12/28 @ sdsu

[HerdBoy]

[steelbison]

Great game by Paul Miller 21-10-6 That is the type of leadership we need from him. Glad he has turned it around after a cold start this year. This team has a lot of talent. What we need is to figure out how to start the game better, and avoid the long dry spells on offense.

Love all three freshman! As the season goes on who knows how their roles will be defined. Interesting problem to have!

[THEsocalledfan]

Exactly, also I did like the fact we did not double Daum a lot in the first half. We could have had a ton of fouls at halftime by doing that. Lack of fouls on our part allowed us to double Daum more in the second half. At the end of the day adjustments we done and executed and we are 1-0 in conference play. Nice spot to be in.
PS we also made "just" enough free throws at the end of the game to hold them off. Still do not understand why we shoot them so poorly.

Not just that, but the lack of attacking the pointed zone when you are struggling with shooting was hard for me to understand. Coach R (not even going try to spell it) needs to make adjustments quicker against good teams. That was NOT a good team. he still has my faith due to the second half adjustments, but I found the first half very difficult to understand AJ, or no AJ.

One last thing, when Deng figures out how good he can be, look out. (I STILL don't understand how this kid is at NDSU; I mean I get it, but man, we are soooo lucky; like Daum at SDSU) I really think they need to keep him and Dex on the floor together more often. I really think Deng is an athletic power forward and he creates a big problem for teams trying to play one big. Those dunks he had were huge and shows this kid can play inside.

[NDSUstudent]

What is going on with SDSU? We have Bison fans ripping on Richman but at least he made the necessary adjustments to turn things around, SDSU just did the same thing with their garbage zone defense. There are Summit teams that shoot a lot better from three then we do, IPFW is going to torch them if they don't make some changes.

They shelled out decent money for that coach, for what they paid you would think he would be able to teach a team how to play man defense.

[Snowgoose]

What is going on with SDSU? We have Bison fans ripping on Richman but at least he made the necessary adjustments to turn things around, SDSU just did the same thing with their garbage zone defense. There are Summit teams that shoot a lot better from three then we do, IPFW is going to torch them if they don't make some changes.

They shelled out decent money for that coach, for what they paid you would think he would be able to to teach a team how to play man defense.

Agreed. Sdsu would have been better off trying to get Billiter away from augustsna as he is a great coach and I would take him back any day of the week.

[THEsocalledfan]

What is going on with SDSU? We have Bison fans ripping on Richman but at least he made the necessary adjustments to turn things around, SDSU just did the same thing with their garbage zone defense. There are Summit teams that shoot a lot better from three then we do, IPFW is going to torch them if they don't make some changes.

They shelled out decent money for that coach, for what they paid you would think he would be able to to teach a team how to play man defense.

Agreed. After I forgave Coach R last night, I blasted the SDSU coach for the same reason; lack of adjustment. He needed to man up at some point. You can read the Argus today and read his response when asked. Basically, he said they are committed to zone and need to impose their will.....

[NDSUstudent]

Agreed. After I forgave Coach R last night, I blasted the SDSU coach for the same reason; lack of adjustment. He needed to man up at some point. You can read the Argus today and read his response when asked. Basically, he said they are committed to zone and need to impose their will.....

I don't get it, then again I am not a big fan of the zone outside of a change of pace type of defense. Going to be interesting to see what happens on Saturday against USD, back to back losses to rivals at home would create a lot of upset Rabbit fans.

[THEsocalledfan]

I don't get it, then again I am not a big fan of the zone outside of a change of pace type of defense. Going to be interesting to see what happens on Saturday against USD, back to back losses to rivals at home would create a lot of upset Rabbit fans.

My favorite comment from the Midco color guy last night is when SDSU opened in a triangle and two (and for the love of God, if in a triangle and two ever again, you need to race Dex onto the court; center's dream defense), he called it a "junk defense" which it very much is.

[Professor Chaos]

I don't get it, then again I am not a big fan of the zone outside of a change of pace type of defense. Going to be interesting to see what happens on Saturday against USD, back to back losses to rivals at home would create a lot of upset Rabbit fans.

I'm a big fan of mixing up defenses. The complaint SDSU fans have about Otzelberger's love of the zone is the same complaint I always had about Saul when he refused to play anything but man-to-man. Zone defenses have their place. They're effective when you're playing a team with a dominant big man or a team that struggles to shoot from the outside but they can be shredded by penetration, good shooting, or good offensive rebounding (unless you're a team like Baylor or Syracuse that has their choice of 8 different 6'7"+ long-armed athletic freaks to throw out there).

I've never understood why coaches aren't more willing to mix up defenses, it's a great way to throw offenses off rhythm.

[Mr Meaty]

He was complaining about the Daum foul late in the game on Dex. Dex might have acted a bit on it but Daum was a moving screen on all those pick and rolls they tried to run. Daum is a good player but as a whole I thought their team looked tired for playing nothing but zone defense all night.