NDSU Men Take Three-Game Winning Streak to No. 16/13 Minnesota Tuesday Night

THIS WEEK:  North Dakota State (8-2) puts its three-game winning streak on the line against No. 16/13-ranked Minnesota (10-1) at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 11, at Williams Arena (14,625) in Minneapolis.  The game will be televised live on the Big Ten Network with Kevin Kugler calling the play-by-play and Shon Morris as color analyst.

RADIO:  KFGO-AM 790 of Fargo and Bison Radio Network affiliate KLTC-AM 1460 in Dickinson will carry Tuesday's game live with Scott Miller calling the play-by-play.  Coverage includes 20-minute pregame and postgame shows.  Live audio streaming will be on GoBison.com and the NDSU Bison mobile app for Android, iPhone and iPod Touch.

THE SERIES:  This is the 29th meeting between North Dakota State and Minnesota dating back to 1900-01.  Minnesota leads the series 26-2 including a 6-0 mark as Division I opponents.  The Gophers have won nine straight in the series, or 15 in a row excluding a 1976 forfeit.  NDSU's only other victory was 33-29 in December 1936.
Last Six Meetings, Division I
11/18/05 - at Minnesota 70, NDSU 57 (-13)
11/13/06 - at Minnesota 63, NDSU 49 (-14)
12/03/07 - at Minnesota 88, NDSU 56 (-32)
11/29/08 - at Minnesota 90, NDSU 76 (-14)
11/24/10 - at #15/17 Minnesota 84, NDSU 65 (-19)
12/22/11 - at Minnesota 63, NDSU 59 (-4)

LAST YEAR AT MINNESOTA:  Ralph Sampson III had 15 points, six rebounds and four blocks as Minnesota edged North Dakota State 63-59 at Williams Arena last Dec. 22.  Rodney Williams added 14 points and eight rebounds for the Gophers, who needed two free throws from Sampson with 13.8 seconds put it out of reach.  Taylor Braun had 13 points and 11 rebounds for North Dakota State and Lawrence Alexander added 11 points.  NDSU opened a 14-2 lead as Minnesota scored only two field goals in the first 11 minutes.  Sampson and Williams combined for 14 points on a 14-3 run to tie it at 19.  Minnesota led 32-29 at halftime and went up by as many as nine points early in the second half.  Braun had 10 of his 13 points in the second half, including a layup at the 7:48 mark that gave NDSU its last lead of the night at 53-52, but the Bison managed only two field goals the rest of the way.  NDSU had a 39-28 edge in total rebounds, including a 23-9 margin in the second half, but went 7 of 14 at the foul line.

ABOUT MINNESOTA:  The Golden Gophers are 10-1 overall after a 71-57 win at Southern California on Saturday.  Andre Hollins scored 14 points, Rodney Williams had 13 points and 11 rebounds and Trevor Mbakwe chipped in 12 points in 26 minutes off the bench.  Hollins leads four players in double figures with 13.7 points per game, Mbakwe leads the team with 6.5 rebounds per game, and Williams is second in scoring (12.9) and rebounding (6.3).  Five players who started at least 20 games return from last year's 23-15 team that placed ninth in the Big Ten with a 6-12 record and lost to Stanford in the NIT championship game.  Tubby Smith (High Point, 1973) has a 113-69 record in his sixth season at Minnesota and a 500-214 record in his 22nd season overall.

BISON AGAINST TOP 25 TEAMS:  North Dakota State has a 2-3 record against Top 25 teams in Division I play, including an 87-61 loss at top-ranked Indiana in the second game this season in the opening game of the Progressive Legends Classic.

NDSU ROLLS PAST UND AT FARGODOME:  Taylor Braun had 22 points and a career-high five steals to lead North Dakota State to its third straight win 72-52 over North Dakota Sunday before a crowd of 5,168 at the Fargodome.  Marshall Bjorklund added 13 points and TrayVonn Wright had 10 points, eight rebounds and three blocks for the Bison.  Mike Felt made three 3-pointers for nine points and Lawrence Alexander scored nine.  NDSU went ahead 30-24 by halftime and it was a double-digit game for the final 13 1/2 minutes.  The Bison hit three straight 3-pointers to make it 56-39 with 7:42 left and led by as many as 20 with 3:19 to go.  NDSU committed a season-low six turnovers and scored 12 points off 19 UND turnovers.  The Bison had a 34-29 rebounding edge including 18 offensive boards.

BRAUN TWO-TIME SUMMIT PLAYER OF THE WEEK:  North Dakota State's Taylor Braun was named Summit League Player of the Week by the league office for the second time in three weeks Monday.  Braun averaged 22.5 points and 6.5 rebounds per game last week.  He made 11 of 12 free throws and scored a game-high 23 points at Morehead State, and he led the Bison with 22 points and a career-high five steals against North Dakota.  He earned his first career award Nov. 26 after averaging 11.5 points, 5.3 rebounds and 5.0 assists over four games and being named MVP of the Progressive Legends Classic Pittsburgh Subregional.

BRAUN TIES 3-POINT RECORD:  Taylor Braun tied a school record with seven 3-pointers made in the 95-51 win over Omaha on Nov. 29.  Braun had 26 points and nine rebounds in the game and NDSU finished one shy of its team record making 15 of 25 shots from behind the arc.  Braun tied the mark held by several players including Mike Felt, who made seven against Centenary in January 2011.

BISON BLOCKING SHOTS AT RECORD PACE:  Already halfway to last year's season total of 108, North Dakota State has blocked 54 shots in 10 games.  NDSU's average of 5.4 blocks per game ranks 28th nationally and is on pace to break the school record of 5.0 bpg set by the 1991-92 Bison team.  NDSU has blocked at least four shots in 9 of 10 games with a season-low of three blocks at Green Bay and a season-high nine blocks at Morehead State.

BJORKLUND AMONG SHOOTING LEADERS:  North Dakota State forward Marshall Bjorklund does not have enough field goal attempts to qualify for the official NCAA Division I statistics, but Bjorklund's .671 shooting percentage is tied for ninth among all players nationally through Sunday.

SCORING DEFENSE:  North Dakota State has held 4 of 10 opponents to less than 50 points and ranks 27th nationally allowing just 57.5 points per game, which would be the best scoring defense in school history dating back to 1950-51.  The Duquesne and James Madison games marked the first back-to-back 40-point efforts by the NDSU defense since 1990-91 when the Bison did it against North Dakota (L, 28-49) and Omaha (W, 65-48).  Prior to this year, NDSU had held opponents to less than 50 points seven times in eight seasons of Division I basketball.

NCAA STATS:  North Dakota State ranked among the top 50 nationally in 10 categories in the third NCAA statistics report through Sunday, Dec. 9.  Individually, Mike Felt ranked 24th in 3-point shooting percentage (.462) and 28th in 3-pointers made per game (3.0).
NDSU in the NCAA Stats, all games through Dec. 2
19th - team 3-point shooting percentage (.402)
25th - scoring margin (+15.3)
26th - opponent field goal percentage (.369)
27th - scoring defense (57.5 ppg)
27th - total points (728)
28th - blocks per game (5.4)
43rd - fewest turnovers per game (11.8)
46th - blocked shots per game (4.9)
47th - winning percentage (.800)
49th - opponent 3-point shooting percentage (.285)

BRAUN MVP, WRIGHT ALL-TOURNAMENT:  North Dakota State's Taylor Braun was named Most Valuable Player and TrayVonn Wright was named to the all-tournament team at the Progressive Legends Classic subregional.  Braun averaged 14.0 points, 5.3 rebounds and 5.0 assists in NDSU's 3-0 run through the tournament.  Wright averaged 12.3 points and 7.3 rebounds.  Eleven of his 22 rebounds were on the offensive glass.

BISON WIN ANOTHER TOURNAMENT:  Non-conference tournaments have been a success for the Bison in recent years.  North Dakota State won the Pittsburgh Subregional of the Progressive Legends Classic with wins Nov. 19-21 over Youngstown State, Duquesne and James Madison.  NDSU went 3-0 last year at the University of San Francisco's Hilltop Challenge and 2-1 in the Basketball Travelers Invitational at Oregon two years ago.  NDSU has a 17-6 record in non-conference tournaments since 2005-06 including championships at Montana State (Dec. 2005), Marquette (Dec. 2006) and San Francisco (Nov. 2011).

BISON GET VOTES IN MID-MAJOR POLL:  North Dakota State received 22 and 21 votes in the first two CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Polls issued Nov. 26 and Dec. 3.  NDSU had not been listed since Jan. 16 last season.  The Bison were ranked for one week during the 2011-12 season checking in at No. 24 after their 6-0 start.

BRAUN ON PACE FOR 1,000:  North Dakota State junior Taylor Braun enters the Minnesota game with 876 career points and is on pace to become the 28th player in school history to reach the 1,000-point mark.  Braun is averaging 12.5 points over 70 career games.

BISON PICKED SECOND IN SUMMIT LEAGUE:  North Dakota State was picked to finish second out of nine teams in The Summit League according to a preseason poll of the league's head coaches, sports information directors and media.  Defending Summit League tournament champion South Dakota State (27-8 overall, 15-3 league) was the unanimous pick to win the league title with all 30 available first-place votes and 390 points.  North Dakota State had 321 points and got SDSU's vote for first place, Oakland was third with 310 points and Western Illinois fourth with 274 points.  IUPUI edged Fort Wayne by two points for fifth place.  Kansas City, South Dakota and league newcomer Omaha filled out the seventh, eighth and ninth spots in order.  NDSU had three players named to the preseason all-league teams.  Junior guard Taylor Braun was voted to the first team and junior forward Marshall Bjorklund and sophomore guard Lawrence Alexander landed on the second team.

SECOND POSTSEASON APPEARANCE:  Last year's College Basketball Invitational presented by Zebra Pen was NDSU's second postseason appearance since beginning Division I play in 2004-05 and the first since the 2009 NCAA tournament when the Bison won the Summit League tournament and lost to No. 3 seed Kansas 84-74 in the first round of the Midwest Region.  NDSU's first year of postseason eligibility was 2009 after a five-year reclassification from Division II that left the Bison out of the playoffs from 2005 through 2008.

STATISTICAL LEADERS:  North Dakota State's scoring defense of 68.4 points allowed per game last year ranked fifth overall in The Summit League but was the 12th best mark in school history over a span of 62 seasons dating back to 1950-51.  NDSU led the league in field goal percentage defense at .434 and field goal shooting at .488, which ranked seventh nationally.  Junior guard Mike Felt ranked 14th nationally in 3-point percentage at .431.

PHILLIPS SEVENTH IN WINS AT NDSU:  Saul Phillips is in his sixth season as head coach at North Dakota State and ranks seventh on the school's all-time wins list with a 92-69 record.  Phillips directed NDSU to its first Summit League championship and NCAA Division I tournament appearance in 2009, and was one of 10 finalists for the Hugh Durham Mid-Major Coach of the Year award.  A Bison assistant for three seasons, Phillips came to NDSU from Wisconsin, where he was director of basketball operations for three years under Bo Ryan.  He was an assistant for two seasons each at Milwaukee and Lake Superior State and a graduate assistant at Wayne State in Nebraska for one year.
NDSU All-Time Coaching Victories
1. Erv Inniger, 244-150, 1978-92
2. B.C. Bentson, 169-207, 1949-65
3. Bob Lowe, 141-102, 1933-46
4. Tim Miles, 99-71, 2001-07
5. Tom Billeter, 97-50, 1992-97
6. Marv Skaar, 93-69, 1972-78
7. Saul Phillips, 92-69, 2007-present

NDSU COACHING HISTORY:  NDSU's four previous head coaches have all gone on to bigger jobs and are all still actively coaching.  Tim Miles (2001-07) went to Colorado State and is now the head coach at Nebraska.  Greg McDermott (2000-01) went to Northern Iowa and Iowa State, and is now the head coach at Creighton.  Ray Giacoletti (1997-00) went to Eastern Washington and Utah and is currently an assistant at Gonzaga.  Tom Billeter (1992-97) went to St. John's and Texas A&M as an assistant coach and is now in his 10th year as head coach at Division II Augustana College in Sioux Falls, S.D.

BISON IN THE PROS:  Five former Bison have played professional basketball since the school began Division I play in 2004-05.  Forward Andre Smith (2005-07) is playing in Russia, guard Ben Woodside (2005-09) is in Turkey, and forward Michael Tveidt (2007-11) is in Spain.  Forward Brett Winkelman (2005-09) played in Italy and guard Mike Nelson (2005-09) played with the Sioux Falls Skyforce in the NBA Development League.

FIVE SUMMIT TEAMS IN POSTSEASON: A record five Summit League men's basketball teams made postseason appearances last March, eclipsing the high of three teams in 1990 and tying for third-most among mid-major leagues in 2012.  South Dakota State was in the NCAA, Oral Roberts made the NIT, North Dakota State and Western Illinois were in the College Basketball Invitational, and Oakland played in the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament.

THE SUMMIT LEAGUE:  This is North Dakota State's sixth year in The Summit League after reclassifying from Division II and spending three seasons as a Division I independent.  Other members are Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW), Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI); University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC); University of Nebraska-Omaha; Oakland University in Rochester, Mich.; University of South Dakota; South Dakota State University; and Western Illinois University.  The Summit League dropped from 10 teams to nine this year with the addition of Omaha from Division II and the departure of Southern Utah to the Big Sky Conference and Oral Roberts to the Southland Conference.