82SiouxGuy Posted January 3, 2010 Share Posted January 3, 2010 I keep hearing a very common comment, and it hasn't really bothered me until this point in the season. Its that the goal is the Great West Conference Title and tounament title is the answer I hear after losses. Thats great but... Yes these are good teams, but the goal should be to advance this program by eventually stealing some wins against some good D1 teams. Thats what will advance these programs (men & women), it will add a boost for our fans and build recognition. Unfortunately that storyline isn't even close to being possible right now with the men and the women as the talent is not there to surprise and beat these long established d1 majors and mid majors. Yeah thats great about the Great West and all, but I want to see our Women or Men get a victory over a Big 10 or quality MAC or Missouri Valley or similar program. Those are the wins that make noise. Other teams who have transtitioned ahead of us were able to do so. Why can't we? Poor planning on the type of player needed to accompolish the job to do that or what, you tell me? Winning the Great West for Volleyball may be great, but for UND basketball I expect more, and right now am not getting it. It's a matter of steps. I don't think that any of the regional transitioning schools beat Big 10 or other established DI teams in the first year or 2 of the transition. That's where UND is currently, near the beginning of the transition. Most of the wins against that level of competition start happening in year 3 or 4, if things go well. The goal should be to be competitive with your league (have the ability to compete for a title) by the time you are done with transition, and be able to win some of the games you play against the more established leagues by that time. UND is not to that point yet. The men's roster includes 6 redshirt freshman and 2 sophomores. At least 9 different players have started games because of injury problems and they have had at least 6 different starting line-ups. The team is young, has not had a lot of time to play together as a unit and has had many of its best players miss games with injuries. All of that adds up to a slow start and not playing well as a team. It adds up to missing passes because either people aren't where they are supposed to be or players don't know where teammates are going. It can often result in poor shooting and weak decision making. It adds up to the type of record you see right now. You should be able to get a better idea about the direction of the men's program by the last half of next year when this year's redshirt freshman should be playing major minutes. The women have other issues. Injuries have been a problem for them also. And not having their 6'5" player eligible for a single game yet has probably affected them. But the biggest problem for them seems to be the fact that they haven't found the gems they found for several years in Division II. They were always able to pull in 1 or 2 players almost every year that could play at the top of Division II if not in Division I. They don't have them right now. The transition might be scaring some of them off and sending them to other schools. It might be that the usual recruiting areas are drying up or being over recruited so the coaches may have to find other target areas. Again, another year or possibly 2 will tell whether the program is going to go in the right direction as they leave transition or not. This is a process. The step from Division II to Division I is huge in basketball. It would be like going from Division II to BCS in football. Anyone that didn't see a lot of struggles in the first few years was fooling themselves, and that would have been under the best of situations. Injuries have made it even harder. I don't know if these teams can get better enough to compete at the higher level or not. But you have to give it some time to see. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hammersmith Posted January 3, 2010 Share Posted January 3, 2010 It's a matter of steps. I don't think that any of the regional transitioning schools beat Big 10 or other established DI teams in the first year or 2 of the transition. That's where UND is currently, near the beginning of the transition. Most of the wins against that level of competition start happening in year 3 or 4, if things go well. The goal should be to be competitive with your league (have the ability to compete for a title) by the time you are done with transition, and be able to win some of the games you play against the more established leagues by that time. UND is not to that point yet. Just for the record... Notable* year 1 wins: NDSU WBB: Cincinnati SDSU WBB: Kentucky, Northern Illinois, Oklahoma State, Alabama, Wisconsin-Milwaukee Notable year 2 wins: NDSU MBB: Eastern Michigan, Northern Illinois, Wisconsin NDSU WBB: Georgetown, Creighton, Alabama SDSU WBB: Nebraska, Colorado State, Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Alabama, Colorado *In this context, notable = BCS conferences + MAC, MWC, MVC & Horizon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
82SiouxGuy Posted January 3, 2010 Share Posted January 3, 2010 Just for the record... Notable* year 1 wins: NDSU WBB: Cincinnati SDSU WBB: Kentucky, Northern Illinois, Oklahoma State, Alabama, Wisconsin-Milwaukee Notable year 2 wins: NDSU MBB: Eastern Michigan, Northern Illinois, Wisconsin NDSU WBB: Georgetown, Creighton, Alabama SDSU WBB: Nebraska, Colorado State, Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Alabama, Colorado *In this context, notable = BCS conferences + MAC, MWC, MVC & Horizon. Sorry, I was talking off the top of my head and mainly referring to the men's programs when I made that comment about wins against notable opponents. I was thinking that NDSU had those wins in Year 3. Guess it shows how much I was paying attention to NDSU basketball. My point about building toward the end of transition is still valid. NDSU winning their league and going to the Big Dance was the ultimate version of that strategy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coach daddy Posted January 3, 2010 Share Posted January 3, 2010 Just for the record... Notable* year 1 wins: NDSU WBB: Cincinnati SDSU WBB: Kentucky, Northern Illinois, Oklahoma State, Alabama, Wisconsin-Milwaukee Notable year 2 wins: NDSU MBB: Eastern Michigan, Northern Illinois, Wisconsin NDSU WBB: Georgetown, Creighton, Alabama SDSU WBB: Nebraska, Colorado State, Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Alabama, Colorado *In this context, notable = BCS conferences + MAC, MWC, MVC & Horizon. The wins I highlighted in red, while they may be teams from major conferences, they were not good teams in those conferences. DI wins yes, quality wins or beating "good" teams, not so much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hammersmith Posted January 3, 2010 Share Posted January 3, 2010 The wins I highlighted in red, while they may be teams from major conferences, they were not good teams in those conferences. DI wins yes, quality wins or beating "good" teams, not so much. I know. I was just following the direction of the thread, which was focusing on conferences or "established DI programs". It was also late, and I didn't feel like doublechecking 4-5 year old RPIs for those schedules; quick and dirty was the rule. Just to defend my Bison, Northern Illinois did win the MAC West that year(RPI around 125). I also figured the Cincinnati women couldn't be that good if the Bison beat them in 04-05, but I saw they are Big East so I threw them in. I was wrong about both as well, since they were still in C-USA at the time and had an acceptable RPI of 139. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UND92,96 Posted January 5, 2010 Share Posted January 5, 2010 65 UND 76 Eastern Michigan final The good news is that judging by Roebuck's comments, the team is getting better as the season goes on. The bad news is that 50 of the 65 points were scored by seniors, and the bench produced just 2 points. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UND92,96 Posted January 9, 2010 Share Posted January 9, 2010 50 Seattle 66 UND final Sioux only had eight available players tonight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeauxSioux Posted January 9, 2010 Share Posted January 9, 2010 50 Seattle 66 UND final Sioux only had eight available players tonight. Thanks for the info. Nice win ladies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
82SiouxGuy Posted January 9, 2010 Share Posted January 9, 2010 50 Seattle 66 UND final Sioux only had eight available players tonight. I guess it was the right 8. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bincitysioux Posted January 9, 2010 Share Posted January 9, 2010 They were still mightily inconsistent through the game. At one point, North Dakota led by 20 in the first half until Seattle went on a 24-0 run and had a 5 point lead at one point in the 2nd half. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UND92,96 Posted January 15, 2010 Share Posted January 15, 2010 UND leads Utah Valley 42-26 at the half. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UND92,96 Posted January 15, 2010 Share Posted January 15, 2010 Sioux won 84-71. Defense evidently struggled in the second half, but considering UND is basically using a six-player rotation, I guess that's not too big of a surprise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Sicatoka Posted January 15, 2010 Share Posted January 15, 2010 ... UND is basically using a six-player rotation ... Given the health status of the organization it's ... Gene and Travis plus eight! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UND92,96 Posted January 15, 2010 Share Posted January 15, 2010 It's interesting how close the four Dakota schools are right now in terms of RPI: 170 SDSU 187 NDSU 194 UND 206 USD I certainly wouldn't have expected UND to be ranked that high given the poor record this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UND92,96 Posted January 15, 2010 Share Posted January 15, 2010 It certainly appears that the team is playing much better than they were early on. Obviously the level of competition plays a big role there, but nevertheless the shots seem to be falling with more frequency. Considering the relatively soft remaining schedule, finishing above .500 appears quite possible. However, I'd feel a little better about things if we weren't so reliant on the senior class. With the four seniors and two juniors doing virtually all of the scoring, it makes a person wonder where the offense is going to come from next year. We can only hope that next year's freshmen class is a bit more game-ready than this year's has been. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldskool Posted January 17, 2010 Share Posted January 17, 2010 It certainly appears that the team is playing much better than they were early on. Obviously the level of competition plays a big role there, but nevertheless the shots seem to be falling with more frequency. Considering the relatively soft remaining schedule, finishing above .500 appears quite possible. However, I'd feel a little better about things if we weren't so reliant on the senior class. With the four seniors and two juniors doing virtually all of the scoring, it makes a person wonder where the offense is going to come from next year. We can only hope that next year's freshmen class is a bit more game-ready than this year's has been. It will be interesting that is for sure Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UND92,96 Posted January 19, 2010 Share Posted January 19, 2010 UND currently has an RPI of 173--just barely in the upper half of dI: http://realtimerpi.com/rpi_Women.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dakotadan Posted January 20, 2010 Share Posted January 20, 2010 North Dakota's Whitney Ledger Chosen Great West Player of the Week Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UND92,96 Posted January 29, 2010 Share Posted January 29, 2010 63 UND 47 Texas-Pan American final Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the green team Posted February 8, 2010 Share Posted February 8, 2010 When I looked at the schedule back when the season started, I can honestly say these 2 games this week didn't really get me all that excited. But now, these home games this week with NJIT on Thursday and Chicago St Saturday could go along way to getting us to a regular season conference crown. Even if it is the Great West, that gets me jacked up. I like titles at anytime, so basically what I'm sayin is I'm ready to go this week. Let's own the Betty fans, and let's go ladies...take care of business. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coach daddy Posted February 8, 2010 Share Posted February 8, 2010 When I looked at the schedule back when the season started, I can honestly say these 2 games this week didn't really get me all that excited. But now, these home games this week with NJIT on Thursday and Chicago St Saturday could go along way to getting us to a regular season conference crown. Even if it is the Great West, that gets me jacked up. I like titles at anytime, so basically what I'm sayin is I'm ready to go this week. Let's own the Betty fans, and let's go ladies...take care of business. It is fun to see some energy regarding UND bball. Sorry I can't share the enthusiasm. This league is awful, we aren't very good but we're good enough to beat this bunch of no talent teams. Season needs to be done and we need to start working to find a league and get some sense of normalcy back in UND bball. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the green team Posted February 9, 2010 Share Posted February 9, 2010 I don't disagree, this league is a joke fest as far as competitive basketball. I don't want to see our programs in it for too long, because before long you begin to recruit and play at the level of your fellow conference schools, and we need to be going the other direction, which is up. I'm not sure that's the case with these other schools. In fact I'm not sure some of these other schools have a direction. They say they do, but I just can't see some of these schools as long term division 1 programs. Hypothetically, i wonder how this team would of fared in the old NCC. I really do appreciate the effort of our upperclassmen, on this team. It has not been an easy year, with defections, injuries and schedule, these players are continually battling and giving for the most part, outstanding efforts. They are basically 6 deep. With 4 Seniors and 2 juniors, and yet they continue find ways to win and be competitive. I hope these players are remembered for what they had to go through for this program, but considering the short memory of many fans, I have a fear that it won't be the case. If it was me in their position I would have transferred a long time ago to give myself a shot at something, anything, and yet these players stayed here, and hopefully there will be a place for them in the annels of Sioux Basketball history. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UND92,96 Posted February 9, 2010 Share Posted February 9, 2010 Although I think most of us see that some lean years may be ahead for UND women's basketball, at our present level (which is almost certainly below average compared to other Roebuck teams), here's how our RPI compares to the current and future Summit teams: 127 Oral Roberts 129 SDSU 201 UND 218 Missouri-KC 219 Oakland 226 NDSU 238 IPFW 306 W. Illinois 315 USD 335 S. Utah 341 IUPUI 343 Centenary (leaving) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UND92,96 Posted February 17, 2010 Share Posted February 17, 2010 66 UND 42 Seattle final Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UND92,96 Posted February 17, 2010 Share Posted February 17, 2010 I know Roebuck has never been a big proponent of red-shirting, but it's really turning out to have been a good move to have red-shirted Youngblut her first year. She's really starting to come on lately (25 points last night), and thanks to her red-shirt season, she still has one more year to go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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