bincitysioux

College basketball attendance seems to be down across the nation in recent years for whatever reason. But IMO Coach Jones gets most of the credit for the dwindling fan interest in the men's basketball program. Fans in Grand Forks want to see a winner, and except for maybe the 2010-11 team, the last 9 seasons have yielded average results in the very best seasons. Since he took over, the program is averaging 16 losses per season. For comparison, Rich Glas averaged 10 losses per season in his first 8 years, and Gunther averaged 8 losses a year in his first 8 seasons. Out of 19 head coaches in the history of the school, Jones' winning percentage ranks 15th. Yes, the transition to DI surly played a part, but the transition is over. The fact is that Jones has presided over a lot of losses during his tenure. We saw the same thing in football. Nobody wants to see their favorite Division I program lose to NAIA schools. Unfortunately we've suffered through that with both our football and men's basketball teams in the not so distant past. I think the phrase that sums up this program under Jones is, "It could have been worse".................

Adams is a Duck.........

Define "very competetive". North Dakota is 3-6 against other Dakota schools in the last 4 seasons and some of the losses included epic blowouts of 20, 29, and 38 points. I don't consider the Summit a real strong league either, but before one cites its weakness as a major factor for the XDSU's success in it, consider that UND is 4-16 against Summit teams since moving to DI.

Montana beat Idaho tonight, so the Griz remain one game up on North Dakota. Huge game on Thursday night. A Sioux win would pull us even in the standings and technically put us back in 1st place as we would have the tie breaker by virtue of sweeping Montana. That loss to Portland St is looming large. It is still their only win.

Sioux down 23. Heading in to watch high school basketball. Call me in the event of an epic comeback......

I like what I see from Shields every time he plays.

UND already in double bonus with over 10 left.....

49 UND 66 NAU 10:13 2H

De Rouen gets technical, fouls out with 14 minutes left. Down 23.

37 UND 62 NAU 15:32 2H

Defense is lacking. Jacks shooting 55% to our 37%. They are 9-15 from 3. Already out rebounding us by 10.

Embarrassing 1st half. Announcers said it is abnormally warm in Flagstaff right now. Perhaps the weather is affecting our game........

27 UND 53 NAU HALF

Benton and Shields getting first half minutes......

20 UND 37 NAU 4:43 1H

12-0 run for the Lumberjacks now. Sioux down 8.....

8 UND 4 NAU 15:57 1H

Looks like a decent contingent of Sioux fans in Flagstaff. Nice to see....

I would like to see Nash have another game lime he did against SUU.....

Game is on Fox AZ (686 on DirecTV). 3:00 tip off,....

100% agree. There are several excuses being thrown about by certain posters in an attemp to justify this program's current shortcomings. It is my opinion that North Dakota should be a top 3 Big Sky team EVERY year. I have been very pleased with the way the team has performed in Big Sky play in its first two years. They met my expectations in 2013 & 2014. But I am certainly not in awe of a 2nd & 3rd place finish in one of the 10 worst conferences in the country. I think that Jones has done a wonderful job replenishing the roster after the massive turnover from a year ago. When I look at Hooker and Shanks, I see two future All Conference players. Some way, somehow, or someone now needs to get all of this talent to produce, and do it on a consistent basis, over the course of an entire season.

Enough with the weather. Pretty sure the weather is fine inside the Betty. We mainly recruit Minnesota, hardly a culture shock weather wise!

Jon Reed takes a look at the battle for the last few tournament spots........ Battle For Final Tournament Spots Slowly Taking Shape

There are currently 6 former NCC schools that are now competing at Division I. North Dakota is currently in its seventh season of DI. Here is a comparison of how the former NCC schools fared through their first six full seasons. NDSU: 105-70 (.600) USD: 92-90 (.505) UND: 93-98 (.487) UNO: 39-53 (.424)---Only 3 seasons, they are still transitioning SDSU: 60-119 (.335) UNC: 50-125 (.286) NDSU is the only school of the six that went to the NCAA tournament within the first 6 seasons. I believe North Dakota is the only other one that has made to a conference tournament title game within the first 6 seasons. So when you look at it like that, it doesn't seem so unimpressive. What is unimpressive, is that Coach Jones' career record against the other 5 former NCC schools is 13-30. My biggest complaint about this program during the Jones era is the inconsistency and erratic nature of the teams. His teams seem to always get better as the season progresses, that is a trend, and a good one. But it shouldn't take 15 games to figure out the rotation every single season. This season is a perfect example of the inconsistent nature of the team. The program went over two years between non-conference road wins, yet now all of the sudden in conference play, they can't win a game at home, yet have done quite well while on the road. Regarding "co-mingling" the non-conference and conference schedules, I think you can look at both objectively. Of course it is tough at this level when you play so many money games. I didn't expect a win against Utah this year, or Wisconsin last year. But I also didn't expect to get run out of the gym by NDSU and Texas PanAm. Jones is 17-39 in non-conference games against schools NOT from the Power 5 conferneces, Mountain West, Missouri Valley, West Coast, and Big East. Personally, I think this program should be able to be competitive against WAC, Summit, Southland, and OVC schools, but for the most part we are not. And I am sorry, but IMO there is something other than the weather and temperature that is keeping this program from excelling to a higher level. That and saying Jones is the Tom Izzo of the Big Sky, those were two statements that really had me rolling today!

I find the low expectations that you have for North Dakota basketball very bothersome.