KenPom's #245 team, North Dakota, comes in for a back to back starting with this Thursday matinee. The Fighting Hawks, out of Grand Fork, are still relatively new to Division 1 Basketball. Their first year was in 2010 and they made the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 2017 as a 15 seed where they lost to Arizona. They fired head coach Brian Jones after 2018-19 and hired Paul Sather out of Division II Northern State. The Fighting Hawks went 15-18 last season and won a game at Nebraska but lost best player Marlon Stewart to graduation. The Fighting Hawks were picked 6th out of 9 in the preseason Summit League poll.
The Fighting Hawks are 67th in the country in steal % but also turn the ball over a lot themselves. North Dakota's best player so far this season has been 6'9 Junior Forward Filip Rebraca from Serbia. Rebraca was on the All-Summit League First Team in the preseason and is averaging nearly 20 points per game in the 6 games they've played and is 7-13 from 3 (69th in the country). He's 192th in the country in eFG% (effective field goal percentage) and 225th in the country in TS% (true shooting percentage). He's been an extremely good shooter this year and gets the majority of North Dakota's shots and possessions.
Besides Rebraca, North Dakota has 6'9 Junior forward Mitchell Sueker who could give SIU problems on the boards as he's 188th in the country in offensive rebounding %. 6'3 Junior Ethan Igbanugo has been very good off the bench from 3 for them. He's 7-15 from 3 this year, good for 186th in the country.
They also have a few interesting guards in Sophomore Weber State transfer Caleb Nero, who is averaging over 10 PPG and 6'4 Freshman Tyree Ihenacho whose been very good rebounding so far for a guard.
Betting:
SIU favored by 7
Links
Rodney Watson interview with North Dakota head coach Paul Sather
Mike Reis interview with Trent Brown
Mike Reis Interview with Kyler Filewich
Great info, thanks. It looks like they have played everyone close with no blowouts so even though their record isn't great it looks like they may be a real good challenge to help our continued learning progress. Right now the more minutes everyone gets the better.
I watched the South Dakota State game and North Dakota gave them a battle. Should be a good battle, fun to watch and hopefully come out victorious.
Great info, thanks. It looks like they have played everyone close with no blowouts so even though their record isn't great it looks like they may be a real good challenge to help our continued learning progress. Right now the more minutes everyone gets the better.
They had an 11 point lead on Minnesota early in the first half and were battling with them basically until the last 5 minutes. Seems like a team that fights in all their games but doesn't have the talent to make up for it in the end.
Great interviews with Kyler and Trent.
"First you build the culture".
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Looking forward to watching the next two games, my first ones of the season ... was bummed that I missed the big win vs. Murray.
Go Dawgs!
Proud Saluki, living and working in Kansas State territory. 🤔
Some really good questions...and some great answers. Love to listen to him....a true winner for sure.
SIU opening up as -350, 7 point favorites for tomorrow from BetMGM
Likely North Dakota starting lineup will be
F-Rebraca and Sueker(both 6'9 JRs; averaging 19.7 and 7.5 PPG/6.5 and 4.8 REB)
G-Sims(6'7 JR; 6 PPG/5.2 REB), Ihenacho(6'4 FR; 8.2 PPG/6 REB/3.8 AST), Nero(6'2 SO; 11.2 PPG/2.2 REV/2.8 AST).
Hey the game is actually on ESPN streak for the cash.
Used to play that game and that's usually not a good sign for the favorite 😐
Great info, thanks. It looks like they have played everyone close with no blowouts so even though their record isn't great it looks like they may be a real good challenge to help our continued learning progress. Right now the more minutes everyone gets the better.
They had an 11 point lead on Minnesota early in the first half and were battling with them basically until the last 5 minutes. Seems like a team that fights in all their games but doesn't have the talent to make up for it in the end.
End game comes down to Conditioning, depth and coaching,
Ability to get a lead it talent, maintain a lead is coaching strategy,
Loosing a game less than 5 points, is all about coaching, Lowery and Hinson couldn't win but 1 out of every 10 games within 5 points in the last 3 minutes.
Having a set play like Darren Brooks and Sly had with "home run" (inbound long pass to a dunk) or Lincoln Trail used called "Sore Loser" (inbound play was a baseball pass to hot 3 point shooter on his spot, funny to hear coach holler "Sore Loser" as opponent started fouling to extend the game watching the 3 point play with less than 3 seconds running off the clock)
