Now this is the law of the prairie
As old and as true as the sky
And the Bison that keep it will prosper
And the Bison that break it will die
As the creeper that girdles the tree trunk
This law is the final word:
For the strength of the Herd is the Bison
And the strength of the Bison is the Herd.
Leave it to NDSU fans to get stupid over losses every year. I remember reading multiple posts similar to the one in this thread about the football team after USD.
NDSU is a good team. This loss doesn't change that. They certainly need to know how to put games away but it doesn't make them a bad team with bad coaching. They are currently a very inexperienced team that has dealt with some unique adversity. They have 4 conference losses by a total of 16 points. I'm pretty sure they are fully aware of losing these games in the manner they are losing. There's 2 freshman and 2 sophomores in the starting lineup, that are learning how to carry a team
for 40 minutes game after game, and also having to finish games.
These issues were masked last year because we had a stud senior who played a position in which he dominated the ball. Brown is a stud senior who doesn't dominate the ball so it's left in the hands of the young guys that are learning and they are taking their lumps along the way, which is pretty much status quo in all of college basketball.
Do people not remember that when our 2nd round, Oklahoma beating, best Bison team in program history, run by a loaded senior class, went 9-9 in conference play when they were sophomores? Other teams are trying to win in conference too.
I think we are actually better than last year with Dupree. We have the exact same team as last year minus LA. He was one of my all time favorite players but this team should be better just based on returning players. It's basically the entire team returning. Unless of course last year everyone peaked, which I doubt happened. Well, maybe they didn't practice free throws this offseason
.
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Say what you want but they should not have been in that situation and part of it was coaching. You think it was a good coaching move to have our better FT shooters in bounding the ball to one of our worst in the final seconds??? I guess we will have to agree to disagree.
Most of the losses have come down to some of the same costly mistakes and they need to start learning from them. Dave and Paul admitted as much in their post game comments.
You tremendously underestimate what LA meant to this team last year. He led and would not let us give up 10-0 + runs. He had the ability shut that down with one trip down the court. We still lack that leader in our scorers. I thought Paul was going to do it and step up and he did mid season but he has faded away during the opposing teams late game runs. We looked lost when they through the zone against us. KHY tried to stop it from 7 min to 5 min but missed jumper, 3pointer and 2 missed free throws. Dex tried the last few minutes but missed jumper, missed layup and missed 3 of 4 from the line.
Against IPFW we didn't score from 7min to 1 1/2 minutes left.
USD we went for 5 minutes without scoring from that same time range 91/2 to 5 minutes. We luckily pulled out that game
We have pattern of from 10 minutes to 3-5 minutes left in the game of our game disappearing. I don't know if it is conditioning or getting complacent or what but we need to figure out that time frame in a game.
Someone needs to stand up and knock down the shots, or coaching needs to throw some different when they see it happening.
SDSU we scored 2 free throws from about 12 minutes to 5 1/2 minutes left.
Western Illinois from about 11 min to about 5 minutes we scored 6 points.
Ok so then my follow up question is, Did we call a time out during either of those times to discuss/change or improve what we were doing? I know coaches tend to "allow" teams to work through things. But going 5-6-7 minutes without meaningful points is not acceptable.
AJ needs to pickup his game. Over the last 4 games he has like 30 total points. Not acceptable. Don't tell me he is only a sophomore because so is P Smooth and he is scoring.
"Sometimes a concept is baffling not because it is profound but because it is wrong" E. O. Wilson
"I'm not crazy my mother had me tested". Sheldon Cooper
My boss hates it when I shorten his name to Dick, mainly because his name is Steven.
Coaches get criticized for decisions they make or don't make all the time. It happens with the blue blood programs incessantly. Hell it happens with Saban at Alabama who's arguably the G.O.A.T. Belichek's decisions against Denver could have costed them a SuperBowl, and he's still the G.O.A.T. It isn't a foolproof system. Richmond isn't going to make the perfect decision all the time that will result in wins. It doesn't work like that. All a coach can do is look forward and keep trying to make the team/program better. Great thing our coach is one who seems to be good at that.
Been avoiding this thread til now, its about what I expected. Frustrating loss for sure. We build a 10 point lead then take quick shots and turn it over the lead to direct points. This team always seems to make it difficult this season. Just need to be smarter and stay the course and build on the leads.
IUPUI may be 10-13 but they played a very tough non-conference and currently tied for first in the conference. They have defeated solid teams, credit to them. They certainly have improved and their Coach has done a nice job.
We currently sit 4-4, 3 of those losses have been on the road and very tight games. Omaha is the only team that has really controlled us. Unfortuantely this loss will likely prevent us from getting a 1 or 2 seed but I gurantee not many teams will want to play us is Sioux Falls. We need to improve in areas and go into the tournament playing our best ball.
This loss definately does sting.
The under 8 time out is happening right around these times. It is perplexing, If I remember right a few years ago with Brown and team this happened a lot in the first half from about 10min to 2 min.
Now you take this team which is younger and compare it to the Woodside as JR. team of 07-08 when they also had a hard time on the road in conference. They are not doing to bad. Road conference wins are tough to come by and you can see them happen more and more as the team matures but they are usually one of the last things to come around.