the green team

21 of 21 from the line. Listening to the post game, thats a record. Never saw that coming. I'm impressed. I was impressed with Portland St. They've got some nice players. Good to see us shoot from the field better as well. I always find it hard to believe what a big factor confidence can play for an athlete. Webb, for a portion of this season didn't seem confident, now you can tell he is, and he seems like a different player. Of course, I don't know why he should ever lose confidence, he can be such a tremendous player. Very good home stand.

Funny I was thinking the same thing. Eastern Washington had it's point guard and shooting guard out due to a car accident. Our front court is unfortunately banged up and thin. Wilmer, I think is just trying to survive, I can just tell he's hurting, his wrist is now heavily taped and he's got a sleeve on the other arm. Allard had something last night. You add in Brekke with the concussion, Traylor with academics and Nash with the NCAA. It really is hard to believe its gotten to this point. Not to mention I heard Webb was suffering from back spasms last night and Anderson played while sick. It makes that win all that more impressive. Looking at Eastern Washington, it looks to me if they are trying to get guys with long arms contest shots and get stick backs. If we don't add some quality size soon you could see them be a significant challenge in the coming years. Granted we didn't do a very good job of getting in the way the 2 times he did it, but it didn't take much space or time for that Jois to get going and jam it. That was an impressive play by him--twice in the 2nd half. And he's only a freshman.

In what way does Minnesota have to play all the in-state schools every year? Not only does their track record indicate that they could care less about those same schools but they don't have any sort of guidelines that require them to do so. Between you and Mariucci I can't tell who the biggest revisionist Is. Donny boy took your puck and went home. Fine, but to utilize conjured facts is farcical. Again, the nickname situation was settled soon enough for Wisconsin to get their near future games scheduled. Somehow that isn't soon enough for the mighy M. I mean I realize that Wisconsin's Athletics department makes yours look like a Sun Belt Conference Department already but I thought that was a running joke, I never for a second thought it was sooo close to the truth. And the fact that you just have to play these In State schools, because it's so important. Don't make me laugh. Water comes out of my nose and that hurts on a cold day such as this.

Wisconsin, has had the same obstacles in place that both the U of M and Iowa in regards to scheduling UND teams. Yet, they scheduled UND for future non-conference play. The nickname issue had been settled before scheduling had began for future years. This is just Gopher Fans drinking the of their Athletic Department (who use it as a convenient excuse) and knows their fan base aren't smart enough to follow an historical time-line. Reality for me, the Golden One's coach wants no part of this series anymore, and that's fine...but don't try lay it on thick that there were these big obstacles in the way. I'm going to miss the rivalry, tremendously. But when and if they want to come back to scheduling the series- they A. Do it on our terms and B. Continue it on a regular basis...none of this start stop garbage.

Idaho St goes to Cedar City and gets a win over a team that pushed Weber. This is a crazy league. On top of that Northern Colorado a preseason top 3 pick, has won 1 conference game, unfortunately against us. I have a feeling that there is still going to be some more crazy happenings over the next several weeks. Should be entertaining to follow. We may not have a shot at a top 2 finish but after that I still think its a pick em, even at 2 and 4, we have a shot at making the conference tournament.

Really, because Webb took 5 3's and missed them that's why we lost the game? Wow. 2 of them were taken in desperation because no one cut to get open so with less thn 3 seconds on the clock he figured we better get something towards the rim. What about all the things that he did do tonight. Score double digits by taking the ball to the basket-check. Get steals-yes. Have assists, yes. (Would have had 4 more if a teammate either would held on to it or made th shot. Defend, yes again. I could conversely criticize a guy like Schuler, who supposedly is one of our best shooters--maybe he's one of ours but when comparing him to the other shooters in this conference, his numbers aren't close. You can't say they didn't screen for him tonight, I counted countless times and the only play that stands out to me was that horrible drive off a screen and utterly horrible jump pass to the other team for an easy 2. Listen, honestly, I like Schuler, and I really don't want to criticize him, but I just see the same 2 players targeted in peoples crosshairs and I certainly don't think Webb should be the one to be tonight. Honestly, from what I saw tonight, the difference from us being successful and not is having enough legitimate back to the basket threats in the paint. Having scoring and depth from that position seems to be what is missing. The guys we got, are trying and playing hard, but just aren't at the skill levelthat this level requires. To me, when I watch I now see where the transition hurt us, and that was in the area of effective size for this level. It just is a tremendous weight for the guards to try create all the scoring. At this level it's tough to win that way.

No sense dwelling on some of his struggles early this season, but tonight Webb made 3 big plays inside final minute. Good for him. Nice contribution from Antwi tonight in the 2nd half. Boy, Huff really gets up there to help us in rebounding. Glad to have him back! Wilmer hits a 3, in the 1st half, had to chuckle- but I guess we did win by 3, didn't we... Honestly, Allard, made both very solid plays tonight when we needed him, examples (offensive boards, moving without ball on O-i thought he drew charge, didnt get call) but certainly made some dreadful ones as well (wow, those 2 passes in the 2nd half, yikes!). Sometimes it goes that way. Finally, I can accept 75% FT shooting as a team for the game- good work.

I've defended Webb plenty, but no excuses about tonight. That was being careless with the basketball. It will have to get better for us to be successful. As Jone's said in the post game "when Jamal plays at a high level, this team plays at a totally different level" Time to start playing at that high level and stop forcing it. No reason to give it away so foolishly, against a team like that.

Thats no good, i thought we would be on the road for a bracket buster game this season, with hopes of having a home fame next year. That's a bummer

Friday Night- Gleason Saturday Night- Mark MacMillan

I'm not saying I'm willing to pooh pooh, RPI, because you raise good points, especially on the financial front. But don't you think that in order for the Big Sky to receive a 2nd bid 2 teams inlcluding the conference tournament champion and then the runner up would both have to have RPI's well inside the Top 50 to get an at-large? I only say this, because to get inside the Top 50 would still be a significant way to go to get there-- for most of the Big Sky institutions.

What's the difference D2 or D3? Does it really matter? Schools at our level commonly schedule non D1's? I've said this before, it would be nice to get a Northern Sun D2 school, but that's not going to happen very frequently as those schools are already well into conference play. I'm exagerating when I say the NSIC has about 30 schools, so they need very few nonconference games. Sot that leaves us with D3's and NAIA's for our 1 or 2 lower level games. Definitely not ideal, but it is, what it is. Right now we just need to get on the floor and get after someone, and learn how to win. I don't care if it's against the Red River JV.

I have to agree with you Bin. I'm sorry every game is important. UNI,Fargo U, and Kansas City, were games that were good examples of not acceptable. Granted UND, is missing some key personnel, however, when that happens guys have to step in and make a game of it. The way we started the 2nd half against NDSU, was just disgusting. Giving the ball away and allowing NDSU to basically run away with it at that point, should not be the case no matter the circumstances. If there is a saving grace, I guess RPI really shouldn't matter to us, as we are a "one bid" league, and we know the only way to get that bid is to win the conference tournament. But unfortunately, RPI does mean something to me, it means that our players are figuring D1 out, and to have that record and RPI at this point is just a kick in the gut if you ask me. I am about the least critical person on the men's basketball pages, and to a fault I often defend a lot of the players being criticised here. However, I'm going submit this criticism- at least in the NDSU game and at other times this season, we seem soft. By soft, I mean we don't get into people physically and when other teams make runs, we crumble a little- mentally. For example, Traylor, I like him he seems to be a decent player, but he is not in the least bit physical. He doesn't appear to be overly interested in getting into anyone underneath on a shot taken from the perimeter. Wilmer had the ball stripped right out of his 2 hands...that cannot happen, got to be squeeze that thing. Although I thought Wilmer battled for us yesterday, I would like to see him more ball tough. Also, Mitch your nearly 7 feet tall, don't leave your feet on so many shot fakes- you shouldn't have to jump to create a challenge to shoot over. All it does is give the official the opportunity to make a marginal call on you. If you leave your feet to challenge, you put yourself in a tough spot. In regards to the moving screens. I don't mind a ball screen heavy offense, but philosophically- I disagree how we set screens. I don't like running right up and screening the man, personally. I like to see screens set in the vicinity of the player, and forcing the the guy that is using the screen (in most cases our ball handlers) to use the screen effectively. The honus should be on the guy who is using the screen to rub his player off, but staying tight to the screen, making sure the player trailing him is going to run into the screener is the responsibility of the screenee if done correctly. This past week was a bad week for our basketball team- so I'm not in great spirits. Thank goodness, this is a new week.

I guess I will take the opposite approach. Do you know how much time Damian Lilliard at Weber St. or Will Cherry from Montana saw last season? Averaged 35 Minutes each. They rarely come off the floor. It's not uncommon to have basketball players have their minutes in the mid 30's. Especially at the low to mid major level. No offense but, when he's off, our perimeter defense suffers immeasurably. Again, he can improve turnovers, but as mentioned last night he had 3 that were definitely on him, 1 was a result of direct failure to catch to the ball, and one was just slightly missing a pass in transition that Antwi just quite couldn't come away with (that's an agressive to, that I can accept). If you have a guard with decent size at this level who can guard, and can inside the lane when it's crunch time I think it would be hard not to have him on the floor for a minimum of 32 minutes a game. Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but it sounds like we would be a better team with him averaging 27 minutes a game as opposed to 35 plus. I disagree. Again, if he makes his free throws, we win, and we are not even discussing how many minutes he's playing. The fact of the matter has been these guys have been missing free throws early and late, I think fatigue is just us looking for an excuse when one really isn't there, or needs to be made. The current climate is that Jamal is going to take a lot of the heat on this board right now,because of last night, but there isn't anyone on that roster that is blameless for last night. We had players not rebound because of poor closeouts, we had players lose cutters that led to easy baskets (especially in that first half) We had late help rotations on their drives that led to, too many- and 1, situations and soft fouls that led to the made basket and resulting free throws add on top of that, I felt we had some poor situational awareness late. I was frustrated when I left The Betty last night, and the worst part is, no one is going to feel sorry for us. Isn't it the worst when no one feels sorry for you (sarcasm). The reality is we need to get better in a lot of phases. At the same time there are glimpses of positives too. But I will say, we've had our fill of close losses- we need to be mentally tougher from here on out and turn some of those scores our way. A good team (which we think this team is, and I think the team itself does as well) will get it together in short order.

We didn't get the foul, nearly 20 seconds come off the shot clock, Might as well settle in "D" wise and try get the stop at that point down 2. Why does Schuler foul there? Not very heady there. Foul as soon as they inbound it, if you dont get the foul right away, and they manage to run some clock, I think the decision has been made for you at that point. Thats to hunker in and play defense. Sorry, don't agree with bringing Webb off the bench. I realize we are all frustrated about the free throws right now, but for the money he is the best perimeter defender we have. Yes, he had 5 to's but what did he play 36 minutes as our pimary ball handeler? Besides 1 of those went right through the hands of our player, meaning the pass should have been caught. So really 4 to's in 36 mins, I can't get worked up about that. Free throws yes, but we dont even have a chance to win if he doesn't go 9 of 11 from the floor. I don't think Traylor is 100 percent yet, but he didn't wow me that we need to keep him on the floor. At least tonight. Sorry, but lately Archer has worked himself into consideration for minutes. There is no denying that. The free throw shooting is majorly disappointing, but when our guys that should be automatic from the line like Anderson & Schuler are misssing, then Webb, clearly isn't the only problem. He is a part of it, unfortunately, he knows it, and it is effecting everytime he gets there now. Its in the head for him. Antwi, has to be better from there too. But what can we really do? Cut everyone and get new players before the next game or just suck it up and move on?

Interesting stat. The last 4 times UND, has outshot it's opponent by 20 plus shots...it's lost. I don't claim to be a hockey expert, I do enjoy the game and go to nearly all home games, but that has got to be one of the most bizarre things I've heard. So much for the idea, that more opportunities in a sport will equal more scoring. Frustrating.

I also say tongue in cheek, we scored over 40. Compared to the last couple of games, thats significantly better. We just may not have a lot of D1 talent at the moment. I think the verdict is still out, but it may or may not be part of the problem. The only game really this season I can comment on, having seen first hand, is the Harvard game. One of the things that stood out to me, was that our team plays hard with great energy and effort. But where one could speculate, why they may not have the right personel for this level is how easy they give the ball away, and how many shots they miss. Both inside and outside. Those things indicate players are trying to rush to compensate to play at a level, that our players may not be comfortable playing at.

Lauck with 17 points, the lone bright spot.

New jerseys, i thought looked good. Hopefully, no more injuries or suspensions. Tough to know what a win like this does, but i hope at the very least that it gives Antwi, Schuler and others confidence in their strokes moving forward. Benton, I have to chuckle, he's kind of bull in a china shopesque, but I kind of like that. It may come in handy somewhere down the road. He'll get more polish as he goes further down the road in his career. Jones was quite right in his post game interview...these guys need to talk way more when they are on defense. No reason to be shy guys, talk on D, usually a good defense does.

I can say that I do not have any expectations of Benton. I do have a hope that he will develop into a contributor for UND. For me it doesn't have to be this year, as long as he has a productive career, over the long run. Heck, this year if he gave UND anywhere from 4 to 8 minutes a game, with lock down defense and maybe a basket and a couple of boards, when he saw time on the court-- that would be alright for me. I agree we are guard heavy, but I'm just want Benton to develop and become a solid option for the team. Agree, with Antwi, he took some nice steps as the season progressed last year, he struggled early, but his confidence grew as the season progressed. I think he should be a solid contributor in a key substitute role this season. I believe that should be expected. Salmononson, haven't seen him yet either. I would hope that he can get into the mix, but without seeing practice, I really don't know where they have him slated in relation to Brekke, Wilmer, Allard, Traylor and even Archer in regards to the depth. Plus who knows, if Nash is made elgible by the NCAA, how does that reshuffle the 4 and 5 spots and the personnel that compete in those spots? Still a lot of questions, and I'm curious to see what we'll see in the next 4 to 5 games of how the pieces will be assembled moving forward.

The radio broadcast mentioned that Benton's 1 game was for last season, and that because he redshirted he had to serve it right away this year. It was also mentioned that Salmonson also had a violation of team rules thus he was serving his game at home as well.

We won the game tonight, but I left a bit more unsettled than impressed. We started being a team that would turnover the ball alot during the transition. What concerns me is that we are not only turning the ball over against good D1 teams but we are turning it over on a regular basis against the likes of Mayville St. Come on ladies, lets get sharper. I know your capable. Also, please stop missing these short shots, this started to be problematic last year, and its been apparent in the first 2 games this season. We have to finish better.

Fanastic read. I would reccomend this as the primer for getting our fans up to speed about our new conference. Thanks for all the hard work. Mostly thanks for your passion for Big Sky Basketball.

Hey, I was wrong. I can admit that, I will most certainly be wrong again, many times probably in this lifetime. I didn't realize that's how the conference scoreboard works. Initially, they did have the score wrong on the Cal Poly/E Wash game, that actually is factual, but whatever. I guess this mistake in criticism, was a hot button issue for you, or at least it was enough of an issue to illcit such a response. My apologies, I stand corrected and I'm moving on.

I know that Tim only works his morning show from 6 to 9 and then afterwards he is an employee of UND, I'm not sure what his other roles include for them other than hockey. But I do know he is not in their sales department. And yes, Dan came to a sales call at my business, but he was not Midco's account exec, nor did he pass himself off as one.