The North Dakota Men’s Basketball team began their 22-23 Basketball on a road trip to San Antonio and Omaha. They took on Incarate Word to start the season on Monday and last night took on Creighton, a potential final 4 team. UND came away with a win against Incarate Word and then a loss to the Bluejays.
Monday: UND 65, Incarate Word 57
Thursday: Creighton 96, UND 61
Overview for the Week
-The defense has gotten better. Its hard to measure this against Creighton, but you could see in the Incarate Word game that the improvement was there. There was more intensity, espeically on the perimeter. They held UIW to 36% shooting and 15% from 3. Now, you can argue the opponent, expect that even against d1 opponents last year, they never got these types of results.
-UND needs to avoid what happened when they went up 60-50, on UIW they turned the ball over 4 straight times and nearly lost the game. If not for Omot (more on him below), they might have.
-While the first half got away from them, the 2nd half, particically from the offensive side of things, was much better. Shooting 60% from the floor and 70% from 3 was a nice half. Lets see if they can build off of that.
-It was really hard to get a lot of the Creighton game but one of the things was the 2nd half performance of Tsotne Tsartsidze. He scored all 16 of his points in the 2nd half. How he did it was interesting, he hit 4 3s. Last year, he only hit 1 3. The staff has been talking highly of T’s improvement and it was good to see that come through in the 2nd half. While he didn’t score as much against UIW, he grabbed 8 rebounds and made a key defensive stop at the end of the game to seal the win.
-BJ Omot is making noise early has a freshman, he is really showing why he is on a shortlist for freshman player of the year in the Summit. Against Incarnate Word, when the Cardinals were beginning to rally off of 4 straight UND turnovers, Omot took the game over on both ends by getting to the free throw line and made the defensive play of the game by blocking a Krause backdoor layup, getting the rebound, and made a free throw. It helped stemmed the tied and lead UND to a win. You can tell that he wants to be the guy and has all the skills to do so. Just needs more reps.
-While Omot and Eaglestaff got more of the publicity, you cannot underestimate the impact that Elijah Brooks has made for this year. He has done well on the perimeter defense and rebounding and is not afraid to attack the basket. He also had 3 blocks against UIW. If there is one concern, he hasn’t tried a 3 yet. If he can hit that shot enough, that will really open his game.
-Jalun Trent is as advertised on the defensive side of the ball. He is going to be annoying to the best guards in the Summit League. He definietly plays with an edge that UND has needed for a while. The offense side hasn’t come yet, but he definitely has flashed that skills from time to time. Against UIW, he dropped 6 assists off of the bench.
-Matt Norman helped UND off of the bench, giving them a much needed punch against UIW, scoring 14 points, including 3-7 from 3. He also hit 2 3’s against Creighton. This is the role that UND needs him to play, being able to stretch the floor for UND. Now, also in the UIW he grabbed 5 rebounds but also had those two killer turnovers towards the end of the game. Need to avoid that going forward.
-It is good to have Mitchell Sueker back on the floor but it has been a struggle for him right now. Was saddled with foul trouble in the Incarnate Word game and Creighton was a bad game. Getting him going is going to be important with his work on the inside and the ability to hit the 3 from the outside.
-Brady Danielson continues to do Brady Danielson things, he had the moment in the Incarate Word game after Omot missed a free throw, to corrall the rebound, make the shot, get fouled and completed the 3 point play to bascially seal the deal.
-Treysen Eaglstaff has had some nice moments in his two games. While the offense hasn’t come for him yet, he dropped 4 assists in the Creighton game and ran the point with the 2nd unit. Having his size at the point guard is going to be a nice asset going forward.
Overall, it was about as expected for the team. They got a split on the road. The rest of the month is going to be a great measuring stick test to see where this program is at. There are some games coming up that if UND can continue to play improved defense and get the offense to come around, they can win.
The team returns home tomorrow night to take on a Pacific squad who just took down NDSU 91-86. With some new transfers from Power 5 schools, it will be another tough test for UND.