Back home for North Dakota

[Keenan Henderson]

The students are back from the holiday break, so it should be a lively crowd on Thursday night.  Thoughts on the North Dakota game?

[theeagleman5]

The Fighting Hawks just a tasty orderve before we feast on  NDSU Saturday Night...more stats to be analyzed and film to be watched before a final prediction but ORU by at least 20....

[Dr. Cornelius]

I hope Max goes for 40

[Keenan Henderson]

Listened to the latest Reaching the Summit podcast and the announcers said UND has had some injury problems.  A couple of their starters have been out and another, Mitchell Suker, was playing on a bum ankle.  They have a week off, so it will be interesting to see if UND is healed up by Thursday night.  If the Hawks have all their guys back then it could be an interesting game, otherwise ORU should win in a blowout.

[Old Titan]

3 hours ago, Keenan Henderson said:

Listened to the latest Reaching the Summit podcast and the announcers said UND has had some injury problems.  A couple of their starters have been out and another, Mitchell Suker, was playing on a bum ankle.  They have a week off, so it will be interesting to see if UND is healed up by Thursday night.  If the Hawks have all their guys back then it could be an interesting game, otherwise ORU should win in a blowout.

Did you like the part where the host spent all of about 30 seconds breaking down ORU by saying, “Well, we all know the talking points on ORU; really don’t want to spend any time going over those again.”

Seriously??  This after they just spent 15 minutes on NDSU’s injury situations. 

I’ve thought about volunteering my own 10-minute ORU recap for their show, but every title I consider for the segment comes across as potentially obscene. #LetsJustLeaveItAtThat 

 

[Keenan Henderson]

3 hours ago, Old Titan said:

Did you like the part where the host spent all of about 30 seconds breaking down ORU by saying, “Well, we all know the talking points on ORU; really don’t want to spend any time going over those again.”

Seriously??  This after they just spent 15 minutes on NDSU’s injury situations. 

I’ve thought about volunteering my own 10-minute ORU recap for their show, but every title I consider for the segment comes across as potentially obscene. #LetsJustLeaveItAtThst

 

The ORU question they asked was, Is Max the greatest player in Summit League history?  They said greatest scorer, but Mike Daum and John Konchar are better all-around players in recent history.  I would throw Caleb Green in the conversation also because he averaged around 20 and 10 a good chunk of his career. That was an interesting topic.  

[Old Titan]

12 hours ago, Keenan Henderson said:

The ORU question they asked was, Is Max the greatest player in Summit League history?  They said greatest scorer, but Mike Daum and John Konchar are better all-around players in recent history.  I would throw Caleb Green in the conversation also because he averaged around 20 and 10 a good chunk of his career. That was an interesting topic.  

Yeah, they said "well, maybe he's the best scorer, but...", like that was some sort of indictment.

Reminds me of Buddy Ryan's assessment of Chris Carter when he infamously cut him from the Philadelphia Eagles:  "All he does is catch touchdowns". 

Carter went on to a Hall of Fame career with the Minnesota Vikings.  Some athletes simply are not appreciated by short-sighted critics for doing the most important things really well.

 

[theeagleman5]

Those guys are Tweedledumb and Tweedledee.......ORU will roast the Fighting Hawks on a spit tomorrow night at Mabee Center.....UND may as well start LMU Emu at PG.....TheEagleman has just about finished his pregame analysis and it's looking like a very tall task for the visitors from the North......ORU will roll......

[ORUTerry]

Here is a link to the UND message board; this is a thread started by a poster with a good summation of ORU:  https://forum.siouxsports.com/topic/32317-und-4-14-0-5-oru-12-6-6-1-120-7-pm/

UND is 4-14 on the season and 0-5 in league play. They are fairly young and have some players out with injuries.

Here is a link to their stats:    UND Stats

In conference play:

PPG:    73.6   (8th);  they allow 85 ppg  (9th)

FG%:   43.4%  (8th);  they allow 50.2%  (10th)

3pt%:   32.5%  (8th);  they allow  37.5%  (7th)

3pt attempts:   23.4

Assists:  9.4    (8th)

Turnovers:  12.8   (2nd)

Reb Margin:   +1.2

 

Players:

Bruns  (6'4" - FR)

PPG:  16.8

FG%:   40.5%

3pt%:  43.8%  (6.4 attempts)

Reb:   7.4

Assists:   1.4

Turnovers:  1.8

 

Norman   (6'4" - SO)

PPG:  15.4

FG%:   52.0%

3pt%:  37.5%  (6.4 attempts)

Reb:   3.6

Assists:   1.4

Turnovers:  1.0

 

Tsartsidzc   (6'9" - FR)

PPG:  12.4

FG%:   55.0%

Reb:   6.8

Assists:   1.2

Turnovers:  1.4

 

Panoam   (6'2" - SR)

PPG:  9.0

FG%:   43.6%

3pt%:  31.3%  (3.2 attempts)

Reb:   3.0

Assists:   1.6

Turnovers:  1.8

[ORUTerry]

They are arguably getting better as their young squad gains experience. They played tough against WIU and led the game late in the second half before losing by 5. They outrebounded the Leathernecks by 9 - a team that outrebounded us by 11.  It is important not to look past UND, but play them with maximum intensity & effort.

[Old Titan]

1 hour ago, ORUTerry said:

Here is a link to the UND message board; this is a thread started by a poster with a good summation of ORU:  https://forum.siouxsports.com/topic/32317-und-4-14-0-5-oru-12-6-6-1-120-7-pm/

That is a REALLY good preview!  Very informative and well-written. 

[Old Titan]

 

[EagleManiac]

That post on the ND board is awesome. Should be in a newspaper. 

If we play as we should, we win by 15. ORU 80 ND 65.

[ORUTerry]

ORU stats (per Sports Reference) show that the Golden Eagles (arguably) rank as the #1 defensive team in the Summit League:

(conference stats)

PPG:    85.7  (2nd)   opponents:   72.4  (3rd)

FG%:    48.1% (2nd)  opponents:  41.0%  (1st)

3pt%:   39.9% (2nd)   opponents:  27.7%  (1st)

3pt attempts:  31.1  (1st)

Assists:   12.1   (5th)

Turnovers:  11.1  (6th)

Rebounds:   40.7   (1st)

Reb Margin:   +7.7

 

I thought that UMKC would show low opponent FG% and 3pt% - but they allow 48.2% FG% (8th) and 38.2% from 3pt (9th). I think we affected these figures with our shooting performance against them. Their rebounding margin is -11.2

Statistically, the other two comparable defensive teams per conference stats are SDSU:  the allow 44.5% FG%  (2nd) and 36.6% from 3pt (6th) with a rebounding margin of +6.3 and NDSU: they allow 46.3% FG%  (10th) and 29.6% from 3pt  (2nd) with a +3.2 rebounding margin.

Surprisingly, Western Illinois has a negative 1.5 rebounding margin - but a +3.3 offensive rebounding margin.... that looks weird.

[theeagleman5]

The University of North Dakota is a fine academic institution with a long history of athletic excellence...unfortunately, they won't be playing Ice Hockey at Mabee Center tomorrow night....TheEagleman is going to virtually assure everyone on this board that this game will feature total dominance by a hungry and well rested ORU squad....depending on how quickly Coach Mills empties his bench I think there is a chance that Max could go for a season high.....but again, he may play less than his usual 38 minutes......the Golden Eagles will score a lot of points......thinking 100 is very possible.......ORU 104  UND 76.....GO BLUE!!! 

[theeagleman5]

Fighting Hawks in for a world of trouble tomorrow night......   VS. 

[ORUTex]

ORU is an early 21 point favorite, the biggest spread in that direction that I can recall. ESPN gives the good guys a 98.6% chance of winning.  https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/game/_/gameId/401365672

[theeagleman5]

ORU-21....wow! TheEagleman gives the Good Guys a 100% chance of winning.