SWSiouxMN

Brooks off a turnover 2-0 UND

Trent in for Nero

One change to the starting lineup Trent Brooks Omot Sueker T

Another epic game between these two.

What do you guys feel a successful non-conference season looks like in terms of wins. I am hoping for around a .500 finish (6-7 wins). I think they could pull that off. You already have two wins baked in with the non d-1s. Have some winnable home games and road trips.

I want to see some growth, especially on the defensive side of the basketball.

UND started the season off on the right foot, getting a road win against Incarnate Word. Now they hit the road once again, heading down to Omaha to take on the 9th ranked Creighton Blue Jays About Creighton: When you think of Creighton, you think of a problem that has been a top team in the Big East, very well coached, and a perennial team in the NCAA tournament. However, the one thing that has been lacking has been a deep run in March. This year... there is many in Omaha that believe that this is the year. Some National Pundits have the Bluejays as a darkhorse team to make the Final 4 this year. The reason: They have a great group of players coming back with Arthur Kaluma and Ryan Kalkbrenner leading the way. Oh, and an old friend from SDSU: Baylor Schiereman, decided to take his talents down I-29 to Omaha to join the Bluejays. This is a stacked offensive team but... can they play the defense to back it up. It helps to have a 7 footer in the frontcourt but can the rest of the team match it. If they do... there is no reason why they can't be one of the last 4 teams standing. About the Coach: Greg McDermott (556-332 overall record, 276-137 at Creighton). An old coaching friend will be on the opposing sidelines as fomer UND assisant coach Greg McDermott begins his 13th season at Creighton, with stops at UNI and Iowa State along the way. He has lead Creighton to the NCAA tournament 9 times in 13 years, but is missing that 1 deep March top to put the cherry on top of a long and successful coaching career. Is this the year it happens? Key Player: Arthur Kaluma (6'7" Sophomore Forward) The Sophomore from Glendale has an NBA body and can attack the basket. His shot and his defense is preventing him from being a potential lottery pick in the NBA draft. Will be a very tough defensive assignment for anybody on UNDs roster. The Numbers on Creighton 2022-23 Adjusted Offense: 105.6 Adjusted Defense: 89.4 2021-22 Adjusted Offense: 104.8, Adjusted Defense: 92.1 Questions: 1) Can the defense continue to get better? 2) Can anyone outside of Norman consistenly hit an outside shot? 3) How do Omot and Brooks handle the bright lights? 4) How does the frontcourt handle the 7 footer? The Call: Creighton will want to come out and take UND down right away to reestablish themselves as a top 10 team in the nation. UND is going to have their hands full on this one and if they are going to pull a shocker, they are going to have to hit shots and play great defense. I think UND will keep it interesting in the first half before the Bluejays get their act together. Creighton 81-62 Game is on FS1

I've made that trip many times, it does get really weird in the Coteau Region of NE SD.

Basketball team get down to Omaha safe and sound?

1 more year! 1 more year!

Back to the game: My mid-week thoughts are: UND 28 USD 20 Sticking with history on this one. Close and the home team winning

UND has been closer to getting to the NCAA tournament in mens basketball than USD has since UND joined the Summit. So don't know where they are getting that from. Oh and has just as many Summit Tournament wins as USD. Including beating them head to head in 2020. I would know, I was there for that one

I will live with her grabbing a ton of rebounds and being solid on defense. If she can do that and just score on tips in right now.... that's good enough for me

UND needs to jump on USD from the start, both defensively and offensively.

I think the one thing we can all agree on is this: There is reasons to be excited about this season and this team should win more games that last year.

Matt Norman should get a lot of credit for sparking UND in the beginning of the game. He also hit a big time 3 when they went down 4. So he had some good moments. He went 3-7 from 3, which is okay. He needs to shoot around 38-40% from 3 this year. It has to happen. I think this role off of the bench is perfect for him. Come off the bench, shoot it and get hot. However, you cant do that when you are up 10 off of a time out. Nero and Norman can't do that. This is the stuff that cost UND games last year. It didn't because BJ Omot stepped up and say: No. We are winning this game. That block he made on that backdoor play was the turning point. Omot settled down after his dunk, but you can just tell... he's going to be special once he puts it all together. Brooks can bring in on the defense end and can really grab rebounds from his guard position. Trent, he plays with an edge, something that has been lacking.

You can tell she is still raw (VanderWal) but if she can just do what she did last night consistently, I think UND can live with that for this year. The quicker they can get her up to speed, the more she can play. The Rebounding is an issue that needs to be dealt with and if you are not going to deal with it in size, you need to really make sure that basic rebounding fundamentals are being applied here. If you are doing those, that should cut down on a lot of O-boards. Now if UND is going to be small, turning people over and getting points off of those turnovers will be a good counter balance to the lack of rebounding. I liked the full court press they threw up in the 2nd quarter that disrupted Detroit Mercy a little bit. Beal and Hurst need more than 8 and 6 minutes respectively. These two need to learn and play. I can't believe how athletic Beal is. You can see the offensive skill that Hurst has. Best stat from Kacie Borowicz last night: 9 assists, 3 turnovers. This right here, is where she needs to live at this year. Not worry about the scoring part, but cutting down on those turnovers are crucial. 10 UND turnovers. Please stay around there all year please!!!!

I know that it might be the opponent: But I look and see they held UIW to 36% shooting. I looked back at the numbers from last year on this site: https://barttorvik.com/team.php?year=2022&team=North+Dakota Adjusting for effectiveness, UND held UIW to 38.5% shooting. Their lowest total from last year against D1 competition? 46.5%. That alone, it a step in the right direction defensively.

I thought it would be a little more high scoring but I'll take the margin. Wish it had been 15.

Trent 6 assists, 1 turnover that will get the job done

BALLGAME UND 65-57

made it 65-57 UND

BRADY! AND 1! DAGGER!

UND gets another stop

makes 1 of 2 from the line 62-57 UND 1:28 2nd need a stop here