Back from the bunker tonight with thoughts on the NDSU hoops weekend in Indianapolis and Macomb, dealing with the 1st conference loss of the season and some potential BracketBuster matchups that could be really intriguing, the games will be announced next Monday, 13 of the games will be televised on the ESPN networks. Also some thoughts on Gus Bradley, his staff and some football updates. Enjoy!
Dom, is this the last year of the Bracket Buster? I thought I read somewhere that the NCAA was discontinuing the games. I guess it probably places too much emphasis on teams the networks aren’t really interested in.
I’m happy for Gus Bradley and I hope he does well. Jacksonville’s roster is in tough shape so he has his work cut out for him. I hope he made the right call with his coordinators. I know Bob Babich had a rough couple years as defensive coordinator with the Bears. It had to be rough since his buddy Lovie Smith actually demoted him after first stripping him of the defensive playcalling.
I was encouraged by the women’s basketball team this weekend. Hopefully they are actually improving. It would be nice if they can get back to competing for conference championships.
The Western Illinois game was a rough one for the men. They need a couple of the young guys to step up and score more. Taylor Braun was a player that could make a play when a play was needed and that was missing in the second half against WIU. Chris Kading and Brett VandenBerg need to look to score more so the defense has to honor all the players on the floor.
It is the last year of the “Bracketbusters”, but I think it is ESPN that is pulling the plug on it.
Utah St. would be a very difficult place to play. I don’t want to play anymore MAC teams hopefully we get BYU or Saint May’s.
We need to put down 250K and play a SWAC team. Home games are a must.
Also we need to play a spring game again. I love to see bench players get live reps in front of the fans. Spring game is as much for the fans as it is for the players. Just have the starters play one drive.
Sounds like spring practice will be a great time to build some depth and see what we will have in two years after next year’s large class of seniors leaves.
We lose a great group of seniors but I think most will be pleasantly surprised when they see that the 2014 Bison squad is just a reloaded version of what we have now. When you look at the depth charts you see a lot of underclassmen that are already playing. It won’t be like throwing a true freshman who has never played a down of college football out there. The other thing that favors the Bison youngsters to be ready to takeover is the fact that with the Bison playing into January the past two seasons they have another 7 or 8 weeks of practice that teams who don’t make the playoffs do not get. The coming season should show us which players will be solid starters and carry on the championship traditiion in the future. The O-line was good this year but young and not a lot of depth. I have a feeling this year the O-line will blessed with a lot more depth. Go Bison!
I’m starting to think this team will get a NCAA tournament birth regardless of if we win the Summit or not. I watched Arizona beat Arizona St. this past Saturday in Tempe and honestly we have more talent on our roster than either of those teams.
yep. i’m thinking we’ll probably get a top 5 seed.
You’re dreaming, NDSU has no marquee wins OOC. The best they can offer is beating SDSU once, maybe twice. They need to win the Summit League tournament to make the dance, end of story.
Sure. You mean the CBI right? No way in H-E-Double Hockey Sticks the Summit gets two teams in. Hell, the MWC and MVC will be eating up more of the at large bids than usual.
Only hope for the Bison is to win three games in Sioux Falls. And this week will be a good gauge to see if that can happen since it’s a good bet one of those three games would be SDSU with about 5-6K Jack fans in Soo Foo.
The ESPN game hinges on who wins at Frost this weekend. SDSU wins they probably hop NDSU in RPI, and the Jacks are, frankly, the more appealing team nationally because they went to the tourney last year, upset New Mexico & nearly beat Alabama this year, and have the pro prospect in Wolters. If NDSU wins they maintain their first place edge and RPI. One thing is for sure, both teams are FAR more appealing to ESPN than WIU and that slow it down crap Molinari runs.