THE OPENING TIP: The University of Minnesota Duluth will finish out regular season Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference play this weekend. The Bulldogs will first take on the University of Minnesota Crookston (Feb. 21) before taking on Bemidji State University (Feb. 22) in the final regular season contest.

SCOUTING REPORT ON MINNESOTA CROOKSTON: The Golden Eagles are coming off of a huge weekend sweep. Coming into last weekend, UMC was riding a five game skid, falling to Minot State University (91-68), Southwest Minnesota State (77-63), the University of Sioux Falls (77-62), Minnesota State University (93-90) and Concordia-St. Paul (92-81).The Golden Eagles got their revenge on Minot State last Friday, taking down the Beavers 80-69. UMC followed up that performance with a win over the University of Mary 68-62. With those two wins, the Golden Eagles now sit at 11-15 on the year while going 7-13 in the NSIC. That 7-13 record is good for 6th in the Northern Division of the NSIC and 12th in the conference overall. Dan Weisse is in his 6th year with the program and as a head coach. During his tenure, Weisse is carrying a 56-116 (.326) overall record.
UMC averages 74.0 points per game this year. Leading the charge in the scoring department is Harrison Cleary. Clearly leads not only the Golden Eagles, he leads the NSIC and is ranked 3rd in the DII landscape in points per game, dropping an average of 27.2 per game. His 708 points on the year is 2nd in the nation. He manages to grab 3.2 rebounds a game and has played approximately 37.0 minutes a night. Cleary has also managed to dish out 111 assists on the year with 28 steals. On top of that, Cleary is shooting a solid 91.6% (186-203) on free throws and has mannaged to sink 83 shots from beyond the arc. He has been named NSIC Player of the Week twice this season and has had eight games where he scored at least 30 points, with three of those being 40 point efforts and one being a 52 point showing, Malcolm Cohen has been a steady No. 2 in scoring, putting up 10.0 points per game. He also is able to grab 3.7 rebounds a night.  Javier Nicolau has lead the team in blocks by a significant margin on the  season, swatting 37 on the year. The next closest on the squad is sitting at 20.

SCOUTING REPORT ON BEMIDJI STATE: The Beavers swept last weekend and have been playing well as of late. In the last five games, BSU has gone 4-1, beating Southwest Minnesota State University (78-64), Concordia-St. Paul (84-76), the University of Mary (82-53) and Minot State University (73-65) while only falling to Minnesota State University (87-60). After the sweep last weekend, the Beavers now sit at 12-12 overall, while going 9-11 in the NSIC. The late season push has BSU sitting just ahead of Crookston in the Northern Division at 5th, while sitting in 10th  in the conference overall. In his 17th season (8th with the Beavers) as a head coach in his career, Mike Boschee leads BSU. While heading the Beavers, Boschee carries a 98-121 (.447) record, and in his 17 seasons (9 with DIII Central Iowa), he carries a 213-236 (.474) record.
Nick Wagner has lead the way in terms of scoring this year for the Beavers. Wagner has managed to amass 15.0 points per game this year, grabbing 3.0 rebounds per ga,e in 33.8 minutes a night. He's in the top-3 on the team in assists on the year with 58 in total. Logan Bader has lead the way in terms of boards, grabbing 7.0 per game. He's been a solid scorer for the squad too, putting in 11.5 per game while playing in 35.5 minutes a night. He's scrapped together four blocks and 18 steals while dishing out 40 assists in the process.

THE SERIES: The Bulldogs have held their own when it comes to the Golden Eagles. UMD has been able to take the last two meetings, winning earlier this season (78-64) as well as the last meeting between the two last season. In the past five games, the Bulldogs are 3-2 against UMC and since the 2007-08 season, are 20-4. The Beavers have had more luck when it comes to the Bulldogs. UMD has been able to stay on top in the last five games, going 4-1 while currently riding a 4-game win streak against BSU. The Bulldogs took the matchup ealier this season agaisnt the Beavers, beating BSU 73-57. SInce the 2007-08 season however, the BSU holds a much more even 11-13 record against UMD.

HOW THEY RANK: Here is how UMD and its two opponents stack up with their records, rank in the NSIC overall and the NABC DII Poll.
 

SCHOOL	OVERALL	NSIC DIV.	NABC
UMD	19-7	2ND	RV
UMC	11-15	6TH	NR
BSU	12-12	5TH	NR

THE BROADCAST: The match will be carried through a live broadcast with live stats capabilities.

Broadcast: UMDBulldogs.com/watch

Live Stats: UMDBulldogs.com/watch and follow the live stats button

BEVO FRANCIS TOP 50: Senior forward Brandon Myer was named to the Bevo Francis Top 50 list on Sat. Feb 15.  This list consists of some of the top players from NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III, NAIA Division I, NAIA Division II, USCAA and NCCAA. The Clarence "Bevo" Francis Award is presented annually to the player who has had the finest overall season within Small College Basketball. Considerations will be season statistics and individual achievements, awards, personal character and team achievements. This is an incredibly prestigious award, as this award will only be given to one player within Small College Basketball per season.
Myer currently averages 22.0 points a night (2nd in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference, 22nd in DII), 1.04 blocked shots a night (9th in the NSIC), has 11 double-doubles (2nd in the NSIC, 17th in DII), shoots 52.6% from the floor (5th in the NSIC), grabs 9.2 rebounds per game (5th in the NSIC, 30th in DII), has 573 points on the year (2nd in the NSIC, 14th in DII) and 239 rebounds (5th in the NSIC, 17th in DII). Myer has made it to the second list, the first consisting of 100 names. The list will cut down from 50 to 25 on March 15. The finalists for the award will be named on April 4th with the winner being crowned on April 6.

NO. 6 IN THE CENTRAL REGIONAL: The Bulldogs were tabbed as the No. 6 rated team in the Central Regional of the first NCAA DII Men's Basketball Regional Ranking. Northwest Missouri State was tabbed as No. 1 followed by Southeastern Oklahoma State. Two other NSIC teams, Northern State (No. 5) and the University of Sioux Falls (No. 8), both made the top-10 in the Central Regional as well.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Senior forward Brandon Myer snagged back to back NSIC Northern Division Player of the Week the past two weeks, this being his 4th time this season winning the award, with it being UMD's 6th Player of the Week nomination. Myer averaged 11.0 rebounds in two contests, while scoring 38.0 points per night. Senior forward Alex Illikainen has also won the nomination twice this season.

BREAKING RECORDS: Senior forward Brandon Myer has been a star player in his past three seasons for UMD and has continued that throughout is fourth season with the Bulldogs. Myer passed Mike Patterson for 2nd on UMDs' all-time scoring leaders on Feb. 14 against Northern State University. He currently has 1,883 points in his career and is chasing a three time NSIC Player of the Year in Jay Guidinger for No. 1 all-time at UMD. Guidinger finished with 1,953 points in his career. Myer also sits 4th all time in rebounds at UMD (811) and is looking to move into 3rd over Jason Schneeweis (879). Myer is also 1st all-time as a Bulldog in free throws made and is on pace to be 1st in scoring average for a career. Myer has made 472 in his career and is averaging 18.8 over his four year span.
Senior guard Logan Rohrscheib has also made a name for himself in the Bulldog record books. Rohrscheib currently sits 4th all-time at UMD in 3-point field goals (224) and 3rd in 3-point field goal attempts (549). He looks to move into 3rd for 3PT FG's (Ryan Rasmussen, 236) and 2nd for 3PT FGA's (Chris Stanley, 615).

LAST TIME OUT: The Bulldogs had a split weekend, first falling to the No. 1 seed in the NSIC (tied with Sioux Falls) in Northern State (85-73) before coming back the next night to take down the No. 3 seed in the Northern Division in Minnesota State University Moorhead (99-86) on Senior Night. With the split,  the Bulldogs move to a 19-7 record on the year and a 14-6 NSIC record. UMD sits No. 2 in the Northern Division while sitting in a two way tie for 3rd place in the NSIC overall with Upper Iowa University.

POINTS GALORE: UMD ranks 1st in the NSIC and 43rd in DII in points per game, averaging 83.1 per game on the year. Brandon Myer leads the way with 22.0 per game, 2nd in the NSIC (22nd in DII). Drew Blair is sitting in 13th with 16.0 per game and Alex Illikainen is sitting in 21st in the NSIC with 14.0.

3'S FOR DAYS: The Bulldogs sit in the top-3 for 3-point FG percentage (2nd, 39.9), 3-point FG defense (2nd, 33.6) and 3-point FG's made (2nd, 268 (avg. of 10.3 per game)). Logan Rohrscheib has been hitting an average of 2.3 3's per game (6th in the NSIC), with Drew Blair hitting 2.0 per game (13th in the NSIC) and Brandon Myer hitting 1.8 per game (24th in the NSIC).

WHAT'S A MISSED SHOT: The Bulldogs are sitting 5th in the NSIC for field goal percentage, hitting 47.3 percent of their shots (745-1574). Three of the Bulldogs, Myer, Illikainen and Blair, are all in the top-15 for field goal percentage. Myer has shot 52.6 percent (5th), Blair has hit 50.4 percent (11th) of his shots and Illikainen has hit 49.1 percent (12th) of his shots.
 
PASS ME THE ROCK: Minnesota Duluth ranks in 2nd in the NSIC in assists, averaging 15.08 per game. Two Bulldogs sit in the top-25 in the NSIC. Trevor Entwisle sits in 5th (4.5 per game) and Brandon Myer sits in 20th (2.6 per game). UMD ranks 3rd in the NSIC in assist-turnover ratio with an average of 1.38, Entwisle ranks in the top-10 in assist-turnover ratio with an average of 1.6, good for 8th.

DOUBLE UP: So far this season, Brandon Myer has managed to put up 11 double-doubles, which sits T-2nd in the NSIC with Northern State's Parker Fox and Augustana's Tyler Riemersma (behind Wayne State College's Jordan Janssen (15)) a and 17th in DII.

ON TAP: The Bulldogs will host the first round of the NSIC playoffs, with their opponent TBD. The first round will take place in Romano Gymnasium in Duluth, Minn. on Feb. 26th.