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NDSU is playing very good D, we are struggling right now finally get a bucket from Anderson 16-14 NDSU

Webb got a 3 blocked, but stays on our end Jones calls TO, not happy with the lack of rebounding effort 16-12 NDSU

Felt nails a 3 14-12 NDSU

NDSU went 1 of 2 from the line but got the board and Braun hits an NBA 3 Webb goes down the lane and get a bucket and a foul, more importantly its the 2nd foul on Bjorklund Webb.... completes the and 1 10-9 UND

nothing like it was in 2010 a TON of empty seats

Anderson draws a foul on Alexander and will shoot 2 put both in 7-5 UND 14:50 1st

Another good move by Bjorklund 5-5 Jump ball heading into the first media time out

Brekke took forever to shoot that Bjorklund thought that someone was ready to block that, he should have thrown that down Good break for UND

Good move by Bjorklund 5-3 UND Anderson misses on a 3, but Brown fouls Wilmer, his 2nd

Anderson for 3... BANG!!!! 5-1 UND

Wilmer with a THROWDOWN! 2-1 UND

um... wow, a TON of empty seats in the dome Weather must have kept a lot of people away from this game

Stuck watching the game on the tube due to the weather and not feeling the best

So who had the Purple Cows 2 points out of first place at this point of the season?

Went to the game, so I'll try and fill the gaps -Looking at the stats, surprised that we were even on the boards because I thought Drake did a way better job than us on that part. -Evers had another nice game, but offense really doubled her up in the 2nd half and that is how they got a ton of turnovers. Think it would help to expand her game if she can develop a consistent 8-10 foot jumper. -Smart was quiet until the end, but was huge when we needed her. That 3 pointer was a no doubter and she even knew it with a bit of a skip -Wall is getting closer, saw a couple of moves that the old Wall was making the first 2 years. Another week or so and she will be just fine. -26 TOs is wayyy too high, need to work on that some more. Got to get better passes in the post -I would characterize this a good gutty win for these girls and a win I think a month ago they do not get, so they have improved a lot there -Would like us to be more aggressive shooters, this will help a lot to prevent any doubling in the post. -They did not let that 21-7 Drake run kill them, as they slowly but eventually got back into the ball game. -Well attended game, around 1700 Things looked pretty bleak a couple of weeks ago, and now these girls have fought back with 3 straight wins. I think Brew is doing a good job with these girls.

Whoops! Shows where my head has been this week, (blame finals approaching)

Preview Time: UND returned home and shot around 50% and turned the ball over only 10 times. But shooting 14-30 from the line and being outworked on the boards 41-28, UND was unable to capitalize and lost another close game to UMKC. Now the guys need to turn around and get ready to play a very confident NDSU basketball team down in the Fargodome on Sunday. Tipoff is at 4 PM MEDIA FOR THE GAME The game will once again be on MIDCO sports and will be again on the radio with 100.3FM in GF HISTORY UND leads the all time series 159-129, and the teams have split the first two games since the rivarly renewed at the D-1 level. Last year at the REA, a Patrick Mitchell tip in with :50 seconds left and 4 free throws at the last minute seal a 59-54 win over NDSU which lead to the UND student body to rush the court. The Bison were lead by Marshall Bjorkland with 13 points and 7 rebounds. Mike Felt chipped in with 12 points as well. UND was paced by Brekke with 17 points and Anderson chipped in with 12 points and 5 rebounds. ABOUT THE BISON (7-2, 1-0 SUMMIT) The Bison are coached by Saul Phillips (6th Year), who is still looking to make his mark after Tim Miles took NDSU to the tourney in 2009. While he has slowly gotten NDSU back into the Summit Leauge conversation, he kinda is getting some heat from fans with the lack of success of post-season play. NDSU might have their best team in a little while and will challenge SDSU for league bragging rights, and with plenty coming back and coming in next year, they will be the favorite in the league next year. NDSU has done a good job in knocking off a couple of decent mid-majors, including beating a tough Morehead State team. They have been used to the fast starts in Fargo, but is this the year that Saul puts it all together, or will the heat start to be turned up several knotches with another 1 and done in the Summit Tourney. STATS COMPARISON UND NDSU PPG: 65.3 72.9 FG%: .412 .470 3P%: .350 .411 FT%: .664 .743 RPG: 33.7 37.3 APG: 11.8 13.8 KEY PLAYERS #24 6-7 G TAYLOR BRAUN JR (15.2 PPG, 6.7 RPG, 3.6 APG, .824 FT%) This kid is starting to figure it out, and its scary... Last 2 games he has been lights out at either the 3 point line (Omaha) or the free throw line (Morehead St). He is a very good slasher and looks to get to the rim at any cost. Very good 3 point shooter and has been great at the line. He is the cog to how the NDSU machine is run. If he is good, NDSU typically wins. If he is not.. they have lost (Green Bay, the Indiana game is a throw out). His height is going to be a big problem for us in the guard position and someone needs to step up and try and shut him down. #42 6-8 F MARSHALL BJORKLAND JR (11.2 PPG, 5.4 RPG, .672 FG%) Without question one of the best big man in the Summit League, and I think he is very underrated. This kid is very solid around the rim and a good rebounder as well. He does make a big difference for NDSU down on the blocks. He does from time to time get into foul trouble. While the main focus will more than likely be on Braun, if we are not careful this kid will eat us inside. Our Bigs need to step up and limit Bjorkland and most importantly limit his rebounding chances. #3 6-3 G MIKE FELT JR (11.1 PPG, 1.8 RPG, .482 3P%) This is a kid that knows his role very well for this squad. He shoots, and shoots, and shoots some more. Althoug he has worked very hard to make his game more well rounded, he is know for his shooting prowlness. He does have 1 thing that needs to be noted. He still does that little chicken wing when he handles the ball and we need to take advantage of that by drawing a charge or two. Another thing of note is that he will run and run and run around screens, so get your track shoes ready if you are D'in up this guy. Cannot let this guy get hot or it will be a very long night. KEYS TO THE GAME: 1) Who can adjust to the Dome: Shooting in a dome is an different animal for whatever reason. We need to be ready to adjust and adjust quickly. We are going to need our outside shooting to be on for this game. 2) The Crowd: Lets face it, this game will get around 9-11,000 in this dome. It will more than likely be 90/10 to NDSU. The Men's team needs to take a page to what the women's team did last week in the BSA. Punch them in the mouth right away and keep this crowd at all costs out of the game. 3) Rivarly: NDSU is 7-2, they have knocked off several solid mid-majors. UND is 1-5 and has too many close games not go their way. Throw everything out the window. NDSU has a ton of a momentum and can either build on this for a monster run in the Summit, or this could be their disaster (we saw the fallout from last year). UND can make a lot of close game blues dissapear and get on track before Big Sky play with a win, or be still left with questions with a loss. 4) Braun: Who is going to be the man to try and shut him down. If he is slashing, it might not hurt to try and draw a few fouls against him. 5) Free Throws: Prove that last night was a blip. Go down and make your shots. NDSU is a very good team from the line, and we need to answer the call if we are going to steal this one on the road. Webb, you need to be ready to make them, or the NDSU students will be in your head all night long. 6) Rebounding: The entire team needs to be ready to crash the boards... period. 1 other notes for this game: Saul Phillips will be coaching this game barefoot in a very noble cause. Class act for Coach Saul.

It means we need to get him to the nearest buffet... fast . Seriously thought, this is very good news. Im taking it that we will be seeing the Honey Badger back sooner rather than later.

For those who are wondering about Traylor, on the chat today Tom Miller said that Traylor landed hard on his back during practice before the SDSU game and was day to day

2010-2011 season when we played St. Cloud. Think it was the Saturday game where we ripped off 5 goals in the first period.

BALL NIGHT! I can't for tonight. Time to put together our first 40 minute game of the year

Found this little link while on egriz, kinda cool to see how we stack up right now against other teams in our conference stats wise. http://www.griz.net/stats-2012-12-03/

Saw a lot of good things last night at the game last night. I think you can tell that Wall is frustrated a little bit that she is not herself, that will come in time. Evers was a beast last night and Air Force had NO answer for her. Also want to give Smart a few props as well in how she shot the ball. Other than the 1 3 that was blocked, her shots looked great. Even the ones she missed could have gone down. They did cut down their turnovers, but I think 17 is still a little too high. Also were a lot of close calls with some TO's as well. We will have very good chances in winning our next 3 games if we keep this up. Would be nice to be sitting 5-4 and 1-0 in the Sky before our big tilt at UNC

Ponder, without question, is the worst QB in the last two draft classes. Can't hesitate anymore, sucks it up against the Bears at home and he won't start another game the rest of the year.

Thank you for the kind words. I figured I would start doing some sort of write ups. I try to include a little info about the team and players so we know who to look out for (and any fun facts). Since this is my first crack at this I hope to improve as the season goes along. I try to get my information from any way I can. Since I am a bit of a basketball junkie I try and see (for free and legally of course) if I can watch the opponents play before they play us to look for these key players and how they played. Also helps to do a little stat analysis on the opponents to make sure I know what I am talking about. Haven't seen the guys play at home yet this year (had a school related excuse to miss the Crown game) but will finally have my first chance to see them.