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October 22, 2025 12 mins
UND Head Mens Basketball coach Paul Sather talks about the win against Jamestown and how the assist guys made a difference.  The coach also talks about playing fearless and able to learn how to play through mistakes.  The coach also previews the upcoming game against Minnesota on Saturday.
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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
And we welcome you back here to our final segment
of Hawk Talk tonight. Great crowd on hand, Thank you
for coming out and joining us here tonight. So glad
to see you for a great weekend of U n
D sports. We're gonna uh and uh like to bring
in and talk a little bit of what's been happening
on the hardwood right now, as North Goote men's basketball

(00:22):
head coach Paul Saither joins us, everybody.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Fighting.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
Hawks got a win against James Town in an exhibition
on Saturday, and then Baileen gave the fans in the
community a glimpse of this year's Hawks team and some.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
Of them them on the bench, still trying to get healthy.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
But yeah, yeah, so you know, one of the things
was you knew that there were a couple of guys
that were gonna be maybe certainly gonna be factors for
you as the season progresses. And Eli King obviously is
the first and foremost hopefully Josh Jones is our hope
as well as he's a veteran player, long player. But
you know, you mentioned it going in, you were hoping
that this little window of a game like that because

(01:04):
maybe come some of those guys were out. Was going
to allow you to play some guys and really give
them an opportunity to see really maybe the most minutes
they've ever seen basically.

Speaker 3 (01:13):
Well, especially in just putting the uniform on a playing
a game in the home court.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
Yeah, I think that's a big deal.

Speaker 3 (01:18):
You know, people ask, well, why not a closed scrimmage
with a with a different We were gonna do that,
but when the Minnesota game came up, we just decided,
you know, maybe it's more valuable to get an actual
game when the lights are on, the popcorns popping, and yeah,
and you do that. You do that a lot for
your freshmen, the transfers. You know, they've they've gone through
it enough times where it's not as big a deal.
But you know, you know, we didn't get a chance

(01:40):
to see that necessarily, Micah Curtis. But we see you
with Marley and Anthony Smith and a guy like Grace
and Olman who you know, Grace and Red shirted last year,
so again getting this his first chance to really.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
Be out there and and did a nice job.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
So and I was gonna say we did not talk
too much about Grayson following the game. We talked a
little bit about how we call him a three. By
the way, Anthony Smith, the third, a kid out of
Hopkins Who's who is a really you know, athletic kid,
calls him a featherweight prize fighter.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
Well, if he would have got into boxing, I think
he could have been, could have been.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
But the other guard, Grayson Olman, who sat last year
and red shirted, you know, I thought he he did
just as well as far as attacking the basket, getting
to positions on the floor. What I love about Grayson
is he's not afraid to finish, but he certainly is
looking for somebody to come and cut to the basket
as well. And he's got a good set of eyes
on him to see the floor.

Speaker 3 (02:35):
Well, both of those guys, you know, Anthony had I
think three assists or four assists with just one turnover
maybe zero. Yeah, then Grayson had three or four as well.
I think maybe no, not as much in that one.
But Okay has been for us, has been a good
assist guy. So those guys both do a really good job.
But we could play together some. But you know, obviously
getting Eli back would kind of take that away a

(02:56):
little bit more, getting you know, getting Eli a little
bit more in that. But now both of those guys
I think did an awesome job. And you know, Anthony's
just the pressure he can put up on the ball
and you noticed it when he came in.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
You know, it's a little bit different and.

Speaker 3 (03:11):
Makes us a little more effective defensively when he's in
there on the ball.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
Yeah, he is fearless and you know, but he Here's
the thing you mentioned to me too, is like, were
there mistakes on Saturday? You bet there were, But I
mean that's what you coach for. That's what you come
back and practice for the next day and get after
it and you learn from those and you need that
so you can coach to it. And how did the
guys respond to to learning about I mean the thing

(03:35):
about it is are you accepting of getting back in
there and getting better?

Speaker 2 (03:39):
And that's what you want from so much.

Speaker 3 (03:42):
Of this is learning how to really play through mistakes
and pick each other up and continue to that defensive possession.
It's just keep working, keep writing and fighting and tell
you know what. And I thought there's a few times
early where we were hesitant to x out and to
rotate and do some things that we need to do.

Speaker 2 (03:58):
But I thought as a game went on, we got
we got better.

Speaker 3 (04:01):
You got to play hard and and and I thought
we started playing a lot harder as a unit as
the game went on, still making a lot of mistakes,
but made them a little more uncomfortable.

Speaker 2 (04:09):
You know.

Speaker 3 (04:09):
I think that's where you started seeing them missing more
of their shots. And and you know, once you start
getting some stops and we you know, we talk a
lot about getting the ball inside and impacting the heart,
you know, kind of that laying area inside the logo.
And I think about seventy three possessions that there's seventy
three percent of our possessions we got the ball inside
of there. And I think it really helps your transition

(04:31):
defense when you run a good offense, Yeah, you take
care of the ball. And and we did a nice
job kind of moving the ball, keeping it alive. And
you know, I think we had six guys maybe in
double figures or close to it. I think you were six, Yeah,
I think a couple guys with tan and a few
guys are twelve. And yeah, and uh so I thought
we moved it. We shared it pretty well, and uh
it was good. It was good to see. But it's
just most important to get them out there and play

(04:52):
someone else other than ourselves and battling ourselves like we
have been for these last few bonds.

Speaker 1 (04:58):
By the way, everybody, in case you didn't to hear
earlier in the program, Minnesota moved the game. It's an
exhibition Saturday for North Dakota to come visit the Minnesota
Golden Golphers at Williams Arena. But it is now a
twelve noon start. You'll hear it on fourteen forty am
the fan here in Grand Forks. I'll be on the
call looking forward to that from Williams Arena. By the way,
we're way up in the upper corner for that broadcast spot.

Speaker 2 (05:20):
Yeah, so I'm not going to come up and see after,
so I would hope.

Speaker 1 (05:23):
So, hey, you got to you got to get your
steps in there, coach, But I tell you it's a
coach that we just faced a season ago. Yeah, Nico
Medved who's had a great run at Colorado State and
has decided to come into the Twin Cities. And you know,
he's done some moving personnel in with him and he's

(05:43):
found some talented ones. We've already seen him in one
exhibition game. What do you think of the Golden Golphers
on Saturday.

Speaker 3 (05:49):
Well, yeah, I think especially within that top nine and
ten guys that they have that they played, you just
got a lot of experienced guys that have been a lot,
they've played a lot of games.

Speaker 2 (05:58):
You know.

Speaker 3 (05:58):
The Tyson kid, I think might have been you know,
player of the year in the league that he played,
and when he's with Belmont maybe yep, and what you
saw with him, you know, maybe at North Carolina he
just didn't get the opportunity to to get out there
and play through it or have that kind of role
because of But man, I'm telling you, he looked pretty
good against North Dakota State from the film I saw,
and you know, we got a familiar face in bj

(06:20):
Ohmt and and what people got to understand if they
tune in and watch the game, Yeah, Bj hasn't played
for a year. Like his injury was pretty early last year, okay,
and then he had another injury that kind of went
along with it, So he didn't really get on the
floor with Cal much past that November time period, okay.
And then you know this summer he was laid up
with injuries a lot, even going into the fall. So
he's still kind of working himself back, but he played

(06:42):
thirteen minutes. It'll be fun to I was texting with BJ.
And then actually one of my former players, Parker Fox
from Northern State, who ended up transferring to Minnesota, Sure
is going to be doing the analyst for the Big
ten plus network in that game, so he is he's
gonna be kind of fun to run into a few
of the old guys.

Speaker 1 (06:59):
Well, I was gonna say, hey that I mean, I
guess I go down the totem pole.

Speaker 2 (07:03):
Then basically it don't do that.

Speaker 1 (07:07):
It is gonna be great to see BJ, because I'll
just say this, You've made a couple of comments, you know,
one in today's media day to the general press after
the meal, you said, in today's environment, everybody's dealing with
evolving rosters, and your emphasis oftentimes is hey, we gotta,

(07:28):
you know, kind of see how this naturally comes together.
You know, you can coach a little bit and get
the guys together, but it's got to happen too for them.
And then but at the same time, people think that
certain individuals once they go out the door. You have
a good relationship, great relationship with b j Olmont to
this day. People don't realize that I have a great relationship.

(07:49):
I facetimed with him last year after a game basically
when we were at the Sun League tournament. He's on
a FaceTime and I'm like, great to see a VJ.
There's just certain individuals you who still have that that
interaction with it that doesn't go away.

Speaker 3 (08:02):
Well, most of the guys that have kind of made
that kind of move right, you know, it's not it's
not something I think it's pretty easy to take it
personal and sure, but at the end of the day,
there's a lot of other factors going in in today's
world with that. Yeah, and you know with BJ, you know,
he gave us two awesome years. He still comes back here.
He was back here this fall already, both him and
me er Putom came back for a weekend and so

(08:24):
like they come back here, BJ loves to come back.
And now and he's not in California anymore. He's in
He's in Minneapolis, so he's got a lot easier to
drive to get up. But I mean it is fun
kind of it's gonna be fun to see him and
and to play against the compete against him, and I'm
excited for our guys that we have currently. I think
this is you know, you're gonna be going against a
roster that you know, there was some money spent in

(08:45):
this roster up there down there in Minnesota, and you're
gonna you're gonna see what that looks like. But but
we're gonna go against a really good, experienced team, Like
there's not gonna be a lot of true freshmen out
in the floor from Minnesota.

Speaker 2 (08:56):
Yeah right.

Speaker 3 (08:56):
I think Grayson Grove might be the one kid from
Alexandria that was a red shirt.

Speaker 2 (09:01):
He's gonna be one of the younger players.

Speaker 3 (09:02):
But a lot of these guys are pretty seasoned, veteran
type guys that have played a lot of minutes in
their time.

Speaker 2 (09:07):
So it's gonna be good for us to go against out.

Speaker 1 (09:09):
And that basically is your week countdown to the to
the season because then North Dakota men's basketball starts the
year in Tuscaloosa against Alabama. Of course they came up
here last year, thank you for that, but we owe
them a couple I guess, so we got to go
down there and start the season. But I tell you,
I mean, but you did mention one thing really quick.

(09:31):
We started in Tuscaloosa. But let's not lose sight. Our
non conference schedule does include eight home games, yes, and
that is important because that's.

Speaker 2 (09:40):
Nice to see on the schedule.

Speaker 3 (09:41):
Well, and you get to it's traveling less for these guys.
We do have some We got a couple of long
trips are creating. One that heads over to wester Illinois
is going to be a longer trip, three games in
that trip. And yeah, you know our Hawaii trip over
to then University of Idaho is going to be a
longer trip. But but you know we're gonna have a
quicker you know, some other quicker road trips. But but

(10:02):
you know, having eight home games is huge, and you
know a few of those are gonna be nine to
Vision one games. But you play those games to get
a lot of guys minutes. But you as to play
those games to.

Speaker 2 (10:10):
Stay in your own bowl, yeah, and.

Speaker 3 (10:12):
Not have to travel because it is difficult. It's it's difficult.
And and you know we're not alone in this. There's
a lot of schools in our league or in the
Big Sky, or in in leagues like that. They want
to get home games and keep their guys from traveling
so much so you do that. You do the nine
to Vision one games to do that well.

Speaker 1 (10:27):
We are looking forward to a season ahead. We're looking
forward to what your team can do on Saturday, and
we're looking forward well, we look forward to seeing what
they can do throughout the season. Thanks for this first glimpse.
Appreciate it. Coach say sure, thanks than head coach Paul Say.
Their North to Gota men's basketball. Everybody, they head down
to William's Arena Saturday to take on the Golden Golphers

(10:47):
in an exhibition, and then it's for real after that
as they'll tune up for Alabama as they start it
just in early November. That's gonna do it for our
program Tonight, I want to thank everybody for coming out
and joining us. I have what a fantastic atmosphere this is, Ben.
We want to welcome all the folks coming to town
for Saturday's big football game, North Dakota taking on Indiana State.

(11:09):
You'll be able to hear the entire broadcast beginning at
two as the un D Football but light tailgate show.
We'll get underway at two and the kick at three
with Jack Michaels, Mikeberg, Bob Rors will help us out
along the sidelines and the crew on hand for that one.
Darren Looker handles the call from Potsdam, New York as
North Kota Hockey will be at Clarkson and make sure

(11:31):
you cheer on the Fighting Hawks all week long. For
upcoming activities. For more information, go to Fighting Hawks dot com.
To listen back to any of our conversations from tonight,
go to iHeartRadio dot com and search hawkhawk Talk and
you'll be able to listen to back to these conversations
that we had here tonight. To the entire crew here

(11:51):
at the five oh six Pub, including Mel, who's working
her tail off tonight. Thank you Mel, Thank you to
all our fans, and thank you to all your listeners
out there as well, in including the mighty seven ninety
KFGO and also fourteen forty am the fan for Jennifer
Back at our flag Ship Studios. I'm Paul Ralston. We'll
see you next Tuesday for more Hawk Talk from downtown
Grand Forks and the five oh six Pub
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