2016 Big Sky Tourney

[SWSiouxMN]

Game 1: No. 8 Portland State vs No. 9 Northern Colorado, 12:05 p.m.
Game 2: No. 5 North Dakota vs No. 12 Southern Utah, 2:35 p.m.
Game 3: No. 7 Montana State vs No. 10 Sacramento State, 5:35 p.m.
Game 4: No. 6 Eastern Washington vs No. 11 Northern Arizona, 8:05 p.m.

Game 5: No. 1 Weber State vs Game 1 winner, 12:05 p.m.
Game 6: No. 4 Idaho State vs Game 2 winner, 2:35 p.m.
Game 7: No. 2 Montana vs Game 3 winner, 5:35 p.m.
Game 8: No. 3 Idaho vs Game 4 winner, 8:05 p.m.

Game 9: Game 5 winner vs Game 6 winner, 5:35 p.m.
Game 10: Winner game 7 vs Winner game 8, 8:05 p.m.

Game 11: Championship game, 5:45 p.m.

All times are in Pacific. 

Synopsis:  WIDE OPEN.

 

[bincitysioux]

UND Twitter account is posting that we play SUU.....

[SWSiouxMN]

8 minutes ago, bincitysioux said:

UND Twitter account is posting that we play SUU.....

I since made the correction.  I got my matchups from the big sky blog. It does appear it is SUU not NAU.

[Cratter]

I like the first couple matchups if UND were to win the first.

[sioux24/7]

What are the dates for these?

[UND-FB-FAN]

7 minutes ago, sioux24/7 said:

What are the dates for these?

http://www.bigskyconf.com/tournaments/?id=374

 

[Cratter]

No excuses...neutral floor. 

Beat someone you aren't suppose to!

[darell1976]

Didn't SUU go winless one year until we played them and they beat us. Jones needs this tourney to save his job. 

[hoops44]

2 hours ago, darell1976 said:

Didn't SUU go winless one year until we played them and they beat us. Jones needs this tourney to save his job. 

Do you want to bet on this...I did not think so...talk is cheap 

[UND1983]

14 minutes ago, hoops44 said:

Do you want to bet on this...I did not think so...talk is cheap 

I will take that bet.  0 D1 wins before beating UND.  ZERO. 

 

[hoops44]

1 hour ago, UND1983 said:

I will take that bet.  0 D1 wins before beating UND.  ZERO. 

huh???

 

[hoops44]

1 hour ago, hoops44 said:

Do you want to bet on this...I did not think so...talk is cheap ... by this I mean Jones needing the tourney to save his Job..  100% chance Jones will be back next year.. 

 

[darell1976]

1 hour ago, hoops44 said:

Do you want to bet on this...I did not think so...talk is cheap 

03/06/2014 8:30 pm

at Southern Utah

L 71–77

15–15 (12–8)

Centrum Arena (985) Cedar City, UT

 

SUU finished the year 1-19 in BSC play and 2-27 overall Arizona Christian was their other win.

[darell1976]

1 minute ago, hoops44 said:

100% chance Jones will be back next year.. 

If Faison was smart he would NOT allow this to happen, but we saw what Faison did to Muss.

[UND1983]

11 minutes ago, hoops44 said:

Huh?

If you were addressing Jones and being back next year, he is in trouble.  IMO, he needs to beat SUU, ISU, and win the semi-final.  

There is a reason they let him get to one year left on his low ball contract.  Easy buyout.

[bincitysioux]

Weber AD not pulling any punches regarding his thoughts on the new tournament format...........

Big Sky hopes to build its brand by bringing tournaments to Reno

Quote

 

"The old format was a proven commodity," Bovee said. "In our best interests, we liked the old plan because we had a chance to host it every year. But in the old format, 50 percent of the league was not in the running.

"This format is largely driven by the fact that it's a more fair venue for everybody to have a chance to compete. It also allows parents, families and fans an opportunity to plan ahead far in advance. There will be tournament gifts for the players, and it'll be a nice experience for the student-athlete to go to. So in the end, we're gonna go and do our best to be a good member of the Big Sky — and win it.

"We're going to invest in it because it's important to us," Bovee said. "But your conference can only be as good as your weakest team, and we have some really weak teams that are not investing in it. ... If we're gonna get better as a conference, there are some things that have to change."

 

 

[SWSiouxMN]

This does set up nicely for UND to get to the semis. Then have a 3rd crack at Weber.

Keep the EWU/Idaho/Griz away until the finals, let them beat each other up.

The setup means that if UND is going to win the whole thing its going to be 4 games in 5 days. Do they have the endurance to do it

I like PSU, UND, EWU, and MSU in round 1

[sioux24/7]

I do believe if we choke and lose to SUU in the first round Jones should not be back. Other than that I think he will be back. 

[UND-FB-FAN]

35 minutes ago, sioux24/7 said:

I do believe if we choke and lose to SUU in the first round Jones should not be back. Other than that I think he will be back. 

Fair and I too agree with this. I do not agree that Jones *SHOULD* be retained, but he will have done enough by beating SUU in the first round to keep his job. And, with that, UND MBB's ceiling remains below a conference championship. 

If UND goes to Reno and loses to SUU, Faison has no excuse to retain Jones. Time to be serious and try produce a MBB program at UND capable of playing with Weber State and Montana; that's what UND fans want - a winner. 

[hoops44]

Whether Jones should be retained or not is a matter of opinion some people just confuse their opinion with reality......Slim Slimmer and None are the 3 chances Jones gets fired with a 150% improvement in BSC  wins from last season and a ultra young team.  If you disagree will you be man enough to admit it and learn from you mistakes....???

[UND1983]

Why would beating arguably the worst team in the country mean he should keep his job?

[Dagger]

If you think Jones is going to get fired it is not going to happen.  With the large  group of very talented and young players on the team right now there will be no coaching change.  I am not saying it might not be better to have a new coach but it just isn't going to happen.  Might as well stop  talking about it.

[UND92,96]

27 minutes ago, UND1983 said:

Why would beating arguably the worst team in the country mean he should keep his job?

I'm just speculating, but I imagine Faison really, really wants to avoid having to buy Jones out, as even though the funds would be privately raised, it would still "look bad" in this climate of budget cuts. Rather, I believe Faison will be honest with Jones and tell him he's going to be brought back for next season, but there will not be another extension without meeting some pretty lofty goals, e.g. 20 wins, top-2 finish in the Big Sky during the regular season AND an appearance in the conference championship game. 

[Oxbow6]

13 minutes ago, Dagger said:

If you think Jones is going to get fired it is not going to happen.  With the large  group of very talented and young players on the team right now there will be no coaching change.  I am not saying it might not be better to have a new coach but it just isn't going to happen.  Might as well stop  talking about it.

...and half the people that follow the MBB program on this site could have coached this team to the same record they currently sit at at this point. That includes gfhockey but not hoops44.

[UND-FB-FAN]

Jones' track record speaks for itself. UND is one of the only schools in the midwest that puts up with this kind of mediocrity (10+ years of no conference championships) and it is quite sickening. Yes, he won the lowly Great West tournament a couple times, only to then lose in the first round of the CIT both times (Air Force and Drake). His other two CIT appearances also included first-round loses to UNI and transitioning Nebraska-Omaha (ouch!).

There are so many excuses (young team, needs more time, has finished in top 3 of BSC before, improvement from 2014-15 to 2015-16), but they are just that, excuses. His overall record is poor and UND needs to upgrade, desperately. At this point, Faison comes off as just not caring one bit, and for this alumnus and booster, that rubs me the wrong way.