Are we better than NDSU this year?

[jackrabbit1979]

Re: Are we better than NDSU this year?

Forgot to ask, will any of the recruits be on campus this summer?

From what I have heard, almost all of them already are or will be shortly.  I pretty sure that Callahan and Bassett are on campus and have been for sometime.  

[Rabbitlivinginverm]

Re: Are we better than NDSU this year?

Anyone have any news to share about this 6'5" JUCO?

[SF_Rabbit_Fan]

Re: Are we better than NDSU this year?

Many of the players have been around off and on this summer working out 4 days a week and playing pick up at night.

The consensus seems to be Bassett playing and Cordova RS next year. Any reasons why? Physically, Cordova seems like a player who could step in and contribute right away.

[NightHawk78]

Re: Are we better than NDSU this year?

I doubt any final decision as to who will play and who will redshirt will be determined until early November. We have five incoming freshman this fall; it would be all right if one or two did play if they were ready to contribute at the D-1 level (like Holdren did as a true freshman). Regardless, if all players stay on course at SDSU, we would have quite a few seniors playing in the 2009-10 and 2010-11 seasons.

[MilwaukeeJacksAlum]

Re: Are we better than NDSU this year?

I just wanted to throw my 2 cents in here and say in relation to the title of this thread, I'm not ready to conceed we weren't better than NDSU last year. They had flashier wins and the general perception after that flashy win was that they were far superior than our team, but I think anyone who took a closer look would see that's not the case. We split the series and fans from both sides can say either win/loss was a fluke, but the series was still a split. Our records against common opponents was similar as well. I think at the beginning of the season, SDSU probably had the better team. Towards the middle of the season, NDSU clearly had the better team. Towards the end of the season, despite all of the problems with SDSU's basketball team, I'd say the teams were fairly evenly matched. That's saying alot considering we had more football players than basketball players on the court at times.

I'm not as biased towards SDSU basketball as I am football, but I feel my sentiments are fairly unbiased. NDSU fans would give a loud gaffaw to that, but I would expect/hope for nothing less. I just think the teams were far more evenly matched than the general conscensus thinks. All because of the win over Wisconsin.

[jackmd]

Re: Are we better than NDSU this year?

Many of the players have been around off and on this summer working out 4 days a week and playing pick up at night.

The consensus seems to be Bassett playing and Cordova RS next year.  Any reasons why?  Physically, Cordova seems like a player who could step in and contribute right away.

Per Nagy, Cordova is 17 and should be a senior in high school this year. He needs another year to mature before he plays DI basketball.

He may be ready physically but another year of instruction will help his mental game.

[RodentiaX1]

Re: Are we better than NDSU this year?

The series was a split, but NDSU did win 16 games last year. The big improvement at NDSU was learning to hold onto big leads. Early on NDSU had some big leads, only to let them slide away. The series was a split, but NDSU did win by 30 in Fargo, while SDSU won by 2 at home. The split counts for something, to be sure, but overall, NDSU outscored SDSU by an average of 19 points. That and the 16 wins suggests that NDSU was the better team last year.

Of course, that was last year. This coming season is a whole new year.

As far as redshirting players, it's a tough call. It's tempting to get production out of players now, but it's awfully tempting to redshirt them and get one more year out of them when the team is eligible for the big dance.

[89rabbit]

Re: Are we better than NDSU this year?

The series was a split, but NDSU did win 16 games last year.  The big improvement at NDSU was learning to hold onto big leads. Early on NDSU had some big leads, only to let them slide away. The series was a split, but NDSU did win by 30 in Fargo, while SDSU won by 2 at home. The split counts for something, to be sure, but overall, NDSU outscored SDSU by an average of 19 points. That and the 16 wins suggests that NDSU was the better team last year.

Of course, that was last year. This coming season is a whole new year.

As far as redshirting players, it's a tough call. It's tempting to get production out of players now, but it's awfully tempting to redshirt them and get one more year out of them when the team is eligible for the big dance.

I think I have to agree with MilwaukeeJacksAlum on this one.  Sure you can compare wins and losses but you also have to compare strength of schedule.  NDSU played 4 Non-D-I schools and many of their D-I games were of a lesser quality then those that the Jacks played.

Sure you can point to the score in Fargo, but you also have to look at the loss that Bison suffered in Brookings. A loss to a Jackrabbit team that had four football players filling in to help a fill out a depleted Jackrabbit roster.

I think MJA had it about right.

I just wanted to throw my 2 cents in here and say in relation to the title of this thread, I'm not ready to conceed we weren't better than NDSU last year.  They had flashier wins and the general perception after that flashy win was that they were far superior than our team, but I think anyone who took a closer look would see that's not the case.  We split the series and fans from both sides can say either win/loss was a fluke, but the series was still a split.  Our records against common opponents was similar as well.  I think at the beginning of the season, SDSU probably had the better team.  Towards the middle of the season, NDSU clearly had the better team.  Towards the end of the season, despite all of the problems with SDSU's basketball team, I'd say the teams were fairly evenly matched.  That's saying alot considering we had more football players than basketball players on the court at times.

I'm not as biased towards SDSU basketball as I am football, but I feel my sentiments are fairly unbiased.  NDSU fans would give a loud gaffaw to that, but I would expect/hope for nothing less.  I just think the teams were far more evenly matched than the general conscensus thinks.  All because of the win over Wisconsin.

This coming season should be fun.


Go State!  

[jackrabbit1979]

Re: Are we better than NDSU this year?

The series was a split, but NDSU did win 16 games last year.  The big improvement at NDSU was learning to hold onto big leads. Early on NDSU had some big leads, only to let them slide away. The series was a split, but NDSU did win by 30 in Fargo, while SDSU won by 2 at home. The split counts for something, to be sure, but overall, NDSU outscored SDSU by an average of 19 points. That and the 16 wins suggests that NDSU was the better team last year.

Of course, that was last year. This coming season is a whole new year.

As far as redshirting players, it's a tough call. It's tempting to get production out of players now, but it's awfully tempting to redshirt them and get one more year out of them when the team is eligible for the big dance.

I will admit NDSU had a better squad then SDSU last year...if they wouldn't have with what the SDSU team went through then they should have been seriously concerned.

However, I do have to suggest that of NDSU's 16 wins how many were against D1 competition, I believe they may have had 12 D1 wins.  SDSU had 8 D1 wins.  NDSU had a great season, injury and conflict free, SDSU had a nightmare season, losing our best player and then two other contributors and a lot of team morale.    We played a much tougher schedule, traveled to much tougher competition, and had a season full of setbacks that isn't common.  And we had four less wins and split the season series. For christ's sake we beat NDSU with four football players who played considerable minutes.  I will admit, I am biased, but there wasn't much differnece in the talent level of the two teams.

I am just excited to see the games continue between the two as they are becoming better and better each year.

[MilwaukeeJacksAlum]

Re: Are we better than NDSU this year?

As a follow-up to my last post, I think NDSU should have the better squad this season. They were young last season and played well. Now they have one more season under their belt and that should help them with the blown leads that was previously brought up. SDSU on the other hand only got younger, if that's possible. We will have a lot of moments of frustration (how Nagy keeps his hair is beyond me) due to our youth and lack of cohesiveness. However, our talent level is as high as it's ever been and we have some height (albeit skinny height). The true test of NDSU v. SDSU will be (hopefully) in our first year in the Mid Con.

One last thing. I would also give NDSU the nod on having the better team last year. I just wanted to point out that the gap between the squads was much smaller than the casual observer may believe. SDSU basketball could not have had a more dissapointing season than it did last year, yet we still managed to win 8 D1 games, including a win over the Bison. I mean think about that. We hit absolute rock bottom last season and still managed to do ok.

[rcjacks]

Re: Are we better than NDSU this year?

I agree wholeheartedly with MilwuakeeJacks' last post. NDSU was the better team last year, and will be this year. But the well isn't dry at ol' Frost and we are in serious rebuilding mode.....we lost two starters in the middle of the season and had a tougher schedule, but if we would've played NDSU 10 times they would've beat us 7.

Give the Jacks 2-3 more years and we will be back where we were when we dominated the NCC.

Nagy hit a tough stretch and had several issues outside of his control. It happens. What shows a coach's character is how he/she recovers from those bumps and adjusts. Nagy and the boys will be just fine.

[Jacks_NL]

Re: Are we better than NDSU this year?

Anyone have any news to share about this 6'5" JUCO?

In today argus in the fast talk section.

Mario brandon 6-5 from wabash valley community college 9 points 6 rebounds per game

http://www.iecconline.net/wvcbasketball/

http://www.chicagohoops.com/articles1/brandonsigns.html

[rabbit_boy]

Re: Are we better than NDSU this year?

Maybe this means Kai does red-shirt?

[SF_Rabbit_Fan]

Re: Are we better than NDSU this year?

I was over on Bison Board and they had a link to another message board with all 334 DI teams records vs. NCAA tourney qualifiers from 2000-2006. Look at the second post in the thread.

http://p218.ezboard.com/fthehole8439...cID=8259.topic

And we also played a few teams who were preseason picks to win their conference that didn't make the tourney. Just goes to show you how difficult our strength of schedule has been compared to NDSU.

If my calculations are correct, 4 of the 6 qualifiers we've lost to since 2000 were played last season. So if you schedule 3 cupcakes like NDSU did, our record could have been 12-17.

Take away injuries and other personnel issues, it is concievable we could have won 4 more games which would put us at 16-13, comparable to NDSU's 16-12. Take away their amazing upset of Wisconsin, and we actually have a better record than them.

I know its overly optimistic homer math or making excuses, but still goes to show that we may not be as bad off as some seem to think (myself included, from time to time).

[thebluehatman]

Re: Are we better than NDSU this year?

I think if all the stars align and the players play as a team and not as individuals we could be as good as NDSU. we have a lot of incoming talent that is pretty darn good so i would say 12 wins at a minimum would be acceptable.