HoopsFan03

Most definitely is a legit "excuse" for the poor performance against Portland. Traveling that much, sleeping in hotel beds for that many days, practicing in random gyms/not your own gym every day. It is a grind and ain't easy that's for sure! Hopefully we don't see any of those side effects tonight. As others have said, this is a winnable game that would be a great way to end off this long road trip.

They also shot 44% from the field and 42% from three. I wasn't able to watch any of the game. Would have been interesting to see though what they did vs what we did to have that big of a difference between the two games.

NDSU beat Portland last night without Grant Nelson... 67-62

I think what is better is, he is a very hard worker and should definitely get minutes because he brings energy and can hopefully spark something off the bench. Does the little things. But he is a 10-12 minute per game type of guy. Not a 25+ minute guy

Coaching. Culture. D1 players on the roster. A lot of things. This year is a step in the right direction so far though. Although a lot of improvements need to happen.

Didn’t see that. Hopefully he’ll be okay!

I think rebounding is going to kill us throughout the year. Too many offensive rebounds given up. Our bigs are undersized so the guards need to go help rebound before leaking out.

Football isn’t verified either

Wccsports.com Stream didn’t work on my phone but did work on laptop

Trent a steal and assist to start the half. Love to see it

Don’t worry I have a stream working for the second half so I’ll be able to see it with my own two eyes what me and anybody else actually watching the games has seen all year from Nero. It’s not hard to see bud

I have watched every single game this year. It’s not hard to see man. Please take the Nero fanboy glasses off for a second and watch the game when Nero is in vs when Trent is in. I promise you it’ll be eye opening

Another 5 minute drout to end the second half. Nero in the majority of those minutes. That drout is not a coincidence with Nero in

I mean to be fair we have seen it all season. Nero hurts the team more than he helps the majority of the time. It’s not hard to see in all the other games.

34-22 Portland. Another extended offensive lull

A run by Portland with Nero in at PG. Down 7 now. Happens every game when he subs in at PG

ESPN+ still “experiencing technical difficulties”

Love that! Levias is what we needed!

Anyone else’s stream loading for them on ESPN+??

Great writeup! I question if UND can score enough points in this game to keep up with Portland's offense. However, this should be a good game and I hope we see our offense get its stride back after the 44 point performance on Wednesday!

They had 18 second chance points in the game. That is a big #. (And yes I understand that they had the significant size and athletic advantage, just pointing out that the game could have been a lot more interesting if we were able to keep that # lower.)

Giving up so many offensive rebounds in the first half killed us as well. Two of them I can remember turned into kick out wide open 3's for Grill that he drained. If we don't give up as many O-boards I think we could have been up 6+ at the half. Who knows how the game turns out if that were the case.

We weren't going to win that game. However, our inbounds plays are atrocious. The goal of the team inbounding is to try set up a play to get an easy bucket at the hoop or an open shot. We get neither of those.

Agree completely. 1. Trent doesn't even necessarily need to shoot the 3, although it would help, since he has Norman, Omot, Levias, and TT that all can be a threat from 3 and to score the ball. But he does need to look to get his own more. Scoring at the rim, a floater once he gets in the paint. Just something to keep the defense honest. The offense flows so much better when he is running the point and his defense is great. 2. TT has been much improved this year and that is good to see. I like his ability to pop and shoot the 3 ball. Opens up so many things for other guys to drive and cut to the hoop. Especially with Levias at the 4 I love how open the spacing is. A lot different compared to last year. Brian still doesn't move right, but it is a lot better than the start of the year. I hope he continues to gain confidence on the offensive side of the ball. When he is patient and doesn't rush he actually has some good moves in the post. Just needs to keep developing that as the year moves on. I like those 2 in at the five over Sueker in my opinion. 3. I like the starters we currently have. It is a smaller lineup so may have trouble with teams with size but I think it gives UND the best chance to win games. Bench should be Brian, Brooks, Eaglestaff, and Danielson in my opinion. It's tough because Brian, Brooks, and Danielson don't bring a whole lot of offense off the bench so the only guy to do that would be Eaglestaff. If only Brooks was more aggressive on offense because his defense is right up there with Trent.

Stinks that it ended up turning into a 20 point game but overall was a good game and learning experience! Played with the #23 team for a half. Turnovers caught up to them in the second half but you knew that would happen playing a tough defense like this. This game will help a lot as the season moves forward and we play any other teams that love to play pressure defense.