sioux24/7

Imagine if they didn’t have Hughes. My goodness. Is there any hope for next year?

I don’t know how many people frequent Bart Torvik (I love it) but it shows different metrics on a game by game basis and one of them is defensive efficiency. Just took a peak and looking at our 4 most recent losses our rating was 146 (that’s terrible) against Denver, 128.1 vs NDSU, 138.3 at SDSU, and 131.1 at NDSU. All real bad numbers. Know who didn’t play in any of those games? Josh Jones. Now, it’s hard to say whether he would have changed the result or even changed our defense but those are 4 of our 6 worst marks. Just interesting.

What did Chuck do?

Snarky! You are right, I did mention that and mentioned how the results were not super surprising given where and who (even though SDSU is down) we were playing.

It’s funny that that gets shared but not this or this sometimes we have to learn to celebrate the things that did happen.

Well looks like we are going against the conference player of the year in Carson Johnson. Don’t agree with the decision but he is good.

Summit League Tournament time. UND (KenPom 292) heads to Sioux Falls as the 3 seed after finishing 10-6 in league play. If you told most people back in November this team would end up 10-6 and a 3 seed, they would have signed up for that immediately. The non-conference slate outside of the Winthrop win did not exactly inspire confidence, and expectations were pretty low across the board. Credit where it’s due, this staff exceeded what most thought this roster could do. I understand the counterpoint that the same staff helped create the lowered expectations in the first place. That debate can live on. The reality is this team outperformed preseason projections in the standings. That said, momentum is not exactly glowing right now. UND lost 4 of the last 6, including getting handled by NDSU to close the regular season. They are 1-3 since the Sather extension announcement, with road losses at SDSU and NDSU in that stretch. Not shocking results, but the timing doesn’t feel great heading into March. Now it’s survive and advance. Quarterfinal: UND vs Denver UND draws Denver (KenPom 223) in the late game Friday night at the Denny. If we’re being honest, this is not the matchup most UND fans would have picked. I would have much rather seen USD or even Omaha. Instead, you get one of the most efficient offensive teams in the league. The season series was split, with each team winning on the road: UND had to rally late to steal one in Denver Denver controlled things most of the way in Grand Forks Denver is trending the opposite direction from UND, winning 5 of their last 7, including impressive wins over NDSU and UST. They did stumble badly against Oral Roberts to close the regular season, which shows their volatility. Offensively, Denver is legit. Carson Johnson is a bucket, and he’s surrounded by weapons in Zane Nelson, Jeremiah Burke, Logan Kinsey and others. They don’t turn the ball over much and they score efficiently from all three levels. The problem for Denver is on the other end. They are one of the worst defensive teams in the league, and ironically Johnson himself struggles defensively. They will give you opportunities. The question is whether UND can capitalize. The Key Turnovers. When UND’s defense is active and forcing live-ball turnovers, it fuels their offense. In the halfcourt, UND can stagnate. In transition, they are significantly more dangerous. Josh Jones returning is big. His presence inside raises the defensive floor and helps clean up some of the breakdowns we’ve seen lately. If UND can defend without fouling and generate 12 to 15 turnovers, that flips the math in this matchup. If Denver gets comfortable, takes care of the ball, and turns it into a scoring contest in the 80s, that favors DU. KenPom projects Denver 85-81. That feels about right stylistically. This will likely be played at a higher tempo than UND prefers. One more wrinkle: this is the last time UND and Denver will meet as conference foes, as Denver heads to the WCC next season. Not a bad time to end it on your terms. Tip is 8:30 PM Friday at the Denny in Sioux Falls. If you can’t make it, the game will be on the Summit League Network. It’s March. Records and trends matter less now. UND exceeded expectations already. Now the question is whether they’ve got one more run in them.

Portal season sucks and is exciting all at the same time.

Fair. I’m sure they are knowledgeable. Don’t mean to bash them was just my experience the one game. Let’s move on. I agree we need more basketball talk and that’s what I prefer to stick to too. The 3pt shooting thing is interesting. I would say we have one really good 3 point shooter on the team in Kraft. Anderson isn’t bad but beyond that I don’t think that’s anyone else’s strength. Besides Kraft, Eaglestaff and Matt Norman, not sure we have had that many great 3 point shooters in Sather’s time.

I don’t want any parent too involved. I haven’t met them but have sat near them and listened to them trying to tell the coaches what to do. In my opinion, let the coaches coach. Maybe I’m wrong!

In league play we were 6th, not that it makes that big of a difference. Not that you can just eliminate a game but UND’s 33 point loss to NDSU was the largest margin by a non KC team.

Yeah I think just need to keep his parents from getting too involved.

Probably the highest $/min guy! I guess BJ would maybe be higher but he is injured and I think Mier just isn’t good enough to play.

BJ got a bag and Tyree likely got decent bag the second time.

You’re probably not wrong and I’m conflicted on what I’d prefer to happen. Uelmen had a great year scoring but he’s not the typical PG, that I prefer but I think A3 is and Moore too from what I can tell. I’m also not sure where Uelmen will go? I suppose he could go to the MVC and make okay money. I just don’t see him has a P6 guy. No one on our current roster is at this point.

Sather’s our coach next year, it is what it is. What’s more interesting than debating whether he should be or not I think is what’s going to happen whenever our season ends, whether that’s Friday night, Saturday, or sometime else. Who’s staying and who’s going? Mainly looking at Uelmen, A3, and the Curtis twins. Beyond that, I think it is what it is.

Yeah that’s Western loss has to drag us down big time but I also would think the Winthrop win would kind of balance that a bit.

UND is currently KenPom 290. Sather’s second worst season in KenPom with the other being 2022 when they were 348.

My question is where do people rank this season in terms of Sather’s coaching jobs? Like is this towards the top of his seasons here or what?

The men only lost to NDSU by a combined 50 whereas the women lost by 61. Men are trending!

Anderson played in the first matchup. Was his first game back.

I guess Denver is in play as well. I didn’t anticipate them losing tonight to ORU but they’re getting boat raced. Sounds like if the result holds, SDSU wins tonight and against USD and UST beats Omaha, we will have Denver. I really don’t know who I’d rather play. SDSU has the home crowd. Denver boat raced us last matchup. Omaha we just don’t have a great history with.

So both would be 10-6 (assuming we don’t beat NDSU). Head to head is a draw since 1-1. Believe then it goes to h2h record against the top team and goes down until the tie is broken. Both 0-2 vs NDSU. Would skip down to I think Omaha in that scenario beings they would be 9-7 and went 2-0 vs Denver. We split with Omaha and in this scenario UST would have got swept. So yeah I guess that makes sense. I just don’t find it likely.

UND (KenPom 284) travels to Fargo on Saturday at 4PM to face NDSU (KenPom 117) in the regular season finale. UND is coming off a disappointing loss at SDSU in Brookings, keeping the losing streak alive there, UND hasn’t won in Brookings since February 11, 1995. UND got off to a good start and held the lead most of the game, but the second half fell apart, costing them a chance to move a half-game ahead of UST and lock in a top 3 seed outright. Thanks to Omaha getting drubbed by USD last night, UND is now firmly in the 3 seed, with only an outside shot at the 2 seed if certain results fall their way. Here’s how the final seeding picture could shake out: Key teams and current standings: UND: 10-5 in Summit (locked at 3 seed if results hold) UST: 10-4 (hosts NDSU tonight) Omaha: 8-7 USD: 7-8 going into SDSU game SDSU: 6-8 going into KC game Seeding scenarios: Assume UND holds the 3 seed: They will face the 6 seed in the March 6 quarterfinal late game. Likely 6 seed is either Omaha or SDSU, depending on Saturday results. If SDSU beats KC tonight: SDSU moves to 7-8. Omaha currently sits at 8-7; if Omaha beats UST, they move to 9-7 and get the 4 or 5 seed depending on tiebreakers with Denver. If Omaha loses to UST, they drop to 8-8. Then: Winner of SDSU/USD in Vermillion decides the 5/6/7 tiebreakers. If USD wins, they hold the tiebreaker over Omaha (swept them head-to-head), making USD the 5 seed and Omaha 6. If SDSU wins, Omaha holds tiebreakers over SDSU (Omaha went 1-1 vs UST, SDSU 0-2), meaning Omaha 5 and SDSU 6. Bottom line: UND will be the 3 seed going into Sioux Falls, with the 6 seed being Omaha or SDSU. NDSU matchup: The Bison are talented and a handful, especially inside, where Strickland gave UND fits last time with highlight dunks. UND got off to a decent first half, but the second half was rough. Both teams don’t have much to play for besides pride, although NDSU may still be focused on maintaining NCAA tournament seeding. If Josh Jones can return, that would help UND a lot around the hoop. KenPom has NDSU winning 82-69, so UND will need a full 40-minute effort to take the road win and close the regular season strong.