[BasketballAlum] 'Dogs are 6 and 2

[gary holquist]

Bulldog Basketball Alumni and Friends:

Just wanted to drop you all a quick note.....we are in the midst of 
preparing for the UMD at Winona State University game that will take 
place at Winona, MN this Wednesday.  We will practice early afternoon 
at UMD on Tuesday and travel down to Winona following practice.  WSU is 
#1 in the country in two NCAA II national polls; followed by the 
University of South Dakota (USD is ranked #1 in the other national poll 
followed by WSU.)  Currently our record is 6 wins - 2 losses.  We had a 
very disappointing outing last Tuesday evening against Concordia St. 
Paul University.  It was an uninspired performance on our part that 
contributed to the loss more so than CSP beating us.  We turned it 
around the next two outings and beat Northland College and the College 
of Saint Scholastica soundly.  These are two games that we were 
"supposed" to win and did.  After 8 games in 16 days we feel that we 
have made progress but need to improve in four key areas:  (1) Our 
rebounding margin is OK at a plus 7 over our opponent, but we want it 
at a plus 10.  (2) We have only gotten to the free throw line an 
average of 14 times per game-this needs to be at 20 times a game.  (3) 
We are averaging 13 turnovers a game-this needs to be below 10.  (4) 
Our free throw percentage is only 74%-this needs to be in the 80's.  We 
like the fact that we are holding our opponents to 41% on field goal 
percent defense (32% from the three point line), we are only giving up 
58 points per game while averaging 70 points, we are averaging 16.4 
assists per game, and are shooting 46% on field goal percentage offense 
(40% from the three point line).  Our philosophy has always been 
statistically simple-make your opponent take a difficult shot, rebound 
it, and get down the floor offensively and work our motion offense to 
get a great shot.  We need to develop more of a post presence in the 
lane.  We have become too orientated on relying on being a perimeter 
jump shooting team.  The combination of inside/outside scoring action 
has always been a staple of the UMD offense and we need to develop this 
further with this season's team.  Brian Sykora (6-7, 210 lbs, 
So-Bloomington, MN) has ability to score effectively in the lane.  We 
need to get him more touches on the scoring block.  Over the past week 
Steve Duncan (6-5, 220 lbs, So-Hopkins, MN) has emerged as a needed 
scorer for us off the bench averaging 17 points.  Jordan "Spud" Schade 
(5-9, 175 lbs, S0-Oshkosh, WI) had an outstanding game for us against 
CSS scoring 19 points.  Jordan Nuness (6-3, 210 lbs, Sr-Eden Prairie, 
MN) and Sykora still lead us in scoring but we need the emergence of 
Schade and Duncan to score for us as well.

When you play against good opponents, your weaknesses will be more 
readily exposed.  Wednesday's game against WSU will be a great 
indicator for us.  Keys for the game are: 1)-we need to convert 
defensively and make them play against our set defense-no easy scores 
without making them work for it.  2)-WSU is a team of spurts, they 
score through spurts-we need to stop their spurts by rebounding the 
ball defensively (no second chance opportunities to score), make WSU 
defend us deep into the shot clock (control tempo on the offensive end 
by making WSU play defense), get lane scores from other players besides 
our five man (get Nuness, Duncan, Sykora, and Ryan Meissner to post by 
inverting our offense.)  We need to keep it close going into the last 
five minutes.  Every play has to be a tough out, full of passion, 
energy, and resilient competition.  Do we have a chance?  Damn right-we 
will compete!

Go Bulldogs!


Gary W. Holquist
University of Minnesota Duluth
Head Men's Basketball Coach
218-726-6185