SWSiouxMN

God I hope you are wrong, but if you are right that is not good. Out of all the people in our frontcourt he is the most trustworthy. Nash, Calcaterra, Salmonson and Traylor would need to grow up fast and have to step up in a big time way.

True, but ISU and NAU would more than likely need to win out, and having a "angry" UNC team to deal with alongside us, PSU, and to play against each other isn't ideal. UND or PSU would need to slip up a couple of times and I don't really see that happening. NAU is going to look back at both the UNC and MSU losses at the end of the year and wonder what if. The good news is that 6 out of the 10 games are at home, with the tough ones being NAU, UNC, SAC. I think we can run the table in the rest of our home schedule. That gets us to 15-1. Weber and EWU will be good road wins as well. The two games that will determine our fate will be @ ISU and @ PSU. We lose both, we not going to win conference. We split, a share for sure and more than likely winning the conference outright depending on who they split. Win both, conference is ours.

A few thoughts from the scrimmage (well at least the first 2 sessions) -Already a fan of coach Shay, he brings another level of intensity to the coaching staff. Was really active during the scrimmage -Jones got after the team after the 2nd session because of game situation (green never fouled white team while down 2 with 15 seconds left... just let time ran out and wasn't pleased) From the players -Hooker has some great vision, and I would trust him right now in running the offense, he also isn't afraid to get in and drive. His shot was a little iffy but that will continue to improve. He is going to end up a star before he leaves. I really hope he redshirts, but if Webb is out a significant amount of time and Stefan doesn't get eligible the decision might be out of the coaches hand. If you can guarantee at least 15-20 minutes a night for him, only exception to letting him play. -Out of the frontcourt, I was most impressed with Salmonson, just found himself to be in the rights spots at the right time. Made some good moves in the post and really works hard. Calcaterra had his moments in the 2nd session, but fought the ball a little bit as well. Nash strugged in the sessions I saw, but the athletic ability lived up to the billing. If he can hits 3 consistently however... that will be just another good way to stretch the floor. I feel slightly better about our bigs but there are still too many questions and those won't be answered until ACTUAL game play. -Speaking of, someone should dig up the answer to why Traylor didn't participate. While he did show some flashes before his grade woes, I wasn't really enamored with him. I would play any of our bigs before him. - Huff.... The second session is when he really started to shine, but the thing I noticed a lot when I was there (and I could be wayyyy off here) was he didn't force a thing. Let me repeat that, a thing. He made the extra pass, did not drive in a 1 on 3 situation and was looking to get into the flow. I think he is going to take another big jump this year. If he can post at least a 50/40/75 (FG %, 3P%, FT%), which I think is very likely, he will be very hard to guard. -I think the redshirt year is going to benefit Tyler so much, he can just sit back and fine tune his game. He does have some nice range but can be a bit reckless with the ball. -Anderson looks to build off what he did last year, which is going to be important for us as well. He needs to be able to hurt teams that key too much on Troy like he was able to last year. -If we can get Stefan elgible, he is what Antwi SHOULD be which is a 3 point specialist. -Dustin H didn't look too bad out there with the group, in the right situation I could see him getting some quality minutes. -Benton, who might end up getting the squeeze with the guards, is the same old hard working bull in china shop guard and I love it. He really got better as the season went on last year and if he someone gets the minutes, expect it to continue.

Noticed a boot on his left foot on the sidelines.... hope its a sprain

The play was better on set 2, but still not there. Down 2-0 Need a pep talk and to fix things up.

Speaking of which, they are losing pretty good to UNC, about to go down 2 sets to 0.

UND finishes sweep, moves to 9-0!!!

UND up 2-0 with a 25-14 win in Set 2 In other action, EWU about to go up 2-0 on Weber

UND took set 1 against SUU and is now ROLLING in Set 2

If they can't give Hooker the necessary minutes to quantify lifting his shirt then don't do it. Its not worth wasting your freshman year for 8-10 minutes a night. 20 minutes a night yes, but not 8. Webb and Anderson can run the show, and Schuler and Huff can run the show if they have to. If Stefan gets eligible for this year, then its an open and shut case for a redshirt for Hooker. Then I almost make the case of redshirting both Hooker and Antwi

Going to be an interesting weekend for volleyball. We have 2 top 4 matchups (PSU/ISU, UND/NAU), an important swing of games between Sac State, Montana, and Montana State, who are fighting for the final 2 spots. The NAU game on Saturday will be tough, provided we don't sleepwalk against SUU on Thursday and they do the same against UNC. NAU must be kicking themselves for losing against MSU because this game could have been for 1st place. UNC is going to be a very dangerous spoiler in the 2nd half of the conference season, they might sink the conference hopes of a team or two before this is all said and done. I also decided to check on future Big Sky member Idaho, and they are at 154, which would be 5th in the conference right now....

The ISU game showed me that we were an improved product that could finish in the top 3 The UNC game showed me that we have a team that can win the whole thing. We need a transcript of what Hardee said between set 2 and 3, because whatever adjustment, encouragement, etc was said worked. It almost was like if they got the first set, they knew they would get to set 5 and then win. UND made the plays (and got the lucky bounces, nothing was luckier than Ronnie's kill late in set 5) that a championship team usually gets. Also following the model of stealing one on the road against a conference favorite (yes, I know now 1-5 but picked 3rd in conference). UNC must be besides themselves after dropping that one, while still a lot of time to turn things around you can pretty much kiss their chances of winning the regular season title good bye (they would need to win out, which is very unlikely considering they still need to play PSU x2, @ISU, NAU x2, and come here). They will be dangerous however should they make the post-season, no team wants to draw them. Things don't get easier as they get PSU in their house next Thurs. Speaking of, 2 big weekends ahead to finish the first half of conference play. A first place battle looms with PSU on Saturday, provided we take care of business of a pesky EWU squad. Conference Standings as of 10/8 UND 6-0 NAU 5-1 PSU 5-1 ISU 4-2 SAC 3-3 MON 3-3 EWU 3-3 UNC 1-5 WEB 1-5 MSU 1-5 SUU 1-5 Conference matchups for 10/10-12 10/10 EWU @ UND PSU @ UNC ISU @ WEB 10/11 SUU @ MON SAC @ WEB NAU @ MSU 10/12 PSU @ UND EWU @ UNC NAU @ MON SUU @ MSU SAC @ ISU

WE FINISH THE COMEBACK!!!!!!!!!!!!

MERCY!!!! MATCH POINT!

UND TAKES LEAD!!!! TO UNC!!!!!!

UND gets it to 1.... TO UNC

If we ever needed an ace...this would be it

Hardee's TOs in set 4 were brilliant, that's coaching right there!

This will go 5!

BLOCK PARTY!!!! 23-22 UND KILL!!!! 24-22 TO UNC!!!!! UND will have 2 shots at set point

another UNC kill makes it 22 all and UND uses its last TO

Kill by Thompson, a blocking error by UNC get it to 22-20, then a UNC kills makes it 22-21.

TO UND tied at 20

UND 1st to 20 20-18

TO UNC! UND takes a 17-15 lead in set 4