Today was the release of the long awaited conference schedule. Certainly an exciting time for both UND Mens and Womens basketball, realizing that the season is getting closer to getting started.
Lets talk about it, the schedules will be linked for both the men and the women with some games circled and then will give some overall thoughts.
First up the women
https://fightinghawks.com/sports/womens-basketball/schedule
Games to Circle
Season starts at home against St. Thomas on Monday December 19th
In-State Rivalry: @ NDSU December 31st and at home vs NDSU on January 28th.
Matchups with the defending WNIT Champions: @ SDSU January 7th and at home vs SDSU on February 2nd
Matchups with the defending Summit League and Sweet 16 Participant: @ USD January 5th and vs USD on February 4th
Season finishes in St. Paul vs St. Thomas on February 25th.
Now for the men:
https://fightinghawks.com/sports/mens-basketball/schedule
Games to Circle
-First game @ St. Thomas on Monday, December 19th.
-In-State Rivarly: vs NDSU December 30th and @ NDSU January 27th.
-Defending Summit League Champs: vs SDSU January 7th and at SDSU February 2nd
-Paul Bruns returns to Grand Forks on January 5th. The 2nd matchup happens later on February 4th in Vermillion.
-Max Abmas makes his last visit to Grand Forks on January 21st.
-UND finishes the season the way they start, taking on St. Thomas at home.
Overall Thoughts
-A reminder that with the inclusion of St. Thomas to the Summit League tournament, all 10 teams will be allowed to participate in Sioux Falls. The Tournament is a Friday-Tuesday format. The dates are March 3-7th. When the time comes, make sure you get tickets UND fans!
-Lets talk about the elephant in the room: Winter Break at UND goes from December 19th until January 9th. The three biggest games in the conference are NDSU, USD, and SDSU. UND Men get all their home games against their 3 biggest rivals… during winter break. How the Summit continutes to do this to the Dakota Schools, we will never know. It really isn’t that hard to figure out how to NOT schedule these games over that time frame.
-In the same breath, the women get the benefit of going to Fargo, Brookings, and Vermillion during that time. It does give them a bit of a break to visit those places with the students gone for break. Still,
-Mirror Scheduling: A simple tweak can make this work Summit League. Thursday-Saturday Men, Friday-Sunday Women, or can go the other way. Let not let the fan bases have to pick between the two squads.
-Interesting that UND will start and end the conference season playing the same team. Both the men and the women have an opportunity to get off to a great start in conference play before getting to the Dakota stretch of their schedule.
-If the women want to send a message that they can be a threat, look at this 5 game stretch in late January/early February
@ UMKC, @ ORU, NDSU, SDSU, USD.
Getting some big wins here can go along way to building momentum towards Sioux Falls and finishing towards the top of the Summit.
-If the men want to send a message that last year was a fluke, the first 5 games of the conference schedule can go a long way to sending that message.
@ UST, @ WIU, NDSU, USD, SDSU
We will have a breakdown of the non-conference for both teams once that comes out, alongside with a preview of both teams, in the weeks/months ahead.
In the meantime, enjoy the summer and the start of fall FB camps!