North Dakota State’s men’s basketball season ended at 14-15 Saturday night in the Summit League tournament, the second straight year the Bison went down to Oral Roberts in the first round. More was expected of this team, especially after November and December when it had quality wins over the likes of Cal State-Santa Barbara, Cal Davis, South Dakota State and the second half bombing of UND.
On the other side, NDSU showed a promising future in the loss to ORU. Freshman forward TrayVonn Wright was out of sight with 19 points and 7 rebounds, including a fine touch from the perimeter with 3 of 3 from 3-point range. I said before the season that Wright should be redshirted so as to add some weight and muscle, and I was wrong.
Freshman guard-forward Taylor Braun was very good the last month of the season. Freshman guard Mike Felt can light it up anywhere and freshman center Marshall Bjorklund was steady most of the season. Sophomore center Jordan Aaberg redshirted and he’ll be back as will veteran forward Eric Carlson, who the Bison would like to see a return to consistency he had the first two years. That’s a nice nucleus.
But to get out of the first round, the Bison need to find some consistency at the point and that has to come from either Drew Lundberg, redshirt transfer Dylan Hale, incoming freshman Joel Lindberg or a D-I or JC transfer. The Bison have an available scholarship and I would think seriously of using it here. When ORU needed a hoop, guard Warren Niles was there with a key 3-pointer in the final minute and 19 points overall. Â
After reaching the NCAA tournament in 2009, the last two seasons have been spent in .500 land. This year’s team was 2-8 in games decided by five points or less. The fab class of Woodside, Winkelman et. al had their problems closing out games their first two years before turning it on. NDSU would like to see a similar blueprint in this group.
Bison men are not good from the charity stripe and that kills you in close games. I think they really need to get more scoring from the PG position. If they can remedy those two problems I think they can be real good next season. They have a great group of kids coming back. As far as the women go, how do you expect to win a tournament of 3 games in 3 days with 8 or 9 girls in uniform? Use all your scholarships! Just remember before you know it Spring football will be here. Then summer at the lake followed by “Everyone up for the kickoff cuz the march is on!” Go Bison!
Need a thug to rebound, Dylan Hale to be great and a coach that can work these incompetent summit refs, seriously ndsu never gets calls on the court. Sutton,Hunter, Kampe gets them by intimidation.
lets not use the “refs screwed us” excuse! ndsu doesnt have that pure scoring threat from every spot on the court. woodside is gone and so are the fans
Even though I don’t think much of the Summit League refs, they are not to blame for the Bison season because they are bad to both teams to the games I have gone too. The Bison didn’t play 40 minutes every game was part of the of the reason they were not that great. It seems like they played when they wanted too. I also think they were lacking leadership. Tveit was a good player but you couldn’t count on him when the game was on the line like the group before him. If someone can take charge of the team, I think it will help a lot along with free throw shooting and a point guard.