The irony was cruel, really. On a day when South Dakota State head coach Scott Nagy honored Samaritan’s Feet by coaching barefoot, a tribute the NDSU coaches backed up by wearing tennis shoes (is that what they’re still called? Sneakers?), the Bison suffered another apparent foot injury.
With 1:16 left in the 69-53 loss to the Jackrabbits, forward TrayVonn Wright was in the process of taking off for a dunk when he pulled up lame. He was sitting on a training table after the game next to the Frost Arena court, and the word was given he was to have Xrays when he got back to Fargo.
This, on top of the broken foot to leading scorer Taylor Braun.
It’s not looking promising in the Bison camp on this night.
For advice on how to get through injuries, perhaps nobody has more expertise in Summit League basketball than SDSU head coach Scott Nagy, who went through a series of setbacks a few years ago.
“I could write a book,” Nagy said, “just all the things that happened to us for a stretch, They were some very, very odd things. You get through it by being good defensively. That’s how you get through it. They lose Braun and win the next game by almost 40 (IUPUI), because they’re good defensively. That’ what you get back to and they will. Defensively they are tough. They have an anchor in their center (Marshall Bjorklund), so they don’t have get out of position to guard a post like we do. And they’re leading the league in defensive field goal percentage.”
Without Braun, an NCAA tournament is still doable. If you add TrayVonn to that list, doable turns to uphill battle.
On another note, I asked readers on Twitter the following question regarding NDSU being 7 of 10 from the free throw line the last two games and SDSU and Western Illinois 37 of 56. It’s quite the disparity. Was it not being aggressive on offense, poor defense or questionable officiating? My take, and one reader hit it straight on, without Braun, the Bison don’t have that slasher to get to the basket and draw fouls. It didn’t look to me the SDSU game was what people call a homer job, the Jacks took it to the hole with more authority and were clearly the better team in the second half. Freshman Kory Brown fouled out, and about three of those were freshman fouls and a few others were late in the game in catchup mode. But I also got the feeling in post-game that head coach Saul Phillips wanted to say something, but didn’t.
Tell me if you have heard this before. Bison Basketball starts out hot and finishes not so great. Hmmm looks like Dejavu. The Bison are not finishers. They get big leads and let teams come back on them. They play one great half and not so much the other half. They are not physical aside from maybe two players. Of the fab 4, Mike Nelson probably was the least physical but was an in your face player all the time. Woodside played tougher inside than most of our bigs. If we play the jacks again, then get physical. Wolters reminds me of Sam Houston’s QB. Pretty good players who appear to think themselves to be pretty special. Once they get knocked around a bit, they are not so special. I am not saying to put a Kyle Emanual hit on Wolters, but bring his ego down a notch with a little physicallity. Basketball is frustrating to watch. Come on Spring Football.
We got screwed by the refs. No other way to put it. Agressive or not, that is too big of a disparity in free throws. The Jacks playing with 7 is the only way they win again….with or without Braun. Its time we get out of the Summit league, we are better than this.
Quit crying
This is two games in a row where the Bison have played lock down defense in the first half, they only gave up 13 points to WIU last week in the first half, only to get jobbed in the second half.
Can you tell me how a team can do what they have done the past two games defensively in the first half only to not be able to do anything but foul in the second half? There is no way a team goes from that kind of defense to fouling on every play. It just so happens that the big runs by the opponents coincide with all of these fouls. There were plenty of plays where the Jacks could have been called for fouls and weren’t and it was the same last weekend with WIU.
Yes the Bison do miss Taylor Braun taking charge and scoring by driving the lane or shooting a 3 point shot but it didn’t seem to matter in the first half.
One thing that probably needs to happen to get this team to win games while Braun is out is the young guys need to start scoring. Kory Brown took a positive step today. Chris Kaeding and Brett VandenBergh need to make the defense account for them. If Kaeding and VandenBergh and scoring threats the opponent can’t take Marshall Bjorkland out of the game.
Lawrence Alexander probably needs to start taking over games at times like Nate Wolters does for SDSU. He has the talent to do that.
With these injuries the knee injury to Joel Lindberg is amplified.
I personally think that Trayvon popped his Achilles tendon today which would be a horrible injury to have for both Trayvon and the Bison. That would put him out for the rest of the year and he would be pushing it to be ready for next season.
Umm, you tried to knock Wolter’s around and he cleaned your clock. As for the Bison being better then the Summit, win something minus Miles recruiting class and we can talk. Bison fans really do live in an alternate universe.
Bison03 with another troll comment please get rid of him (darell)
If the free throw disparity is half of what it has been the last couple games we win at WIU and are in the game at the end vs. the Jacks……without Taylor. True statement. Try and argue it. Summit league is a joke.
I agree, please get delete bison03.
Be healthy in late February, win 3 games in Sioux Falls that’s all that matters.
This team will not be healthy for the tourney…Even if Braun is back he will not be in game shape.
The only thing the Bison can hope for is that another player can step up and fill the role. When Troy Huff went down earlier in the year, for 8 games, nobody was able to fill his shoes and it shows in UND’s record. I expect the same for Braun; there’s just no other player on the team that can do what he does. If Wright is out too…..well, good luck.
I hate it when people whine about the refs, whether it is deserved or not. If you are truly the better team, you’ve got to fight through that adversity during the game also.
Second straight game the Bison have been out coached. Last two games the other team made adjustments after the first half and the Bison couldn’t do anything about. Another one and done in the summit tourney on the horizon. Saul might be a nice guy but great coach? Hardly. We used to knock off teams like #8 Wisconsin and Marquette but now we can’t even beat Moorhead state in exhibition play. What happened to the upsets? What happened to the Bison swagger? I know we can’t pull upsets off all the time but it would be nice to pull one out every other year or so.