Tag Archives: Summit League

Fall Camp Update and Lots of Hoops News

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NDSU was indoors for the first time during this fall camp period on Wednesday and on the new turf for the first time, Craig Bohl tells me the practice today was good and the players enjoyed the new surface. As for some headlines out of Day 7:

  • Kicking Game was worked on extensively; Bohl tells me Sophomore Adam Keller has taken the lead on the place kicking job, NDSU brought 3 kickers in, Keller was specifically recruited to kick a couple years ago, 1st that I know of that was given a scholarship for that position out of Pennsylvania, he’s a real question mark to me as the season draws closer.
  • Two-minute offense was worked on; and has been the norm since camp opened, the defense dominated the offense; I asked Bohl if this was the defense traditionally being ahead of the offense to start camp or is that the defense just that good, he told me it was a mixed bag, but re-iterated to me,”This defense can be very, very good.”
  • Zach Vraa continues to make tough catches at camp for the 2nd straight fall, he did that last year in the opener against Lafayette, in fact the catch he broke his collarbone on was a terrific catch, biggest question if he can stay healthy. Bohl mentioned Demetrius Gray has stood out to him among the freshman, but said it’s not likely the true freshman gets to play this fall unless there’s an injury. Ryan Smith did not practice for the second straight day after a strain of his hamstring. Second two-a-day practice of the fall goes tomorrow.

Big day for hoops news, NDSU put out the full schedule for the men’s basketball team on Wednesday, the highlight of course is the matchup with Indiana that we mentioned on Monday. NDSU opens the year with Valley City State on November 9th, then Mayville State on November 17th and for the nay-sayers wondering why 2 NAIA teams are on the schedule, look at every D-1 program, from big to small, everybody plays a local college on their schedule, from Michigan State, I know they play Rochester College to Syracuse, they play LeMoyne, a D-3, the school is also in Syracuse. Those games aren’t going away. The Non-conference is actually pretty stacked in my mind, road trips to Green Bay (Nov.24th), Morehead State (Dec. 5th), Minnesota (Dec.11th), Towson (Dec.15th) to go along with the season opening tourney in Pittsburgh and the BracketBuster game which will be a road game. The biggest game of the non-conference in my mind is North Dakota, which will be played on a Sunday this year, December 9th, at the Fargodome, scheduled around a Vikings game at noon and a Packers game at 7 that night to appease most of the pro football fans in our area. Should be a great atmosphere that afternoon at the Dome, with many fans expecting a home playoff football game the night before. A closer look at Morehead State will excite fans as well, the Eagles play out of the Ohio Valley Conference and for keen hoops fans, they’ll remember MSU beat Louisville in the 1st round of the 2011 NCAA Tourney, led by now Nugget forward Kenneth Faried. NDSU goes to Morehead December 5th, then the Eagles return the trip on December 21st. Obviously the league schedule has been reduced from 18 to 16 games with the loss of ORU and Southern Utah, new member Nebraska-Omaha actually is the Summit opener for the Bison on November 29th. Oakland makes its trip to Fargo on January 12th, SDSU on December 29th, which stinks because most students will be gone due to Christmas break.

The women’s basketball team picked up its 2nd verbal commitment for 2013 in Buffalo post/forward Emily Spier(pronounced Spear). Spier is a 6’1 and has played for the Bison(high school nickname same as NDSU) since she was a freshman and part of some great high school teams. She averaged 16 points and 9 rebounds a game this past season as a junior, her coach Scot Sorenson tells me she developed a nice inside/outside game and can shoot the three, Sorenson believes her true position is as a 3 or 4 in college. She’s smart too, had interest from Dartmouth and Boston University. Spier joins Casselton’s Hannah Breske as the firs two verbals of a huge class for NDSU, the Bison have 6 available scholarships for 2013.

Heading For The Hoosiers

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We are just into the early stages of fall camp, no huge news yet out for the defending champs, Craig Bohl told me tonight he continues to be impressed by Sophomore running back John Crockett, who with Sam Ojuri ailing; is getting a majority of the reps at running back. Grant Olson has returned to practice, but in a non-contact situation until all of his concussion symptoms clear. The biggest news for NDSU athletics on Monday came courtesy of the men’s basketball team, who more than likely will play the number one team in the country come November.

The Bison will match up presumed preseason number one Indiana in the opening game of the Legends Classic November 12th in Bloomington. The Legends Classic is put on by the Gazelle Group, the same group that runs the CBI, the postseason tournament that NDSU played in last March. 12 teams are invited to this tournament, four high-majors; Indiana, UCLA, Georgetown and Georgia, those four teams will all advance and play one another in Brooklyn, while the remaining 8 teams will play a round-robin with one another. For NDSU, this is the opportunity/chance you cannot pass up, a game against the number one team in the country, with presumed television exposure to come from likely the Big Ten Network with it being the opening game for the Hoosiers. Indiana had a fabulous rebound year this past season, going 27-9, making the Sweet 16 before falling to eventual champion Kentucky. Indiana was one of the few teams to beat Kentucky last season, they also knocked off the 2nd and 5th ranked teams in the country. Tom Crean, who NDSU faced and beat when he was coaching Marquette back in 2006, has led a rapid turnaround for the Hoosiers, led by perhaps the preseason player of the  year in 6’11 Cody Zeller, the younger brother of Tyler Zeller, who had a great career at North Carolina. Crean also boasts one of the best recruiting classes in the country, 3 of the ESPN Top 100 players will play for IU, besides his four returning starters. It’s a strong test for the Bison men, who have played in some hostile environments; from Madison to Milwaukee to Gainesville to Southern Cal to Lubbock, Texas and Bobby Knight. This in my mind will be the toughest environment they’ve ever had to play, IU will be pumped for this game; just because it’s the opener of a season they think something special may happen. It could be that way for the Bison, who don’t forget return four starters of their own, hoping a strong non-conference schedule will get them ready for the Summit League season. Saul Phillips and Dave Richman both hinted to me on Monday that the remainder of the non-conference was sprinkled with teams that have made the NCAA Tournament. We’ll see in the coming days.

The rest of the games for NDSU will be played in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on the campus of Duquesne University. The Dukes finished 16-15 last year, taking 9th in the difficult Atlantic 10, which just added Butler and VCU to an already impressive league. James Madison had a difficult season, going 12-20, finishing 8th in the Colonial, while Youngstown State becomes another member of the Horizon League that NDSU will face, the Penguins who were 16-15 last year, join Milwaukee and Green Bay as common opponents. This is a great event for the Bison to start a season that is filled with high expectations, curious to see the rest of the non-conference schedule. Also should share, NDSU DOES NOT have to play Western Michigan this year in a payback for last year’s Bracket Buster game, the schools are given two years to play the game, so there’s a good chance that the Bison will not play the Broncos until 2013-14. Also NDSU will have a NEW opponent for its Bracket Buster, and will have to play that game on the road.

The Changes Begin

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July 1, 2012 officially begins a new school year across the nation and with it re-alignment central. Faithful readers of the blog know that I’m crazy and relentless with this stuff, but now we start to see the actual change of things that we’ve been talking about for the better part of two years. We’d be silly to think this the end of it, especially with the new football playoff being created, but sights like West Virginia in the Big 12 and Missouri and Texas A&M in the SEC is just the start of the craziness. With that being said, plenty of changes are directly affecting NDSU, we’ll feature a story on those changes tomorrow night on WDAY 6 Sports at 10. Today we’ll outline them for those that lost track(which is not that hard to do!)

BASKETBALL:

Obviously the headliner leaving is Oral Roberts. A known commodity in the men’s basketball word, the average fan had at least heard of the school before NDSU joined the Summit League. I remember the first time ORU came to Fargo in March of 2008, the year before the Bison were eligible for the Summit Tournament and NDSU clobbered them. The seeds of a great rivalry were planted then, it fully bloomed the following year when NDSU went to Tulsa and beat the Eagles to win the Summit League Championship at the Mabee Center, a place ORU never loses. Even the times NDSU was beat by ORU at the Summit Tournament in 2010 and ’11 were great games. It’s a huge loss for the league, there is no other way to sugarcoat it. Oral Roberts finished with an RPI ranking of 48, they beat a top 10 team in Xavier this year, and now take that reputation and prestige to the Southland Conference, a league that ranked 28th out of 32 in RPI ranking. The Summit’s ranking will dip next year no doubt, but do you take the dip in RPI for an easier road to the NCAA Tournament? A question that may seem easy to answer now, but lack of national respect, reputation and certaintly the idea of 2 bids from the league is LONG-gone for now. Southern Utah leaves today for the Big Sky as well, and while no one will miss the horrendous travel to get to Cedar City, the Thunderbirds always were a capable opponent, including coming to Fargo in 2009 and upsetting the Bison, NDSU’s only home loss that year. In comes Nebraska-Omaha, which for the average fan, it’s a school that fans will recognize, but for the moment doesn’t bring much to the table. UNO will have to go thru the same thing NDSU went thru, playing a lot of road games, playing a lot of high-majors before the transition is done. In just a basketball sense, this is a terrible trade-off. But college athletics is about money, and in that sense, this move makes terrific sense. Losing plane trips to Tulsa and Las Vegas(then busing to CC) for a bus trip to Omaha? You do that trade every day of the week and twice on Sunday. Gene Taylor told me that the Summit League is content to hold on with 9 teams this year, but we know Oakland is being pursued by the Horizon, and who knows what else may happen during the next school year. In my mind there’s one certainty: the Summit best be looking for the next options to join, just because you’re a conference champ,doesn’t make you a great team, especially if the competition is sub-par.

FOOTBALL:

The move here isn’t as dramatic with South Dakota joining the Missouri Valley Football Conference, but it certaintly changes everything that Bison fans have grown accustomed to since 2008. Now with 10 teams in the Valley, that means for the first time, every team will not play one another during the regular season. USD has shown the ability to play with some of the top teams at the FCS and FBS level, already with wins over Minnesota in 2010 and then beating defending FCS champ Eastern Washington last year. The Coyotes also bring in a known commodity in Joe Glenn, familiar to plenty of Bison fans from his days at Northern Colorado and Montana. The ‘Yotes will be plenty competitive and that game between NDSU and USD in Sioux Falls will be a great atmosphere, especially with it being a night game. The one bi-product is like I mentioned not every team will play one another this year and that could seriously affect the standings by the end of the year, here’s a look at who won’t play who this year:

NDSU won’t play Western Illinois

Illinois State won’t play South Dakota State

Indiana State won’t play Northern Iowa

Missouri State won’t play Youngstown State

South Dakota won’t play Southern Illinois

Two of these games I see as wins (NDSU and Youngstown) but the other three are toss-up’s that who knows how it could affect the league race. Makes me wonder if the league wouldn’t try to go to 2 divisions of 5 teams. You play your division rivals every year and then mix up the other four opponents, divisions could look like this:

NDSU, SDSU, USD, Northern Iowa and Western Illinois

Southern Illinois, Youngstown State, Indiana State, Illinois State and Missouri State.

Welcome to a new school year and with it, a new year of re-alignment, there’s no doubt though the talk of movement is just beginning at this level.

The Highs And The Lows

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The 2011-12 Athletic year is over for North Dakota State. Safe to say this one will be remembered forever, that’s what happens when you win a  national championship. Obviously the football team’s title will be the shining star of this year, but I wanted to rank the top 10 high moments and the 5 low moments of the year. These are all on-the-field/court/track/mat decisions and mine alone, feel free to disagree in our comments section.

HIGH MOMENTS

10.  Amy Anderson – Anderson had another banner year, winning the Summit League Championship for a second consecutive season and caps it off this week by representing NDSU and the US by playing in the Curtis Cup, the women equivalent of the Walker Cup.

9.  Track and Field – Don Larson and Ryun Godfrey did it again this year, but maybe more importantly they showed how good their teams are in front of the home crowd. With the Summit League Outdoor Championships in Fargo for the 1st time, both the men and women dominated, despite the loss of Antoinette Goodman, one of the Bison best sprinters, the women won a 5th straight outdoor championship, while the men made it 4 of 5, a true dynasty in the Summit League.

8. Volleyball – Kari Thompson’s first full year as head coach was a successful one, NDSU captured a third Summit League title in four years and returned to the NCAA Tournament.

7.  Softball – One of the 3 dynasties NDSU currently has going in the Summit League(Track and Volleyball the others), Darren Mueller’s team found a star in the making in freshman pitcher Krista Menke, had to survive a winner take all championship game with IPFW, then snap a 7 game NCAA Tourney losing streak by winning a thriller with Hawaii, a nationally ranked team. NDSU nearly beat the national champs, losing 3-2 to Alabama early in the season, a team that will be a huge factor next year.

6. Baseball – The team that in my mind had the biggest breakthru this year, it started back in February when the Bison shut down 5th ranked Arizona, the first win over a ranked team.  They followed that up with a 16 game winning streak, then knocked off mighty Oral Roberts in the Summit League Tourney, snapping a 37 game win streak for the Golden Eagles. The Bison also have bragging rights on their nearest rivals for the next year, sweeping UND and SDSU this year, going a combined 9-0.

5.  Stephen Monk – He came out of nowhere to have a dominant year on the mat for NDSU. Everytime Monk wrestled it seemed liked he pinned a guy, he finished with 13 on the year, and a 36-9 record and a NCAA berth. A guy to watch in 2013.

4.  Football Win over Northern Iowa – It was hyped as the biggest game in the history of the Fargodome (by me) at the time, and it lived up to the billing. Number 2 vs Number 3 in the country playing one another, NDSU had never beaten UNI, a huge crowd of over 18,500 at the Dome, and the Bison defense played one of its best games of the season, forcing three turnovers in a 27-19 win. NDSU moved to number one in the country after that game, and we witnessed a new era of fan at the Dome that day, one of the loudest crowds I’ve ever heard.

3. Men’s Basketball Team Starts 6-0 – Saul Phillips had one of the youngest starting lineups in the nation, with a freshman point guard and I think we were all surprised when they came back from San Francisco with a 3-0 record, especially when they lost to MSU Moorhead in an exhibition game (a loss that in my mind is a little more palatable, seeing how good the Dragons were this year) But then NDSU dismantled two teams from similar leagues, Green Bay (Horizon) and Fresno State(WAC) to open everyone’s eyes that this was the best NDSU team since the one that made the dance in 2009.

2. Football win over Georgia Southern - I don’t think it had the hype of the Northern Iowa game, but the storylines going in couldnt have been better, GSU cancelling a game with NDSU for this  year, then the Eagles coming to Fargo for the national semis. Again, another game where I’ll remember how loud the crowd was and I’ll remember how dominating the defense was against a offense that’s so unorthodox and the Bison had just a week to prepare for. More importantly, the game was on national TV,  and NDSU gave a performance to open everyone’s eyes.

1. National Championship Win over Sam Houston – For everything I said about the GSU game, the Sam Houston game took it to another level. The amount of fans that traveled to Frisco was overwhelming and then to see the performance that the Bison defense put on was again breathtaking. It re-affirmed NDSU’s dominance in football and put a capper on the Division 1 transition with a title. Perhaps the most startling fact of the 2011 Bison was the amount of sophomores and juniors that contributed and will be back for a potential repeat run in 2012.

THE LOWS 

These are subjective and totally my opinion and mine alone -

5. Baseball  loses two to Oral Roberts in Summit Title Game  -  I know most will say I’m being picky and for NDSU to be in that position is success itself, but to have two chances to close out the 14 time defending champs (I know they were on their home field) and not come thru, that will sting this team the entire offseason.

4. Volleyball loses 5-setters to Northern Iowa and Iowa State. The success in the Summit League has been well noted, but the volleyball team is still waiting for that breakthru win against a non-conference foe, they had 2 chances at it this past year, losing in 5 sets on the road at nationally ranked UNI and at home to top ten ranked Iowa State, NDSU is getting there, but needs a signature win.

3.  As dominant as baseball was against UND, two losses that fans will remember maybe more than the wins, volleyball losing to UND and the men’s basketball team falling at the Ralph to UND.

2.  As strong a start that the men’s basketball team had, the finish was that harder to take. NDSU limped to the finish line, losing 11 of its last 16 games, which included losses at UND, double-digit loss at UMKC and a 23 point blowout at SDSU, the Bison did make the postseason with a CBI berth but the finish of the year was tough to watch.

1.  The women’s basketball team struggles this year were epic. I know NDSU lost its best player in Katie Birkel before the year began, but the team had moments that were tough to watch, most notably to South Dakota State, 36 and 42 point defeats. The coaching staff has been revamped and after an 11-20 season, safe to say a rebound season is needed before more changes come.

So there it is the highs and lows, debate for yourselves, add your own suggestions!

Summit meetings: nothing new

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The Summit League is in the second day of its three-day annual June meetings near the league office in Chicago and so far, all is quiet on the membership front. Specifically, that would mean Oakland University.

Rumors of Oakland and the Horizon League hooking up have persisted for months with OU doing nothing to squelch them. Movement in the Horizon began when staple member Butler announced it was moving to the Atlantic 10 Conference beginning next year. When contacted Tuesday morning, NDSU athletic director Gene Taylor said, “Obviously membership is always a topic of conversation but there is nothing new other than to monitor it right now.”

Oral Roberts is leaving for the Southland Conference and Southern Utah found another home in the Big Sky Conference beginning next year. With Nebraksa-Omaha coming aboard, that will put the Summit at nine teams.

“Oakland is still in the league and we know we’re going to lose Oral Roberts and Southern Utah,” Taylor said.

A Historic Day

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Simply put that’s what today is for the Bison baseball team. They have already made history with yesterday’s thrilling upset 4-3 win over Oral Roberts, snapping the Golden Eagles 37 game conference tournament winning streak. Even casual baseball fans at the RedHawks game were asking me about the Bison game and were thrilled to hear about the NDSU win. This has been a process for Tod Brown and his staff, that started five years ago when he was hired and could culminate today with another historic win. When looking at the past five years since Brown took over maybe we shouldn’t be surprised that NDSU is in this position:

2008 – 15-30 (7-16 Summit)

2009 – 16-28 (10-14 Summit)

2010 – 22-30  (11-16 Summit)

2011 – 22-32 (15-12 Summit, made tournament for 1st time)

2012 – 40-18 (School record for wins)

What I see when I look at that are a couple of factors: more money for scholarships, equals better players that you are able to get. Maybe we should have known something was up when the Bison beat 5th ranked Arizona in Tucson in the 2nd game of the season back in Feburary. NDSU put 7 guys on the All-Summit League teams, how John Straka was not named pitcher of the year is unbelieveable and Tim Colwell is a player ORU would love to have. Fargo South’s Kyle Kingsley has been nearly automatic as the team’s closer. Zach Wentz has been the captain of this team and seen the low times and now enjoying the winning. And the future looks solid as well, Colwell is just a sophomore, Wes Satzinger another all-league player a sophomore and the team has a MLB draft pick in South’s David Ernst, just a freshman, who will be counted on big time next year. Brown has stocked his roster with young pitching, he’s bringing in 6 pitchers in next year’s class, and two of North Dakota’s better players in Mandan’s Aaron Janz and Bismarck’s Alex Bray.

Today is a day that go could a long way into re-defining the Bison baseball program. In some ways, the program already has been. But go ask the football, soccer, volleyball, softball and men’s basketball teams about making the NCAA Tournament. It puts you into a different stratosphere of attention and respect. A win today over Oral Roberts would create a buzz that this team has never seen before. Win or lose, NDSU has shown us that baseball is another sport that deserves our attention. First pitch today from Tulsa is at 1, NDSU needs to win just once, Oral Roberts needs two to advance. The Eagles have won 14 straight Summit League crowns, one way or the other this is the last Summit games they play, a historic day indeed.

Kory Brown

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First off what a weekend for the NDSU Spring teams. The men’s and women’s track teams continued their downright dominance of the Summit League, women make it 5 straight, men 4 out of 5. More impressive perhaps that the home fans got to watch these teams perform this weekend, they travel so much so to win this in Fargo has to be extra gratifying. Congrats also in order to Darren Mueller and his softball team, pushed to the limit in a winner-take-all game, junior Whitney Johnson came thru with a terrific performance and the Bison won a 4th straight Summit title. We’ll find out tonight who and where they’ll play (9pm ESPNU).

Now onto the newest member of the Bison men’s basketball team, Kory Brown from El. Brown is 6’4, a two-time conference MVP that averaged 16 points and 8 rebounds a game last year. Elgin head coach Mike Sitter told me today biggest reason why Brown was still available college coaches don’t know what position he’ll play.Sitter said coaches were not sure if he can play guard at the next level. Sitter was convinced that Brown is a impact player, he shot 60% from the field, 33% from 3. The most impressive stat that Sitter told me was that “when Kory steps on campus he’ll be the best defender there.” Music to Saul Phillips ears. Brown had offers from SDSU and Western Illinois, Sitter told me Brown was pleasantly surprised on his trip to Fargo, he’s 3rd member of 2012 class joining Brett VandenBergh from DePere an Dexter Werner from Bismarck. NDSU was the first school to offer Brown, Sitter will join me on Dizzo’s Den tomorrow at 6:45(970 WDAY)

Busy Basketball Day

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First have to start off with a hearty thank you to all of readers on the Bison Media Blog, we crossed over the 1 million page views mark earlier today, I know not everyone agrees with what Jeff and I post here, but we always appreciate the feedback, so thanks to everyone for reaching that milestone!

On to the news of the day, the Bison men’s basketball team will get another crack at a top level team. Two sources confirmed to me that NDSU will open next season in the Legends Classic taking on Georgetown either November 11th or 12th. The Legends Classic is a tournament put on by the Gazelle Group, same organization that also runs the CBI, the postseason tournament NDSU played in back in March. The field is pretty impressive, Georgetown, Georgia, UCLA and Sweet 16 team Indiana. Those four teams will advance (no matter what) to play in Brooklyn in the final four of the tournament November 19-20th. The remaining teams in the field; NDSU, Duquesne, James Madison, Liberty, UC Irvine (the Anteaters!) and Sam Houston State will play in a round-robin format on a neutral site. NDSU will play at Duquesne (which is in Pittsburgh), so they’ll play the Dukes and two other opponents in mid November. My choice would love to see the Bison play two of their football opponents from the title run, James Madison and Sam Houston State, JMU (12-20 last year) would be a good opponent out of a solid mid-major league in the Colonial. Duquesne (16-15, 7-9 in A-10) is a quality test for a team that will have some high expectations next season. The remainder of the field did not have good records last year:

  • Liberty: 14-18 (9-9 Big South)
  • UC Irvine: 12-20 (6-10 Big West; But they’re the Anteaters!)
  • Sam Houston State: 13-19 (7-9 Southland)

CBS Sports has put together a site for all pre-season tournaments, SDSU, Oral Roberts and UMKC participating in some, take a look.

Couple of interesting women’s Summit League moves on Wednesday, first Oral Roberts head coach Jerry Finkbeiner is leaving ORU to take the head job at Utah State. Interesting move here, especially considering he has the best player in school history back for her senior season (Kevi Luper), I was about to write best player in the league, but I have to remember ORU will not be in the Summit next season. Also Candace Whitaker has left UMKC to take an assistant job at Oklahoma State. Whitaker really turned around the Kangaroos, they were a shot away from beating SDSU in the Women’s Championship Game this year, they hired Marsha Frese, former Ball State head coach and sister of current Maryland head coach Brenda Frese. Frese has served as recruiting coordinators at Minnesota and Northern Illinois, has plenty of midwest ties, the Roos had a terrific 2012, going 22-12 and making the women’s NIT. New video blog coming later this week, again, thanks for getting us to a million!!

Bison Video Blog 3/14

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We decided to go old-School this week in anticipation of some big things coming to the blog over the next couple of weeks to get everybody ready for Spring Football. In this week’s version Jeff and I discuss the CBI, the merits of still playing and the Summit League in the postseason. Enjoy here!

Summit League predictions

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Well we all know that Kolpack won out on the FCS Predictions this fall, so let’s see who knows more about basketball! Here are our predictions for Sioux Falls. Just a reminder the Bison Media Blog team will be at the Tournament starting on Sunday, we’ll have a between-games show on Sunday afternoon to wrap up the women’s game and preview the men and then a postgame show with the men on Sunday night. Enjoy!

DOM’S/JEFF’s PICKS

WOMEN:

QUARTERFINALS:

1) SDSU vs 8) IPFW – SDSU/SDSU

4) NDSU vs 5) IUPUI  – NDSU/IUPUI

2) Oral Roberts vs 7) Western Illinois – Oral Roberts/ORU

3) UMKC vs 6) Oakland – UMKC/Oakland

SEMIFINALS: SDSU vs NDSU – SDSU/SDSU vs. IUPUI, SDSU, Oral Roberts vs UMKC – ORU/ORU vs. Oakland, ORU

CHAMPIONSHIP – SDSU vs Oral Roberts – South Dakota State/SDSU

MEN

1) Oral Roberts vs 8) IPFW – ORU/ORU

4) Western Illinois vs 5) NDSU – NDSU/NDSU

2) SDSU vs 7) IUPUI – SDSU/SDSU

3) Oakland vs 6) Southern Utah – Oakland/Oakland

SEMIFINALS – Oral Roberts vs NDSU – ORU/ORU; SDSU vs Oakland – SDSU/SDSU

CHAMPIONSHIP: Oral Roberts vs South Dakota State – SDSU/ORU