Bison to take on top mid-majors

Written by Josh Nelson Thursday, 11 December 2008 19:00

The Bison have had some tough games so far this year, but this weekend’s Drake Hy-Vee Classic might provide the toughest competition to date. The Hy-Vee Classic features a field that boasts some of the top mid-major in the country in Drake, Georgia Southern and Stephan F. Austin.

SFA is a talented team, the Lumberjacks are 4-2 on the season and were the preseason pick to win the Southland Conference. The Lumberjacks are also ranked 12 in this week’s Collegeinsder.com mid-major top 25 poll.

After having to go against two of the top guards in the Summit League last week in Robert Jarvis and Nick Stallings, NDSU guard Mike Nelson will have his hands full again in trying to contain SFA’s Josh Alexander. Alexander is a dynamic scorer that is dangerous from three point range where is shooting 48.8 percent this season.

Complimenting the perimeter game of Alexander is the inside game of 6’9” power forward Matt Kingsley who is averaging 16.3 point per game.  The combo of Lucas Moorman and Dejuan Flowers will need their best defensive performance of the season if the Bison are going to contain Kingsley in the low post.  

While SFA will be a tough match up for NDSU, the Bison seem to be coming together at the right time. NDSU had two big wins last week and in those games the team played some of their best basketball of the season.

Brett Winkelman also seems to be hitting his stride. Winkelman was named Summit League player of the week after averaging 26 points and 13 boards against Oral Roberts and Centenary.

The Bison also got a big game out of Dejuan Flowers against ORU. Flowers gave the Bison a huge lift against the Golden Eagles by scoring 13 points and sparking the team with a momentum-changing slam-dunk.

Although you would expect the big three of Winkelman, Woodside and Nelson to be putting up impressive stats, forward Michael Tviedt is shooting a blistering 71.8 percent. Tveidt’s shooting percentage is good enough for fourth in the nation.

The Bison will need both Tveidt and Flowers to continue their solid play if the team is going to do well against the teams they’ll see at the Drake tournament. After SFA, the tournament won’t get any easier with a potential match up against either Drake, or Georgia Southern.

Drake was an NCAA tournament team last season, and this season the Bulldogs are beginning to look like a tourney team yet again. Drake will enter the tournament with 7-2 record, which includes wins over New Mexico and in-state Big 12 rival Iowa State.

Although Georgia Southern is only 3-3 overall, the Eagles have defeated a solid Houston squad. The Eagles were picked to finish in the top half of their conference and feature a balanced scoring attack.

The Drake Hy-Vee Classic should provide NDSU with an opportunity to see where they stand against some of top mid-majors in the country. The Bison will tip off the tournament Friday at 5 p.m. against SFA.