@NDSU

[kiyoat]

For the women, they play in Fargo Thursday, followed by the big Jacks game at home on Saturday.  Short turnaround likely means they will be spending more time working on State than State...  you know what I mean.

Thursday, Jan 16 - 7PM Fargo

Live TV from: MIDCOSN2, ESPN3
Live radio from: KVHT 106.3
LIVE STATS LINK

The Bison are 3-12(0-3), with wins over (4-12) New Hampshire, and NAIA teams Mayville State, and Waldorf.  They are not very good, but new coach Jory Collins seems to be doing a lot with less talent, they staged a near-comeback against ORU in the last game.  Collins should be given a chance to recruit his own players, and I think he will.  In the meantime, this should be an imminently winnable game.  I'm hoping to see our bench get some more minutes.

Massey has us winning 82-59.
Warren Nolan has us winning 84-64.

[Yotes]

NDSU has been garbage over the years, and yet we have had trouble with them way too many times. Don't know what it is. Set the tone against their new head coach and crush them.

[kiyoat]

[kiyoat]

Here's a couple of stats from the GoYotes.com article that I found interesting (and it saves me from doing the research myself):

Emily Dietz and Michelle Gaislerova are both averaging just shy of 14 points each to pace the Bison. One area that NDSU has dramatically improved this season is in not turning the ball over. NDSU was seventh in the league for turnovers last year. This season, they rank second behind USD with 15 per game.

Ok, so I looked it up and this isn't accurate.  NDSU is third in the league, committing 15.3 TOs a game.  USD is first with 12.7  In just conference play they are also third with 13.0.  Could be from less updated numbers...Alright, fine.  I'll just do a stats post.....

[kiyoat]

Here's a stats comparison between NDSU and USD.  The idea is that I'll fill in the blanks after the game.

stat	NDSU	vs USD	--	USD	vs NDSU
points	68.3			81.6
FG%	40.7			48.4
3PT%	27.7			40.2
FT%	71.4			74.8
#3PT	5.9			8.8
REB	39.9			36.6
OREB	12.2			10.5
AST	12.1			17.2
TO	15.3			12.7
A/TO	0.79			1.35
STL	6.6			8.9
BLK	2.0			4.2
FOUL	18.7			16.6
D POINTS	69.9			61.1
D FG%	40.9			38.7
D 3PT%	33.8			30.6
D #3PT	7.1			6.9
R MARJ	+2.6			+5.8
TO FORCED	14.4			18.2
TO MARJ	-0.9			+5.5

will keep working on...

[kiyoat]

So it looks like our offensive rebounding is sub-par. 2nd lowest in the league. Our conference-only numbers there are better, 4th in the league (12.8). I think I remember Coach P talking about trying to improve in that stat in the past. I'm sure it's a lot easier to focus on that kind of thing when you are doing everything else very well. Like a perfectionist kind-of thing.

Offensive rebounds are interesting. When you totally sell-out for O boards, you essentially make yourself vulnerable to the fast break, and transition offense in general. So it is a tricky thing. In the NBA you don't see a lot of offensive rebounding anymore. It's a balancing act.

I don't watch a lot of "film", meaning I only will watch a game once, live, and not stopping the feed to examine things. However, one thing that is really interesting is an NCAA basketball team's twitter feed.

Often there are highlight clips posted. Highlights are almost always scoring clips, so if you look closely you will see how a team reacts immediately following a made shot.

I happened to notice that in the SDSU clips, Riley CJ, and sometimes one of the other guards will start backpedaling as soon as a shot is put up. Very proactive as a PG, to prevent a fast break.

With USD it is different. only the players directly around the basket stick around. All of the perimeter players very quickly get back in transition. Not as quickly as RCJ, but it is most of the team sprinting down-court. I think they are sacrificing O Boards to have a better transition defense. With SDSU they are still trying to have a good prevent defense, but committing less players. I'm not saying one or the other is better. Just different.

*disclaimer: I haven't seen enough different teams to really make the inferences that I do, but what the hell.  It's a fan board.

[kiyoat]

^ the above could be one of the reasons we did so well stuffing Denver's offense. They are a team that likes scoring in transition. Also individual play defensively.

[Yotes]

53-11 at half. Are there any concession stand workers who need minutes in this one?

[kiyoat]

Total domination. Monica on fire from the arc. McKeever is so good on defense. Just smothers the ball.

[coyote70]

Where the heck is LakeBison on this thread? He seems to pop up with some insights whenever we play NDSU. Maybe he'll come up with some post-game thoughts/analysis. I was looking forward to it. Well, maybe next time...

[kiyoat]

Re-watching the game, Duffy is so smooth on offense, she just makes it look easy. Just a quick little mid-range jumper, hook shots with either hand, layups, post-ups, and suddenly you look at the stat sheet and she's in double figures.

She doesn't play violently. She has a kind of quiet confidence. A cerebral player. A point guard in a forward's body.