Saul's "Please believe me, this team is really good!" speech

[unbison]

1000% BS Mike Nelson worked harder than anyone ever on D and without the ball on O ask anyone on the coaching staffs.

Tveidt learned how to move without the ball from Mike Nelson. Nelson was the teams energizer bunny and made the offense flow.

I will just agree to disagree ........ as far as coaches have you spoke with them on this matter?...... but really we arguing about who works harder between 2 hard working fools

[99Bison]

I will just agree to disagree ........ as far as coaches have you spoke with them on this matter?...... but really we arguing about who works harder between 2 hard working fools

Actually... most of the coaches yes, and they are the ones that brought it up. Saying anyone works hard the Nelson seemed like a slap to Nelson, hence why I mentioned it.

Anyway yes both are/were hard working :-)

[bisonmike2]

I guess then the thing that Tim (and later Saul) failed to see was what happens AFTER these seniors, Woody, Nelly, Moorman, Winks, take us to the Dance?? I'm not saying they would have been able to reload right away, but I gotta tell you, it has been a DIFFICULT 18 months for this program.

We need to get an NBA prospect one of these days. Tap that Twin Cities pipeline, I keep saying. but apparently the people recruiting don't seem to listen. Instead it's the best player out of Class A Minnesota ball from West Bumfuck Traverse County, rather than the #2 or 3 guy for a championship-calibre Hopkins, Mpls. Henry or Minnetonka team, for example.

Hey! West Bumfuck was pretty solid last year and could compete with anybody in the Twin Cities!

[unbison]

And we got a Hopkins kid on the football team

[SDbison]

So what will Saul have to say after tonights demise...........?

[TheBisonator]

So what will Saul have to say after tonights demise...........?

"This team has crazy speed"- Oh wait.

[99Bison]

So what will Saul have to say after tonights demise...........?

That he was very deflated, there's no doubt about it. Disappointed we didn't make FT's and enough plays down the stretch. Complimented their two SR guards makings several very tough shots in the second half and their 5-6 3's in second 9-13 overall.

Also said he is tired of saying we can compete with anyone in the league because the point is to actually beat anyone in the league, not just compete.

Not going to get any sleep tonight, again... Then time to pick up and prepare for Oakland.

[1998braves64]

I brought a friend along with the IPFW game, he enjoys basketball but not really big into NDSU at all, he hardly knew how good NDSU was in 2009 etc if it wasn't for me telling him all about it. Anyways he was somewhat impressed with the 1st half, He was getting bored so I was kind of like maybe should leave as it looks like NDSU was going to blow out IPFW. Didn't though and man was it ever disgusting. With about 5-6 minutes I think IPFW was only down by 6-8 points and I'm like what in the world, I hadn't really been paying overly a lot of attention to the score as I was talking to my buddy as it was kind of a boring game (IMO) until I realized NDSU was only up by a few points.

Anyways my buddy's comments were it is almost all coaching at that point, NDSU obviously had the talent to go up by 18 at half, they have to have the "killer instinct" to finish it off and it's up to the coach to keep them focused on that goal and I agree. Now I will give Saul a pass due to the fact that college teams dynamics are so fluid due to the turnover every year different personalities talents coming in, it has to be tough trying to figure out what works and what doesn't year in and year out.

I think we all agree there are some talented kids on this team that could put up a lot of points (we had I think 5 players in double digits halfway through the 2nd half I believe?) but some reason they can't keep their foot on the gas and it's up to the coach to make sure that happens. I think Saul's frustration showed when he benched Freddy after missing 2 FT late. And it wasn't like Freddy didn't know why he was coming off either! But one thing I didn't see was NDSU players driving late in the game when they had 3 players with 4 fouls (most likely starters no?!) with about 3-4 minutes to go. You have to play aggressively to get those players to foul out do you not? It was like they didn't want to get them to foul you because they were afraid of shooting FTs and missing them so they didn't do that route!? You drive on those players they're more likely to foul out, and it turned out only one did with 10 secs to play and the game was pretty much out of reach at that point. And funny it was on a play which a player actually drove to the hoop!

I always thought part of bball strategy was driving to get a foul so that player cannot play aggressive defense due to foul trouble? Especially when they're sitting at 3-4 fouls for most of the 2nd half! Case in point it worked for my hometown team of Parshall in 2007 in their championship run in the semifinal game they played a team with a player with good height and inside game they specifically put in just a big kid (who maybe scored 2 points in the 20 minutes he played) to push him around (the Parshall kid fouled out before the 4th quarter but that was the point and they weren't hiding the fact) to wear him out and to draw fouls on him and he ended up fouling out before the game was over and helped Parshall win the game in my opinion, because he couldn't play his game. I've always wondered why a coach doesn't on occasion take a bench warmer in bball and employ this strategy (not for the whole game mind you) just to drive the ball aggressively (which will tend to draw a lot of O charges but if that's the game plan there isn't anything wrong with it!) to see if they can draw a foul on their better defenders or someone with a lot of fouls? Even if it's only 5-10 minutes of a game for a couple different people they have to substitute anyway!

I do not blame Saul for trying to point out good aspects in interviews he is sincere in the aspects he points out and they're usually true so it's not like he's lying or in denial. I just don't think the young players need to hear their coach berating them on a radio interview (or any player for that matter) save that for the locker room face to face, is much more effective, and I believe Saul is that type of coach, don't know though as I've never been in the locker room after a loss like IPFW's.