NOT IN THE FACE!!! NOT IN THE FACE!!!: NDSU @ Oral Roberts Recap

Good Lord… I knew there was the potential for an upset on the road with this one, but I never in a million years would have predicted THAT… The Bison lost to Oral Roberts in Tulsa tonight by… by… excuse me one second…

… ugh… so yeah… they lost by 16. And it didn’t even feel that close. The Bison were absolutely and completely obliterated on the road.

It was an absolutely brutal start. It took the Bison 5 minutes and 30 seconds and 9 shot attempts before they made their first field goal of the game. However, even after opening the game 1/9 from the field things things hadn’t even gotten close to rock bottom. ORU looked pretty miserable from the start as well and the Bison found themselves down only a merciful 5 points at 9-4 at the first media break. Nothing was working from the beginning. For whatever reason LA was reeeeally off tonight, and the Bison just couldn’t find a second option to step up and fill the gap. We’ve known all year that LA was carrying the team, and if he ever had an off night it would be rough. I just never thought it would look like this… excuse me for one more second…

Anyway, in spite of his rough night I don’t blame LA at all for this one. The guy has carried the team all. season. long. If he’s only gonna have one off night all season? So be it man. For tonight, however, it meant bad bad things were about to happen all over NDSU’s face. Multiple guys tried to step up at various points, but noone ever seemed to be able to sustain it or push the team far enough to really get the Bison back into the game. Paul Miller hit the Bison’s first 2 field goals from the floor, making it look like the team had a little life in them, and even added a 3 but then he finished the half with only those 7 points as he cooled off.  Chris Kading put in some nice work, and even managed to get an and-1 on Denell Henderson, forcing him to pickup his 2nd foul of the first half and giving the Bison hopes for a run while he rode the pine for the duration of the 1st, but it never materialized. Dexter had some nice moves in the paint, but none of his shots would fall. To open the second half AJ Jacobson tried to make a move by himself and scored the Bison’s first 8 points out of the half, cutting the lead from 41-21 to 45-29… excuse me for a moment…

… ok sorry about that… but anyway, Jacobson’s efforts weren’t enough either. But you know who wasn’t struggling to score? Obi freaking Emegano of ORU… He had 23 freaking points in the first half (the Bison only had 21 as a team) and finished the game with 34. Ouch. The guy balled out. When the year started his name was in the same hat as LA’s for the Summit League Player of the Year race, and while LA likely locked that up by himself even with this loss, Obi certainly proved why he was in the conversation tonight. What made his showing even more impressive is that the Golden Eagles were without their other backcourt stud Korey Billbury so its not like the Bison couldn’t try to key on Emegano. However, nothing worked. And I guess “so be it” is all I can say to that. We’ve seen LA torch teams like this all season, and I for one have relished every moment of it so I guess when the tables are turned all I can say is nicely done sir.

(Photo Credit: Nick Schnelle, Columbia Tribune)

I guess things didn’t necessarily stay bad for the Bison all night. LA didn’t make his first field goal until 11:32 remaining in the game, but after that he finished with a respectable 11 points. The only problem I guess is that we’ve expected him to be superhuman (admittedly unfairly) all season long, so seeing him look “respectable” can be a bit of a let down. Moreover, Jacobson continued his great play of late with a respectable night of his own (especially when you consider the fact that nearly all of it came in the second half alone) and he finished with 15 points, 4 boards, 4 assists, and even a steal tossed in there (he did have 4 turnovers, but o’well… that was kindof expected on a night like this). And as a team the Bison even had some double digit runs in the second half which helped them cut the lead to 13 with 6 minutes remaining… but… i mean… it just was never gonna happen.

This was just a weird night… NDSU missed out on what felt like 40 points from gimme layups that somehow just never got over the rim. At some point it just became more strange than frustrating. We’d get 2 or 3 shots at it and they would just never roll into the basket. So I’m not sure that the play on the court was as brutal of a beating as the score line indicates, but still… that was no fun… i mean… seriously… there was so much of this…

There were some bright spots though. Coach Richman used the blowout as a chance to get some minutes for Brian Ishola in an attempt to further develop his bench so that was good to see. Even if this team doesn’t make a deep postseason run, there are enough core pieces on this roster to build a future team that DEFINITELY could do so, and I want to get as many reps in with the young guys as possible so we can accelerate that clock as much as possible.

In the end I’m just going to try to chalk this one up to a fluke beating. The Bison haven’t gotten housed like this all season long as far as I can recall. It was just a cold shooting night for Alexander, that derailed us early, and even though we turned into our old selves eventually we had just dug ourselves too big a whole in that start. Add into that the fact that Obi Emegano was having a career night against us, and I’m not sure there was any way the Bison were winning tonight. So be it. They’ve still got (at worst) second place in the Summit locked up and will be the #2 seed in the Summit League Tourney.

This game certainly won’t do anything to help our confidence. With a young team like this I worry that getting blasted in their final game of the season and losing out on (at worst) a share of the Summit League Regular Season Title (especially when they led this race for nearly the entire season) right before they head into the League Tourney will absolutely suck the life out of these guys. However, we still have some great veteran leadership on this team in the form of LA, Kory Brown, and Chris Kading who have been through these battles before, and I have absolutely no doubt that Coach Richman is the kind of guy to get his team ready to bounce back in their next game. It helps (a lot) that they’ll play one of the bottom 2 in the Summit in their first game to shake this game off (either Denver [who I definitely DON’T want to see again] or IUPUI [who I think we can beat] since SDSU would almost certainly be gift wrapped WIU in their first game now). However, they better get over things quick because all 4 of the top 4 teams in the Summit (SDSU, NDSU, ORU, IPFW) are good this year, and I wouldn’t be shocked to see any one of them win the Summit Tourney and punch their ticket to the NCAAs. So no matter who NDSU plays in those later games it will be a battle.

I still have faith that they can do it, because there isn’t a team in this league that the Bison haven’t beaten at least once this year. Moreover, the Summit League Tourney is played in South Dakota… much closer to home than this Oklahoma stint which should help. They might not win it all which would be disappointing, but by no means would mean this team has failed. They have exceeded expectations repeatedly this season, and I’m just thankful to have been around for the ride.

Image via NDSU Men’s Basketball Twitter https://twitter.com/NDSUmbb/status/552211481001861121/photo/1

The Finish Line: NDSU @ Oral Roberts Preview

Well folks the end is finally here. On Thursday night NDSU will play their final game of the regular season when they travel down to Oklahoma to take on the Oral Roberts Golden Eagles.

Now I’m not gonna lie, Oral Roberts has had a pretty disappointing season by their standards in their first season back in the Summit. They were definitely among the top teams in the league and are still sitting in 4th place at 8-6 as we speak, but really NDSU (surprisingly) and SDSU (unsurprisingly) have run away with the league this year, largely leaving the other two top contenders (IPFW and ORU) in the dust. That being said, they are still a team to be wary of with some very good pieces (Korey Billbury, Denell Henderson, Obi Emegano) to be scared of. They could easily beat NDSU, ESPECIALLY at home, which would really put a damper on things for the Bison heading into the Summit League Tournament March 7th – 10th.

For NDSU’s part, however, I’m almost fine no matter what the result is. Twenty wins is generally the threshold for a successful college basketball season. The fact that NDSU has locked up that floor with one game left to play is a great feeling for me as a fan. I knew NDSU had a lot of great pieces left coming back from last year’s Round of 32 Tourney team (LA and Kory Brown were starters on that team for instance) but the real problem was going to be getting the other admittedly talented but woefully inexperienced players leftover to fill the shoes of the veritable giants for seniors we had departing (Taylor Braun, TrayVonn Wright, Marshall Bjorklund).

(Photo Credit: David Samson, FNS)

So its not that I expected the Bison to be bad. Far from it as I knew young guys such as Carlin Dupree and AJ Jacobson could play at a D1 Collegiate level, but I had no idea they could produce this quickly and be this effect. Moreover, you had guys like Paul Miller come completely out of left field to became and every game contributor as a true freshman. So long story short this season was full of unexpected and happy surprises as first year coach Dave Richman started off his college coaching career with a 20 win season. The first of many to come hopefully. But the bigger picture here for me personally is the fact that NDSU season thus far has already been a resounding success. Obviously I want the Bison to win Thursday night, but no matter what happens in that game, or even what happens in the Summit League Tournament down in South Dakota next month, this season has been a spectacular success, and provides us with a great foundation upon which Coach Richman can build for the future.

(Brendan Maloney/USA TODAY Sports)

That being said, let’s just freaking win this thing, and at least earn a share of the Summit League title, shall we? The Bison and Jackrabbits are tied atop the league at 12-3 in conference each, but the Jackrabbits played, and won, and extra game this year giving them the overall edge on the Bison at 21-8 (the Bison are 20-8). SDSU has far and away the easier game to close out the season with a finale at USD, but the Bison have already seen first hand how tough that crowd can be on a visiting team, and with this being a rivalry game for the Rabbits and the Coyotes, an upset win for USD isn’t out of the question at all. So, as long as NDSU takes care of buisiness in Oklahoma, the dream of an outright league title is still alive.

That’s easier said than done, however, as the Bison learned earlier this season in Fargo when ORU erased a 13 point Bison lead (26-13 Bison) to take a 5 point lead themselves (34-29 ORU) all within a 6 minute span to close out the first half. The Bison absolutely dominated Oral Roberts for the first 12 minutes of the game with only 1 ORU player really performing (Power Forward Denell Henderson) and keeping his team alive. Then, at around the 8 minute mark in the first half, ORU exploded on a 21-3 run (largely on the backs of guards Korey Billbury and Obi Emegano) and very well could have knocked off the Bison at home. In the end that game proved to be the first of many examples of just how mentally tough Dave Richman’s team is this season, and the Bison were able to grind out an impressive 72-66 win in Scheels Arena and maintain their place atop the Summit League standings.

(Photo Credit: David Samson and the Dickinson Press http://www.thedickinsonpress.com/sports/3647093-alexander-bison-beat-golden-eagles )

This time around, however, there will be no home crowd to help will the Bison back into the game if they have a mental lapse that costs them a big ORU run, and they’ll need to be performing at the peak of their abilities the whole game to block out the crowd while still contending with ORU’s incredibly talented pair of backcourt juniors and their senior big man. In that first meeting, those 3 were essentially the only players on the floor for ORU, so if they get ANYTHING out of their bench in this game it will be a completely different story for the Bison. They have a steep road to climb in this one to say the least.

And all that’s before you calculate in fatigue from the long journey southward, the lingering injury woes of Kory Brown, and the long season’s wear and tear which has apparently really hurt our two big men Dex and Chris in the last couple games. This game is definitely winnable, but all the cards are stacked against the Bison this time. Still though, there’s too much on the line, and this team has proven themselves to be too mentally tough for me to give up on them before the game even starts. They could easily lose this one on the road, but I could just as easily see some more late game heroics from LA, and with a little luck and a little help from USD we could be celebrating a Summit League Regular Season title in a few days. [My approximate reaction seen below]

 

Image via Bison Illustrated http://www.bisonillustrated.com/2014/03/brauns-late-game-heroics-propel-bison-ncaa-tournament/

Only time will tell on that front, but as far as the rest of this season is concerned it has been an absolute joy to follow this team all season long, and I can’t wait to see where all these guys end up in the coming years, whether its graduation (for LA) or more basketball for the rest of them, I can’t imagine anything but happy possibilities for the Bison Men’s basketball program, which is a great way to feel at the end of the season, after the uncertainty with which it started (losing Coach Phillips and the majority of last year’s major contributors in one fell swoop). The future is coming faster than I ever imagined, and it certainly looks bright. So to the 2014-15 Bison, no matter how this thing ends, I applaud you, and propose a toast to your bright future.

Cheers gents.