SWSiouxMN Posted January 13, 2018 Posted January 13, 2018 UND put together their first complete game since the Zags matchup and it showed itself with a blowout win at home verses the Bengals. Next up is a matchup against perennial league power Weber State, who looks to change a trend in this matchup, losing 4 out of their last 5 against UND. The Wildcats are coming off a tough 4 point win down in Greely. The Series still tilts in Weber's Favor, 9-4 all time and they hold a 3-2 advantage in Grand Forks, however UND has won the last 2 in GF. When you think of Big Sky Basketball, it is really hard to not have Weber pop up first in your head. Coach Rahe once again has a solid team that is capable of once again representing the Big Sky in the NCAA tournament. They managed to shore up a few areas where they were not the Weber teams of old, having Utah transfer Chapman eligible after sitting out last year. pairing him with Braxton has them with a solid footing in the frontcourt. However, what Weber is really known for is its guards and they have another special one on the court. Despite the hiccup at home verses Idaho State, they have managed to win the next three and would like to get out of this road swing with a sweep before hosting SAC/PSU next week. Player to Watch: Jerrick Harding UND fans remember that the dream season of last year almost ended in the BSC Finals, they needed OT to take down Weber, and one of the biggest reasons why was the emergence of this kid out of Wichita. Now the Sophomore guard has taken a bigger step and has become one of the best guard in the conference and appears to be the next great Weber guard. More importantly, he put up pretty good numbers against UND in the three matchups last year, including that 18 point performance in the BSC Finals. He could very well be a 50-40-90 guy when it is all said and done this year. He can do it all. Things to watch: 1) How will UNDs small ball lineup compete with the Weber Bigs: Coach Jones has relied more on a 4 guard + Dale/Avants lineup over the last two games and has gotten decent results out of it so far. Now comes the test, as there will be a mismatch at the 4 spot in height. If this lineup comes to fruition, it will be important that they knock down shots and be very strong rebounders out of this lineup. If UND can keep it close to even on the board, they will have a great chance 2) When Will Geno emerge? While the balanced scoring has been great, for UND to take the next step they need their best player to play like their best player. We have not seen it since the Zags game, but perhaps Weber will be the magic elixir, since the 2nd matchup his freshman year he has put up some very solid number against the Wildcats. You would think the Harding/Geno matchup would be a good individual battle Other Games: (Idaho went into EWU and came away with a 58-51 victory on Friday, evening both of their records at 3-2) ISU (3-1) @ UNC (2-3): Both teams are coming into this one with this main question: How good are they really? ISU got smacked against UND and UNC dropped its 3rd in a row against the leagues best. UNC needs to avoid getting swept and to get back on track, while ISU could salvage a split and take some of the sting out of the loss against UND. Griz (5-0) @ PSU (2-2): The Griz avoided one trap but now have another one here against the Vikings in Portland. They already have taken down the Cats and if they can do the same against the Griz, they can find themselves right back into the thick of the conference race. Cats (4-1) @ SAC (1-3): MSU could not avoid the trap and lost in Portland, now they need to forget that and prepare for a Sac State team that never makes it easy on anybody who comes into the Hornets Nest. Yes the record says 1-3 but they already have given the Griz and Vandals fits. Can't look ahead to next weeks tilt against the Griz just yet. NAU (0-4) @ SUU (0-4): Somebodies 0 has got to go in this one, both teams have had chances early in the season to do just that but have come up short. SUU is a better team but need to start showing it in their record, NAU is still looking for any positive momentum to avoid another disastrous season. The Call: UND has shown some growth in the last two games and it finally resulted in a victory, but if you want to show that you are potentially turning the corner follow the advice of Steely Dan:, You go back, Jack, do it again. Beating Weber and getting to 2-4 with a tough 3 game conference road swing coming up is a lot better than being 1-5. Jones has thrown 4 guard lineups against Weber in the past with various amounts of success, but if they are going to come away with the win, they need to build off of their ISU performance. One other note: this is a quick turnaround for Weber, so they might start sluggish.. if they do UND needs to jump on that. I am having a head/heart debate: My head says Weber will be too much and UND will play great and come up just short... my heart says Geno finally snaps out of it and has a monster game and they pull out a OT thriller. You know what... the heart wins here. Geno goes for 25+, they stay close on the boards and Seales stuffs the stat sheet again. UND 81-77 OT Other games: Griz, UNC, SUU, MSU Quote
SIOUXFAN97 Posted January 13, 2018 Posted January 13, 2018 get off to a good start..hope dale and billy can knock down some open shots...geno will get 30+ Quote
hoops44 Posted January 13, 2018 Posted January 13, 2018 Weber too big up front...tough match up...plus they are primed for revenge...I am laying the 2 pats here Quote
bincitysioux Posted January 13, 2018 Posted January 13, 2018 PlutoTV reminds me alot of DataFlix. Anyone else remember that crap? 1 Quote
SIOUXFAN97 Posted January 13, 2018 Posted January 13, 2018 1 minute ago, bincitysioux said: PlutoTV reminds me alot of DataFlix. Anyone else remember that crap? yes...what's odd is that watching the bball game on thursday on pluto (either roku, chromecast from chromebook ,or casting from android phone to chromecast all lagged, froze, or jumped...unwatchable)...but if i went to watchbigsky.com and watched on chromebook full screen it worked just fine yet it looked like a pluto feed because on watchbigsky.com the pluto logo was in the top right corner....which leads me to believe that something with pluto is very dataflixy!!! Quote
LDL Posted January 13, 2018 Posted January 13, 2018 thanks for mentioning bigskytv.com. way more watchable there than directly from Pluto. Quote
SIOUXFAN97 Posted January 13, 2018 Posted January 13, 2018 5 minutes ago, LDL said: thanks for mentioning bigskytv.com. way more watchable there than directly from Pluto. took me half the game to remember bigskytv!!!!! worked 100% perfect Quote
hoops44 Posted January 13, 2018 Posted January 13, 2018 Hopefully missed free throws ..do not come back to haunt them. 6/13 Quote
CMSioux Posted January 13, 2018 Posted January 13, 2018 Our student section continues to be an embarasment they could just as well not be here. 1 Quote
MafiaMan Posted January 13, 2018 Posted January 13, 2018 5 minutes ago, CMSioux said: Our student section continues to be an embarasment they could just as well not be here. What are they doing? Quote
UND1983 Posted January 13, 2018 Posted January 13, 2018 Props to this team cause I wrote them off a week ago. What a homestand! Quote
Teeder11 Posted January 13, 2018 Posted January 13, 2018 5 minutes ago, MafiaMan said: What are they doing? Waiting for hockey. Quote
UND1983 Posted January 13, 2018 Posted January 13, 2018 Football team not amping it up this year?? Quote
Teeder11 Posted January 13, 2018 Posted January 13, 2018 Do you think the students even realized what they just saw? Quote
geaux_sioux Posted January 13, 2018 Posted January 13, 2018 6 minutes ago, UND1983 said: Football team not amping it up this year?? They’ve got work of their own to do: Quote
LDL Posted January 13, 2018 Posted January 13, 2018 Good game for UND. looking much better since the Montana games. Walter and Brown contributed nicely. Quote
UND1983 Posted January 13, 2018 Posted January 13, 2018 Just now, geaux_sioux said: They’ve got work of their own to do: Yes we know. But are they not doing their usual stuff this year? They love ripping Randy Rahe apart for 40 mins. Quote
geaux_sioux Posted January 13, 2018 Posted January 13, 2018 11 minutes ago, UND1983 said: Yes we know. But are they not doing their usual stuff this year? They love ripping Randy Rahe apart for 40 mins. I guess going to the basketball games as a team is like sprinkles. Quote
homer Posted January 14, 2018 Posted January 14, 2018 It was a fun game to be at. Jones shortened his bench a bit. Made a difference. Team looks a lot different than a month ago. Not saying they turned the corner but they are playing well Quote
UND-FB-FAN Posted January 14, 2018 Posted January 14, 2018 Great game. Good job by Geno and the squad - keep it going. Likely way more excitement than ice stick will produce tonight. Quote
SiouxVolley Posted January 14, 2018 Posted January 14, 2018 Drew over 2000 to the game. Nice turnout. Buchanan, Walters, and Brown seem to be delivering key minutes and points and Crandall seems to have got his rhythm back. Quote
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