I have some concerns as well. Mine are as basic as "coaching". There does not seem to be many "in half" adjustments made. Looked to me that our goal was to get to halftime and then make adjustments. Basketball moves to fast to sit around until halftime without changing it up if it is not working. This also falls on the players to adjust during the game as well. Are they not able to be instructed while being subbed out or during a timeout. The team to mean seemed to play scared last year. AJ just needs to get out of his own head and shot the ball and play the defense he can. His defense last year was better and not making as dumb fouls and sitting on the bench as before. P-Smooth just take over the game and do it. Now for the rest of the team. Deng just needs to "slow" down a bit. He seems to rush to much and just let the game come to you. Ward will be good and made freshman mistakes last year, no more of them this year. Eliason will need to show improvement with more minutes this year, if not write him off. That same thing kind of goes for D. Miller as well. Maybe Hunter can be the guy that rallies this team from the point and makes it all work. Fingers crossed. The young guys coming in, time will tell.
But yes I do as many other do have concerns with MBB. Now that being said I have more concerns on the WBB side. Make or break year coming for Walseth. Need to show improvement on the court and on the bench with her and her staff.
"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.
News flash ... North Dakota State SHOULD contend every year for a Summit league championship. They've got great facilities, great fan support, they do not contend with hockey, they have the ability to positively leverage the Fball team, athletic budget is one of the best in the conference, they have stability, they have history behind them.
They should be contending ... and frankly over the last few years Richman's teams have done just that ... contended.
But the team is truly becoming his ... the recruits are his, the coaches are his ... and frankly in my eyes there are storm clouds in the horizon. Khy leaving seems symptomatic of a bigger issue. Why does a front line 2-year starter since his freshman year leave? Deng Gue ... arguably the most athletic player seems under-utilized. There are other concerns - each one in and of itself probably dismiss-able and explainable. It doesn't take too long before those storm clouds to gather and become indicative of a larger problem.
I think it's mostly symptomatic of the team taking a big steamy dump at midcourt of the Premier Center for their SL Tourney opener when they've overachieved there in every previous year under Richman. That game left a bad taste in everyone's mouth and that's when the "issues" are focused on the most. Just take a look at this thread (which had to be locked it got so bad) from the early stages of the most successful season in NDSU men's basketball history. A lot of "bad things are on the horizon for this team" posts. It happens.
All that said I think it's perfectly fine to voice concerns but it's also perfectly fine to point out the faults in those concerns. Remember, after the NCAA run in 2009 Saul's teams had 3 straight first round exits in the SL Tourney. I think after the last few years we get caught up in placing the same expectations on the men's basketball team that we put on the football team but Richman's program doesn't have the rock solid foundation that Klieman's program has... not even close. You can tout our facilities and all but most of these current players were recruited when the team was in the pile known as the old BSA or lifting weights in a closed supermarket playing their games 10 miles from campus.
This year is a big year for Richman but what year isn't? If he wins 60%+ of his games again we'll be just fine. Let's just hope they avoid another stinkbomb being dropped in Sioux Falls.
"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.
As long as they take care of business in Sioux Falls I'll deal with regular season lapses. They lost 4 of their last 6 going into the 2015-16 tourney and then made the title game as a #4 seed. That's the double edged sword of championship week. Make it to Tuesday night to play for a shot at the dance and disappointment in the regular season is forgiven. Get bounced in the first round after winning 70% of your regular season conference games and it's like the regular season never even happened.
I don't have much to say considering I thought Otzelberger was killing us last year in that zone, but it looks like he might be turning it around. We'll see. From an outsider, Richman reminds me of Nagy because he's a super boring dude with zero personality. No way he's as full of himself as Nagy was though. Richman is probably a good coach but doesn't seem like he can relate to players at all.
You guys should have hired Craig Smith when Saul left. Not sure where Craig was at that time.
Hard to follow the personalities of Saul and Tim. Dave is not as bubbly and that is fine. He needs to stop the slides though and get the best out of the players. Besides Dex the players just looked last year like they had no emotion. They looked scared to take charge and win. Looked like a bunch of individuals playing a team game.