UND reaping early dividends in Summit League play from offseason's major defensive changes

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Jan. 6—GRAND FORKS — UND senior guard Eli King has built a reputation on reading plays.

He did it as a safety and quarterback for the Caledonia High School football team. He did it on the basketball court for the Warriors. He still excels at it at the collegiate level.

The Fighting Hawks made major alterations to their defensive system this offseason, focusing on turnovers, trapping, doubling in the post, eliminating particular play types and speeding up opposing offenses.

King, a member of the 2025 Summit League All-Defensive team, has continued to thrive in the revamped system. He leads the Hawks with 42 steals, the second-most in the league.

"Growing up, I always played defense and knew that was an important part of the game," King said. "Same thing football-wise; I would play some safety usually, so kind of reading eyes, reading the quarterback's eyes. I think that helps a lot, especially in this trapping system where I'm maybe off the ball in gaps."

King typically plays off-ball while defending screens, but his keen court awareness lends itself to quick, opportune steals.

"Eli instinctively was still a steal guy last year," head coach Paul Sather said. "He could still instinctively get steals, but this (system) kind of helps him, because he just has such a good feel for that part of it. You can tell that he was a pretty high-level football player. He's a guy that understands offense, so that helps him understand defense."

The defensive changes are evident beyond individual performances.

UND ranks No. 1 in the Summit League in steals per game, averaging 9.50.

The Hawks force an average of 15.83 turnovers per game, which ranks 22nd in Division I basketball.

"I think that was one thing from last year and two years ago, we felt like teams were just too comfortable playing against us," King said. "When they were on offense, we felt like they were kind of dictating and we were on our heels, where this year I feel like we're kind of dictating what other teams can do and taking them out of what they want to do."

Forcing turnovers has helped the Hawks earn a turnover margin of 4.50, the best in the Summit League and 19th best in the nation.

"We're just more aggressive," Sather said. "We're forcing more turnovers, and we're really trying to take away certain play types that teams usually are pretty heavy in. And we want to keep getting better in the other areas as well, but those are two areas that we're really guarding well."

The Hawks are off to a 2-0 start in Summit League play, picking up home wins over Oral Roberts and South Dakota State.

Turnovers weren't the defining feature of those wins, though.

UND had a minus-2 turnover margin against the Golden Eagles. The Hawks won the turnover margin by three against the Jackrabbits, but scored 14 points off of turnovers to the visitors' 14.

Rather, it was the focus on limiting particular play types and players.

Graduate guard Ty Harper leads Oral Roberts in scoring, averaging 15.8 points per game as a frequent pick-and-roll handler.

He scored six points and had two turnovers against the Hawks.

South Dakota State's Damon Wilkinson is averaging 12.8 points per game.

The sophomore center, who poses a major post-up threat, scored 11 points against UND. Wilkinson committed four turnovers (three of which came in the second half), constantly hounded by the Hawks on a double team in the post.

"We take away maybe two types of offense that are pretty common," Sather said. "We didn't force as many turnovers as we wanted to in either one of those games, or score off turnovers, but we did take away strengths that the other team had I thought pretty well through some things that we're doing."

Part of this year's defensive changes has been courtesy of assistant coach Ty Danielson.

Sather added Danielson to the staff partially due to his strong defensive track record at his previous coaching positions.

Washburn had a 3.0 turnover margin while Danielson was on staff in 2024-25, forcing opponents to commit 14.8 turnovers per game.

Fort Lewis College had a 5.1 turnover margin in Danielson's final year with the program.

"Sometimes when you're a drop coverage, and you're a little bit of a softer mentality, protect the paint mentality, and you're not really making a team play uncomfortable and they can just move the ball, sometimes you can get away with not playing as hard," Sather said. "Stylistically and from a schematic standpoint, I really wanted to change that, and that was part of the reason we brought in a guy like Ty Danielson.

"We hired him because I really liked what he was going to be able to bring from an assistant coach standpoint. All of us as a staff work together, and we're all continuing to help build us defensively, but he's kind of taken the reins as far as how we're playing defensively. We gave him a lot of control."

Though UND's new-look defense has crafted some early success, there's still room for improvement. Opponents shoot an average of 46.7% from the field against the Hawks, which ranks sixth in the Summit League.

UND's 3-point defense is fifth, with opponents shooting 32.9%.

The Hawks' points per game allowed are near the middle of the pack in the conference, sitting at fourth with an average of 75.1.

"There's still things defensively our numbers aren't awesome on," Sather said. "I want our defensive field-goal percentage to get better, and it's slowly improved a little bit over these last few weeks."

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