The North Dakota of 2016-17 is almost completely detached from the Fighting Hawks of today.
Thus far, the course has been choppy and disappointing for UND. The once-proud, 22-10, conference reigning Hawks have taken a major statistical tumble since winning their first Big Sky title last season.
The lack of an imposing under-the-rim presence has been a major impairment. Forward Drick Bernstine’s departure to Washington State after last season and the loss of guard Quinton Hooker, who often laid it all out to collect a ball bounced astray, has excessively clipped the wings on UND’s hopes of repeating.
The Hawks (7-12, BSC 2-5) finished last season overall as the sixth best rebounding team in the conference and fifth on preventing adversary boards. Currently, they are dead last in every rebounding stat category – collection, prevention and way, way back in rebound margin.
Idaho (13-6, BSC 5-2), on the other hand, has thrived under the rim, a complete Hawk paradox. At the end opposite of UND in nearly every rebounding category, across the jumble of Big Sky teams, perch the Vandals.
North Dakota is atrocious in rebounding margin. The Vandals are +6.7 in rebounding. Stats alone cannot predict the future, but they almost constantly correlate with the past. In Idaho’s 74-57 thumping of UND on Dec. 29, the Vandals out-boarded the Hawks, 35-21, almost a dead-on illustration of the overall margins.
Senior guard Chad Sherwood, who is by no means a rebounder, recorded four boards in that game, only one less than Conner Avants, UND’s rebounding leader of the night.
Idaho’s offensive attack hasn’t been particularly satisfactory. At 73 points per game, the Vandals scoring offense sits in ninth in the conference, while the Hawks own sixth place with nearly 77 points per game. Thanks to a problematic turnover margin and prevalence of scoring droughts, Idaho’s offense has some flaws.
But while Idaho and UND are deadlocked in field-goal percentage at a .455 average, the Vandals are the Big Sky’s best at hitting the triple. With a .420 average, Idaho again acts as a Hawk catch-22. UND, while attempting the sixth most 3-pointers in the conference, scrapes the linoleum in that category with a .316 average.
However, the Vandals’ scoring defense is arguably their greatest asset, aside from rebounding. Idaho only allows about 66 points per game, the best mark in the Big Sky, compared to UND’s lousy, 11th-ranked scoring defense, which allows just over 82 points per game.
The Hawks have a knack for allowing ho-hum offenses to boom, while the Vandals do the opposite. UND’s percentage of field-goals allowed is, again, dreadful. The Hawks grant opposing offenses a .493 percent FG average, an outstanding figure from an offensive perspective.
In yet another conference-topping category, Idaho allows the lowest opponent FG percentage at .399. While using a shutdown defense to limit the Hawks, Idaho’s sometimes cumbersome offense will be expedited by a UND defense adverse at preventing scores.
This defensive distinction between squads is what led to Idaho’s conference opening, commanding win over the defending champions. In the most profound instances of Vandal superiority, clamp-down defense ignites an offensive attack, and while this offense may not always put up staggering numbers, it holds its opponents to laughable stats.
The Hawks had no space on offense, and seemingly no hope. By halftime, UND was shooting 28 percent from the field and 11 percent from deep. The Vandals seized a 17-point edge at the break and held steady through the second. Against the Big Sky’s number one defensive team, a near-20-point disadvantage proves disastrous for any conference opponent.
North Dakota has become marginally one-dimensional since the departures of Hooker and Bernstine, forcing the backcourt to squeeze out almost every ounce of scoring. Guards have tallied the most points for the Hawks in 17 of the team’s 19 games, compared to 12 of 19 for a more balanced Idaho team.
Balance, boards and bulwarking defense are where Idaho thrives and where UND withers. The Hawks recently went on a 3-game winning streak, taking down notable Weber State in the process, but the contradictions between teams grants Idaho favor.
Colton Clark can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @coltonclark95