Modern day "Hoosiers" from North Dakota State

[Shockerman]

I don't know if anyone has followed this program much but after one of their kids dropped 60 in a game this year I read a story about them. Here is the situation. NDSU went DI five years ago and since there is a 4 year moratorium before schools are fully DI, their first 4 DI recruits elected to all redshirt together so that they would have a chance at making the NCAA tournament assuming they found a conference to play in. I will try to find the article if I can, but it talked about how the coach left it up to the new freshman to decide if they wanted to play now or redshirt. That was almost five years ago and these 4 seniors who are all small town farm kids from Minnesota and North Dakota have a shot at making the Dance by beating Oakland on ESPN2 tomorrow at 6:00 for the Summit league tournament championship. If they win, they will be the first program to ever qualify for the tournament in their first year of eligibility. They are trying to get a new arena built in Fargo for basketball and a couple of potential donors are holding out because of various reasons. Going to the Dance would go a long way towards getting them on board. On top of that, their point guard and Summit league player of the year (Ben Woodside) is getting some serious look from NBA scouts. Last time I looked he was projected in the second round. I realize the second round means nothing but you know it would be huge for him, the school and the state of ND. Anyways, I will be cheering them on tomorrow. Of course if they do get to the tournament they will be fodder for Pitt or UConn, but who cares, they will have made it there and accomplished their goals. Go Bison...

[Saluki123]

They are on the verge of becoming THE STORY of march madness this year.

If they win tomorrow, it'll be the first time a first-year eligible team made the ncaa tournament since the early 70s.

I have no idea if/when a first-year eligible team has ever won a game in the tourney. But it hasn't happened in decades if ever.

They won at Wisconsin when all these guys were redshirt freshmen. They won at No. 8 Marquette the following year.

I went to their game at Oral Roberts the other day. They play the right way and they're just beautiful to watch.

Here's a great story.
North Dakota State proves maturity pays off

[Shockerman]

I don't know if any of you guys watched this game or not but it was well worth it. NDSU was getting its ass handed to them for 35 minutes and were down by 14. They slowly came back and took their first lead with about minute left. After an Oakland Dunk to tie it Woodside nailed a jumper with 3 seconds left to win it. Great game and great story. Lunardi has them as a 13 seed and don't be surprised to see them pull the upset. They are loaded with the most important attribute any NCAA tourny team could have, excellent guard play.

Imagine playing for 5 years knowing you only had one shot to make the tournament and then pull it off. They are calling it the biggest sporting story ever in North Dakota history. Go Bison! Maybe we should redshirt Stutz next year so he and EO have 3 years to play together ........

[SubGod22]

This is a great story and a team I'll be pulling for!

[ShockTalk]

NDSU win makes it the first team in 5 years to win the Summit automatic bid other than ORU. Poor Scott Sutton. He's not even the biggest fish in a (very) little pond anymore. ORU was 16-15 overall this year and will be losing 3 Seniors who collectively played 89 MPG, scored 35 PPG (half of ORU's total), had 7 assists per game (all three were the top assist leaders), and had 12 RPG. Boy am I glad we have HCGM!!!

[ShockerFever]

No.14 North Dakota State over No.3 Kansas.

[Snapshot9]

NDSU must have started to play 'defense', because they sure weren't when I watched part of the game, and they were just chucking up 3's.

[ShockerGorilla]

No.14 North Dakota State over No.3 Kansas.

:good:

[RoyalShock]

Two of the officials for the NDSU game were Bo Boroski (I believe he's the controversial one from our game at SIU) and Mike Sanzere.

Oh, and Rick Hartzell officiated the CSU-Butler game.

These guys really get around.

[Rosewood]

For the 3 years NDSU has come to WSU for Baseball I have been impressed with their fan base. Fargo to Wichita is not a great trip.

[t7017s]

For the 3 years NDSU has come to WSU for Baseball I have been impressed with their fan base. Fargo to Wichita is not a great trip.

I agree.

[ShockTalk]

You'd rather go Wichita to Fargo?!?

:lol:

[t7017s]

I think I would just assume skip Fargo and ND as a whole. :lol:

[ShockerFever]

No.14 North Dakota State over No.3 Kansas.

Got the seeds and matchup right. I thought I'd point out I'm half right so far.

[BCSCat]

I would love to see NDSU be the latest Killer Bees to beat KU in the NCAA but I'm just not seeing it. We played Oakland this year and we rolled to an easy 20 point victory. NDSU barely beat them and Oakland was not a very good basketball team when I saw them earlier this year.

But, hey, weird things happen in March.