THE OPENING TIP

The UMD men's basketball team (12-4 overall, 8-2 NSIC) will play host to a full slate of opponents for the first time in the new year this weekend. The Bulldogs first welcome Upper Iowa to town on Friday, Jan. 13 at 7:30 p.m. for Pack the Gym Night before Winona State takes a visit to Romano on Saturday, Jan. 14 at 5:30 p.m. for 80s/Blackout Night.

 

LAST TIME OUT

With this weekend's action taking place in Romano, UMD's perfect 6-0 mark in conference road contests will inherently live to fight another day. It's an impressive feat the Bulldogs built upon in a road trip through Minnesota last week- but they certainly had to work for it.

UMD's first stop found it in St. Paul for a matchup against Concordia. The Golden Bears entered this game with a 3-11 record overall, a 1-7 tally through the early stages of their NSIC slate. The Bulldogs, meanwhile, were 10-4, 6-2 in-conference. Early in Friday's contest, these numbers seemed to track. UMD's lead grew to as high as seven in the first half at a score of 18-11 with 11:39 left until halftime. Still, though… Concordia had hung around. Soon, the Golden Bears would be rewarded for their perseverance.  Enter Roy Grisby. Grisby had entered Friday's game 2-12 from three on the season. Across four attempts from deep in the first half, he was… 4-4. This was a massive part of the explanation behind the 40-34 lead Concordia took with it into the break. If you're keeping score at home, that means that the Golden Bears had closed the first half on a 29-16 run.

Concordia's lead would grow as high as eight early in the second half at 44-36. That lasted exactly one minute and 16 seconds. That's because the Bulldogs came out of the break with a purpose- and a noticeable one.  For its efforts, UMD suddenly found itself tied at 44 with 17:15 left.  The Bulldogs would even retake the lead at 47-46. And once they regathered that advantage at 57-55 with 8:08 remaining, they'd never lose it. UMD's lead would even peak at 10 at 72-62 with less than five minutes on the clock.

Still, as the 78-75 final score would indicate, the Golden Bears would continue to battle. Theirs was simply an issue of time- there's only so much of it in a game. And when you find yourself in such a deep hole with so few ticks remaining, the odds are stacked against you. Concordia had fought valiantly- at one point, it even seemed as if they might've had the contest under wraps. It was a performance for the team to build upon, but it would not result in a victory. Instead, UMD started its roadtrip with a comeback W.

A big reason why? Joshua Brown. The junior guard was  instrumental for the Bulldogs on Friday- especially in their efforts in the second half. He closed with a season-high of 21 points on 7-11 shooting from the field and 5-8 shooting from three.

No telling of the events of Saturday's game in Mankato would be complete without a recounting of the Great Three-Point Shower of 2023. The Mavericks sank five of their first six attempts from beyond the arc, an efficiency rate of 83.3%. Somehow, in spite of that, UMD was still within reach once the storm had settled, down just six at a score of 17-11 with 15:35 still to go in the half. That perseverance didn't go to waste- UMD would answer with a 16-6 run to secure a 29-25 advantage of its own with 4:57 left until the break. The teams would trade blows in that time, but the Bulldogs would end up on top, leading 41-38 after 20.

At a score of 47-47, UMD really flipped the script. A sudden 7-0 burst finally provided the Bulldogs with some real distance for the first time all game. And though there was still 15:35 on the clock, UMD would be able to hold Minnesota State to a sort of stalemate in this time that benefited the Bulldogs' interests quite well.

For the most part, at least. With just 5:49 remaining, the Mavericks were suddenly down just two at a score of 73-71. UMD's response? Yet another 7-0 run. This one would essentially do Minnesota State in for good. The Bulldogs would go on to take the game 85-76 and sweep their way through yet another road weekend.

If you thought Brown was good on Friday… try his Saturday statline on for size. The guard immediately outdid himself with 22 points Saturday on 8-12 shooting from the field and an even 3-6 shooting from deep. He paired this total with four rebounds and two steals.

 

RANKINGS ROUNDUP

Though this wasn't the case in the most recent D2SIDA Poll, UMD did receive votes in this week's NABC Coaches Poll. The Bulldogs bumped up from No. 8 to No. 7 in the D2SIDA's Central Region Rankings.

 

STATS STATUS REPORT

Blair still leads all Bulldogs in scoring so far this season, averaging 20.4 points a game. He also leads the team in assists per game at 2.44. Charlie Katona (13.6 PPG), Austin Andrews (12.3) and Joshua Brown (11.9)  round out UMD's list of double-digit averagers. Andrews pairs his scoring tallies with a team-high 7.1 rebounds a night

You can find standout shooting efficiency both in the starting five and on the bench for the Bulldogs. Andrews, for example, is working at an eyebrow-raising clip of 60% from the field so far this year on 135 attempts. Katona is also shooting above 50%, going 54.1% on the season through 133 shots. A few key rotational pieces are also working at better-than-a-coin-flip shooting odds right now. It may be on a small sample of 39 field goal attempts, but Lincoln Meister actually leads the team in precision at 64.1%. Mattie Thompson's gone 56.1% from the field through 41 shots. 

As a team, trends we've seen with this UMD squad all year continue to hold in terms of its national standings in the world of stats. The Bulldogs still operate an upper-echelon offense, their 82 points per game being good enough for first in the NSIC and 42nd in the country. And they're still the cream of the crop when it comes to getting to the line, standing at first in the conference and 11th in the nation in average free throw attempts with 24.5.

 

BLAIR'S SCORING FLAIR 

Romano has seen few athletes quite like Blair.

Oftentimes, sentiments like this can be thrown around a little too loosely, perhaps too prematurely. Here, it's not really a sentiment at all- it's a fact. 

One of the keys to being able to prove anything is being able to replicate it. In sports, it's no different. Players can have great spurts, memorable hotstreaks, but for a player to truly be great, they have to be able to be that way for more than just a month. In all four of the seasons that Blair has played college basketball (including what he's done so far this year), he's averaged double-digits for scoring. Across 90 games of competition, the average works out to be 18.3 points a game. 

And from a pure production standpoint, so far this year, the guard's been at his very best. If his current average holds, it'd be the first time he's ever closed a season scoring 20+ points a night.

Needless to say, Blair passes the replication test. And his ability to do so serves him well in another field used to measure the value of a player: legacy.

1626 points. That's how many Blair has scored so far in his career. It's almost a silly number- your first instinct might be to start trying to think of historical events from centuries ago when you see it. Among the sea of equally hard-to-fathom point totals that is UMD's all time scoring list, 1626 resides at No. 7. 

Blair could never touch a basketball as a Bulldog again and be remembered as one of the more prolific scorers his school has ever seen. There's still half of a season remaining for him to work with.

So it's time to start measuring the distance between Blair and the figures that lie ahead of him. Currently situated at No. 6 is Dave Baker, a Bulldog great from the late 50s/early 60s that put up 1694 points in his four-year campaign. That's a 68-point gap. At No. 5 is Josh Quigley, who scored 1718 points from 1996-2000. That's 92. And that's just to crack the top five- from there, Blair would still have runway to work with to move up even further.

But let's not get too far ahead of ourselves. For now… this is certainly something to monitor.

 

WHAT'S UP NEXT FOR ANDREWS

Speaking of things to keep an eye out on… have you ever watched Andrews grab a rebound?

Going to venture to say that you have- after-all, he's done it 482 times across his two-and-a-half season career so far.  Just 18 more until the invitation to the 500-board club hits his inbox. 

Follow-up question- ever seen Andrews score a basket? 

We're even more confident that this must be true. The junior forward currently sits at 896 career points with plenty of basketball left to be played. Just needs 104 to make a millennium's worth of scoring. Averaging 12.3 points a game so far this year, odds are he gets there before the season's up. 

 

SCOUTING REPORT ON UPPER IOWA (9-7 OVERALL, 6-4 NSIC)

 

COACHING CONVO

One name has helped to oversee the last decade of men's basketball in Fayette: Brooks McKowen.

Well, close to a decade. Through nine seasons and some change in the form of his brief 2022-23 resume, McKowen's posted a 159-123 overall record. That's good for a winning percentage of 56.4%. Through those nine completed campaigns so far, McKowen's teams have only posted a losing record twice. Funny enough… that's exactly how many times the Peacocks have made the NCAA Tournament under McKowen's watch. A bit of a yin-and-yang effect happening there.

 

2021-22 IN A NUTSHELL

Upper Iowa's best run during this stretch resided in one of those tournament-qualifying seasons- and you don't have to look too far back in the calendar to find it. Just last year. McKowen and company went 26-6, an impressive 18-4 in NSIC play. That latter mark was good enough to see the Peacocks finish second in the NSIC overall. All-told, this was more than just a highlight of the McKowen era- it's the most prolific campaign Upper Iowa's ever had at the Division II level. It was capped off by the Peacocks' first ever DII NCAA Tournament win in their first round matchup against Central Oklahoma. 

 

RUSHING THROUGH THE RANKS

Even with all of that in mind, there's still more to be said about McKowen and his standing in Upper Iowa lore. That 154 wins mark? It's already second in school history. McKowen sits behind only Bill Prochaska in this regard, who ended his tenure in Fayette with 194 victories to his name. The thing is… it took Prochaska 21 seasons to get there. Something tells me that if McKowen sticks around anywhere near that long, someone might have to dust off the record books.

 

ONWARDS AND UPWARDS

Two key departures from last season's historic effort posed some surefire obstacles between McKowen and steady progress towards the throne of Fayette's all-time winner. 

It'd been two grad students that had played pivotal roles for that Peacock squad. They did about as much as anyone could have asked for on their way out. Let's start with Joe Smoldt. The guard's fifth and final season in Fayette was his best yet. He averaged a team-leading 18 points and added 2.7 assists and 4.2 rebounds to the mix as well. Our second case study in Jaresse Williams wasn't all that far behind. Williams scored 17.2 points a game while being a menace from beyond the arc, shooting 40.5% from three. He also averaged five boards.

It was a quintessential example of leaving it all out on the floor. But a big part of that phrase is, well, having to leave the floor. In the place of Smoldt and Williams sat a sizable void ahead of the Peacocks' 2022-23 campaign. 

 

HEADS-UP FOR HILMER

Oftentimes, teams look to fill these kinds of holes from within, banking on players already in-house to make strides with increased opportunities.

Textbook example: Jake Hilmer's 2022-23 season.

Even last year, Hilmer was a notable force on a notable team. The then-junior guard put up 16.5 points a night (third on the team) while still being able to dish out 3.9 assists in the process, too. A bigger role this season has equated to bigger numbers in each of these fields. Hilmer's averaging a cool 21.3 points a game now. What's happened to his passing touch in the face of this rise in point production? That's improved, too. The guard now tallies 5.56 dimes a day, also a team-high mark.

Hilmer is Upper Iowa's leading scorer- in fact, he's one of the most productive players in the nation. The guard sits at sixth in the country in points scored this year with 341. One thing's for sure- Hilmer certainly plays like a lead option. His 260 field goal attempts don't just land him at first in the conference- that's the second highest mark in all of DII men's basketball. To his credit, though, all that shooting is far from unwarranted. Hilmer's cashed in on 118 of those buckets- that's third in the NSIC and 10th overall.

 

PUTTING THE "UPPER" IN UPPERCLASSMEN

As Hilmer has made his rise in production for the Peacocks this year, so too have a few of his fellow elder statesmen. 

Consider Lucas Duax. Last year, Duax was a consistent, precise piece to the Peacocks' puzzle. He averaged 9.7 points on 55.4% shooting from the field to pair with four rebounds. To craft Duax's 2022-23 statline, you can start by taking that old scoring average and just about doubling it. The redshirt-senior's potting 17.7 points a night right now. And the thing is… he hasn't lost a step in terms of efficiency. Duax is still shooting 54.9% from the field despite the increase in workload. And he can still rebound, too. The guard's grabbing 5.1 of those a game now. And we still haven't covered his defensive prowess. Like steals? Duax is good for 2.31 of those a game. That's the best rate in the conference and the 17th best in the country.

Did someone say something about doubling scoring output? Good timing ahead of a conversation about Nick Reid. 

Reid cracked the top-five in points per game for the Peacocks last year with 6.8. This season, his standing on the scoring podium hasn't much been in doubt. Through 16 games, Reid has averaged 13.5 points a night.

But what made the forward all-the-more valuable was his ability to contribute offensively while leading the charge on the boards. Reid's 6.3 rebounds a night last season was tops on the team. Fear not- his abilities around the boards haven't gone anywhere. Actually… he's averaging 9.1 boards a game now. That's the best rate on the team, but it's also second in the NSIC, 26th in the entire country. Reid has quickly developed into a player that might just be able to finish his junior year averaging a smooth double-double. Most teams would take that.

 

SCOUTING REPORT WINONA STATE (9-6 OVERALL, 4-6 NSIC)

 

COACHING CONVO

Seldom has Todd Eisner ever seen anything but success.

Before finding his way to the NSIC, Eisner enjoyed a 17-year stint in the NAIA. Just about everything he touched at that level turned to gold. In his first head coaching gig at Viterbo, Eisner amassed a 79-55 overall record (a .590 winning percentage) across four seasons. This included a run to the quarterfinals of the NAIA Tournament in 1999. Successful first stop: check. Onwards to Bellevue. Eisner didn't just win here- he essentially transformed the program. A member of the Bellevue Hall of Fame, Eisner still stands as the school's all-time leader in victories with a 225-56 record. That's a .800 winning percentage, if you were curious. Lots of highlights are sprinkled throughout that figure. Six Minnesota College Athletic Conference (MCAC) regular-season titles. Four MCAC Tournament trophies. Seven NAIA Tournament appearances. Two trips to the NAIA Championship game. And to cap it all off, five MCAC Coach of the Year awards- understandably.

Eisner's last season with the Bruins ended in 2008. After this, the already seasoned coaching veteran went on a brief hiatus before rejoining the ranks with Benedictine ahead of the 2010-2011 season. After one 16-16 campaign there, Eisner made the move over to Midland. It was at this Fremont, Neb. campus that the true power the coach's influence can have over a team was put on display once again. Four years with the (Midland) Warriors- four winning seasons. Along the way, two NAIA Tournament appearances. The school's first wins in tournament history in 2013 (in route to a visit to the quarterfinals) followed immediately by a 2014 effort that saw the team make it all the way to the NAIA Title game. Would it surprise you that 2013-14 saw Midland set a program record for wins on a season with 30? Or that by the time Eisner's tenure in Fremont was said and done, he'd recorded an overall record of 96-39 (.711 winning percentage) there? If either of these things provide any shock, the rest of this bio probably isn't loading properly.

After nearly two decades of near-unshakable success in the NAIA ranks, Eisner made the move to the NCAA (and Winona, Minn.) ahead of the 2015-16 season. For the most part, his success has made the transition with him. Through seven completed campaigns with the (Winona) Warriors, Eisner has experienced just two losing records- the first of his entire coaching career. He's been able to counteract these, though, with some strong outings, including a 19-10 finish in 2017-18 and an 18-12 mark in 19-20. Overall, Eisner's certainly done his fair share of winning in Winona- he currently holds a 109-91 (.545 winning percentage) with the club all-time. Still, there's no doubt he'd like to push the envelope a little further, reach the same heights at this level that he was able to reach elsewhere. If his track record is any indication, there's no reason to doubt that he's capable of it. 

 

2021-22 IN A NUTSHELL

Last season was a step in the right direction towards that goal after an atypical, COVID-shortened 2020-21 campaign that saw Winona finish 7-6. The Warriors went 15-11 in 2021-21, finishing above water in the NSIC with an 11-9 conference record. This landed the team in the NSIC Tournament, but it would lose its first round matchup to Mary.

 

ONWARDS AND UPWARDS PT. 2

Rebound-year aside, the summer of 2022 made it evident that Eisner's coaching chops would certainly be put to the test in the coming campaign. It was more than just a matter of increased expectations- it was having to weather those expectations without two of the team's leading scorers from the year prior. 

Alec Rosner had led the Warriors in scoring as a junior with 18.8 points on 49.3% shooting from the field and 42.3% shooting from deep. But Rosner was given an opportunity to take his talents up a division with Western Illinois for his senior season- and he took it. 

Devin Whitelow had been second in the scoring race behind Rosner with 10.3 points a game on, strangely enough, 49.3% FG shooting of his own. The senior had gone 40% from deep on the season. Yes, a senior- after 2021-22, Whitelow graduated. 

 

ALL-IN ON DILLON

Are you feeling a sense of deja vu at all, by chance? And not just because of the field goal percentage thing.

Two double-digit scorers departing after a successful season… where have we heard this before? As it turns out, this weekend's opponents share a decent amount of commonalities in terms of the forces that have shaped their 2022-23 campaigns. This doesn't just apply to a similarity in terms of what was lost- it also applies to the fact that similar solutions arose from within to help account for those losses. 

Enter Connor Dillon. Dillon didn't quite have the 2021-22 of someone like Upper Iowa's Hilmer, but he was still a dependable weapon. The guard averaged nine points across 16.3 minutes of playing time a game. Now, those minutes have more than doubled- try 35.9 a night. And what's become of Dillon's point production? Well, it's improved quite a bit- as in he leads the team in scoring with 18.6 points a night. Sprinkle in 4.5 rebounds and 1.9 assists a game for good measure. 

Dillon has become something of a workhorse for the Warriors in the process of this offensive discovery, something that seems pretty well deserved. Funny enough, Dillon's situated right behind Hilmer in field goal attempts a game at both second in the NSIC and third in the nation with 254. He's 26th in the country and seventh in the conference in field goals made with 108. In regards to three-point land, Dillon again sits just a smidge behind Hilmer, landing at seventh in the nation and third in the NSIC in attempts from beyond the arc with 121.

Long story short, UMD is about to face two teams with a player a pop that absolutely loves to shoot the ball. Not only that, but each of them does it pretty well, too. 

 

IT TAKES AN ARMY

Dillon isn't the only Warrior you have to watch out for, though.

Two other players currently average double-figures for Winona in the scoring department. This list is led by Luke Martens, who as so far turned a 10.2 PPG mark from last year into a 12.6 average through 14 games. The senior guard's been as efficient as ever in the process, working at a rate of 49.2% from the field right now. That's actually the exact same efficiency clip he closed with through all 26 games last season. And he's continued to rebound the ball well, too, leading his club with seven boards a night. Rounding out the list of two-digit scorers for the Warriors is Connor Drew. Yes, Connor- not Connor Dillon. Apparently, Connors have a universal tendency to score the basketball. Connor (Drew) is currently averaging 10.3 points a contest so far, grabbing an average of 5.3 rebounds along the way.

 

THE KING OF DIMES

One of the main Warriors working the magic behind the scenes to keep the offense flowing is Owen King.

King's averaging 3.3 assists a contest so far this year. That's a fine mark- it does lead the team, after-all. But what's most impressive about that figure is how responsible King has been with the basketball while amassing it. The senior guard has 49 assists on the season compared to just 11 turnovers. That's an assist-turnover ratio of +4.45. If you think that's just the best mark of its kind in the NSIC, your scale isn't wide enough- try best in the entire nation. In that way… King might just be a player to watch out for come Saturday.

 

NO-BUTTERFINGER ZONE

Perhaps it tracks rather logically, then, that the Warriors boast one of the most responsible offenses in all the land. Winona sits at second in both the conference and the country in average turnovers, losing the ball a grand total of nine times a game so far this year. 

 

THE BROADCASTS

Can't make it to Romano? No worries. Catch all of the weekend's action live through the NSIC Network by clicking the links below:

vs Upper Iowa (Jan. 13, 2023 @ 7:30 p.m.): bit.ly/3GK8ZQu

vs Winona State (Jan. 14, 2023 @ 5:30 p.m.): bit.ly/3QAOp9s

 

UP NEXT

The Bulldogs will look to keep their road success alive next weekend as they head out for a two-state trek for two more conference contests. UMD first slides over to Sioux Falls to meet the Cougars on Friday, Jan. 20 at 5:30 p.m. The Bulldogs then head back into Minnesota to play SMSU in Marshall on Saturday, Jan. 21 at 3:30 p.m. 

NOTE: Starting next weekend, and for the remainder of the second half of the season, the men's team will occupy the earlier time slot in double-headers and play before the women's team.