THIS WEEK: The North Dakota State men’s basketball team (1-2) is scheduled to make its first ever trip to UC Davis (2-2) for a 7 p.m. PT game Tuesday, Nov. 24, at The Pavilion (7,600) in Davis, Calif. NDSU returns home to host Wisconsin-Green Bay (4-2) at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 27, at the Bison Sports Arena (5,830) in Fargo. It will be a doubleheader with the Bison women, who play host to Ball State at 5 p.m.

RADIO: WDAY-AM 970 of Fargo will broadcast Tuesday’s game at UC Davis with Jeremy Jorgenson calling the play-by-play at 9 p.m. CT following the conclusion of the 7 p.m. Bison women’s basketball game at Minnesota. WDAY will carry Friday’s doubleheader beginning at 4:40 p.m. with Scott Miller calling the play-by-play and Jorgenson as color analyst.

ON THE WEB: Live stats and live audio for both games will be available on GoBison.com. Live video of Friday’s game vs. Wisconsin-Green Bay 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: Tuesday will be the first meeting between North Dakota State and UC Davis. Friday will be the sixth meeting between North Dakota State and Wisconsin-Green Bay in a series dating back to 1980-81. UWGB leads the series 4-1 after an 85-77 win in Green Bay in November 2007. NDSU won the only meeting in Fargo 85-73 in November 2006. The teams first met in the 1981 Division II North Central Regional semifinals, an 82-76 Phoenix win.

THE COACHES: Saul Phillips (Wisconsin-Platteville, 1996) is in his third season as head coach at North Dakota State with a 43-22 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.

Gary Stewart (La Verne, 1984) has a 66-112 record in his seventh season as head coach at UC Davis. Stewart is in his 17th year as a collegiate head coach with a 208-231 record. He was previously was the director of basketball services at UCLA under Steve Lavin and was an assistant coach for three seasons at Washington State.

Tod Kowalczyk (Minnesota-Duluth, 1989) has a 118-101 record in his eighth season as head coach at Wisconsin-Green Bay. Kowalczyk played college basketball at Minnesota-Duluth and moved onto the sidelines with the Bulldogs before stops as an assistant coach at New Hampshire, St. Anselm College, Rider, Rutgers and Marquette.

ABOUT NORTH DAKOTA STATE: The Bison are 1-2 after an 81-69 home loss to Idaho on Saturday. The Vandals went on a 7-0 run in the first two minutes after halftime and led by double digits most of the second half. Forward Eric Carlson led the Bison with 17 points and forward Dejuan Flowers had a game-high 10 rebounds. NDSU shot only 32.9 percent from the field compared to 57.1 percent for Idaho. Forward Michael Tveidt is the only starter back from last year’s 26-7 NCAA tournament team that won The Summit League with a 16-2 record.

ABOUT UC DAVIS: The Aggies are 2-2 after back-to-back wins over Winston-Salem State and UC Santa Cruz. Preseason All-Big West guards Joe Harden and Mark Payne return from last year’s 13-19 team that tied for seventh in the Big West with a 7-9 record. Harden was the Aggies’ top rebounder (7.2 rpg) and second leading scorer (14.8 ppg) last year. UC Davis is picked sixth in the Big West this year.

ABOUT WISCONSIN-GREEN BAY: The Phoenix are 4-2 after having a four-game winning streak snapped by Long Beach State 81-69 on Saturday. Guards Rahmon Fletcher and Troy Cotton, and forward Randy Berry are the three starters back from last year’s 22-11 team that placed second in the Horizon League with a 13-5 record and participated in the College Basketball Invitational. UWGB started its regular season with four games in four days, participating in the Hispanic College Fund Classic in Kent, Ohio. The Phoenix lost the opener to Alabama-Birmingham and beat Samford, Kent State and Rochester College. UWGB is picked to finish fifth in the Horizon League this season.

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.