GDT: SDSU vs UND 1pm "The Betty" Midco/SLN

[da_coach]

Sometimes, it's just not your day.

They came out on Fire... I was listening to Tyler the first half, and Eli King had 18 at the break (he averages 7 ppg), and another UND player, who had 4 Total made 3 pointers on the season... hit 3 in the first half.

That said, the Jacks got a nice push and got within 10 with 10 minutes left. And never got much closer. And they had chances. There was a point, when down 11 I think, we made 4 straight stops, and got EXCELLENT looks on the other end... a couple wide open 3's a Cluff post up, and another good shot... made NONE of them.

Just dug ourselves too big a hole. Good learning experience, and I was proud of them for charging back, and finishing within 5 points. Good lesson here. Play like this, and UND can beat you.

[ringthebells]

This team is fun to watch. On the good nights it is really hard to believe how young they are. On the bad nights, they look every bit of their age. It is a definite roller coater ride in some of these games. The UND game had the feel that we were toast and then the Rabbits come charging back and close to within a few possessions. You just never know with them.

[Jacked_Up]

UND would have beaten any team in the league the way they played in the first half. No way can they keep up that level for, say, three games in a row in March.

[Southeast]

UND would have beaten any team in the league the way they played in the first half. No way can they keep up that level for, say, three games in a row in March.

King, in particular, was seeing everything go down. His hot streak was enough to get them the win.

UND did a pretty great job on Cluff early too.

Winning those road games is just going to be hard, unless a team is way better than the rest of the league. Look at what happened to NDSU in St Paul yesterday and Omaha in Vermilion. St Thomas was just as hot vs NDSU as UND was against us.

[SUPERBUNNY]

One of those games where we showed our youth. You have to give UND a lot of credit. We beat them 109-73 and it wasn't that close. As others have said, everything went their way Saturday night. Cluff just never really got going offensively.

Jacks outrebounded the Siouxsies 44-23. Not often you lose with that stat. Turnovers were a concern. The Jacks had 15 which is plenty, but only created 6.

Hopefully UND can serve up a couple more upsets along the way.

On to the next!

SUPERBUNNY

[JackrabbitGuy]

This was such a missed opportunity, but I agree with others who have said this is part of the up and down trends of a team with a lot of young talent.

I am not a great basketball mind, but I thought that UND did a great job of being creative with the double teams on Cluff. They varied the timing while rarely committing to the double team too early, where Cluff has shows the ability to pick defenses apart all by himself distributing the ball out of the post. They came for the double just in time and sometimes were ready and dove in for the double right as the pass was coming in to the post. It contributed to the Jacks not getting a consistent rythim on offense and despite a better second half we just couldn't climb the hill.

Credit to UND. Another learning experience for the Rabbits. On to St Thomas.

[LetsGoRabbits]

there were a lot of factors that combined to create the surprising result in Grand Forks- and that is basically the case with every game to varying degrees. the biggest reasons this result goes into the category of a surprise are
1. We just crushed UND in pretty much every possible way, 2 weeks ago. we completely dominated that game
2. they are NOT a team that has been good on defense
3. they are NOT a team that shoots the ball well

Coach Sather is a good coach and he and his team deserve credit. they played hard. i believe a recent memory of a 30 point loss likely provided some solid motivation.

I believe our Jacks also did many things well. some would say we did not play hard, but I think it is very difficult to say that we did not play hard when we out rebound a team by 20. that said, we can do better. I feel like out biggest fault in this game is that we came out slightly flat. did we let down a bit after a big win in Fargo? were we over confident after winning by 30 two weeks ago?

I believe this is an area where a young team can learn. in high school, sometimes you just play teams that are NOT GOOD and it would really take a miracle for a bad team to beat one of the best teams in the state. in college, EVERY player, more or less, was THE GUY in high school. pretty much they know what it feels like to play well and win a lot.

In college you can not afford to overlook a team, come out flat, and let a team that generally does not shoot well start to remember what it feels like to start knocking down shots. IT IS OUR FAULT that we let UND get warmed up and feeling REAL REAL GOOD

but usually, even when that does happen, a poor shooting team cannot keep it going all game. UND was not as hot in the second half as the first, but other than a short stretch or two, the shot it well all game. they were still making VERY DIFFICULT shots right up to the end

shortly after the game, i pointed out that they were making a LOT of shots that they do not usually make, and said that was a key factor in the game. I also pointed out that they were extremely physical and allowed to get away with it. I did not say or make any attempt to imply that the refs cost us the game, but they did play a factor. i DID say we could definitely play better. in fan forum comments i definitely do make plenty of comments about things like the other team being nuclear hot and likely having their best shooting game in conference play if not the whole season (again I believe that was our biggest mistake in the game- coming out slightly unfocused and allowing them to get HOT), and officiating that plays more of a role than it should

I am a fan. these are still kids. i am not going to come out and point out individuals, but hopefully this young team will learn a LOT from a game like this and not give away any more games this year. very likely we are only going to have one year with Oscar. it would be nice, when the year is over, if we are not saying the rest of the team was too young and inexperienced to make the most out of our one year with Oscar


finally, to finish on a positive note, we did not start well. UND had one of, if not easily their best shooting night of the year. they also played very hard on D. despite all of that we still shot 43% and honestly missed plenty of VERY GOOD open looks- both close and deep. also in the second half we missed 4 FTs. all of them hurt and 2 or them (one a front end of 1 n 1) could have seriously changed the game. so despite everything, we were within a play or two of overcoming a 20 point deficit and getting another road win