Summit League Tournament Preview: NDSU and UND MBB/WBB Head to Sioux Falls

THE NDSU AND UND MEN/WOMEN HEAD TO SIOUX FALLS FOR THE SUMMIT LEAGUE TOURNAMENT.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KVRR)–The Summit League Tournaments tip off this weekend at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The NDSU Bison and UND Fighting Hawks men’s/women’s teams look to win the tournament for an automatic-bid to the Division I NCAA Tournament.

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UND MEN:

The North Dakota Fighting Hawks enter the men’s tournament as the three seed. It wasn’t long ago that the Fighting Hawks were at the top of the Summit League standings. This team strung together seven straight wins and this year they’re 2-0 in neutral site games.

North Dakota will take on Omaha in the first round Sunday night. UND lost on the road and won at home, splitting the regular season series with the Mavs. Game three of course will be at a neutral site down in Sioux Falls.

Head Coach Paul Sather feels that with how deep the Summit League is this season you can throw the seedings and regular season standings out the window. If the Hawks are going to make a run, it simply comes down to playing their best ball when it matters most and having the right mindset heading into the tournament.

“You look at this league this year, and you could honestly say, sometimes it’s coach talk to say, ‘this seed doesn’t really matter’ but I just think this league, the way it’s played out, it doesn’t really matter,” said Sather. “I think there are a lot of teams that really have an opportunity here with this tournament and we’re one of them. So, let’s go take advantage of that and be at our best and fight through anything and everything that is throw in front of us with some joy and some understanding that if you continue to fight with each other and for each other, you can accomplish something special here.”

Sophomore Forward, BJ Omot spoke about what the team needs to do well against Omaha on Sunday.

“Basically doing the same thing last game we played them,” said Omot. “I think we played them pretty well, especially on the defensive end. That is the most important part; playing defense without fouling is the biggest part because they get to the free throw line a lot; got a couple players.. and just keep running up the score, taking good shots, crashing the boards, rebounding and everything.”

North Dakota comes into the game 18-13 overall and 10-6 in Summit League play. In their two games with Omaha, NoDak lost in Omaha 79-61, then defeated the Mavs at home 99-78. The Hawks and Mavericks will tip off at 8:30 P.M. on Sunday night.

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NDSU MEN:

The North Dakota State Bison men’s basketball team did not close out the season the way they wanted to, falling to both South Dakota and South Dakota State in blowout fashion last week.

Head Coach David Richman spoke this week on what needs to happen this weekend down in Sioux Falls if they want to replicate last season’s success that saw them reach the Summit League Title game.

“A lot of things have to be different,” said Richman. “I think we’ve got some guys that are… banged up a little bit. We’ve got to make sure to get them healthy, but more so than anything, we got to make sure we’re present and locked in on our mental preparation. Our physical preparation this week and practice. People continue to speak to our successes in Sioux Falls. It didn’t just start when we got to Sioux Falls, it started in the week building up with opportunities to continue to get better. Especially after Thursday night and Saturday performance like we just came off, we got plenty of room to get better.”

Finishing at 8-8 in league play, the Bison own the 5-seed for this weekends tournament and they will play 4-seed St. Thomas. In the regular season, the two teams split their two matchups with the home team winning each time. Senior guard and Summit League honorable mention recipient, Boden Skunberg, spoke on meeting the Tommies for a third time.

“[We need to] just kind of settle down, control the game defensively,” said Skunberg. “They have shown that when they get hot, they are really hot, so just kind of limiting some of their transition points, those easy points and stay locked in on defense for 40 minutes.”

Coach Richman shared his thoughts as well.

“Just continuously being that better version of ourselves. [St. Thomas has] done a tremendous job. They’ve got a very fast, up-tempo offense and got a very pressure oriented defense. They do their things and they do their things extremely well. I think for us to be successful, we’ve got to be able to settle in and do that for a full 40 minutes.”

The Bison and Tommies will tip off at 6 P.M. Sunday night. The winner will have a date with the winner of 1-seed South Dakota State and Oral Roberts on Monday night.

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NDSU WOMEN:

The North Dakota State Bison enter the tournament as the 2-seed are are playing some great basketball during the final stretch of the season.

The Bison closed out the regular season winners in 8 of their last 9 games–the lone loss coming at the hands of the 1-seed, South Dakota State.

The 2-seeded Bison will play 7-seed Denver on Saturday. NDSU played Denver twice during the regular season and swept them with matching 21-point wins.

The Herd like the way they played in those two games, but know everyone is 0-0 entering the conference tournament.

“Everyone knows the tournament is whole different ballgame,” said senior guard Abby Schulte. “We just have to stay focused and take it every game at a time and not look too far ahead. We are taking it very seriously, but obviously [we want to continue]  what went well the first two times [we played Denver].

“It doesn’t really matter what the score was the first few times [we played Denver],” said Senior guard Heaven Hamling. “I think we just got to go in and play like we’ve never played them before and just give it everything we got.”

The number 2-seed is familiar territory for the Bison. A season ago they held that same seed and were defeated in round one by 7-seed Kansas city. The team says they aren’t thinking about last year.

“I don’t really think it’s in any of our heads,” said sophomore guard Elle Evans on last year’s upset loss. “I think that was last year. We are over that. It’s a whole different year, a whole different team this year. So, I think we’re just going into this tournament with a lot of confidence and we’re ready to show people what we can do down in Sioux Falls.

Head Coach Jory Collins shares the same sentiment. He says the team is not worrying at all about last season and says this team is better than a season ago.

“I don’t think there’s any question,” said Collins. “This is the best team that we’ve had here and in the five years that I’ve been here. If this team would have played last year’s schedule, we’d be 20-plus wins I think. As far as efficiency, and definitely scoring the ball, we are a better offensive team this year than we’ve ever had here.”

The Bison and the Pioneers will tip off at 12:30 P.M. Saturday afternoon. The winner will have a date with the winner of the 3/6 matchup between Oral Roberts and North Dakota.

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UND WOMEN:

Oral Roberts swept North Dakota in the regular season. UND was ranked fourth in the preseason polls back in the fall, but finished in 6th place in the conference standings with a 5-11 record in Summit League Play.

North Dakota has lost their last four games, but now comes into the conference tournament with a fresh slate as they look to make a run down in Sioux Falls.

“Best thing about college basketball is tournament time,” said head coach Mallory Bernhard. “I mean everyone looks forward to this time of year. It is incredibly exciting and records really don’t matter. I mean, yeah, it determines who we’re playing and who’s on that line across from us, but we have just as much opportunity as anybody going to Sioux Falls to do well and I think that’s the mindset our team is taking is– new opportunity. We’ve learned a lot. We’re gonna continue to learn a lot, but take advantage of what we have ahead of us.”

It’s a battle of the birds! The Oral Roberts Golden Eagles come into this one as the 3 seed; 20-9 overall, 11-5 in conference. North Dakota is 9-20 overall, 5-11 in conference.

Tipoff is scheduled for Sunday at 3 P.M. sown in Sioux Falls.