2010-2011 Season

[sioux2013]

There's alot of debate as to what next year will bring. Will the team improve and whats expected. A look into next years team will consist on 2 seniors (Benter,Clausen), 2 juniors (Mathison,Mitchell), 6 red-shirt sophomores(Allard,Archer,Goodman,Haugen,Stockdale,Wilmer) , 2 red-shirt freshman( Schuler, Brekke) and so far 2 freshmen in Aaron Anderson and Troy Huff. The starting lineup may be true freshman pt guard Aaron Anderson, Benter at center,Mitchell and Clausen at wings and either Haugen or Schuler at off guard. Of couse Goodman could easily start in place of Clausen but Goodmans shooting numbers are not very good this year. I think the keys will be Mitchell , how good this freshman pt guard is and the development of players like Wilmer and a few other red shirt sophomores. Also, will Jones hold true to the past and red shirt the new recruits. I dont think he will have that luxury with the pt guard. Also, he has one scholarship left and if he can get a big impact JC player it could make a huge difference. What is everyone elses opinion on starting lineups or success.

[UND92,96]

From Sid Hartman's column the other day:

The Gophers basketball schedule for the 2010-11 season will include Eastern Kentucky, Siena, North Dakota, South Dakota and a game at St. Joseph.

I wonder if he's confusing UND and NDSU? Not that Sid is ever confused about anything...

[UND Fan]

Obviously, there has been a great deal of deserved concern about the men's BB program and our ability to compete at the D1 level. The team certainly played poorly early this season. It appears they have been playing better of late but still a long ways from being a respectable D1 team. This is not too surprising this early in the transition. Losing Bledsoe's scoring and Mertens' tenacity will be difficult to replace so immediate help will be necessary for next year.

The two recruits signed in November seem to be having good senior seasons:

Troy Huff, the 6'4" shooting guard (who also often plays the point) from Milwaukee's Brookfield Academy, is averaging 24.9 points through 15 games. The team is 12-3 for the seaon and leading their conference.

Aaron Anderson, the 5'10" point guard from Osseo, is averaging 10 points per game for his 15-3 team. They lead the competitive Northwest Suburban Conference in the Cities. I don't know his true scoring ability as he plays on a very balanced team - Anderson leads the team with his 10 point average. I couldn't find assist and steal stats but understand he is a great ball handler and leader.

I would guess both these kids will play next year rather than redshirt but that is truly a guess.

Of course, Schuler and Brekke will play next year. Schuler has great credentials but I have no idea how good he may be or how soon he will contribute. (Has anyone seen him practice?) I would guess Brekke needs another year or so before he contributes - I hope I am wrong! Archer was making good progress so I hope he fully recovers from his knee injury.

With one scholarship remaining, it will be interesting to see what type of player we bring in. I assume that all underclassmen will be back next year but there could be a casualty, allowing us to bring in another recruit.

The nice thing about basketball is that with a couple of studs surrounded by a bunch of reasonably good players, we can have a respectable team very quickly! Hopefully, that will happen!

[bincitysioux]

I think alot of next year will depend on Patrick Mitchell's continued growth as a player. He has size and athleticism and the potential to score in bunches, but has been largely inconsistent at times through his first two seasons. With his size and physical abilities, he needs to become a 15 point 7 rebound type of guy next season. Alot will have to be asked of Clausen and Benter as well, although I think they are both now contributing as much as they can be expected to.

Who will be the starters next year? Mitchell, Benter, Clausen, Goodman, Haugen?.......................

[UND92,96]

I think alot of next year will depend on Patrick Mitchell's continued growth as a player. He has size and athleticism and the potential to score in bunches, but has been largely inconsistent at times through his first two seasons. With his size and physical abilities, he needs to become a 15 point 7 rebound type of guy next season. Alot will have to be asked of Clausen and Benter as well, although I think they are both now contributing as much as they can be expected to.

Who will be the starters next year? Mitchell, Benter, Clausen, Goodman, Haugen?.......................

It's been a long time since I actually expected a true freshman to start, but I think the chances are good Anderson starts right away. He'll be the first true point guard Jones has had (hard to believe considering it will be Jones' fifth year), and he's also probably more athletic than the only other options--"combo" guards Haugen and Schuler.

[UND92,96]

Aaron Anderson, the 5'10" point guard from Osseo, is averaging 10 points per game for his 15-3 team. They lead the competitive Northwest Suburban Conference in the Cities. I don't know his true scoring ability as he plays on a very balanced team - Anderson leads the team with his 10 point average. I couldn't find assist and steal stats but understand he is a great ball handler and leader.

Here are Anderson's stats: http://preps.startribune.com/stats.detail....playerid=105645

[UND92,96]

Now that this season is finally almost over, does anybody really think next year will be any better? Bledsoe has really carried the team in the second half of the season, and he'll be graduating. Mitchell has shown flashes of being a big scorer, but lacks consistency. Based upon what I've seen, Haugen is really the only other player who might have the potential to average double figures in scoring any time soon. I'm just not seeing a light at the end of this tunnel.

[the green team]

I think next year will actually be worse, but then again I expected we would be. The fact remains that it will only be the second year of college ball for this current redshirt freshman class, and they will have a lot of growing pains next year too. I feel we'll begin to see strides when those players are juniors and seniors. But next year most likely will be worse. Haugen has impressed, but so did Archer before he got hurt and he looked horrible to start the season. Allard may not have had his best game last night, but according to the radio, he wasn't feeling 100% as the Sioux are fighting an illness, but he's looked pretty good the last 6 games. Let's face it this class is going have a lot of peaks and valleys, lets not kid ourselves most freshman players in college do, but we notice it that much more because they take on that much larger of a role with our squad and they will continue to, for years to come.

[summitfever]

I agree with the green team, I thought bledsoe and mertens could play, not D1, but transitioning D1 and contribute to 10-12 wins.

Allard isn't a D1 player and the incoming freshman had a crookston offer?? Couple of the bigs could provide points, but I just dont see an athletic guy that will demand the ball and ask for a clearout and take over, please tell me if Im wrong. thanks.

[dakotadan]

Sioux stick to the plan

Just an article repeating what they have been saying all along that they are building for the future.

[dakotadan]

Has anyone heard anything about next season's schedule?

[star2city]

Has anyone heard anything about next season's schedule?

The Idaho men's basketball program will host an in-season tournament for the first time since the 1989-90 season this winter.

The Vandals will play a round-robin format tournament Dec. 3, 4 and 5 in Memorial Gym against North Dakota, Monmouth and Eastern Michigan, athletic director Rob Spear told The Idaho Statesman on Tuesday afternoon.

The tournament originally was slated for the Cowan Spectrum, but the Vandals learned after the fact that they will have a home football game against San Jose State on Dec. 4, meaning the basketball games had to be moved to the school's secondary gymnasium.

http://www.idahostatesman.com/2010/04/06/1...l#ixzz0kQeHAVXY

[bincitysioux]

At the WDAY news conference, Jones said we will be playing at Nebraska and Wisconsin. He also mentioned Northern Iowa, Northern Colorado, UMKC, and the Idaho tourney. Didn't mention venues other than Huskers and Badgers, but I would assume UNI, UMKC, and UNC would also all be road games.

[sioux2013]

Wisconsin and Nebraska NICE. Northern Iowa as well. Very tough and very good road games for the men.

[dakotadan]

Dec. 3, 4 and 5 @ Idaho, Monmouth and Eastern Michigan

Dec. 11 @ NDSU

@ Wisconsin

@ Nebraska

@ Northern Iowa

@ Northern Colorado

@ Chicago State

@ NJIT

@ HBU

@ UTPA

@ UVU

@ USD

Chicago State

NJIT

HBU

UTPA

UVU

USD

[bincitysioux]

Montana and IPFW are coming to Grand Forks.

[the green team]

And I thought this past year was difficult one to watch. I like the challenge of the schedule, but I don't think we have the talent to at least compete in many of these games. I hope I'm wrong. There were some youngsters that gave a person some hope last season, but they are going to have to take a huge step forward this year, and I don't know if that huge step is even possible. Anybody heard of any other players coming in?

[the green team]

It looks like we have added our final piece for the upcoming season.

http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/162110

We are very guard heavy now especially when you look at the last 3 classes. I inlcude the 3 spot as a guard. You've got Webb, Anderson, & Huff coming in. Schuler in the next class, Haugen, Goodman, & Allard in rshirt sophmore class. If one to 2 of these guys can handle the ball effectively in pressure, it should help us get into our offense and it should hopefully lead to some better looks on the perimeter for everyone. It will definitely should be competitive for back court time which I hope leads to pushing one another, and that leads to improvement. Webb is a 6'3 ball handler, I do like the sound of that. I like Haugens stroke, I think it will only get better, and since I haven't seen a practice the only thing I can rely on is our radio guy, I asked him what he thought of Schuler and he said that he was impressed with the way he shot the ball. Just need to take care of it better, and hopefully this class can help with that.

[GeauxSioux]

East High grad Jamal Webb, who was a first-team All-Western New York selection in 2008, has signed with North Dakota.

For the last two years he has been at prep school Carolina Tech, where he battled back from an ACL injury.

North Dakota, home of the Fighting Sioux and a tremendously successful Division I hockey program, is in the transition stage of attaining Division I status in basketball and has played (and beaten) several Division I teams in recent years.

East High's Webb signs with North Dakota;

[sioux2013]

From all the games I watched last year guard play was the dominant players on almost all of our opponents. Seems mid majors and lower teams are guard dominated. Only games where we are going to be really hurting with bigs will be like Wisconsin and Nebraska. Two true point guards will be a big bonus for us next year. From what I hear not only can Schuler shoot the ball but he has the highest basketball IQ on the team. This results into good decisions and not many turnovers. As we all know turnovers killed us last year. Seems now we have the ball handlers and the shooters for the next 3-4 years. I expect Haugen and Mitchell as well to have a break out year shooting the ball. Clausen will also play a key factor shooting the ball. When he shoots, he usually shoots very well. Playing time for so many guards will be a fight day in and day out in practice and produce better game time results. Go Sioux

[star2city]

Sioux to play at Wisconsin, November 14th

[sioux2013]

UND game is Nov. 16th not the 14th.

[GeauxSioux]

UND men's basketball: More home cooking on the way?

[the green team]

They were in a lot of games at times, but as soon as those games started to slip away....they really avalanched. Sometimes its more painful to lose games by a posession as opposed to 25 points, but right now I would take that...it would show that we are making progress. Our home schedule isn't anything that I'm all that excited about, granted I'm still going to all of them. Our overall schedule has some nice challenging games.

[dakotadan]

Sioux fans will be treated to top-notch competition in '10-11

It's not a complete release of the schedules but it has the dates for the home games.

So far we know:

Nov. 12 Waldorf College

Nov. 16 @ Wisconsin

Nov. 19 Sac State

Nov. 23 IPFW

Dec. 3, 4 and 5 @ Idaho, Monmouth and Eastern Michigan

Dec. 11 @ NDSU

Dec. 14 Mayville State

Dec. 30 SD Mines

Jan. 13 Minot State*

Jan. 15 South Dakota*

Jan. 20 Utah Valley*

Jan. 27 UT-Pan American*

Jan. 29 Houston Baptist*

Feb. 26 NJIT*

Feb. 28 Chicago State*

* double header

Montana

@ Nebraska

@ Northern Iowa

@ Northern Colorado

@ Chicago State

@ NJIT

@ HBU

@ UTPA

@ UVU

@ USD

The article says they have 12 of 13 home games scheduled so I am assuming that the 13th home game is the Montana game that bin referenced.