UND at Portland State

[hoops44]

28 minutes ago, homer said:

Yep, it's my opinion based on my observations up to this point in the season. 

if you have watched UND and all other teams play, looked at the results and think UND has played much better than any other BSC team...than you must be blind in one eye and unable to see out of the other!

[homer]

4 minutes ago, hoops44 said:

if you have watched UND and all other teams play, looked at the results and think UND has played much better than any other BSC team...than you must be blind in one eye and unable to see out of the other!

UND has a better back court than nearly every team in the Big Sky and will get points in the paint vs Big Sky competition.  Drick will be a double/double guy and Avants will be able to continue his recent play due to level of competition.  We have better balance than every team in the league plus the conference player of the year.   

[jdub27]

1 hour ago, hoops44 said:

if you have watched UND and all other teams play, looked at the results and think UND has played much better than any other BSC team...than you must be blind in one eye and unable to see out of the other!

I'm confused on your angle. You continuously look to lower the bar for the program instead of raise it. You don't think UND is talented enough to win the Big Sky? If not, why? The Big Sky is clearly down this year and UND returns pretty much every key player from last year. However, the fact that they were disappointing in OOC play is even more disheartening knowing that they shouldn't have had to work on fitting new players into the rotation.

[hoops44]

1 hour ago, jdub27 said:

I'm confused on your angle. You continuously look to lower the bar for the program instead of raise it. You don't think UND is talented enough to win the Big Sky? If not, why? The Big Sky is clearly down this year and UND returns pretty much every key player from last year. However, the fact that they were disappointing in OOC play is even more disheartening knowing that they shouldn't have had to work on fitting new players into the rotation.

Let me enlighten you my good man. With respect to reading comprehension aptitude...I NEVER said that UND is not a serious contender to win the BSC....I am of the opinion that there are 5 BSC teams very capable of winning BSC Tourney including UND...Furthermore the BSC is not down this year ...as you should know the top 5 teams from last year all return at least 4 starters  To suggest that UND is the prohibitive favorite to win the BSC is completely irrational....   Coach Evans on BSC...Evans on upcoming conference campaign: “I know one thing: our league is very, very good. I’ve watched Montana played several times and they are really good. I think North Dakota (5-5) is really good. I think Weber is really good even though Coach (Randy) Rahe isn’t where he wants to be (5-6 overall). Eastern Washington is obviously doing something right (8-5 overall). Montana State has done a really good job of winning games (5-8 overall). Anybody that wants to underestimate this league is not thinking 

[UNDhoops]

The big sky is the 27th ranked conference at KenPom. It was 26th last year. As I looked at it yesterday (shameless plug alert), UND is the best team in the league but not by any significant margin. The problem with the league is it looks like it's going to be tough to avoid a play in game unless there are a lot of upsets in conference tournaments (long way to go before that obviously)

[hoops44]

2 hours ago, homer said:

UND has a better back court than nearly every team in the Big Sky and will get points in the paint vs Big Sky competition.  Drick will be a double/double guy and Avants will be able to continue his recent play due to level of competition.  We have better balance than every team in the league plus the conference player of the year.   

if you actually were watching BSC hoops Hooker was  BSC  preseason  player of the year(preseason predictions do not mean much now Right???}....as of now he is not playing like it....Bernstine is not close to averaging a double double so far vs D1 teams

[jdub27]

19 minutes ago, hoops44 said:

Let me enlighten you my good man. With respect to reading comprehension aptitude...I NEVER said that UND is not a serious contender to win the BSC....I am of the opinion that there are 5 BSC teams very capable of winning BSC Tourney including UND...Furthermore the BSC is not down this year ...as you should know the top 5 teams from last year all return at least 4 starters and all the coaches speak To suggest that UND is the prohibitive favorite to win the BSC is completely irrational....   Coach Evans on BSC...Evans on upcoming conference campaign: “I know one thing: our league is very, very good. I’ve watched Montana played several times and they are really good. I think North Dakota (5-5) is really good. I think Weber is really good even though Coach (Randy) Rahe isn’t where he wants to be (5-6 overall). Eastern Washington is obviously doing something right (8-5 overall). Montana State has done a really good job of winning games (5-8 overall). Anybody that wants to underestimate this league is not thinking 

Cool, a bunch of coach speak. Did you think he was going to say the league was down? Because he'd sure look like an idiot if he said that and then doesn't win.

OOC records show a different story. UNDHoops put together a nice recap of the OOC season and it isn't good. Not sure the Big Sky has a win over a top 100 team this year using any of the metrics (KenPom, RPI, WarrenNolan). And as already stated, all the metrics have the Big Sky towards to bottom this year, which isn't a UND only problem, but also means the Big Sky winner will be in a play-in game and then face a 1 seed.

Regardless, it shouldn't matter where the league is, UND should always be one of the favorites. But with the talent UND has returning plus a coach who is likely coaching for his job, you'd expect to see a little more out of them in OOC play that gives something resembling confidence heading into conference play in a year when the league does appear to be down. Not sure why having big expectations for this team is a bad thing. On paper, this is should be the best team since Huff/Anderson/Webb's senior year if not better. Anything short of the dance would be a huge disappointment.

[homer]

8 minutes ago, hoops44 said:

if you actually were watching BSC hoops Hooker was  BSC  preseason  player of the year(preseason predictions do not mean much now Right???}....as of now he is not playing like it....Bernstine is not close to averaging a double double so far vs D1 teams

Drick will be a double/double guy vs. Big Sky competition.  Again, it is my opinion the league is down this season. 

[hoops44]

several coaches felt the league would be stronger this year ..with 20 of top 30 scorers returning

[jdub27]

25 minutes ago, hoops44 said:

several coaches felt the league would be stronger this year ..with 20 of top 30 scorers returning

Based on out of conference play, they were wrong. How often do you actually hear coaches say that their league is down? Not real often because if your team doesn't do well, you've basically incriminated yourself.

[hoops44]

Several coaches told  Blue Ribbon that the BSC is more talented then it has been in years....A coach could say the league is solid vs very strong.... The coaches were referring to the BSC teams not the OOC teams they play.

[SWSiouxMN]

for the game tonight, I think UND brings a solid defensive effort that gets the job done. I'll take UND by 5

77-72

[darell1976]

1 hour ago, jdub27 said:

Cool, a bunch of coach speak. Did you think he was going to say the league was down? Because he'd sure look like an idiot if he said that and then doesn't win.

OOC records show a different story. UNDHoops put together a nice recap of the OOC season and it isn't good. Not sure the Big Sky has a win over a top 100 team this year using any of the metrics (KenPom, RPI, WarrenNolan). And as already stated, all the metrics have the Big Sky towards to bottom this year, which isn't a UND only problem, but also means the Big Sky winner will be in a play-in game and then face a 1 seed.

Regardless, it shouldn't matter where the league is, UND should always be one of the favorites. But with the talent UND has returning plus a coach who is likely coaching for his job, you'd expect to see a little more out of them in OOC play that gives something resembling confidence heading into conference play in a year when the league does appear to be down. Not sure why having big expectations for this team is a bad thing. On paper, this is should be the best team since Huff/Anderson/Webb's senior year if not better. Anything short of the dance would be a huge disappointment.

We have the best win in the confernece according to KenPom with a win over 104 Cal State Bakersfield. Only 9 times has there been a repeat in the tournament, 2012-13 Montana was the last to do it. This year it could be up for grabs. Montana's last trip was 2013, Eastern Wash did it in 2014, Weber State last year, and 2009 for PSU. I hope we can start out our BSC Championship run with a good game at PSU.  Last game at PSU was a 80-70 loss in Feb 2015. We beat them last year at home. 

UND 78

PSU 77  (buzzer beater for the Fighting Hawks)

[jdub27]

41 minutes ago, hoops44 said:

Several coaches told  Blue Ribbon that the BSC is more talented then it has been in years....A coach could say the league is solid vs very strong.... The coaches were referring to the BSC teams not the OOC teams they play.

You keep bringing up what coaches are saying and ignoring on the court results that don't back it up. Talk is worth nothing. If the BSC isn't winning OOC games and has a worse showing and rating than it did in previous years, how can it be up? Did the rest of the country get incrementally better so the net effect is that the Big Sky moved backwards? Because that is the only actual explanation if you want to accept that the Big Sky is better than it has yet it did worse in OOC games than it has in the past.

[hoops44]

10 minutes ago, jdub27 said:

You keep bringing up what coaches are saying and ignoring on the court results that don't back it up. Talk is worth nothing. If the BSC isn't winning OOC games and has a worse showing and rating than it did in previous years, how can it be up? Did the rest of the country get incrementally better so the net effect is that the Big Sky moved backwards? Because that is the only actual explanation if you want to accept that the Big Sky is better than it has yet it did worse in OOC games than it has in the past.

you miss the obvious...coaches were referring to BSC teams only....they were not evaluating the strength non conference teams they play this year relative to prior years...very simple if you think about it.. You must think that the coaches are all liars/con men or know less about basketball then you do!

[hoops44]

Big money going down on PSU opened +1.5 now -2

[UNDBIZ]

Hoops has me convinced.  Anything better than a #10 finish in the BSC will be a miracle this year.

#ExtendJones

[jdub27]

3 hours ago, hoops44 said:

you miss the obvious...coaches were referring to BSC teams only....they were not evaluating the strength non conference teams they play this year relative to prior years...very simple if you think about it.. You must think that the coaches are all liars/con men or know less about basketball then you do!

I'm saying all coaches talk up their conference and team, it's what they do and I'd expect nothing less. And can you explain how exactly the coaches can evaluate the teams if they don't use non-conference games since that's all that's been played? Looking at record and lack of quality wins, how can you logically defend it? I'd guess that any unbiased opinion would state the Big Sky is down and the play this far in the year would back that up. 

[hoops44]

1 hour ago, jdub27 said:

I'm saying all coaches talk up their conference and team, it's what they do and I'd expect nothing less. And can you explain how exactly the coaches can evaluate the teams if they don't use non-conference games since that's all that's been played? Looking at record and lack of quality wins, how can you logically defend it? I'd guess that any unbiased opinion would state the Big Sky is down and the play this far in the year would back that up. 

no  coaches were evaluating their team and other BSC independent of teams from ACC, BIG 12, BIG EAST ECT... Also the top 7 BSC teams have a higher mean RPI than the top 7 teams closed out last season with.... 

[jdub27]

1 hour ago, hoops44 said:

no  coaches were evaluating their team and other BSC independent of teams from ACC, BIG 12, BIG EAST ECT... Also the top 7 BSC teams have a higher mean RPI than the top 7 teams closed out last season with.... 

No joke they are higher at this point in the season, you know how it's calculated right? They are only going to down from here on out because everyone was bad in OOC play. The conference RPI rank is also below last year. 

[hoops44]

25 minutes ago, jdub27 said:

No joke they are higher at this point in the season, you know how it's calculated right? They are only going to down from here on out because everyone was bad in OOC play. The conference RPI rank is also below last year. 

maybe maybe not it also depends on how their OOC teams play out.....,Let me try to make this simple for ya....if 30 people compare net worth on Jan 1 every year and the guy in 15th place has 200k net worth on 1-1-16  ..he declares my net worth will be improved in 2017 and he declares a net worth of 205...however he drops to 17th on the list on 1-1-17... while he drops down his net worth is actually improved....If this does not help you my good man ....I give up

[jdub27]

18 minutes ago, hoops44 said:

maybe maybe not it also depends on how their OOC teams play out.....,Let me try to make this simple for ya....if 30 people compare net worth on Jan 1 every year and the guy in 15th place has 200k net worth on 1-1-16  ..he declares my net worth will be improved in 2017 and he declares a net worth of 205...however he drops to 17th on the list on 1-1-17... while he drops down his net worth is actually improved....If this does not help you my good man ....I give up

Which was exactly one of my points I made earlier: You're saying that the rest of the country improved more than the Big Sky, meaning the conference improved less than average and moved backwards. Seems more like a pretty poor excuse for bad OOC play to me. Either way, not real acceptable. The conference needs to work to improve more so they can get a better seed in the tournament and have a chance to win a game. 

[Cratter]

Portland State plays in a high school gym.

[FSSD]

OK, am I only one watching Grandma do the pregame... oh my this is going to classic if she is going to be announcing this game.  This ranks up there with the spinning tiger head by CC.

[SWSiouxMN]

18 minutes ago, Cratter said:

Portland State plays in a high school gym.

Wait til Saturday, Sac makes PSU looks like Rupp