The University of Minnesota Duluth will open its season with six games in ten days -- five of which are on the road, beginning this weekend at a Central Region crossover hosted by the University of Central Missouri. The Bulldogs will take on the host Mules and East Central (Okla.) University this weekend before returning home next Tuesday night to host Northern Michigan University in their annual non-conference affair.

UMD, which finished last season at 16-14 overall and 12-10 in ther Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference, not only begins its the 2015-16 campaign with a non-conference slate taking place mostly on the road but out of the gates with 3-of-4 games against teams receiving votes just outside of the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) 2015-16 Preseason Rankings, including both opponents this weekend in Central Missouri and East Central and next Thursday's opponent, Michigan Technological University.

SCOUTING THE MULES | 2014-15: 25-7, 14-5 MIAA
Central Missouri (R.V.) was voted for a second place finish in the Mid-American Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA), one of three conferences to make up the NCAA II Central Region (along with the NSIC) ... the Mules finished second in the conference and ended its season in the second round of the Central Region Tournament a season ago, falling to NSIC foe Minnesota State University Moorhead ... Central Missouri graduated each of its four all-conference selections from a season ago ... junior swing man Kyle Wolf is the team's returning leading scorer, averaging 8.8 PPG a season ago while shooting 49.7 percent on the season (46.2 percent from three) ... Doug Karleskint is in his second season leading the Mules ... UMD and UCM have never met in either program's history.

SCOUTING THE TIGERS | 2014-15: 21-10, 13-7 GAC
East Central (R.V.) was also voted for a second place finish in the coaches poll for the Great American Conference, the third conference in the NCAA II Central Region, and fell in the league's championship game a season ago ... the Tigers dropped both of their exhibition contests against NCAA Division I foes Oklahoma State University and the University of Texas-El Paso ... ECU returns a pair of players who ranked in the top-20 nationally in three-pointers per game in senior guard Stirling Thomas and junior forward Braxton Reeves ... Thomas shot 40.4 percent from three-point range while Reeves was at 44.2 percent ... Ja Havens is in his third season at the helm of the Tigers ... this marks the first meeting ever between UMD and ECU.

SCOUTING THE WILDCATS | 2014-15: 9-19, 7-15 NSIC
Northern Michigan split a pair of exhibitions to start its season, knocking off NCAA III Finlandia University but falling to Michigan State University ... the Wildcats, which were picked eighth in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference preseason poll, will take on the University of Michigan on Friday night before opening the season officially against UMD ... NMU did not boast an All-GLIAC player a season ago but returns four of its top five scorers from a season ago including sophomore guard Jordan Perez ... Perez led the Wildcats in his first go-around averaging 11.6 points per game ... head coach Bill Sall is in his third season as the head man at Northern ... UMD and NMU are knotted at 33-33 in the all-time series after the Wildcats knocked off the Bulldogs 56-53 on the road last season.

FREE THROWS
LINKS TO WATCH
... vs. Central Missouri: Live Audio | Live Stats | Live Video
... vs. East Central: Live Stats
... vs. Northern Michigan: Live Stats & Video

The season tips Friday night in Warrsenburg, Missouri as the Bulldogs and Mules open play at 7:00 p.m.