North Dakota

[Eaglefan 21]

19 hours ago, Old Titan said:

Interesting ranking of coaches in their first year at the D1 level.

Thoughts on the grade given HCRS?

 

I think it’s a reasonable grade. He should be able to put together a .500 record minimum, much better than Mills first year. Speaking of Mills, I remember Springmann talking about how he would run the program very similar to how things had been run under Mills and I think that needs to change. ORU has not been a good defensive team in a decade. Sure, last year was an outlier but it was based on personnel, not game plan…just my opinion. We had these complains every year during Mills tenure, I just don’t think defense was emphasized as strongly as it had been in the past.

The rebounding and play from our BIGS is maddening. We have 2 out of the 3 (William Kyle III SDSU) most athletic bigs in the conference and we cannot control the glass. Our guys should be absolutely dominant under the rim. Opposing teams bigs should be so exhausted from battling our guys that they don’t have the energy to shoot 3’s, haha. 
 

I still believe in this team, we have several players who know how to win, they’ve been the distance. The league is as open as it has ever been. Let’s turn things around and hopefully dance again in March.

[ORUTerry]

We were outrebounded 41 to 24 by North Dakota; 15 to 6 in offensive rebounds. That and free throws seemed to be the determining factors. Our 4 post players grabbed only 5 rebounds. Weaver played 23 minutes and did not pull down a rebound. Not sure what is happening but we have to change our approach (personnel?) to rebounding. 

[eagle88]

17 minutes ago, ORUTerry said:

We were outrebounded 41 to 24 by North Dakota; 15 to 6 in offensive rebounds. That and free throws seemed to be the determining factors. Our 4 post players grabbed only 5 rebounds. Weaver played 23 minutes and did not pull down a rebound. Not sure what is happening but we have to change our approach (personnel?) to rebounding. 

I can’t imagine that Springman isn’t trying to fix these issues. This is why I started the thread about looking ahead to next year. As positive as I want to be if these major issues have not changed this late in the season we probably don’t have a dog in the fight! Either these younger players will need to listen, learn and work harder or Springman better be leaning hard on the portal.

[Idig32]

I still believe in this team as well. The easiest and fastest way to get better is to have more effort. We have good shooters and solid bigs. As much as the offensive system is lacking in movement at times, our offense isn’t really all that bad. We barely turn the ball over (9.2 per game is 1st in the Summit, 6th nationally) and we shoot an effective field goal percentage of 52.5% (fourth in the Summit, 120th nationally). Our scoring of 75.8ppg is 3rd best in the Summit League, 158th nationally. NDSU and SDSU are 78.3ppg and 77.1ppg respectively. While the offense isn’t at the level it probably could be, it’s good enough to win a lot of games in the Summit. 
 

Defense could be the problem. However, our opponents are only shooting 43.45%, so it’s not all that bad. With our good shooting and the fact that we barely turn the ball over, we should be able to win most games. The issue is rebounding, as has been mentioned elsewhere. We get out-rebounded on average by 7 rebounds per game. Those 7 extra shots are a big reason teams are able to beat us, despite most teams being worst shooting teams.
 

So, how do we fix the rebounding? Here’s what I think. Rebounding, in theory, is an easy problem to fix. It’s mostly an effort thing, right? But it’s also about mental focus. Size obviously plays a role as well, but we have enough size on the floor most of the time that it shouldn’t be causing us to give up offensive rebounds. The mental focus side of things is the most important I think. I don’t think any of our players are afraid of playing with extreme effort. However, making your body put out the effort to make sure your team gets every possible rebound takes a completely locked in mindset. If you play with this mindset long enough it should become a habit. Then, rebounding isn’t quite as hard. I think this is why some teams are so good at rebounding year after year. The coaches have built a culture where rebounding is almost second nature.
 

Since our team obviously hasn’t built the proper habits yet, or developed the right mindset, it will take the team several games probably before it becomes a habit. On every shot, every player will have to make sure they are mentally locked in enough to make the effort. They will have to do this on every possession of each game. It will be a grind. The coaches will have to be disciplined as well to make sure they’re holding guys accountable for any lack of effort on rebounds. Also, I think the coaches should be emphasizing it so much in practice that they don’t practice other things. For example, it’s pointless to practice how they want to cover screens or contest threes if the other team is going to just grab the offensive rebound half the time anyways. 

[dave]

Agree with your points. It is just maddening that we even have to talk about such things as basic as blocking out. I know most of these players probably didn't need to worry about it in high school because they dominated their opposition. But hey, it is still a basic skill that absolutely every player can and must do. Everytime!