Areas to Improve

[sioux2013]

What needs to improve for next year as we enter the Big Sky? Our weaknesses so far this year have been rebounding and shot selection. I guess you can add free throw shooting for most of the guys also. Another major concern that has been mentioned before is our inside/out game. Watched Michigan State play UMKC last night and Michigan States post player had 6 assists. Our bigs (Brekke,Allard,Mathison and Archer) have a combined 8 assists for the entire year, thats it. That just proves we dont look out once the ball goes in. That is basic basketball learned in junior high. So many guys are wide open but there is no need to guard on the outside once the ball goes in and the defense just collapses. I'm sure all teams are aware of this. What's everyones thoughts?

[UND92,96]

At the risk of stating the obvious, I'll say an area of improvement needs to be learning to win on the road. UND's road record during the transition has been abysmal--10-35. That record includes true road games, and not neutral court games. The three most impressive road wins have been UMKC (2008-09), Utah Valley (2009-10) and USD (2010-11).

I realize virtually every team plays better at home than on the road, but I doubt there are many teams with a bigger disparity between their home and road winning percentages than what UND has done since 2008-09:

.673 at home

.222 on the road

[bincitysioux]

I think just excelling in basic fundamental areas are a huge key to any success at the low-major or mid-major level. Box-out better, don't just stand flat-footed under the rim when an opponent misses and wait for the ball to come to you. Make free-throws. This is such a huge part of the game that seems to get overlooked. You don't have to be taller, more athletic, or faster than the opposition to make a free throw. I watched Davidson beat Kansas last night. Davidson is shooting freethrows at 80% for the season as a team. I'd think that plays a small part in them being a quality mid-major program for many years. It certainly doesn't hurt. They were 11-20 in the UMKC game and lost by 3. And play better defense. The 2nd half defense agasin Sac St. was miserable.

[Cratter]

I watched Davidson beat Kansas last night.

Dang. Now when we beat Kansas it won't be as much of a shock.

[sioux24/7]

Inside game obviously. Also Mitchell just can't seem to hit a 3 or any shots other than the game against SDSU where he could not miss a thing. It will be interesting to see how the team does on the road at WIU on Thursday without Jamal Webb who I think is the most consistent player on the team and perhaps the best.

[darell1976]

FREE THROWS!!!! Maine is 82% from the line #1 in the nation, NDSU is 69% tied for #162...we are 67% (175-262)tied for 210 out of 345 teams..last season we were #210 at 68% so we are going backwards. We would get some W's if our FT % was where Maine's is. BTW Towson has the worse percentage at 52%...lets not go there!!!

[NODAK13]

FREE THROWS!!!! Maine is 82% from the line #1 in the nation, NDSU is 69% tied for #162...we are 67% (175-262)tied for 210 out of 345 teams..last season we were #210 at 68% so we are going backwards. We would get some W's if our FT % was where Maine's is. BTW Towson has the worse percentage at 52%...lets not go there!!!

Take out Anderson and Schuler and the team is only shooting 62% from the line. Anderson and Schuler are at 78%. Did not make it out to the girls game last night but the men should just watch the highlight video and watch how many open shots they got from passing the ball inside and then out for wide open shots. Its like bincitysioux stated that we just need to play basic basketball. Box out, take good shots, protect the ball and have an inside out game and make free throws. Seems simple but we have trouble with most of this.