then programs like basketball are not funded like some of other programs they are competing against. Many of you forget that ORU basketball is king sport for them and they support that sport accordingly they have for one just renovating their arena. Also their climate and being close to talent rich recruiting area helps. ORU left Summit and returned and now looking at their move back I believe they saw it was much easier to reach tournament being bigger fish in small conference and they just play tougher non conference schedule to get additional recognition. What we’re experiencing now what number of people were saying about making jump to division I. This is not going to be simple and quick to get us back to where we can be factor in the conference. I look at present coaching staff have recruited back to back freshmen of the year but have lost them and many of them blame the coaching but it maybe the above reasons or other factors I haven’t brought up. I will here it’s the coach but maybe we should be looking at some of these reason and how we as fans can improve this for the program. I believe this not going to be quick turn around and changing coaches in my mind is we’re going to be repeating process and not getting to what needs to be changed that we can build on. We again have number of young talent to build on so we need to figure out where we go from now. I don’t believe we’re making excuses but identifying things we have to overcome and now we need to work to achieve this.

I would agree toughest road trips are over, but any road trip is tough to win Omaha lost to ORU in overtime at home this weekend and St. Thomas just beat South Dakota on the road so there is no given to beating anyone on the road or home. It would be sure fun to catch SDSU at home for win i see some other schools have played them closer than we have. Western Illinois game today was close to the fourth quarter, but it seems that Johnson has his team up for North Dakota schools. I think remaining six games after that on paper we should win but my guess we end up 4 and 2 on past history going down the stretch ending with 10-8 record. This would probably give us either 4 or 5 seed in the conference tournament. If we win all six we should be 3rd seed for the tournament.

Fargo media trying to hype the Bison just go look at map of AAC they are not going add one member that far geographically from the conference. I just don't see any of Dakota schools going individually to FBS conference near future or ever because of logistics and second because of fan base just not enough people to attract attention for tv or national interest. Like I say if teams of MVC and Big Sky are going to play FBS its going to be forming FBS conference out of these two conferences.

I wouldn't phrase it most active fans it may be on this board but to me most active fans are people who are attending games and are season ticket holders for the basketball team. Until we hear from these fans the poll above means little to me, you're talking about less than 50 people involved in this poll and even of that its less than 30 people wanting to change coach. The poll most important is the people attending the games and Alumni of UND and finally the Athletic Director and President of the University. My gut feeling is that we're not there and probably because UND fans are pretty knowledgeable understand we have very young team and are watching this team progress and see potential of these players. Things that might change their minds if we lose these players at end of the season, but I don't think that's going to happen either. We have just gone through abnormal time in college sports and i think players going into portal is going to slow down because large number that have done this outcome has not been that favorable. I look at top teams in conference because of covid extension were seeing players with 5- and 6-years college basketball. Look at South Dakota State this year's team would not have Arians, Dentlinger, and Luke Apple three starters that are playing 5th year of college basketball there is world of difference in true freshmen playing against experienced players. I believe number of teams have these players on their teams starting. Now we get to us the two players that fit this extra year of playing time are Sueker and Nero neither are starting and both coming of serious injuries last year and to my judgement have not recovered fully from their injuries. I believe this distortion of rosters is ending and we will see how we stack up when teams will not have this stockpile of older talent playing. This is why i believe the AD will give Sather longer leash than many of you called active fans would like and will continue to voice your displeasure. I believe he will get one- or two-year extension because if we don't do that pretty much impossible to retain players and recruit the talent this university needs to compete.

I don’t take much stock on these early offers on high school recruits if they are really exceptional they are looking for offers from power five conferences. All this does is keep open dialog with these players. I look at offers for juniors to early seniors that were likely going to get a commitment from. I don’t remember getting commitment prior than junior year in high school.

I thought I would do some checking on where we stand as team in Division I Basketball at the present time and compared to others in conference. I found that we are currently ranked 325 out 363 teams in Division I and we are not lowest rank team in the conference that is Omaha at 334. ORU is ranked 97 and SDSU is at 196. The conference spread of 5 through 10 is NDSU at 279 to Omaha and we have four teams ranked in the 300's. If you look youngest teams in the conference are near the bottom and the top 3 teams are most experienced is at the top. I find if you start doing some analysis results of teams are more complicated than some armchair experts here like to rant about. I think you should look at Denver school that has changed coaches at least twice in last 5 or 6 years and is similar to us in that they have successful hockey program and they do not have football program like we do see where their basketball program has continued faulter further with rapid coaching changes. I believe the needed changes here at UND is at administration in help supporting other sports bringing them on equal level of support that hockey sees here. (This is ESPN ranking by BPI and here is the Summit conference. the address is http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/bpi/_/view/overview/group/49) I f