Following a tough loss against NDSU in Fargo, the Fighting Hawks have now lost back-to-back games in the Summit moving to 2-6 in league play.
“Sometimes you have to crawl through a mile of you know what to get to the other side,” UND Head Coach Paul Sather told the Grand Forks Herald after UND’s 87-82 loss at North Dakota State last Saturday.
Last Thursday they faced the University of South Dakota at the Betty and lost 102-93. The Coyotes shot 58.5% from the field and hit 11 threes making UND’s defense scramble for answers.
“There’s nothing else anyone can say to me,” Sather said. “When you’re giving up the percentages we are in league play defensively, our minds are worrying about the wrong things.”
With just eight games left in the season, UND’s Men’s Basketball team sits at 8-15 (2-6 Summit) and something needs to change.
Leading scorer Treysen Eaglestaff thinks toughness and consistency on defense is the problem.
“Showing up every day and doing the same thing,” he said. “I think that’s our biggest thing. We take steps back and then we’ll take a step forward and another step back.”
UND has struggled in league play this year with their only wins coming over Denver and Kansas City who are in the bottom half of the conference.
The Fighting Hawks defense has struggled allowing 88.3 points per game in league play, ranking eighth in the conference.
Opponents shoot 53.2% against UND, ranking them last in the Summit. They also rank last in opponent three-point percentage in the league as opponents shoot 41.8% against them.
The team also ranks last in three-point percentage shooting an abysmal 30.1% from three in conference play.
They pair their eighth-ranked defense in the conference with a sixth-ranked offense averaging 82.9 points per game in Summit play.
While they are first in offensive rebounds per game (13.4) in the Summit, they are eighth in defensive rebounds per game (22.1).
Coach Sather wants to stay optimistic and knows what the team needs to do.
“Let’s turn that corner of really taking pride and being more physical in how we play and making life harder,” he said. “We’ve got the pieces to do it. We’ve just got to go out there and have a better effort of doing it all around.
“It’s not a time to pout, mop, make excuses. You’re kind of a loser if you do that. We don’t have a team like that,” Sather said. “They haven’t shown that side. I think our offense can dictate a little bit who we are on defense.”
UND looks to turn things around this Saturday when they take on South Dakota State at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center.
“If you figure it out the last regular season game and the first round of the Summit League Tournament, and all of a sudden you get a run going… anything’s possible,” Sather said.
Elijah Andrews is the Dakota Student Sports Reporter. He can be reached at elijah.andrews@und.edu.