UND (3-7) vs EWU (4-5) 12/11 1 PM

[SWSiouxMN]

In what has developed into a recent theme, UND started okay in the first half but then gave up a big time run in the 2nd against against a good Cal Baptist team.  Now they finally return home to finish the last 3 games of the non-conference schedule.  First up, an old Big Sky foe: The Eastern Washington Eagles.

About Eastern Washington:

It was about 10 years ago that Eastern Washington made an hire that changed the course of their basketball program.  They brought in Jim Hayford from Division 3 Withworth and in his 4th year, broke through with a Big Sky championship and an NCAA tournament appearance behind Tyler Harvey and Venky Jois (two guys that gave UND fits back in the day).  After a couple more solid years, Hayford headed west to Seattle and left the program in the hand of assistant Shantay Legans.

He brought the program to another level.  Eastern never finished lower than 3rd in the conference in each of his four years and won a BSC championship in 2019-2020.  Then COVID wiped away what could have been their chance at the dance.  However, faith had other ideas and the following year, they won the BSC tournament and made it to March Madness once again and gave Kansas all they could handle, behind the Groves Brothers.

This season:  massive changes.  After 4 great years, Legans went off to the West Coast Conference and Portland.  They also lost several of their big time players to the transfer portal.  This left new head coach David Riley scrambling to fill the voids of a once great team.  The good news for EWU?  He comes from the same philosophy as Hayford and Legans, so that kept the same consistency.  

So far the season has produced some great moments, including a 76-71 win against Wazzu and a near upset of Colorado in their last game.  They went out to Omaha and took down the Mavs by 11.   If you know one thing about the Eagles, they will score, score, score at will.

The conference season got off on the wrong foot, a set back to a good SUU team, but Eastern might just be revamping to continue their great success they have had since 2015 in the Big Sky.

About Coach David Riley (4-5 overall record, 0-1 BSC)

The 33 year old from Seattle has been with Eastern since 2011 when he came in as a grad assistant after his playing days at Whitworth (he played when Hayford was the coach).  He has been under the Hayford and Legans coaching tree so UND will know what type of team they will be getting.  Lots of scoring.  The Hayford tree has been successful in producing an NCAA tournament appearance.  Can Riley follow it up with another?  He certainly will get the time to do so.

Key Player: Steele Venters (6'7 175 Freshman)

Don't let the frame fool you, this kid can ball.  He is one of the best young players that the BSC can offer.  Has scored 20+points  in four out of the last 5 games.  This is a 3 level scorer, who is very dangerous from 3 (shooting 51% from 3!)  Can grab some rebounds but his main weapon is offense.  He fits EWU to a T and is fast becoming the next great player that Eastern Washington has to offer.

Series History:

UND leads the series 7-6 all time, but EWU has won their last 3 against UND. 

Keys:

1) Defend the 3 point shot

2) Win with pace, pound them with your size

3) Play with confidence, you are back home!

The Call:

With 3 games left before conference play starts and the trip to Fargo, it is time for this team to start figuring it out.  These three are very winnable at home.  Get them all, and you might have the ship righted and confidence going into conference play.  Drop this one and Dixie?  The questions will continue to swirl.   The status of Nero will still be up in the air (haven't heard anything as to how long he will be out) but it is high time that the returning players start to step it up.  It would also be nice to see someone else step up from the newbies outside of Bruns.  UND needs to play with controlled pace and confidence.  This is the toughest of the three, but UND needs to win this one.  I think UND pulls this one off with their best game since Montana.

UND 81-77

Game is on ESPN+

[SiouxFan100]

Love ya SW

[Nodak78]

Thanks for the research SW.  You do a great job.  Would like T and Matthews step up some play.

[Nodak78]

Nero not lusted in starting line up.  Assume he didn't dress.

[SiouxFan100]

We are having trouble scoring 

down 7-5 at the under break

[Nodak78]

Matthews with 3 rebounds.  P with a 3. And now going to the line to shoot 3.  EWU leads 7-5

[SiouxFan100]

Offense looks way out of sorts 

not sure what we are trying to do

[SiouxFan100]

We are committing sloppy turnovers 

[Nodak78]

11:25 in 1st half EWU leads 13-10

[SiouxFan100]

EWU playing tough defense 

down 22-12

Midway 1st half

[Nodak78]

UND are not matching up with the bugs.

[SiouxFan100]

They are starting to pull away

we are having all sorts of problems scoring 

[Kab]

Playing way too many -layers

get down to 8 and get going

[GoodGood]

Saying we are offensively challenged would be an understatement 

[Nodak78]

UND can not buy a bucket.

[Kab]

We just keep passing around perimeter 

no one can drive the lane

pretty easy to defend 

[SiouxFan100]

1 minute ago, Kab said:

Playing way too many -layers

get down to 8 and get going

That has something to do with how things are going

some say we shouldn’t care about pre conference 

I care

[SiouxFan100]

Well - we still have a chance 

lots of things to work on

[GoodGood]

Well hopefully some positive momentum heading into the half

[SiouxFan100]

Down 35-26 half

statistically pretty even except shooting %
 

we are 26%

they are 46%
 

not optimistic at the half 

[Kab]

6 layups missed 

[SiouxFan100]

Down by 11 with about 12 minutes left in the game

[Kab]

Pathetic playing’ can’t even pass the GD thing in bounds

shooter that has hit 1 3 all year casts one up

panoam wiffs on a layup

whats with this team 

 

[SiouxFan100]

Despite all we are down by 10 and have a chance

[SiouxFan100]

We have made 15 field goals

- 11 are from the three