North Dakota State (Game film)?

[mgadfly]

Anyone know if there is a place to view one of their previous games online?

I watched one game for a few minutes and wasn't really paying attention. I'd love to take another look.

On first glance (statistically):

The case for North Dakota:

They shorten games with an average possession length of over 20 seconds (334th tempo nationally). Shorter games mean a greater chance of an upset.

They have a scorer that can get hot from the perimeter. Lawrence Alexander hits 45% of his three pointers, plays more minutes than anyone in the country, and they have a couple other guys who can get hot from outside as well. As a team, they are the 44th best three point shooting team. This is important because they are 288th inside the arc. Can Gary Bell slow down Alexander (I wish I could see him play to see how his style compares to Haws').

They don't turn the ball over. 17th nationally.

So they should be able to slow things down and if they get hot use the three pointer to fuel a run at an upset.


The case against North Dakota State:

The elephant in the room is the size disparity. What fans of NDSU may not realize is how talented the size is on the GU roster. They have one player (who actually gets minutes) over 6'8". They are 322nd nationally in effective height compared to our 3rd ranked effective height. Wiltjer has pretty much had his way with smaller defenders this season. If Karnowski draws fouls and demands attention inside like he did in the conference tournament they'll spend most of the game with a 6'6" manning the middle of a zone defense (which Sabonis will eat alive). Which brings me to the real problem ...

3 Point shooting. With such a height disparity and depth issue they'll be tempted to run a zone. While GU doesn't rely on three pointers, we are 8th nationally in 3 point field goal percentage and have done well rebounding and getting second chance points against zone defenses this year.

Finally, the Bison are very young while GU is very experienced. With good three point shooting and a slow tempo anythings possible, but I'd hate this draw if I was a team with an effective height of 322nd nationally.

At least on paper. I'd really like to see a game of them though.

[Zagdawg]

Noticed the last few games --North Dakota State only runs 7 deep-- with our depth --they may be a bit tired come 2nd half of the game (especially trying to slow our bigs).

[Zagger]

Just looked on CBS's Bracket ap and they have GU playing New Mexico State (unless I'm cross-eyed).
Edited - appears I'm looking at someone else's projection before the bracket was announced. Not a very user friendly ap (IMHO).

[OZZY]

Had a quick look at the Bison's team.

As has been mentioned, other than senior guard Lawrence Alexander (LA) they are a very young team with a 6'6" freshman A/J Jacobson (local ND lad) second in scoring and shooting at a decent clip from the deep (over 40%) and the free throw line (over 80%). Looks like a player that a combination of Wesley and Dranginis will be assigned cover.

They can't but really struggle with our height.....and if they do swarm it will leave KP, GBJ and Wiltjer wide open for threes.

I think our guards experience and calmness in big games will lead us to victory, but this will be an interesting game and, as has been said elsewhere, limited possessions and a good three point day by NDS could make it closer than we would like.

In saying all that, as has been pointed out, the only decent teams they have played (albeit at the beginning of the year) are Texas and Iowa, loosing both by more than 30 points....

Go Zags!

[caduceus]

source: statsheet.com

[sittingon50]

Dontmiss makes 10 layups.

[KStyles]

Anyone know if there is a place to view one of their previous games online?

Looks like 2 games are available on WatchESPN.