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2024-2025 Season


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The 2023-24 season had some major lows and major highs. Was quite the rollercoaster. Unfortunately, it ended much sooner than we hoped. Now it’s time to start looking forward to next year. 

In theory, we have a super talented roster set to return. Unfortunately, the portal exists and you never know what’s going to happen.

Let’s just assume the offseason goes as planned and no one leaves. We would have one open scholarship which I think we’d want to fill with a big. Now, I’m assuming another scholarship or two will open and if that’s someone that wasn’t a contributor this year, I would anticipate us looking for a 3 and D guy. Clearly they’re not looking for a high school kid so they’re going to attack the portal it appears. 

Buckle up, should be an interesting next month or so to follow. 

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10 hours ago, sioux24/7 said:

Let’s just assume the offseason goes as planned and no one leaves. We would have one open scholarship which I think we’d want to fill with a big. Now, I’m assuming another scholarship or two will open and if that’s someone that wasn’t a contributor this year, I would anticipate us looking for a 3 and D guy. Clearly they’re not looking for a high school kid so they’re going to attack the portal it appears. 

We have two glaring needs heading into the off-season, that were also glaring needs last off-season and weren't addressed by this staff.

I'm not holding my breath that these needs get addressed. You see on Twitter that we're talking to portal kids like Fox that fill exactly 0 of our 2 major needs. 

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If everyone comes back, we will have a great nucleus to build around.  Kraft will add to our 3 point shooting ability.  He is a better 3 point shooter than anyone we have put on the floor in a long time and has a quick release.  He will have to make the adjustment to speed and physicality and show he can play d at this level, but should be a nice compliment to our already very good guard rotation.  We need one or two bigs that can step in.  Amer has been a great find, but need one or two others that are game ready. My hope is that Paul will revise the offense in the off-season to find a way to get looks to Eaglestaff and Kraft outside with some off ball movement rather than just rely on whatever Tyree, Eli, and BJ can create off the dribble.  Getting some quicker reversals would help with the outside looks and should open up the lanes for our slashers as well.  Against aggressive d overplaying wing passes, we settled for non-existent movement and poor shots at the end of the shot clock far too often, i.e., the Kansas City, St. Thomas, and NDSU losses.

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I hope I’m wrong, but I dont see Kraft as a contributor for this team next year. Now depending on what happens with the portal we could see some guard minutes open up and definitely need the shooting help, but im just worried defensively. He still has all summer to get better and stronger to handle the physicality of the D1 level so hopefully he can do that. 

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6 minutes ago, McBuckets said:

I hope I’m wrong, but I dont see Kraft as a contributor for this team next year. Now depending on what happens with the portal we could see some guard minutes open up and definitely need the shooting help, but im just worried defensively. He still has all summer to get better and stronger to handle the physicality of the D1 level so hopefully he can do that. 

It would definitely be a lot asking for a redshirt freshman PWO to step into the rotation of a team that hopes to compete for a Summit League title. I hope they go portal and try get someone with some experience to fill that role, but if Kraft is good enough to fill it then I’m totally ok with that. 

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5 hours ago, HoopsFan03 said:

We have two glaring needs heading into the off-season, that were also glaring needs last off-season and weren't addressed by this staff.

I'm not holding my breath that these needs get addressed. You see on Twitter that we're talking to portal kids like Fox that fill exactly 0 of our 2 major needs. 

I feel like him hearing from Sather was bound to happen due to the connection. Whether they’re actually going hard for him is another question. My thought is he doesn’t make much sense here unless BJ is gone. Not saying he can replace BJ. 

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59 minutes ago, GoodGood said:

It would definitely be a lot asking for a redshirt freshman PWO to step into the rotation of a team that hopes to compete for a Summit League title. I hope they go portal and try get someone with some experience to fill that role, but if Kraft is good enough to fill it then I’m totally ok with that. 

Agreed. He does seem like a good shooter and skilled but we should be over the moon excited if he ever plays significant minutes on a good team. 

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1 hour ago, GoodGood said:

It would definitely be a lot asking for a redshirt freshman PWO to step into the rotation of a team that hopes to compete for a Summit League title. I hope they go portal and try get someone with some experience to fill that role, but if Kraft is good enough to fill it then I’m totally ok with that. 

Talk to a few on the team and it sounds like Kraft will not hold the title of PWO much longer.  They said most of the year he was playing with the #2s for practice.  

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I don’t disagree with the thoughts on Kraft.  I will be very happy if he improves defensively enough to be a regular contributor.  That will be a question mark.  He has a pure stroke.  What I do think he can do is provide some time off the bench when we need a shooting threat.  Trey can fill it up.  Tyree and BJ are great, but not consistent outside threats.  We struggled against zones and match up zones that cut off penetration by BJ and Tyree.  Eli came around nicely at the end of the year from the 3, but our next two answers were Brady and Elijah.  I am very confident Kraft’s shooting will eclipse that by miles.  How well the rest of his game will translate remains to be seen.

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I think that is possible.  I watched a lot of him at Red River.  He and Reis Rowekamp got all of the attention from opposing teams and he still managed to get 20 to 30 points shooting a high percentage from outside.   That came in a Red River offense that does nothing to get anyone looks other than what you create yourself.  In the rare event he was truly wide open, you could pretty well count on it going in.  He has a quick release and could get shots off in traffic, as well as hitting floaters off the dribble.  The speed and physicality at this level is obviously different from high school, but if he catches up to that, I do think he can help us offensively.  He had a lot of work to do on the defensive side of the ball in high school, but I am hearing the same thing as others - he has come along way in that regard as well.  I don’t know how big a role he will have, but I expect he will see the court next year in some capacity, even if it just to come in occasionally as a zone wrecker.

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I think the key thing to remember is Kraft has 4 years left. Seems like he put on a little size this season so hopefully can keep getting stronger. I agree with GoodGood and Sioux 24/7 though, to have expectations for him for next year might be too much to ask but if later in his career he can give us minutes that will be great, but to be banking on a RS freshman PWO to be giving rotational minutes is a little much to ask for.

hopefully next fall he proves me wrong though 

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4 hours ago, McBuckets said:

I think the key thing to remember is Kraft has 4 years left. Seems like he put on a little size this season so hopefully can keep getting stronger. I agree with GoodGood and Sioux 24/7 though, to have expectations for him for next year might be too much to ask but if later in his career he can give us minutes that will be great, but to be banking on a RS freshman PWO to be giving rotational minutes is a little much to ask for.

hopefully next fall he proves me wrong though 

Another point is I think a lot of people are forgetting about Mara and the jump that he is going to make going into next year. He joined the team like the first week of school so was behind from the beginning.

He has the tools to be a perfect 3 and D guy. He is physically ready to compete at the D1 level. Just needed to get acclimated to UND, the system, and college basketball. A full year of practices and a full summer with the team and he'll be ready to go next year. Hopefully he is on The Gun the whole summer getting up thousands of 3's!!

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49 minutes ago, HoopsFan03 said:

Another point is I think a lot of people are forgetting about Mara and the jump that he is going to make going into next year. He joined the team like the first week of school so was behind from the beginning.

He has the tools to be a perfect 3 and D guy. He is physically ready to compete at the D1 level. Just needed to get acclimated to UND, the system, and college basketball. A full year of practices and a full summer with the team and he'll be ready to go next year. Hopefully he is on The Gun the whole summer getting up thousands of 3's!!

Man I wish he would have redshirted. I think he’s a bit older so I get it but it would be nice to have 4 years still. He’s got the tools but up to him to want to achieve his potential. 

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I'm sure its been said but is Nacho done?? If he is they desperately need someone to run the point. Does everyone remember before he got go play this year? It was a nigth and day difference before he go out on the court.

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2 minutes ago, GoHawks said:

I'm sure its been said but is Nacho done?? If he is they desperately need someone to run the point. Does everyone remember before he got go play this year? It was a nigth and day difference before he go out on the court.

You don’t say? You mean to tell me Eli King and Treysen aren’t PGs? I remember someone (not you) lecturing me all offseason about how they were PGs and they could easily play the position. Funny how the team played better once a real PG took over 

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12 minutes ago, GoodGood said:

You don’t say? You mean to tell me Eli King and Treysen aren’t PGs? I remember someone (not you) lecturing me all offseason about how they were PGs and they could easily play the position. Funny how the team played better once a real PG took over 

"All we run is motion offense and anyone can dribble the ball up the floor and get us into our motion offense" LOL :D ;)

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