THE OPENING TIP: The University of Minnesota Duluth will open up post season play in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference/Sanford Health Basketball Tournament against the Concordia-St. Paul Golden Bears on Wed. Feb. 26 in Romano Gymnasium.

SCOUTING REPORT ON CONCORDIA-ST. PAUL: The Golden Bears are coming into post season play having split last weekend and winning the past three of five games. CSP has beaten Minnesota Crookston (92-81), Wayne State (OT, 93-89) and Upper Iowa University (93-61) while falling to Augustana University (92-71) and Winona State University (74-60). After the split last weekend, the Golden Bears are finished up the regular season at a 9-17 record overall, going 7-15 when taking on NSIC opponents in conference play. The past two years, CSP has taken on Northern State University in the First Round of the post season tournament, losing both times. The last time the team won a post season contest was three years ago, when the Golden Bears took on the Minnesota State University Moorhead Dragons in the first round and took down the No. 19 ranked behemoth. This year they come into the tournament ranked as the No. 7 seed coming out of the Southern Division. At the helm of the program is Eric Johnson. Johnson is the Interm Head Coach for the Golden Bears and has been for this season.
Jordan Coblin has lead the way for CSP on the scoring front. This year, Coblin has averaged 16.7 points per game. There are two others that have been in double digits on the year, with Lee Higgins dropping 12.9 per game and Cody Carlson accumulating 12.7 per game on the season. Carlson has been the leader in rebounds per game, managing to grab 5.8 a night and Coblin has been right behind him with 5.0 per game. Higgins is 3rd on the team with 4.1 per game. While leading the way in scoring, Coblin has also been the primary disher, throwing out a team high 112 assists on the season, while the next closest (Carlos Barela) has dished out just 50. Coblin has also grabbed 22 steals on the year, second to Barela with 24. Jacob Shields has been the man to watch for on defense, swatting away a team high 24 blocks on the year. Higgins has lead the way in shooting percentage for the team, dropping 58.3% (95-163) shots from the floor and hitting 51.5% (34-66) of shots from beyond the arc.

THE SERIES: Over the course of the past decade, UMD has had its fair trouble with CSP, falling to them eight times to just four wins. However, in the past two matchups with these two teams, the Bulldogs have come out on top. UMD holds a two game win streak against the Golden Bears, and won this years matchup by a score of 101-92. This will be the first time these two teams will have met in the post season in the past decade.


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

SCHOOL	OVERALL	NSIC DIV.	NABC
UMD	20-8	2ND	NR
CSP	9-17	7TH	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 23.5 points a night (second in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference, 16th in DII), 1.00 blocked shots a night (ninth in the NSIC), has 13 double-doubles (ninth in the NSIC, 14th in DII), shoots 54.1% from the floor (fifth in the NSIC), grabs 9.6 rebounds per game (second in the NSIC, 20th in DII), has 657 points on the year (second in the NSIC, eighth in DII) and 269 rebounds (third in the NSIC, 10th 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 his third Northern Division Player of the Week in a row with it being his fifth on the season. Myer had a monster weekend, becoming UMD's all-time leading scorer against Bemidji State University. Over the weekend, Myer averaged 42.0 points a night while grabbing 15.0 rebounds per game. He shot 65.2% (30-46) on the weekend, going 47.2% (8-17) from beyond the arc and was 88.9% (16-16) from the charity stripe. He added three assists and three steals in 39.5 minutes a night. He also grabbed his second and third double-double's in a row on the weekend.  This is the Bulldogs seventh nomination this season. 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 Jay Guidinger as UMD's all-time leading scorer in the final regular season contest with Bemidji State University (Feb. 22), where he would take over as the leading scorer halfway through the game. He currently has 1,967 points in his career with at least one game remaining on the slate. Myer also sits fourth all time in rebounds at UMD (841) and is looking to move into 3rd over Jason Schneeweis (879). Myer is also first all-time as a Bulldog in free throws made and is on pace to be first in scoring average for a career. Myer has made 488 in his career and is averaging 19.3 over his four year span.
Senior guard Logan Rohrscheib has also made a name for himself in the Bulldog record books. Rohrscheib currently sits fourth all-time at UMD in 3-point field goals (225) and third in 3-point field goal attempts (560). He looks to move into third for 3PT FG's (Ryan Rasmussen, 236) and second for 3PT FGA's (Chris Stanley, 615).

LAST TIME OUT: The Bulldogs split the final regular season weekend, first by taking on the University of Minnesota Crookston, taking down the Golden Eagles by making a 22-point deficit comeback, beating UMC 90-84. UMD would then travel to Bemidji, Minn. to take on the Bemidji State University Beavers, where the Bulldogs would ultimately fall by a score of 83-76. Senior forward Brandon Myer became UMD's all-time leading scorer in their contest vs. BSU halfway through the second half. The Bulldogs finished out the regular season 20-8 while going 15-7 in the NSIC, good for the No. 2 seed in the Northern Division.

POINTS GALORE: UMD ranks first in the NSIC and 39th in DII in points per game, averaging 83.1 per game on the year. Brandon Myer leads the way with 23.5 per game, second in the NSIC (16th in DII). Drew Blair is sitting in 12th with 16.3 per game and Alex Illikainen is sitting in 22nd in the NSIC with 13.5.

3'S FOR DAYS: The Bulldogs sit in the top-3 for 3-point FG percentage (third, 39.0), 3-point FG defense (third, 34.4) and 3-point FG's made (second, 284 (avg. of 10.1 per game)). Logan Rohrscheib has been hitting an average of 2.2 3's per game (seventh in the NSIC), with Drew Blair hitting 2.1 per game (12th in the NSIC) and Brandon Myer hitting 1.9 per game (19th in the NSIC).

WHAT'S A MISSED SHOT: The Bulldogs are sitting 6th in the NSIC for field goal percentage, hitting 47.1 percent of their shots (803-1705). Three of the Bulldogs, Myer, Illikainen and Blair, are all in the top-15 for field goal percentage. Myer has shot 54.1 percent (fifth), Blair has hit 50.9 percent (10th) of his shots and Illikainen has hit 48.2 percent (13th) of his shots.
 
PASS ME THE ROCK: Minnesota Duluth ranks in second in the NSIC in assists, averaging 14.71 per game. Two Bulldogs sit in the top-25 in the NSIC. Trevor Entwisle sits in fifth (4.4 per game) and Brandon Myer sits in 20th (2.5 per game). UMD ranks third in the NSIC in assist-turnover ratio with an average of 1.36, Entwisle ranks in the top-10 in assist-turnover ratio with an average of 1.6, good for eighth.

DOUBLE UP: So far this season, Brandon Myer has managed to put up 13 double-doubles, which sits second in the NSIC  (behind Wayne State College's Jordan Janssen (16)) and 14th in DII.

ON TAP: If the Bulldogs are able to top the Golden Bears, they advance to the Sanford Pentagon for the remainder of the tournament. The post season is a do or die format, with a loss spelling the end of the NSIC Tournament. UMD also ranks in the top-10 for the region, and will also have a chance at an at-large bid into the NCAA Region Tournament. If the Bulldogs win the NSIC Tournament, they get an automatic bid into the Regional Tournament.