This years exhibition felt a little different as UND used a surge from Mitchell Sueker in the first half and leaned on their defense to win pretty easily against Waldorf. Well now the season starts for real: UND heads down to Texas and the famed Riverwalk in San Antonio to take on Incarate Word of the Southland Conference.
About Incarate Word:
In 2013, Incarate Word decided begin a journey. That journey was the transition to being a D1 school! In the first three seasons of D1 life, they were doing pretty well. 21 wins their first year, then back up with an 18 and 17 win seasons. Playing well in the Southland conference, things were looking pretty good. Then next two years, there was a slip in play and they fell to the bottom of the conference. It was then when the powers that be decided to jettison Ken Burmeister, who led them through the transition and hired Carson Cunningham, who was a successful NAIA coach at Carroll College in Montana. The hope was that Cunningham would be able to turn things around, like he did at Carroll.
Going into his 5th season... it hasn't gone according to plan.
The team hasn't cracked 10 wins in a season in his first 4 years and Incarate Word hasn't struggled to climb the standings in the Southland. They are once again picked at the bottom of the Southland standings for this coming season. One would think that expectations will be low once again for the Cardinals.
But this is college basketball! Anything can happen! It is not like Cunningham has forgotten to coach or lead a program, it might finally all come together for the Word this year. They have their two best scorers returning at the guard position and brought in some transfers and incoming freshman. It could finally all come together. Let us however be brought back to this reality: They do need something to happen soon... or the winds of change will swirl down the Riverwalk.
Let us believe in the Word*... expect for this matchup of course.
*Incarate Word has a pretty interesting history on how it got started, worth a look.
The Coach: Carson Cunningham (138-137 overall record, 31-85 at UIW, 15-51 Southland)
The former OSU and Purdue guard had a decorated NAIA coaching career, turning around a downtrotted Carroll college into a perpennial winner. The same success hasn't followed him to the Word in his first 4 years, but all it takes it one good year to put the belief back in. Coach Cunningham isn't your regular coach, he has a Ph.D and an MBA and acutually has written 5 books!
Even if things don't work down in UIW, I would fully expect Cunningham to land somewhere and get his coaching career back on track.
Key players: Josh Morgan (Jr) and Charlie Yoder (So)
For small schools, it is good to have some experience and talent in your backcourt. Fortunately, the Cardinals have two of them. Josh Morgan played the perfect 2nd option for former ORU player RJ Glasper and now looks to move into the primary role. He averaged nearly 12 points a game and shot 40% from the field. He also can shoot it from outside, shooting it at 38.5% from 3. Yoder only played 15 games but flashed with some big performances (scoring 25 points 3 times). He is the guy that wants to get to the free throw line a lot and will do most of his damage there. Can also effect the game with his rebounding (2nd leading rebounder with 5.5 rebounds a game). Perimeter defense has been a point of emphasis for UND this offseason and will be put to the test right away.
The numbers:
So I am trying something new this year and using the number info from Bart Trovik. Here are the adjusted offensive and defensive effiency numbers from UIW from the last 4 years. Offense effiency is listed first, Defensive effiencey is 2nd. These numbers mean that if there were 100 possessions in a basketball game, this is what UIW would score and give up defensively.
2018: 98.3 120
2019: 92.6 111.7
2020: 95.2 112.1
2021: 94.4 116.7
As you can see, they have had struggled with scoring and have given up a lot of points. Last year, they were one of the worst defensive teams in giving up 2 point shots, guessing this is why they brought in some height to try and fix that.
Question in this game:
1) Who can play the better defense? Both teams are coming off of poor defensive showings last year and both teams felt that they have improved in this area. Whoever can show that they can stop the other team more will come away with the win.
The call:
I think that UNDs experience in the frontcourt with Sueker and T plus a better perimeter defense will supply UND with their first road win of the year. I would love for Omot to have a big game in his first real college game.
UND 81-74
Game is on the plus
