SWSiouxMN

Griz 23 UND 8 11:01 1st

Back to back TOs by Tray lead to back to back dunks by the Griz and a 30 second timeout and a furious coach Jones

Griz 18 UND 8 11:34 1st UND finally showing some signs of life in the last two minutes

Hark! an old fashioned 3 point play by Seales Griz 16 UND 6 12:17 1st

Tray finally hits a 3 Thank god

you've got to kidding me. 7:05 into the game and no points

haven't scored in the first 6 minutes of the game. TO UND Griz 14 UND 0 13:57 1st

legit question: Did the team even leave Grand Forks?

Griz 11 UND 0 15:53 1st this is already ugly and might be uglier.

Death by zone

Griz 7 UND 0 17:09 1st

Good thought by Geno but he wasn't set.

http://www.bigskyconf.com/sports/2015/11/19/WatchBigSky.aspx

Well lets see how this goes

I would think the guy from EWU would be the favorite.

Gee I wonder what Brad is getting at with this one, just another underlying shot at Kennedy. Let. It. Go

Nope, but reading twitter from Tom Miller it could come as early as tomorrow. Only way it happens if a four letter organization comes knocking and states, your basketball program has a problem.

We just don't have the proper replacements right now for Shanks and Collins. These losses are actually hurting the team, not the loss of Drick. Dale is actually an upgrade over Drick believe it or not. This team right now doesn't have a quality backup at the 5 spot or the 3 spot. Jaqwan can be that guy at the 3 but hasn't seen the court since Hawaii and I don't know when we will see him again on the court. Walter is a 4 and unless he puts on 50 pounds, is not going to be a 5. I'm not saying Josh would have lit it up by any means but he has the body and the skill set of a 3. Shanks has his detractors I know, but I'd kill to have him back right now, its worse without him! Much like I feel that if Geno started his freshman year instead of TdR they would have won 4-6 more games, I believe that if we still had Shanks and Collins they would have 3 more wins and this team will be a lot better shape.

Well the first round of conference games didn't go very well for UND. 21 turnovers and a big Ukrainian proved to be too much as EWU managed to come away with the road win. UND looks to turn it around as they go west to take on a very good Griz squad. Coach DeCuire is very beloved by Griz fans. There is a lot of them that think that they can go very far with him as a coach and hope he can stay long term and not go anywhere. Truthfully, there has been a lot more sizzle that steak. The measurement in Missoula has been NCAA tournaments and so far he has come up empty. Last year was a bit of a disappointment with a 16-16 record and getting bounced in the BSC Quarters, despite being one of the 4 favorites going in. This year, however, might finally be the breakthrough year for the Griz. Head to Head in the Big Sky: The Griz have a commanding 8-1 lead in the series, including an unblemished 5-0 record in Missoula. Key Players: Ahmaad Rorie and Michael Oguine. This 1-2 punch at guard is possibly the best the Big Sky has to offer. What they make up for in height (they run 6'1 and 6'2 respectively) they make up for in great basketball intangibles. They both can drive to the hoop, shoot for distance and are sneaky rebounders. A lot of the Griz early success can be contributed to these two playing very well and Rorie is putting up numbers that will put him on the short list for Big Sky POY and Oguine is definitely putting up 1st team conference numbers. Geno and Stewart need to be ready for this battle, it should be a fun matchup. Keys: 1) How will UND respond?: UND got swept at home. Its not a great situation and with the schedule as is, could really start to get out of hand quick. They haven't put it all together yet, but they don't have all the time in the world to put it all together. Will they respond with the team that went out to Hawaii and Zaga? Or will it be more of the same inconsistency. 2) Can UND get some help from the bench: One of the sore spots has been the lack of a bench all year for this team and will continue to be until someone steps into the fray. Walter and Jafar had flashes of being that but have since fizzled out. Now Tray managed to put together a couple of decent games, could he finally be the person that emerges? They need consistency so bad in this department. 3) Dale vs Akoh The guard matchup will be the main event but this individual battle will be a nice undercard. Akoh has given the Griz some decent size and stretch abilities they didn't have last year. Usually for UND, the bugaboo against the Griz was that size and stretch abilities. Dale has proven to be an upgrade (yes, I said it) over Drick, but how well will be handle the big guy in this one? Other games: MSU (2-0) vs UNC (2-0) Game of the night will be in Bozeman. The coaches darlings held serve at home, including an impressive win over league favorite Idaho. The Cats managed to escape with two wins on the road against SUU and NAU. How legit is UNC? We are going to find out. A sweep of the Montana schools will put them in very good shape with Weber and ISU coming in next week. The Cats did what they needed to do and now need to hold serve at home. Hall and Frey vs Davis and Spight? That is a great matchup waiting to happen EWU (1-1) vs PSU (0-1) Eastern is probably happy to get out of weekend with a split, including the first ever win in Grand Forks. PSU got stunned by travel partner Sac State in Sacramento and is looking to bounce back. PSU doesn't want to going into Moscow 0-2, while Eastern would love to defend the home court. Borgan will always given EWU a chance. Going to be an interesting contrast of styles going into this one. SAC (1-0) @ Idaho (1-1) Sac State came away with an impressive victory at home vs PSU, they would love to do it again in Moscow against the Vandals, who possibly is wondering what-if from last weekend. Strings always can go get his points but he is going to need some help. Sanders and company are looking to bounce back and hold serve at home. SUU (0-2) @ ISU (1-0) ISU fans are elated after knocking off arch-rival Weber at their place, and suddenly look at this weekend for an opportunity to start 3-0 in conference play. Well, this game will not be easy. SUU may have lost both of their games to the Montana schools but this isn't the T-Birds of last year. Of course neither are the Bengals who are improved under the old addition by subtraction rule. Neither team right now is a threat to the big dogs but if you are looking ahead to Reno, I wouldn't want to see the T-Birds in my QF matchup. NAU (0-2) @ Weber (0-1) So who here had Weber and NAU battling for the first win? (Unless you are a Bengal fan who read this, I suggest you put your hand down, nobody did). NAU put up a fight against MSU but got swept and Weber was stunned at home against travel partner ISU. Weber will look at this weekend to get back on track before a tough UNC/UND road swing, they can't afford to drop anymore against teams they should beat. NAU just looking to build off of the OT loss to MSU, could they stun Weber? The Call: Missoula has not been very good to UND, and I am sure they are looking to change that. It would be an impressive feather in their caps if they went in and knocked the Griz off of their perch, it could be a springboard for the rest of the season. With that said, that would mean that UND got more production from its bench and Geno/Stewart got the best of Rorie/Oguine. I think UND will make positive steps but alas, the Griz will be too much again this time. Griz 84-71 Other games: Weber, SUU, Idaho, PSU, and MSU are my picks

I was hoping that this thread wouldn't be resurrected this season. I think there are some things that Jones can change in how he runs his program. His body of work on JUCO transfers is not very good, way more misses than hits and as of right now it is the former. He does a lot better job in getting transfers from other teams/grad transfers so unless its one of those, I would like to see them go away from JUCOs. Which leads me to my other point: They have to get back into Minnesota for recruits. I really would have thought that more in-roads would have been made with the success of Q and Geno, but I guess not. I haven't been too impressed with the Iowa kids (from HS, not transfers from other schools) that have been brought up here, outside of Seales. I'm not saying that they totally need to go away from Iowa but there needs to be more effort in MN. If the season does go off the rails similar to 14-15, then I expect a similar response by the coaching staff: an overhaul of the roster. It paid off when Jones did it with an BSC title and NCAA appearance two years later. Unless an NCAA violation occurs (which we would have bigger issues to deal with) Jones will be here for the next two. After that, its anyone's guess. Lastly: Jones is not Mussman. It is an unfair comparison, Jones is/was better head coach that Mussman ever was. I'd argue a better comparison was with Idalski.

It was done once before, overhauled the roster after the 14-15 season. Paid off two years later with a BSC title and NCAA appearance. Jones and company need to step back from the JUCO world for a little while, getting transfer from other schools have been more successful so far, and get back into Minnesota.

Around the Big Sky: (from Yesterday) The Griz took the T-Birds to the woodshed with a 79-49 win in Cedar City. The Griz look pretty good but will have a bit of a stiffer test at home verses UND and UNC coming up. SUU took a small step back after their performance against MSU, but they are definitely not the T-Birds of last year. They go to Weber and ISU next week The Cats also move to 2-0 on the conference season, but struggled to put away the Jacks and it took OT to do it. Keljin Blevins had a big game to save the Cats bacon. NAU put up a better performance, but odds are they will bring up the rear of the conference this year. They go to Weber and ISU while MSU goes home to host UNC and UND. Now for the upsets ISU went into Weber and shocked the Cats with a 62-60 win. Jared Stutzman had a big game with 17 points and 6 rebounds. ISU now has more wins that they did last year, could this be a example of addition by subtraction? Tough loss for a team that has championship aspirations, they will host SUU and NAU this week, so both teams look to defend their home courts. PSU went down to Sac State and did not leave with the W. Justin Strings had a big game, 34 points, 8 rebounds, and 5 assists to take down the surprise Vikings. They will now travel to Idaho and EWU.

A sluggish first half doomed UND in the conference opener against league favorite Idaho, UND hopes to salvage the weekend when they host the Eagles of Eastern Washington. The Eagles dropped a 88-75 decision down in Greely. This has been a transition year for the Eagles as they are under the leadership of 1st year coach Shantay Legans. While they still have a few solid pieces from last years team, they haven't found a guy that can duplicate the impact that Jacob Wiley had last year. UND is 7-3 all time against EWU in the Big Sky and they have never lost to the Eagles in Grand Forks (5-0) Player to Watch: Bogdan Bliznyuk (18.2 ppg 6.0 rpg, 3.4 apg). The big Ukrainian has been one of the better players in the Big Sky for the past few years. He is a guy that can do a little bit of everything, can knock down the 3 if needed, decent free throw shooter, good rebounder, and underrated in getting assists. Given the situation with UNDs bigs, I would suspect a very heavy dose of Bogdan today. Keys to the game: 1) UND Frontcourt: The status of Dale Jones will be critical in this one, without him a thin frontcourt becomes even thinner. Avants and Walter need to play big and if Franken get any minutes he needs to make the productive. 2) UND guards: UND should have an advantage in the guard position, so they need to take full advantage. Geno, Marlon and Cortez should have no excuse not to have decent games against these Eagles guards. 3) Zone principles: Its no shock to think that EWU will throw a ton of zone against UND and why not? With the shooting numbers UND has so far I would throw a zone on these guys! UND needs to do a better job in showing "controlled" aggression in attacking it. Quicker passes, moving around, attacking the gaps and yes... knocking down the open shot are a must. Other Game: Idaho (1-0) vs UNC (1-0) This is a bit of a statement game (if you can call the 2nd conference game a statement game) but the Bears have a chance to get a crucial win against the league favorite Vandals before a tough Montana swing next week and send a message that they are a true threat for the crown this year. Idaho can look to get the UND/UNC road sweep to continue to establish their favorite status before hosting a very surprising PSU team and a struggle Sac St team at home. The Call: This is a must win for UND, cannot understate that UND needs this one or else an 0-4 start to league play is very likely. With that said, I think UND strength at the guard will be enough to overcome their weakness at forward in this one and they also manage to beat the zone by actually knocking down some shots. Look for them to get conference win number one. UND 79-74 In the other game: I'll take the Vandals in a high scoring affair.

Not acceptable

I think Mark Pryor and the volleyball program might disagree with that notion. both bball team needs to pick/step it up. No lowered expectation from me, they need to figure it out and fast or else they will start 1-5 in conference play.