ND-fan

Yes, important to hold home court and win these games if we want to be one of the top teams in conference. Last night upper tier teams all won by convincing margins. The exception was SDSU that played ORU and it appears after watching the game that ORU may be team that could contend for one of the top spots in conference. They did this last night without their starting center Moore. They play fast and have good size on the front line and extremely quick at the guards. This will be difficult team for us to match up against and I will be interested in how we will prepare and match up against them. The next two weeks we will have played most top teams in conference with exception ORU.

I agree on that, but they are getting back their point guard next week should clean up high percentage of their turnovers and give them good three point shooter and if not good at pentrating to the basket. If Myer gets back to level she was at last year Rabbits are going to tough to beat. My hope would be they get over confident and play sloppy game while were playing near perfect game to pull off upset.

SDSU played fairly impressive game against South Carolina and pretty much showed we have long way to go before we’re able to play with SDSU. I wish we could have recruiting class like they have. There freshmen are playing closer to veterans than freshmen. The class we recruited this year has great potential but they all need to work on developing their skills where SDSU girls look like they are sophomores or juniors. This just gives them deeper team and we are not going see much of fall off in the coming year so if we are going to compete we need to pick up recruiting to match their talent levels. Johnson looks like he on mission put a team that can put a deep run into ncaa tournament consistently each year. If we want to next level it’s going to take big effort on recruiting and support from university, and the fan base to move this program ahead. My hope is that we can make it into one of the post season tournaments this year and have good showing. I would think this would help on recruiting. This is not like in the past where you recruit one or two star players make a run now you need complete team of high quality players. This year we have nine competing for second place but we pretty much know who will one representing us at NCAA tournament.

I agree that what separates 3-10 is very small. I have been thinking on this team and my optimistic view is that large rotation of players may not be as bad as one thinks. It gives us flexibility to match up with most teams in the conference. I like that we have 3 guards competing for playing time because if they continue play good defense we can match up with even top tier of the conference and make it difficult for these teams run their offense. For example SDSU offense will start with their two guards and if we can disrupt that with our guard play we have very good chance of being in position win the game. Also with our depth there we have fouls to give and still not being forced to put a forward on them where they would have miss match. The same goes for several other teams in the conference. Also we do have more length on the front line to match up with most of teams in the Summit. The big question will be can we play full 40 minutes of the basketball we have shown we can play and my gut feeling is I think light bulb will go on at some point in conference season we become more complete team that has learned to win ball game. If this happens we have very high sealing that could exceed top teams in the conference but problem there are several teams in conference that could do the same thing. This is best team Sather has had since he inherited the program from Jones and that first year if he would have recruited another guard and added some depth he may have won the conference tourney. I think he has learned a lot since then and it is reflected in this years class. Also the addition of new assistant coach I believe has helped move the program forward in my opinion.

What you are pointing out on lack resources for football is probably factual but it exists for other sports that UND supports as well with the exception of the hockey program. I am not wanting to start fight about hockey because the fact is this number one sport here at UND and with small midmajor programs it usually they have one core program and for UND it’s Hockey. For NDSU it’s there football program and just look at Fargo most of there capital expenditures have been going to football. Also look at the media only thing talked about sports in Fargo is their football program.and for Und it’s their hockey program. Und to help keep football somewhat competitive consumed several other sports like women’s hockey and baseball and kept other sports excluding basketball that were relatively cheap to fund and general public don’t follow much. The problem that Und finds itself in is how major college sports have changed through the portal and now NIL contracts for players and being in small market how that is going affect attracting top talent in the future. This why power donors are sitting back wondering what they will be asked in the future. NDSU is probably in worse shape media has hyped them to go FBS But if they go there can they come up with support for football but when you change to FBS conference. The cost for other sports escalate to where even can their supporters come with that kind of money. Like for example you go from basketball coaches salaries go from 250,000. To $1,000,000 and this follows through your other coaches and then you add in guarantees to bring teams to play at home the whole overhead cost increase to point does football generate enough additional revenue to cover this jump. But getting back to Und and majority of teams of FCS they are where we are or even worse so this why we see staying status quo. I believe we’re back to where FCS schools were when they were division II. The other problem we are located in upper Midwest in smaller population base and quite far from other institutions and to lot of fans they don’t understand it becomes difficult to play against other regions and become factor in national sports. This why I have stated the Missouri Valley teams of the upper Midwest and Big Sky teams in mountains could create there own conference and the majority of public in this foot print would be more interested being winner of this conference and playing longtime rivals. So this why I think we’re going stay pretty much stat quo and continue make small improvements pretty much what SDSU has done in last 10 years with there coach and look close to getting to the top this year.

I didn’t get to finish watching the game but reading comments and criticisms I can tell you it’s because of very young team on the floor. But watching them first half this young group is by far our best talent and playing better basketball. The problem is when they are playing quality experienced teams they are being taken advantage of this lack of experience so this group going to have to learn how to win games like today. For all those calling for coaches heads remember we wanted up grade in talent and we all seen it today but that talent needs seasoning that only comes from playing. Number of posters today seen improvement team since beginning of the year but you forget that comes back to coaching. The coaching is identifying the talent and improving their playing by what they see in games like today but as they fix one part of teams game something comes up. I am much more optimistic this year we have more talent and this new talent has much higher sealing than we have had in past several seasons. My only fear about this team and continues to be in this era of transferring is loosing this talent we’re developing because if we can see it other schools also see it and even if it’s against the rules their is recruiting from other schools through back channels and grass always sounds greener other side of the hill. I expect us continue to improve and we may make runn at the end of the season. The one thing for sure they will be a lot more fun to watch this year than last year and I don’t think anybody in the conference is going to assume it’s automatic win playing us.

I guess I don’t know how good are recruits are and if your basing it off their playing time that would be pretty small sample size Because they have played limited minutes and we’re asked to play certain roll out there when they did play. Go back and look at Borowicz first two years nobody thought she was the player she has become now but did she have ability show that talent. UND limits their freshmen recruits so much it’s like back in early 70’s when college recruits didn’t play as freshmen but played jv team. it’s not quite that bad but it’s closer to that than what other schools do with their freshmen. Bernhard also said other day they are playing Borowicz out position and my observation of the team were playing most of starters out of position and I blame this on recruiting. They don’t seem to have master plan on what their needs are to fill out a roster. Where most teams are recruiting length and size we have been short on either signing freshmen recruits or bringing in transfers to fill that role this past year. This past year we lost Lane a player of that type and last night withGCU she had terrific night scoring 19+ points against Montana. I saw more offense from her than her years here with UND and I was thinking if we had her when we played Montana we probably would have had W. But getting back to our recruits I don’t know what we have because playing time, making them fill certain role for the team for our experienced players, and again asking players to play out of position,and finally I don’t think they have been put in position where they can show their talent and let them gain confidence to play at this level. I just feel UND has wasted talent of number of good young players with this philosophy that it takes several years to develop this talent. What I am afraid is going to happen with transfer portal other schools are going to be calling and taking away this talent and we’re left with starting all over again to develop this talent.

Shooing free throws is more on the player than coach because it is individual act in playing basketball it has be worked on the by the player a coach can help evaluate what player may be doing point out doing something wrong but again it takes player working on skill to shoot three throws. Mostly at this level is getting your mind in control of your body that you consistently shoot basketball to be made if want to be good free throw shooter. I look at Kacie Borowicz on women’s basketball she is good example of shooting free throws she follows routine exactly same every time and gets herself set to shoot a free throw and by doing this she has built self confidence that she will make the free throw. I don’ t see that with Jalen but if he would work on this he has all ability to do this.

College football at least for power 5 schools will be mirroring professional football and a lot of other sports it will be you have to win immediately. How ironic that Dion is leading way in college football like he played professionally jumping from one team to next to put together team win now and then move on never seeing long term consequences of these moves have on future of teams or what it does for all of college sports. Wonder how long before we have major scandal with players or team that shakes the credit ability of the sport for fans and public. This now when you have added public betting into the sports and all dollars that can be used to influence players, coaches, and agents of college sports. Dion just putting this out to the general public for them to see but when this blows up it’s going to be ugly and if you have any history on this it’s happen before. The NCAA will be of know help here either they have shown how corrupt they have been on basketball scandal and I can’t imagine how it is in football side.

To help support my argument here is SDSU last game minutes against Northern Iowa. GS. MINN *. 34 *. 28 *. 23 * 27 * 25 Selland having the 34 minutes and then if you look at Northern Iowa also power in mid major women’s basketball their top minute person played 32 minutes. I just feel UND needs to get to this level where they are able recruit and retain 8 to 9 women of high ability that can play significant minutes with out to large drop off in performance. I just thought with this class of freshmen where we did recruit some four star recruits we start to see change in our philosophy. I haven’t seen this yet from Mallory and this has disappointed this year.

Yes she is and I hope her body can hold up with amount of minutes she has to play each game. Dan inter is quite important as well with her rebounding defense to the team. I was hoping we would have developed our freshmen more but again we going with basically go with iron 5 with minimal rest with top 8. This has been our pattern now for at least 8 years it worked in the division II era but now in division I era this is not winning forumula. You need team of at least 8 players that are interchangeable and stars like Borowicz play significant minutes but are protected for the long haul. Only when your at end of the season you go to iron 5 mentality and even then only when necessary. I think that what coach Johnson has learned atSDSU when they have lost Selland over her career they have added talent on roster giving younger additional playing time to attract that talent and also playing on team that will be mix for post season play. This is my opinion and I am sure there other opinions but to me were relying on several key players to play whole season and stay healthy and productive to win not high percentage way to be the odds. So whole season can basically can collapse on one play in any game and then we’re giving playing time to one of the younger players in hopes of keeping season alive.

Tonight’s game other than bench getting some playing time not very much to be gained with this competition. I wish when bring in freshmen they play with other starting players I think they would learn more. There next game will be better test I see they beat NDSU by double digits.

We will see big difference in athletes we’re competing against tomorrow and everyone going to be saying what happen to the defense. My hope that we make them have to work for their offense and we can run our offense with some consistency. This team should be a lot better than pacific and we’re playing on their floor. Also it’s going to be in front of big crowd so I hope we don’t start with bunch of jitters. Still a good game for us we can learn if we have people that can step up their game playing against talent they pocess.

I am surprised on SDSU not so much their record but how they are playing and struggling at the point guard position. Second i find it very funny but i guess its the way college basketball in the recap of their game against James Madison there was no mention of their former player Noah Freidel. This is after he was James Madison leading scorer against the bunnies. Henderson and SDSU seem to be very touchy on this. I just thought they would be farther along but Apple injury i believe is not going away and now they need someone to step and be leader of this team and that is going to be determined. NDSU is rebuilding and i still believe they will be factor at the end of the year. ORU is going to be there at the end of the year. USD all experts say they are going to contend but what i have seen is they are weak on front line and there guard play is extremely streaky and i have my doubts Plitzuweit will be able to play the minutes they will need in conference season. Denver record looks good but what happens when they are playing more challenging schedule. ST. Thomas could quietly put together another solid season and be factor at the end conference tournament. Omaha will be team that look good for week or two and pull off some upsets but i believe they are rebuilding will need another year. WSI i don't know much about but just don't think will contend. KC is rebuilding and will take at least year. UND is big question mark and i think they're going to be alot like Omaha play brilliantly for week or two and then just be searching for something to work right as teams adjust to them.

This is what i have been proposing for some time with the Big Sky and parts of the Missouri Valley conference forming FBS conference if it was done right it would be split into east and west divisions where they could have four team playoff at the end of the season to determine conference champ. This would make it possible for top teams also to be bowl eligible if they want. I also think if done right with the regional cable company this could become regional brand in football and would be of equal interest to large schools in the foot print of this conference. But this is going to take some leadership from some top shools in these conferences.

I think he is dealing with effects from last years injury and he may get better or time is running out and he looses playing time which will be to bad for him and us.

Yes, congrats to the Bernard’s. This much more important than basketball and Remember what’s more important and again congrats.

I watched this game we started playing the very familiar style of game we have played for years and on top of that we were shooting very poorly. Then we struggled for next two quarters but things were different we started playing our younger players more minutes and they had much larger roles when they were playing. Also they started playing a more pressuring defense against much larger team and by coach Motherwell urging of players they started to force Manhattan to go left in running their offense which seemed to turn game around . The young players seemed to fit better in this different style of game and we learned how to win a game ugly something I haven’t seen us do ever. This was first game where Hurst and Beal played minutes in teens for the game. Also Vanderwall played few minutes but type of game and who she had to play didn’t fit to abilities she has now but I think it was still learning experience for her. But getting back to Hurst and Beal we saw flashes what they can become and with Borowicz leading this team and rest team filling in different roles this team may develop into better team. Having Bernhard missing for few games might be learning experience for the program by doing some things differently.

Playing way to conservative both sides of ball if don’t do something before half game is over. Offense is predictable running on first second down and throwing on third down. Offensive line is getting beat. Defense is playing like normal just giving up big plays.

Yes, but what I see us doing and hearing our head coaches keep saying is we do it UND way that was fine when in the past we had all success year in year out. But that has happened for quite a while here and our talent we recruited seems to reach plateau and doesn’t to progress. My experience in my business if your not progressing you look at your competitors see what they are doing and if you need to change approaches to improve what you are doing. That is why we higher consultants to help us evaluate what we’re doing to get better. What I see with South Dakota State they play there freshman in pre-conference season and by the end of the season they have team that is deep and in position to win conference and also compete in the conference tournament to win it. I also wonder if this has effect on getting top talent because they know if play hard want to learn to play in their system they will get playing time. Here we play experience players and by end of the year they are worn down or injured so we come into end of year struggling and players are frustrated because everyone has figured what we do and it gets difficult to come by wins. Yesterday coach Motherwell did play our talented freshman more which I was happy to see. The problem is we are near half way through pre-conference season our freshmen have only played a few minutes so we’re behind on development of them. Yes we have couple good wins but they will mean nothing in the end if we’re not ready to compete for the conference. I guess I have rambled too much here again but this some my thought process on where we are. Bottom line is I just wish there was some more review of sports it’s not women’s basketball but all the sports because only correction we have is firing coach or if it has happened number of times then AD and the coaches. This what I find kind of funny we have institutions teaching people how to learn to compete in their future careers and then when comes to athletic programs they don’t follow what they teaching in education programs.

Every time we get sped up like this in games like this we start throwing ball away and getting ton of turnovers. It’s good to see the three freshmen getting more playing time even though they are making mistakes but it something to learn from and to be used for teaching in practices. They are ones making push here at the end to close the gap some. This team needs a win and they need to learn offensive pace to play at they can win with when they speed up defense they have to remember they have to work their offense. I just thought we would be making it next level for this year and here we are again fighting to get to where we were last year. I just hope we have light go off we make the jump. I don’t know but it feels like program is stuck in this continuous loop of progressing so far and we can’ t break through to next level. I sometimes instead making wholesale changes in coaching personnel they just need somebody from outside to help coaching staff identify things that are hampering them from moving ahead could and with a few changes the direction the program could start moving forward. I just feel it not large changes but small changes that make a difference in teams performance but when your so involved with program coaches don’t even realize that they are missing these changes or their thought process doesn’t even go there. I think this where the AD’s could help with establishing this in their job performance reviews of coaches because even if coach doesn’t make changes it at least make them to think outside the box. I may be totally wrong on this but even in my business we higher different consultants that review what we do looking to improve the business and I wonder why it doesn’t more at this level sports.

The officiating in this game leaves something to be desired.

I have to agree with you and after watching this fall majority of the teams in Summit would have difficult beating their second five this year. They are deep and big and also very quick will be difficult to match up too. Coach Johnson has built quite a program and I don’t see it changing much as long as he stays SDSU. I just wonder how long before somebody gets him to move my guess will be Minnesota is calling on him with big money offer soon if they continue to loose.

The fact is the NCAA created this division of football the problem is power now after last years defection of James Madison, Sam Houston and several teams over last few years now rests primarily in Big Sky and Missouri Valley. If they are going to keep this division viable need all these other conferences to have success advancing in tournament you need regionalization guaranteeing these conferences reach closer to final . Also it helps these conferences to get home field advantages. I don’t see where this division goes in the future because this is basically what division II football was 40 to 50 years ago with large number of same schools. The solution for Big Sky and Missouri Valley is the top teams need to create FBS conference and getting themselves aligned with regional cable network to help fund a conference . If enough schools went they could have east and west conference with conference playoff again way for conference to succeed financially. They just need core couple of schools to work on this to get this organized. The rest of country is not very much interested or cares much about this region in the country so like may things we have here we need to develop this on our own and grow it into something special people would be very much interested in. Just my dream what we could become without having to fight politics and big interest of the coasts.

This team is going to improve the question will it be enough to be competitive with upper tier of the conference. Is it me but Sue ker doesn’t look same as last year. He seems to be so stiff and not as fluid playing the game is it from foot/ankle injury or he looks stronger but is more muscle bound. I maybe wrong on this but I getting to feel he is not going to as much factor this year. I suspect your right on Eaglestaff that shortly he will be starting. It will be Suecker, Omot, T, Eaglestaff, and Trent, and subs will be Danielson, Brooks, and Mathew’s with Norman seeing playing time when some offense is needed because if Eaglestaff becomes threat outside his role becomes much less because of his liability playing defense. Booker could gain playing time if he can show he can score from perimeter because he can play defense. Nero will have roll if he can return to before ability of playing defense against strong driving guards and will take shots that fit into offense are good looks. Danielson this year so far has developed outside shot that hasn’t been liability and makes him enough offensive threat teams need to play defense him. Grant will only get additional time if other guards can not produce but he needs to work on his offensive skills . This seems to me how the rotation will eventually develop but looks like team is going to be looking up at end of the season and it’s time will come in next year or year after with adding more talent to this young core of players. The question will be can we retain our talent to build team that can contend for the conference.