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UND (1-3) vs SDSU (4-2) 12/11 5:30 PM (CU Mortgage Direct Dakota Showcase Day 2)


SWSiouxMN

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  • 5 weeks later...
On 12/10/2020 at 10:26 PM, SWSiouxMN said:

UND and USD traded blows, but behind a strong night by Rebraca, UND was able to duplicate their win against the Yotes in Sioux Falls.  Now its on to Day 2, and the match up against a very strong Jackrabbits squad.

About South Dakota State:  

It was expected to be a bit of a rebuilding year for the Bunnies last year.  With their coaching heading off to UNLV, having Daum graduate and having their 2nd best player transfer to UNLV, no would have been surprised if they took a step back, figured things out, and charged ahead in 2020-21.  

Um... surprise!  SDSU finished tied for 1st in the league again!  How?  Douglas Wilson was a godsend from the JUCO ranks, winning player of the year.  Solid play from Freidel and Dentilnger also contributed to a strong finish.  They certainly were able to challenge for another chance to dance.... until Wilson injured his foot.  Even with that injury, surely they were still going to....

Oh wait, Fort Wayne decided to pull one more spoiler before heading out to the Horizon. 

There is two ways to think on this.  The pro was that SDSU overachieved last year.  The con was that they had another flameout in Sioux Falls.   This year has given SDSU high expectation to win the league again, given they return their entire core, with a much improved Freidel.  They have picked up some nice wins this year against Iowa State and Bradley, and gave West Virginia and St. Mary's a scare.  However, given what has happened the last two years in Sioux Falls, you have to wonder:  will that be in their heads a little bit when it comes to the tourney?

About Eric Henderson (2nd Year 26-12 record, 13-3 Summit)

Hendo enters his 2nd year at SDSU with a stacked squad and ready to make a charge for the NCAAs.  While he had a solid 1st year, the flameout in the tournament has been a thorn in the side of Bunny fans and this coming off of the one two years ago made things worse.  While you can point to the Wilson injury as a big reason why, it still didn't sooth many.   Winning the league will go along ways to putting this behind them, but if another early exit were to occur... the grumbling will just get louder. 

Key Player: Noah Freidel (6'4 Sophomore Guard)

There is something about guards from small town South Dakota that give me nightmares (this goes back to unnamed guard from Madison, SD hitting a game winning 3 to beat UND several years ago).  Freidel has built off of his breakout performance against Fort Wayne in the Summit Tournament, making an early statement of Player of the Year Honors in the league.  He is putting up big numbers, averaging around 19 points a game, including a white hot 48.6% from 3 currently.    He had put up big games against Bradley and Iowa State, including a 5-6 from 3 performance against the Braves.  He will be just as big of a nightmare matchup as Umude was.  

Series History

SDSU leads the D-1 series 8-1, UND leads the all-time series 106-87

Milestone Watch:

Its time for our milestone watches for this year and Rebraca will be our first focus:  He currently has 482 career rebounds and is 18 away from getting to 500 in his career.  It is certainly possible for him to reach that mark during the showcase with a couple of good rebounding games.  He hasn't grabbed double-digit rebounds yet, but he is definitely due.  He still is far away from the top 10 in rebounding in UND history, but could get close (If there was a normal amount of games this year, I would believe it more)

Questions:

1) What will be the status of Douglas Wilson?

2) How will UND guard Noah Freidel?

3) Can UND knock down shots?

The Call:

The question is going to be whether we see Douglas Wilson play or not.  If he doesn't go, that means that UND can focus more of their effort at Freidel and Rebraca can breathe a little more of a sigh of relief.  However, SDSU is going to be plenty tough and UND is going to need a better performance than they had against USD.  If UND can hit their shots and Rebraca can dominate down low, they have a shot.  However, I still have nightmares about Guards from small town South Dakota.  Freidel will be too tough for UND and the Jacks come away with the Dub.

SDSU 80-72

Bonus:

Bison roll the Yotes 81-68

Games are on the MidcoSports+

Hi, new to the board and based on my moniker I'm an obvious Jacks fan. Take issue with another flameout in the conference tournament comment. Granted the Jacks didn't win it last year, but as referenced not sure we had huge expectations of winning the conference which we did and then losing Wilson for the tournament certainly was a blow to our chances. We have won the conference tournament and gone to the Big Dance in 2012/2013/2016/2017/2018 and were runner ups in 2015 so don't think there is a history of "flaming out" in the conference tournament. The expectations are always high and will be again this year!  Good luck to UND as believe you have a good one in Sather!

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1 hour ago, JacksFanatic said:

Hi, new to the board and based on my moniker I'm an obvious Jacks fan. Take issue with another flameout in the conference tournament comment. Granted the Jacks didn't win it last year, but as referenced not sure we had huge expectations of winning the conference which we did and then losing Wilson for the tournament certainly was a blow to our chances. We have won the conference tournament and gone to the Big Dance in 2012/2013/2016/2017/2018 and were runner ups in 2015 so don't think there is a history of "flaming out" in the conference tournament. The expectations are always high and will be again this year!  Good luck to UND as believe you have a good one in Sather!

Perhaps I could have worded it differently as said recent early exits.  Yes, SDSU has had a stellar run in the Summit Tournament and they have another damn good team this didn't.  Didn't mean to offend.  I have family who are Jackrabbit alum/fans and several friends who went to SDSU, so I pull for SDSU when UND isn't playing.  

Good luck this year, sorry to hear that your games against Omaha got PPD because of COVID.  

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1 hour ago, JacksFanatic said:

Hi, new to the board and based on my moniker I'm an obvious Jacks fan. Take issue with another flameout in the conference tournament comment. Granted the Jacks didn't win it last year, but as referenced not sure we had huge expectations of winning the conference which we did and then losing Wilson for the tournament certainly was a blow to our chances. We have won the conference tournament and gone to the Big Dance in 2012/2013/2016/2017/2018 and were runner ups in 2015 so don't think there is a history of "flaming out" in the conference tournament. The expectations are always high and will be again this year!  Good luck to UND as believe you have a good one in Sather!

Not to nitpick but you flamed out twice in a row in the first round as the #1 seed and the #2 seed.  That is the definition of "another flameout".  

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