EternalOptimist

I don't think that is accurate for NIL $$. players do get stipends for cost of living and food, as well as the alstead money, which does add up, but players have been getting that for years (before NIL), and it's similar for all D1s. I'm talking about straight up NIL funds.

It's extremely close

This is interesting - and similar to what I am hearing for St Thomas. Total NIL $ for the UND squad is less than $10K

Yup... crazy I know.

I like the sounds of that. Hopefully, they are working at it with the bigger donors, that's really where it will make the biggest difference.

You might be right - but they did get one of our guys (Deng Mayor) that had several starts for us last year, and was in the main rotation. I believe the rumor was he was given $30K. He may sit the bench, who knows. UND will replace that player in the rotation with either a red-shirt with no playing experience, a true freshman, or a D2 transfer - either way no D1 experience.

I believe that's what is happening at UND. All the ND players that most are complaining about really want to try and prove themselves. However, when looking for that type of player, you're going to get a few that may not work out. NIL affects every school one way or another. You are correct - it can't be used as a sole excuse for poor performance, but on the other hand, it needs to be addressed as a potential barrier to "success". It seems hard to accomplish a top 4 seed in the conference every year with bottom of the league NIL. Can it happen - absolutely. Should we be rooting for it to happen - absolutely. Should we expect it though? I do wonder why we don't see a lot of MBB NIL fundraising attempts, or even conversations about it from the program. To me that comes across as a sign that maybe there is some writing on the wall... but who knows. I'm hoping this team surprises us a little. Sounds like 4.5 D1 wins is the current over/under?

It has to be recognized. It isn't the end all, but it certainly is a factor. In general, those that can pay more will attract the better talent.

We are in the bottom tier of the Summit for NIL.

Just curious - given we don't have the NIL of other schools, what would a successful season look like?

This times 1000. They are destine to be mediocre or bad until ownership changes. That's about as optimistic as even I can be.

Colorado St (-26), Notre Dame (-17), Bethune Cookman (-12), Southeastern Louisiana (-16), Utah Valley (-23)... for Non-Conf. Denver (-25), SDSU (-36) St T (-15). I don't agree about it only working for HS teams, but we can disagree, I actually think it works all the way to NBA level and you sometimes see NBA stars being sent to the bench or get sent to the 2nd squad - It's the nature of competitive sports - if you're not producing, you sit. I don't see that as a HS thing. I guess when it comes down to it, last year I found myself wondering why some of the rotation guys were left to struggle for so long, especially when the team was struggling. Now I'm looking forward to this season, and I wish we had seen more of the returners play last year rather than just instantly discard them as being no good.

HA! Thank God too! I'm really not interested in participation trophies, I'd just like to win games. I assume you'd like to win more games as well? How we get to that level we may or may not agree on, but we have the same end result in mind.

Chemistry is generally built in practice and in off-court activities, it's usually displayed in games. Chemistry usually relates to how well players like each other and understand each other. As far as minutes taken away from last year's players for the redshirt guys, that's more of a culture thing in my opinion - and I'll try and explain what I mean. Last year, they were all eligible to play, but played very little, even when the top 8 guys were struggling (which as we are all aware, happened a lot. I would encourage you to look back at the schedule, the scores, and even the posts on this forum regarding those games as there were several. In the pre-season, there were 9 games where the final score (and most of the game) were lopsided. Easily could have used some of those games to provide 2-4 minutes to a red-shirt vs continue to watch a rotation player struggle. Even in the conference games, there were a few that were really bad. Easily could have inserted a RS in those. Why play those guys, especially early in the season? It promotes a culture of competition. It allows the top rotation guys to understand, if I'm not playing hard or am struggling in practice or games, I could see the bench - so what do they do, they usually focus more and go 100%. As far as the RS players, it teaches them that if I work hard in practices and games, I could get a shot, so they play hard in practice, which is exactly what is needed. You now have a positive culture of competition. A team either has a positive competitive culture, or not. If your top half of the roster knows that they won't get replaced even if they are struggling or giving partial effort in practice and your bottom half believes they will not play even if they work hard in practice in games that are out of hand, you've just created a non-competitive culture. In addition to a poor culture in that season, you have no idea who is ready to go next season or when an emergency happens.

I hope the Twins adjust to D1 play and are able to contribute. That said, to my knowledge and according to verbal commits, they only received one D1 offer and it was UND. If they are good enough to play, then great, but it's a lot to ask of them to contribute major minuets. I'm also not as sold on all the current redshirts being bad. I'd like to see them play meaningful minutes before casting them aside. They really haven't gotten a chance (and garbage time doesn't really count). They should have been given some time in the pre-season last year, just to see what they can or can't do. Many of the games we lost we would have lost even if we would have let a couple of those guys play a few meaningful minuets. Unfortunately, because they were glued to the bench, we are in a situation where they haven't played meaningful minuets for a couple of years. A slow start should be expected, which will fuel critics, but I think there is some talent there, it just needs some time.

It will be interesting to see, I don't think they hit the starting lineup, but possibly get some time in the rotation. A redshirt year would actually be the best thing for them, but I'm sure they would disagree. Athletically, they can jump out of the gym. I've seen a lot of dunk highlights and a few 3s, but they are highlights, anyone can put a good highlight reel together. It will really depend on where their heads are at, if they can adjust to the speed of the D1 game, and if they can play defense at all.

Teams with NIL $ may not fall off that much, but there are a lot of lower D1 teams out there that don't have the NIL $ - or they may choose to spend it on a different sports (Hockey/Football). Many of the Summit League teams will fall into this category. Those teams will inevitably loose their best players every year and won't have a shot at the best portal players because they will be leaning towards $$$. Most of the transfers out of UND last year are making over $10k (and several significantly more), and they didn't move to bigtime programs (Eaglestaff is the exception). Heck we lost one to Omaha - who is now getting $30k or so. There will be exceptions of course, but overall those that put the $$ out there will get the higher quality. It's not easy to put out the $$ for all the sports - Hockey, football, Basketball, or any other sport.

I'm going to try and put a little silver in the lining. I think with the advent of NIL and unlimited ability to hop around, the Summit league and most of the lower D1 programs are going to have to understand the talent level is going to diminish from what we are used to. So, it will be interesting to see the product of UND and the rest of the Summit, it may not be as bad as you think? I could be wrong, but I have some hope. That's the good news, the bad news is, any good or even OK player is going to want to leave for $$$. Obviously, the teams that can give NIL $ will be better off than those who don't/can't. Every player on the St Thomas team gets NIL $$ (and it's in the thousands at the lowest). Most do in Omaha, and SDSU. Unfortunately, there is only $$ for a couple players at UND, and it's a very small amount. Tough to keep good players around now days when there isn't any $$. The ones that do stay, may know they can't get it elsewhere and are content with free education.

Sage Hanson? Or Charlie Cane??

This quarterback situation is a really good problem to have - any one of them could have a breakout seasons. It should spur some very healthy competition in practices, which will make everyone better and the cream will rise to the top. When your backups are nipping at the heals of your starters - good things happen for the team.

Gophers vs St Thomas is what the people would like to see, but there is little to no upside for the Gophers, and a huge downside. The new Tommy basketball/hockey arena will be awesome when it opens - I believe they will be playing in it this year. One thing about St Thomas - they have no shortage of $$ or donors willing to give. And when you have the $$ and access to a larger market, good things usually follow. All their men's players are getting some NIL $, which is not the case in the Summit.

I'm hoping for a more enjoyable play style, and I believe it will happen. It may take some time for everything to click, but as long as they play hard and together, they should get better and better. I'm hoping the staff has a good base to start the build process and knows what to do with it, which i think they do.

The Gophers record after the non-conference games should look very good - their pre-season schedule seems pretty soft for a Big10 team.

UND to play the MN Gophers in MN OCt 25th. We'll get to see BJ Omot play once again.