NDSU will get a piece of the national stage Friday night when the Bison play at Akron on ESPN2 as part of the ESPN BracketBuster series. It’s the last year of the cross-country mid-major matchups, which is unfortunate since such TV appearances are generally rare for mid-majors.

The fact teams from the Summit, MAC or Horizon aren’t regular ESPN inhabitants is certainly not a surprise since TV is market driven. But I also like the BracketBuster in that it makes for a nice break from Duke, Michigan State or Indiana every weekend.

NDSU appears to be making some progress with basketball air time. The Bison will be on TV eight times in the regular season with some sort of Fox, Midco or ESPN combination. Oakland, which plays more major foes, will also be on eight times. South Dakota State has 10 TV games this season. On the other end, according to its website anyway, Western Illinois has no TV games other than its in-house Rocky Vision web stream.

Last year, the Bison had 10 games televised. In 2010-11. The prior year, there were only three and in 2009-10, there were six.

Akron plays in a 5,500-seat Rhodes Arena and is averaging 3,473 fans a game. Sounds pretty close to what NDSU presents in Fargo although Rhodes was built in the mid-1980s and has undergone a couple of renovations. This is beating a horse that has been dead for years, but until NDSU completes its renovation, it won’t be the cool mid-major TV atmosphere of other schools at its level.

Bison football had every game last fall on the tube, a result of a sold-out Fargodome and state-wide interest that makes for attractive ad sales. Basketball isn’t there yet, although a new arena will go a long way toward that. I’m of the belief the BSA as it is now is a detriment of over 1,000 fans on average per game. Nobody wants to sit on a hard, old bleachers anymore; it’s just not the generational thing to do. I’m also of the belief that NDSU needs to find its way on MidCo Sports Network even more. The network has shown the enthusiasm to be the regional TV sports source.

This NDSU over SDSU men’s basketball nine-game winning streak, we’ve been told, is just a media thing and the teams don’t care much about it. That may be true, so let’s talk about it.

Back when these teams were considering a Division I transition, it’s possible that you could see a nine-game winning streak in this series — by SDSU. The fact it’s reached this point in favor of NDSU is historically remarkable. The Jacks were the kings of basketball in the North Central Conference.

Not so in D-I.

“Goofy things happen in basketball,” said NDSU head coach Saul Phillips. “Goofy streaks. I’m sure they’re not looking at it like they’ve lost a bunch. I’m sure they’re looking at it to get some momentum going into the tournament. I would be the first to admit that plenty of times we’ve been fortunate down the stretch to pull it out. It would be one thing if we were blowing them out by 30 every time but that simply has not been the case.”

Considering the odds of sports and all streaks eventually coming to an end, Bison fans can be excused if they’re having a little paranoia on the eve of the biggest home game of the year. SDSU is without a doubt the favorite at 18-10 overall, 10-7 in the league and an advantage at most positions, most notably point guard with Nate Wolters.

The North Dakota State men play at Oakland tonight and that’s really what this year’s Summit League is going to come down to: can anybody beat the Grizzlies in the tournament?

NDSU gave its fans a possible recipe last month when the Bison took the Grizzlies to the final minutes. Three things have to happen: 1. Body up and be physical with Oakland center Keith Benson. Marshall Bjorklund did just that and I thought was the better player for the most part. 2. Limit the turnovers. Grizzlies are almost unstoppable with points off turnovers, especially if they get out on the break. 3. Hold down Reggie Hamilton. The point guard makes this team go and if he has an off night, he’ll probably still keep shooting.

The Bison women, meanwhile, have three games left to show they’ll be a title contender. With a season-ending injury to guard Jacie Bigham, Oral Roberts is no longer the cut-and-dried tourney favorite. SDSU is coming on strong. Three things to look for NDSU to be a title game threat: 1. Guard Katie Birkel has to be a consistent offensive threat, staying away from the 3 of 14-like field goal nights. 2. With just seven players in the rotation, getting through three games at a high tempo may be tough, so the Bison need to dictate the pace. 3. The defensive presence of 6-5 center Janae Burich, who is rapidly improving with her decision-making on defense.

The 84-80 defeat to IPFW at the BSA tonight was what you would call a bad loss. The Bison dumped an 18-point lead in the first half (what is it about 18-point leads at the BSA, the Bison women did the same el foldo against Oral Roberts last week) and as the game went down the stretch, rare was the clutch play by the home team.

The Bison went 2 of 6 from the free throw line in the final five minutes and 3 of 8 in the final 5:39. Shot selection wasn’t a real highlight either, particularly the desperation-looking 3-point attempt with 30 seconds left by Nate Zastrow and his team trailing by three.

This team just doesn’t seem to be flowing right now with the rotation. Maybe the bench needs to be shortened. The point guard spot has been inconsistent, veteran forward Eric Carlson has a bad ankle and is struggling to hit a jumper and teams are starting to play his spin drive to the hoop.

Freshman guard Taylor Braun has a similar style. He was fantastic at times to the hoop tonight, but if he doesn’t start hitting the jumper once in awhile, teams will play him the same way as Carlson.

Maybe this team is just too young to be considered a top three team in the first place. Braun, Mike Felt, TrayVonn Wright and Marshall Bjorklund are freshmen. Bjorklund will be a very good mid-major center as he continues to grow. Felt needs to find open looks and shoot. The decision not to redshirt Wright can be second guessed.

It wasn’t a good sign tonight when senior guard Freddy Coleman was benched after missing two free throws late in the game. It doesn’t look promising with top dog Oakland coming to town Saturday, either. Then again, the real deal is the Summit tourney in March in Sioux Falls, so this team has a month and a half to straighten a few things out.

At 3-5 in the league and loss that left the fans mumbling as they left the BSA, and after dropping a winnable game at Western Illinois last Saturday, it’s just not happening right now. These are all good kids, very good, but as Erv Inniger once said, you can lose with good kids, too.