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North Dakota v. Portland St

bincitysioux

By bincitysioux
in Men's Basketball

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bincitysioux

Posted
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There are 5 teams sitting at 3-4, including North Dakota and PSU, while Montana St. is at 3-3.

Sac St. is at Weber, and I like the Wildcats big in that game, sending the Hornets to 3-5.

Idaho St. hosts Northern Arizona. Bengals playing better of late. They should win and improve to 4-4.

UM hosts MSU. Griz should handle them in Dahlberg, sending the Cats to 3-4.

On Monday, SUU travels to Bozeman. The T-Birds have been on slide after a fast start. I figure they'll fall to the Bobcats on the road, leaving SUU at 3-5 and getting MSU back to 4-4.

If UND takes care of business against PSU tomorrow at the Sioux Center like they should, we could find ourselves in a 3 way tie for 3rd place come Tuesday morning with Montana St. and Idaho St., and we already have wins against both of them.

So stay focused, men. Work your butts off defensively and on the glass against the Vikings like you did against the Eagles and Bobcats, and good things will happen...................

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SWSiouxMN Grand Master

SWSiouxMN

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Posted

Preview:

A very impressive 2nd half that included Troy Huff eclipsing the 1000 point mark for his career helped spur UND to a 65-47 win over Eastern Washington. Despite being outsized, UND managed to outrebound EWU 38-36. Now UND (6-10, 3-4) looks to even its mark in the conference at 4-4 as they take on a Portland State Vikings team, who looks to rebound after a poor performance last night against UNC. Tip off is at 2 PM at the Betty

MEDIA

Game will be broadcasted across the UND radio network and the game will be on Big Sky TV

HISTORY

This will be the 3rd meeting all time against the Vikings. UND had won both times these two have played, but you have to go back to the last years of the disco craze (1979) for the last time these two teams have played

ABOUT THE PORTLAND STATE VIKINGS (5-9, 3-4)

The Vikings are coached by Tyler Geving (4th season as head coach, 8th year in the program). PSU was picked 5th in both the coaches and the media polls in the Big Sky Preseason. Taking a look at what Portland State brings to the table, a couple of things jump out to me. First off, PSU has been very good at home (5-2), but has been horrid on the road (0-7). Diving to this a little bit further, their shooting statistics (other than their free throws, which have been consistent) when compare to home and road is literally night and day. They shoot very well at home, and not so well at home. Despite having a little bit of size, they are porous on the rebounding side of the ball. They do make up for it in a big way by their shooting capabilites not only from the field, but also from the line, as they are one of the tops in the conference. This is not EWU where they just chuck up 3's and have a very dominant big guy, a totally different animal with this team. When they are playing good, they can compete with the top of the conference. They nearly knocked off Weber at home and Montana on the road. A team I feel that will be in the fight for that all important 3rd seed in the conference tourament.

TEAM STATS COMPARISON

***DISCLAIMER: THESE STATS ARE ALL THE NON-COFERENCE AND CONFERENCE GAMES TOGETHER***

UND PSU

PPG 65.6 67.2

RPG 34.6 30.1

APG 10.8 12.5

FG% .400 .454

3P% .331 .374

FT% .733 .743

KEY PLAYERS

#30 6-5 F Renado Parker SR (11.4 PPG, 4.9 RPG, .462 FG%, .760 FT%)

This forward knows how to throw his weight around for the Vikings and he has been a very solid player for PSU all season long. This all on a bum ankle. However, during the UNC game on Thursday, he tried once again to play through the injury but only could go 3 minutes before leaving the game. His status for Saturday is unknown. Should he play, expect a guy to play inside that has been a very solid rebounder despite his size and has been a decent shooter from the free throw line. If he doesn't go tomorrow, PSU will be without a major cog in their offense and will have to make up the energy and effort elsewhere.

#21 6-8 F Aaron Moore JR (10.9 PPG, 6.6 PRG, .518 FG% .791 FT%)

Another solid forward for PSU. I feel that this guy is a little more polished and can really go to work in the post. He has had some pretty solid games over the past several weeks, and if for whatever reason he is not shooting very well from the field, he can just go to the line and raise his score that way. The teams best rebounder without question, so we need to do our best to keep him off the glass. Kinda surprised at the fact that he doesn't really look to block shots and just tries to play solid D. He can get into foul trouble from time to time however. With the fact that PSU doesn't that huge depth in height (we don't either, but that is for another reason), they can't afford him to spend extensive time on the bench, especially if Parker doesn't play.

#4 6-3 G Michael Harthum SR (10.4 PPG, 2.1 RPG, .473 FG%, .420 3P%, .800 FT%)

As I have stated before on this board, I have a soft spot for guys that can shoot the 3 ball very well. This kid has had a very solid senior season when it comes to shooting the ball. He does get to the line from time to time but his main job will be to get some shots up. He has had some big games already this year that have helped the team win a few ball games (a poor mans Tate U. from UNC). Other than the Oregon game, he hasn't had a very bad shooting night, so he has been consistent in getting his points. I feel our chances will be better if we can keep him quiet and frustrated. I can see either Huff or Schuler taking this match up

KEYS TO THE GAME

1) Perimeter D: Once again I feel this will be key. PSU has several players that can shoot the ball very well and we need another 2nd half EWU effort

2) Webb: Once again, he needs to keep playing consistenly like he has started to over the past couple of games. Hopefully his back will be alright and ready to go. I'll state this again: If he gets going along side of Anderson and Huff, UND will start piling up the wins

3) Wilmer: I think he needs to come out of his slump and try to be able to chip in 8-10 points, this game with the lack of size of PSU (only 3 players that go 6-10, 6-10, 6-8) I think provides him a good opportunity to get some much needed inside points to help out the guards.

4) Free Throws: We need to keep PSU off the line as much as possible. Old game strategy my HS coach told us: Try and more free throws than the other team shoots.

5) Rebounding: If we bring out EWU effort again, we will crush them on the boards. Huff and Webb need to keep on wildly crashing the boards like they have been recently.

6) Start of the game: UND needs to get out to a fast start and discourage PSU. They want to chance that 0-7 road record very badly, and if we can jump on them like UNC did last night, it will get in their heads.

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