2023-24 NSIC Season

[MrMustang]

Huge weekend ahead in Marshall, hosting Minot and Moorhead to close the regular season. Thankfully to MrMustang's liking, nothing else really going on in town so hopefully we get a good showing!

If there are not huge crowds this weekend given what is at stake, I might suggest it means that crowds are just down and will stay down - like many D1 schools

[Stanger86]

If there are not huge crowds this weekend given what is at stake, I might suggest it means that crowds are just down and will stay down - like many D1 schools

Hope there's a campaign on campus to at least fill the student section.

[Purple Mav Man]

This was a fun thread to go back through. First few pages are especially entertaining at this point. Haha

[NSU4LIFE]

My gotcha moment on page 23 was the highlight of the season...I was right again ;) Followed closely by bold predictions of CSP going south. Man, this was actually more enjoyable than I thought it'd be.

[vikingfaithful]

My gotcha moment on page 23 was the highlight of the season...I was right again ;) Followed closely by bold predictions of CSP going south. Man, this was actually more enjoyable than I thought it'd be.

Didn't see anything from you on page 23.

[NSU4LIFE]

Didn't see anything from you on page 23.

Probably depends on posts per page or something.

[Moorhead123]

Even though dragons had a very successful year it ended on a bit of a downer as the dragons struggled at times the second half of season and couldn’t throw it in the ocean against Mankato in regional semifinals. Losing Myren to injury certainly didn’t help as he was a tough nosed player and strong defender.

Biggest problem all season was dragons difficulty shooting the three. Also, the team has some real ball dominant players so the ball tended to get too sticky at times. Losing Zimmer is a tough loss. We will see if dragons can avoid losing players to the portal. If they do they will return some very solid pieces. I think the new coaches have created a strong culture that will hopefully prevent losing too many transfers. Coaches also appear to know how to find some good transfers as well. Look for the dragons to contend for a regional berth agsin next year if they add a few more pieces this off season.

[simple as a $3 bill]

I thought that I heard somewhere along the line that Myren wasn't going to be returning.

[Mark Emmert's Burner]

I thought that I heard somewhere along the line that Myren wasn't going to be returning.

He is, he participated in Senior Day, and isn't looking to transfer elsewhere. Poor guy just kept getting hurt, so I don't blame him for wanting to be done.

This might be a personal bias (because I'm a sucker for hard-nosed switchable defenders with a good attitude, so Gabe Myren is one of my favorite Dragons), but losing him in mid-January was a bigger loss for MSUM than most people might realize. Any team losing their best defender will of course hurt their defense to some regard. But the Dragons defense was predicated on switching every screen, and that's only palatable to do when your primary ball-handler defender can withstand low-post challenges on switches. The Northern game in November was the earliest indication of this, as Jacksen Moni couldn't really get to his preferred spots against Myren on switches. After that Myren would just guard any team's main offensive initiator, and switch across the 5 positions with confidence. When that was gone, the Dragon D still played tough, but other teams had an easier roadmap to get to their spots. Additionally, Myren's Spidey-senses off-ball led to lots of tipped passes/steals leading to fastbreaks. Without his meddling arms jutting in, opponent's TOs numbers dropped (12.4 before Myren injury to 11.1) and AST numbers peaked (7.7 before to 10.9).

But there was also the downwind effect of Myren's absence stretching an already thin bench. Where Ja'Kair Sanchez could previously provide some offensive juice when Jacob Beeninga needed a break, he was forced to start after Myren went down. From there, Bergy could only trust 2 guys on the bench (exacerbated by the 4 games JaMir Price missed, too). While Myren wasn't a huge offensive weapon, he was stable with the ball, could get into the lane, and pick up some FTs. (Paint points/g went down from 37.3 to 34.7, fastbreak points/g from 6.9 to 4.8, bench points/g from 18.9 to 11.7).

So while the guy wasn't necessarily an All-Conference player, it shows that missing a key role player like this can have an outsized impact on some teams given their gameplay style.

[Augieholic]

In my opinion this is an EXTREMELY optimistic take on Kato and Northern. Are we supposed to believe that Eagins from Wayne and two guys from a Truman St team that went 12-16 last year are the magic elixir for Margs? Similarly it appears people believe that Northern can transition quite smoothly from Sam Masten to Walton-Blanden????

Remember these are most of the same people who picked Austin Andrews as preseason North POY last year.

This guy clearly gets basketball, nailed it.

[zimmy21]

This guy clearly gets basketball, nailed it.

Lol I was thinking about that post the whole time during the Elite Eight...I just didn't have the care to go back and look for it lol. I guess it worked out in out favor.

[Purple Mav Man]

This guy clearly gets basketball, nailed it.

Partial credit?

[laker]

This guy clearly gets basketball, nailed it.

I've been seeing this for a decade. It has been the norm. I told Justin Eagins that after the NWMO game- that it was amazing how all of those transfers came in and didn't mix well. His answer was classic. "Yah, I heard about that. I was just waiting for all the trash to be cleared out before I came." Then he grinned. Quite a sense of humor.

Who could have predicted that it ended up this way?

[Augieholic]

Partial credit?

Oh wow, I guess I was 50% right. I never realized that until now. What a world.