THIS WEEK: The North Dakota State men’s basketball team plays its first two regular-season home games this week at the Bison Sports Arena (5,830) in Fargo. North Dakota State (0-1) hosts Minot State (5-1) at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 18, and Idaho (1-1) at 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 21.

TICKET SPECIAL: The North Dakota State University athletic department is offering a ticket special for this weekend’s games. The "Bison Pride Combo Pack" includes one general admission ticket for Saturday’s 1 p.m. football game against Youngstown State and one general admission ticket to either Friday’s 6 p.m. women’s basketball game vs. Wyoming or Saturday’s 4 p.m. men’s game vs. Idaho. For more information, call the Bison Ticket Office toll free at (888) 231-NDSU.

RADIO: WDAY-AM 970 and Bison Radio Network affiliates KQLX-FM in Lisbon and KPOK-AM in Dickinson will carry Wednesday’s game live at 6:40 p.m. (5:40 p.m. MT) with Scott Miller calling the play-by-play and Jeremy Jorgenson providing color commentary. Saturday’s game with Idaho will be joined in progress on WDAY following the conclusion of the NDSU football game against Youngstown State.

ON THE WEB: Live stats and live audio for both games will be available on GoBison.com. Live video of both games will be available by subscription to GoBison.com All Access starting at $7.95 or by subscription to SummitTV on TheSummitLeague.org starting at $19.95.

THE SERIES: Wednesday will be the 13th meeting between North Dakota State and Minot State in a series dating back to 1937-38. NDSU has a 9-3 lead in the series after a 117-84 win in the 2007-08 home opener. Minot State has not won a game in the series since 1947-48. ... Saturday will be the eighth meeting between North Dakota State and Idaho in a series dating back to 1924-25. NDSU has a 5-2 lead in the series after a 78-69 loss in Moscow last year. The Bison have won all three meetings in Fargo, including 71-64 in January 2006 and 79-59 in December 2006.

THE COACHES: Saul Phillips (Wisconsin-Platteville, 1996) is in his third season as head coach at North Dakota State with a 42-21 record. Phillips directed North Dakota State to its first Summit League championship and NCAA Division I tournament appearance in 2009. He 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 Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Lake Superior State and a graduate assistant at Wayne State in Nebraska for one year.

Mike Hultz (College of Idaho, 1993) has a 181-149 record in his 12th season as head coach at Minot State. Hultz’s teams have advanced to the Dakota Athletic Conference championship game two straight years and three times in the past five seasons. He was an assistant at Northern State for five seasons before moving to Minot State.

Don Verlin (Cal State Stanislaus, 1991) has an 18-17 record in his second season as head coach at Idaho. Verlin, an assistant at Utah State the previous 11 seasons, spent five seasons at Colorado State (1991-92 and 1994-98) and was an assistant for two Division II national championship teams at Cal State Bakersfield in 1993 and 1994.

ABOUT NORTH DAKOTA STATE: The Bison are 0-1 after losing their season opener 80-72 at Utah Valley last Friday. Guard Josh Vaughan played 38 minutes in his first start since 2007-08 and had career highs of 27 points, seven rebounds, seven assists. Forward Michael Tveidt, the lone returning starter from last year’s 26-7 NCAA tournament team, had 19 points and five rebounds. The Bison led 35-32 at halftime, but Utah Valley started the second half on a 15-2 run to go ahead for good. NDSU got within four points twice in the final 39 seconds on a pair of Vaughan layups, but Utah Valley made nine of its last 10 free throws to seal the win.

ABOUT MINOT STATE: The Beavers are 5-1 and have won four straight games over Great Falls twice and Montana State-Northern twice. Minot State has two starters back from last year’s 20-11 team that placed third in the Dakota Athletic Conference with an 8-6 record. Senior guard Mister Carney from Tulsa, Okla., is the top returner. Carney averaged 10.3 points and 4.1 rebounds per game last year.

ABOUT IDAHO: The Vandals open the season with three straight road games and are 1-1 after beating Utah 94-87 and losing 72-65 at Texas Southern. Idaho has four starters back from last year’s 17-16 team that placed third in the Western Athletic Conference witha 9-7 record. It was the first winning season in a decade for the Vandals, who were invited to last year’s inaugural CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament and beat Drake 69-67 in the opening round.

HOME OPENERS: North Dakota State has won five straight regular-season home openers, including a 117-84 victory over Minot State two years ago. Last year’s home opener was a 128-64 rout of Mayville State in which the Bison set school records for most points in a game and largest margin of victory. NDSU made 20 of its first 24 shots to take a 74-29 lead at halftime, a school record for most points in a half. Other recent home opener wins were against Furman in 2006, Hamline in 2005 and Northern State in 2004. Northern Michigan was the last team to beat NDSU in a regular-season home opener, 60-55 in the U.S. Bank Classic on Nov. 21, 2003.

EIGHT GAME ROAD STREAK SNAPPED: North Dakota State had an eight-game road winning streak snapped with the 80-72 loss at Utah Valley in the season opener. North Dakota State was 10-4 in away games last year and clinched its first winning road record since the 2000-01 team went 6-5 under current Iowa State head coach Greg McDermott. NDSU was 8-1 last year on the road in The Summit League. The 10 total road wins was a school record dating back to 1970.

TEAM TURNOVERS LOWEST EVER: After averaging more than 14 turnovers per game the previous five seasons, North Dakota State had its best year ever protecting the ball in 2008-09. NDSU’s average of 11.21 turnovers was the lowest average in school history back to 1985-86 when turnovers were first tracked. The previous bests came in 1994-95, when NDSU averaged 12.33 turnovers per game, and in 2000-01, when the Bison averaged 12.35 turnovers per game.

HOME ATTENDANCE BEST IN 14 YEARS: Average home attendance for Bison men’s basketball games more than doubled over the last four seasons from 1,654 to an average of 3,596 over 13 dates last season. That was the highest attendance mark since the 1994-95 season when NDSU averaged 4,153 fans and won its last regular-season conference championship. Current seating capacity inside the Bison Sports Arena is 5,830.

BISON PICKED FIFTH IN THE SUMMIT: North Dakota State was picked to finish fifth out of 10 teams in The Summit League according to a preseason poll of the league’s head coaches, sports information directors and media. Oakland received 34 of 35 first-place votes, Oral Roberts was picked second, IUPUI was third with one first-place vote, and South Dakota State was picked fourth. Oakland guard Johnathon Jones was voted Preseason Player of the Year. NDSU forward Michael Tveidt was named to the preseason second team.

THE SUMMIT LEAGUE: This is North Dakota State’s third season as a member of The Summit League, an NCAA Division I athletics conference that sponsors 19 championship sports. Other member institutions are Centenary College in Shreveport, La., Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Oakland University in suburban Detroit, Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Okla., South Dakota State University, Southern Utah University and Western Illinois University. NDSU is also a member of the Missouri Valley Football Conference and the Western Wrestling Conference.