New Coach

[bincitysioux]

I actually think Sather's scheme and coaching is better than Jones was.  He just doesn't get the same talent that Jones did, and the high talent that he has had on the roster he hasn't been able to keep.

I think those teams in the Great West and early Big Sky years (Huff, Webb, Anderson, Hooker) would have been outstanding if they would have had a competent "in-game" coach.  Jones just threw great talent on the floor, told them to play one-on-one and hoped for the best.

[gfhockey]

38 minutes ago, bincitysioux said:

I actually think Sather's scheme and coaching is better than Jones was.  He just doesn't get the same talent that Jones did, and the high talent that he has had on the roster he hasn't been able to keep.

I think those teams in the Great West and early Big Sky years (Huff, Webb, Anderson, Hooker) would have been outstanding if they would have had a competent "in-game" coach.  Jones just threw great talent on the floor, told them to play one-on-one and hoped for the best.

And stomped his feet a lot

[sioux24/7]

43 minutes ago, bincitysioux said:

I actually think Sather's scheme and coaching is better than Jones was.  He just doesn't get the same talent that Jones did, and the high talent that he has had on the roster he hasn't been able to keep.

I think those teams in the Great West and early Big Sky years (Huff, Webb, Anderson, Hooker) would have been outstanding if they would have had a competent "in-game" coach.  Jones just threw great talent on the floor, told them to play one-on-one and hoped for the best.

I agree with this. I have wondered the last few games what the heck is Sather scheming up but in the past it seemed pretty good. 

[ND-fan]

I think Sather could be coaching to save his job and I wonder if that is why he has been fooling around with so many lineup changes. Everyone one around here is so critical of Jones as coach but most of you kind of forget kind of talent he brought in here and we did play post season several years in a row. I also think to be fair with him he was asked to run program on shoestring budget where it was difficult to retain top quality coaches to help in running the program and to retain these coaches to develop consistent philosophy of style. But as head coach he was able to recruit and retain top players even after he left number of those players stayed and had good years here at UND. Jones wasn't perfect but remember being head coach at small mid major like UND is lot harder than you think with budgets they operate under and getting and finding good talent to come here were not there first or second choice for kids out this area that want to come too!                                                                                         Sather has shown he can be good x and o's coach but this year when we are basically playing four freshmen large minutes this not x and o's team this would be JV team of the past teaching them how to play the college game. HIs problem is finding kids with talent to come here and play here and i fear that he and his assistant coaches have been looking for players that want to come play type of game he wants but these are kids that are borderline between DI and DII. This was Jones strength he found DI kids with great upside, but he had to live with them not playing always style he wanted to play but he had to adapt figure how harness that talent into winning team. Sather when he finds these players it's hard for him to either play them or he wants to change them with how college basketball is today kids move on if they don't feel like this how they want to play.

Getting back to Sather job i have to believe AD is hoping he can turn this team around by end of year and he can extend his contract for couple years to see how this class of recruits' fairs. If he fires Sather he will be looking for coach and that coach will be looking at starting from scratch because majority of these recruits would look elsewhere. Second, it's going to cost him alot more to find new coach because i believe were probably 50,000 To 100,000 off what other coaches are making now at mid major and to start rebuilding the program, you're not going to get alot applicants unless pay is higher and longer-term contract. If you go like some of you say, go with unproven younger talent and if that fails it could mean he could lose his job.  This season is going to determine the future of number of people in this program if everyone believes we have lost faith in the coach.  I wonder if that is case because there is large silent majority out there that haven't made up their minds. We will see.

[F'n Hawks]

The good thing about college basketball in todays time is that it doesn’t necessarily take 3 or 4 years to rebuild. Look at what Tim Miles is doing at San Jose State in year 2, they have never been good (like seriously bad), and lack facilities. 

 

Obviously coaching in Grand Forks, North Dakota is a different animal, but starting from scratch isn’t as big of a problem as it used to be.

[sioux24/7]

22 hours ago, ND-fan said:

I think Sather could be coaching to save his job and I wonder if that is why he has been fooling around with so many lineup changes. Everyone one around here is so critical of Jones as coach but most of you kind of forget kind of talent he brought in here and we did play post season several years in a row. I also think to be fair with him he was asked to run program on shoestring budget where it was difficult to retain top quality coaches to help in running the program and to retain these coaches to develop consistent philosophy of style. But as head coach he was able to recruit and retain top players even after he left number of those players stayed and had good years here at UND. Jones wasn't perfect but remember being head coach at small mid major like UND is lot harder than you think with budgets they operate under and getting and finding good talent to come here were not there first or second choice for kids out this area that want to come too!                                                                                         

Sather has also been able to recruit some high end talent. Yeah he hasn’t retained it and I guess Jones did but that was an entirely different world of college basketball where if you wanted to transfer you had to sit out a year unless you got a waiver. So I would consider that comparison apples to oranges. 

On the budget piece, Sather is also dealing with a real tight budget so dealt the same hand there. 

Sather has typically proven to be the better X’s and O’s coach compared to Jones. This last game was really fricken weird. No idea what was going on there but it’s not a good sign. 

Having said all of that, no matter if you feel Jones is a better coach than Sather or vice versa I think that’s besides the point. We should strive for better than Jones and certainly better than what Sather has shown his first few years. We can have a winning program in Grand Forks, we shouldn’t settle to be the bottom of the conference year in and year out. 

[ND-fan]

I would agree with you but now show me how many schools at the mid-major program field winning programs across number of sports and that's the reality of it being at the division I level unless your one big schools in division I sports. Hockey is the number one sport at UND, and it gobbles up majority of resources for that program, then we have football that is number two sport which is not fully funded but requires large portion of resources here at UND. Then we come to Basketball resources are split between men's and women's doesn't have the following that basketball has in many other schools because of popularity of hockey here at UND. Even with that we are better at drawing then number of the other schools in our conference. The problem is Basketball is competing for advertising dollars and donor sport at same time hockey is in small market. I am not picking on hockey but pointing out that UND is unique in this and only other team in conference that has that situation is ST. Thomas and they are only making shift now we will see how they make the transition. They have big advantage in that they are in much larger market.  But getting back to UND how do think administration should respond to this for the athletic program to fund these various sports to where we are competitive. I have some ideas, but it would be interesting to hear from people complaining about what's wrong but also how they would correct this and where the resources are to come from. The one thing i have thought even since we jumped to division I, the major reasons many schools wanted to compete at division I level sport was they had one sport they wanted to move up in but rule if you moved up then you moved all sports with exception of hockey. I wondered why NCAA didn't allow that for other sports as well and if you moved up then you had to provide enough resources to where you were equal to other schools already at division I. I would bet there would have been majority of the schools would have kept their status at division II in upper midwest  with exception of moving football up and some of the Basketball only schools would have moved up for basketball. This is why see problems the NCAA has now, and big schools are looking to cut other smaller schools out selling themselves outside of the NCAA cutting off sharing this money with the smaller schools.

[gfhockey]

I’d like to give sather a chance with atleast one year if herbst recruits

 

hes been known to find diamonds in roughs

[Oxbow6]

On 1/2/2023 at 3:27 PM, Kab said:

Don’t tell that to the ladies who filed law suits against UND, they won’t want to hear this , life’s not fair.

Did they recoup anything with the Olympic t-shirt sales??

[sioux24/7]

1 minute ago, gfhockey said:

I’d like to give sather a chance with atleast one year if herbst recruits

 

hes been known to find diamonds in roughs

I was pretty excited about Herbst as well. 

[sioux24/7]

1 minute ago, HoopsFan03 said:

Since when has Sather been able to recruit high end talent?? Other than this year, his other 3 years have been far from high end talent! Also, since when have his X's and O's been good?? We must have been watching different basketball teams the last 3.5 years because he has been a very very below average X's and O's coach with a significantly outdated philosophy on basketball.

Sather has shown us over the last 3.5 years that he is not a D1 level coach. Sometimes the truth hurts but that is just the truth. It is time to move on from the Sather era and start being better than a bottom 10 worst D1 basketball team in the country!

I guess I would consider Ihenacho, Paul Bruns and Omot all high end talent. Brooks and Eaglestaff are also fairly talented. On the X’s and O’s part I’m comparing him solely to Brian Jones. 

[jdub27]

11 hours ago, HoopsFan03 said:

Omot, yes. The other two are good players but I wouldn't consider them high level talent. The only reason either of them had good freshman years is because UND was one of the worst teams in the nation and they could do whatever they wanted and had nothing to lose.

Talented enough that other schools want them.

We get it. You think it is time to move on. Others don't agree, quite yet at least.

[jdub27]

14 minutes ago, HoopsFan03 said:

Just because other schools want them after their freshman year doesn't mean they were high level talent coming out of high school...... I'm afraid that's not how that works. 

And that is why UND will always be extremely average to below average in *most* sports. No accountability whatsoever. From the fans, from the AD, from anyone. People are just willing to sit here after 3.5 years and a 33% win rate saying "Let's give him some more time to rebuild and see if he can figure it out". He has done nothing but turn UND into a D2 program and a basketball program that NOBODY RESPECTS. It's a joke really. There are plenty of other young coaches out there that could turn this program around. Sather has shown he isn't the man for this job. That's fine though, sometimes things don't work out how you would like them to.

I mean, if they weren't high level talent coming out of high school, then the coach did a helluva job coaching them up in less than a year. Or hear me out, the coach has an eye for finding some talented players that are overlooked by others?

Firing people and/or calling for heads =/= accountability. In fact, I'd argue all that does is put a program/athletic department in debt and gives prospective coaches a lot of hesitation on taking the job. And there are zero guarantees on how someone new would perform. Could be better, worse or the same. 

To be clear, under normal circumstances, I'd probably agree given the results. However between Covid, changes in the transfer portal and a very unlucky visa requirement, it has been far from that. I'm not quite there yet. That's fine if you are, but we're just going to have different opinions on it. 

[SD UND]

UND needs to hire @HoopsFan03. Right person for the job, will turn this thing around in a year. College athletics is easy and anyone could do it, plus he supposedly has experience and was super successful. Put your name in pal!

[UND1983]

I think we all know how this year is going to turn out. This roster is too limited to win a Summit title, IMO.  But they can win some games.  

Are next years recruits any better than the guys we got now?  Any insight would be appreciated

[ArtVandalay]

1 hour ago, HoopsFan03 said:

Just because other schools want them after their freshman year doesn't mean they were high level talent coming out of high school...... I'm afraid that's not how that works. 

And that is why UND will always be extremely average to below average in *most* sports. No accountability whatsoever. From the fans, from the AD, from anyone. People are just willing to sit here after 3.5 years and a 33% win rate saying "Let's give him some more time to rebuild and see if he can figure it out". He has done nothing but turn UND into a D2 program and a basketball program that NOBODY RESPECTS. It's a joke really. There are plenty of other young coaches out there that could turn this program around. Sather has shown he isn't the man for this job. That's fine though, sometimes things don't work out how you would like them to.

You clearly have some bias here. I’ve seen you mention that you were a former college coach. I know a few college coaches and I can’t think of one that would go on a fan forum and criticize/mock a peer. 
 

And in full disclosure, Paul Sather is one of the coaches I know.   A good man and despite current challenges, a good coach. 

[Siouxperfan7]

1 minute ago, UND1983 said:

I think we all know how this year is going to turn out. This roster is too limited to win a Summit title, IMO.  But they can win some games.  

Are next years recruits any better than the guys we got now?  Any insight would be appreciated

Unfotunately, the bar is set so low now that finishing in the top 5 would be a success for this program.  

[Kab]

Good interview on midco with coach herbst

he has a passion for Und 

he said he would put the gloves on and go against anyone, I’m thinking he has coach sathers back , that’s what you need in an assistant 

[GoodGood]

4 minutes ago, UND1983 said:

I think we all know how this year is going to turn out. This roster is too limited to win a Summit title, IMO.  But they can win some games.  

Are next years recruits any better than the guys we got now?  Any insight would be appreciated

Can only speak on the two North Dakota kids we signed, I would say neither is on the level Eaglestaff was last year playing high school ball. Don’t want to bash on kids still in high school but would be shocked if either made a huge impact next year. If they do, they would have taken a huge step forward over the summer or our roster would be have to be in a worse spot than it is now. 

[jdub27]

49 minutes ago, HoopsFan03 said:

Or they played for a bottom 10 team in the nation... 

Yet other schools, who are currently better than UND, saw enough in them to want them? So either they were talented before they got here (meaning they are recruiting talented players) or they were coached up pretty significantly in their short time here.

Ihenacho heard from James Madison, Ball State, Florida International, Colgate, St John’s, Montana, Pacific, Drake, UNI, SIU, UNLV & Western Michigan. Probably safe to say he wasn't offered a spot at all of them, but there was at least some interest.

No clue who else Bruns heard from because USD was in his ear so early that his mind was made up before anyone knew he might leave.

[SD UND]

6 minutes ago, HoopsFan03 said:

I played a full career of college basketball for a very successful program. I know what it takes to win.

I look forward to seeing you turn it all around, miracle worker.

[SD UND]

8 minutes ago, HoopsFan03 said:

I played a full career of college basketball for a very successful program. I know what it takes to win.

Coach Sather has been a player on a National Championship runner up team, a coach of a National Championship runner up team... does he know what it takes to win?

[jdub27]

1 hour ago, HoopsFan03 said:

Others have dealt with those challenges differently and have been successful. 

How many other coaches lost their best player, an all-conference candidate, because they were forced to transfer in order stay in the country and not go back to Serbia due to visa issues?

I don't think anyone is arguing with you on where UND is in the current pecking order, which is exactly why they are losing more than they are currently gaining out of the portal. Again, not exactly the same "challenges".

Feel very confident both the last two seasons would have been significantly different if Rebraca wasn't forced to transfer. 

[UND-SPORTS-FAN]

17 minutes ago, HoopsFan03 said:

I played a full career of college basketball for a very successful program. I know what it takes to win.

You don't have to say the name of the college but just curious what level D1, D2, D3, NAIA?

[NewUndFan]

41 minutes ago, jdub27 said:

Yet other schools, who are currently better than UND, saw enough in them to want them? So either they were talented before they got here (meaning they are recruiting talented players) or they were coached up pretty significantly in their short time here.

Ihenacho heard from James Madison, Ball State, Florida International, Colgate, St John’s, Montana, Pacific, Drake, UNI, SIU, UNLV & Western Michigan. Probably safe to say he wasn't offered a spot at all of them, but there was at least some interest.

No clue who else Bruns heard from because USD was in his ear so early that his mind was made up before anyone knew he might leave.

And yet as a Junior he is playing less minutes and scoring less then he did as a true freshman at UND?  Sounds more like he was with a bad team at UND that played him a ton of minutes.   Now playing for a good team and not having the same stats as a junior.