THE OPENING TIP
UMD men's basketball (13-5 overall, 9-3 NSIC) sets off on another road stint this weekend to visit a new pair of NSIC South opponents. The Bulldogs first venture into South Dakota to take on Sioux Falls on Friday, Jan. 20 at 5:30 p.m. before heading back to Minnesota to play Southwest Minnesota State (SMSU) in Marshall on Saturday, Jan. 21 at 3:30 p.m.

ROAD DOGS
It's never easy to play away from home in any league, much less the uber-competitive NSIC. Taking a glance at UMD's record away from Romano might just have you fooled for a second, though.

The Bulldogs have entered the second half of the season 6-0 in true road games, with all of these being against in-conference foes. UMD isn't much worse for wear if you factor in its neutral site matchups- add those to the mix, and the tally comes out to 7-1. 

Of course, numbers like this only tell a small part of the story. Each and every single one of those victories have come in dramatically different shapes and sizes. At the end of the day, though… they all count the same. 

LAST TIME OUT
Last weekend was a bit of a mixed bag for the Bulldogs. 

Against Upper Iowa on Friday, UMD played about as well as it has the entire year. Forget the fact that the Bulldogs won by double-figures at a score of 80-62- it's how they did it that really impresses. UMD shot 50.8% (32-63) as a team across Friday's game. Four different players closed with 10+ points, those being Joshua Brown (17), Mattie Thompson (14), Joshua Strong (13) and Austin Andrews (11). It's not just that, though- the Bulldogs also brought their A-game on the defensive end. The Peacocks shot just 33.3% (21-63) as a unit over the course of the game. It was truly a balanced effort by UMD the entire night.

Then came Saturday. What doomed the Bulldogs against Winona State was a slower start, an inability to really get their feet in the door through the first 20 minutes. This allowed the Warriors to jump out to a 43-29 advantage in the first half that they'd be able to hold onto through the closing 20 minutes. Still, UMD certainly woke up through the second half- it even outscored Winona 43-41 in the frame. Alas, it was just too little, too late. The Warriors went on to take that one 84-72.

RANKINGS ROUNDUP
UMD did not receive votes in the newest editions of the NABC or D2SIDA Polls. The Bulldogs maintained the No. 7 position in the D2SIDA's Regional Rankings that they held last week.

STATS STATUS REPORT
Drew Blair continues to lead the Bulldogs in scoring this season, putting up 20.1 points a night. That figure is good for 34th in the entire country and fifth in the NSIC. The redshirt-senior guard also holds a team-high in average assists at 2.4.

Charlie Katona is averaging 12.8 points a night- the best part is, he's doing it with precision. The junior forward's clicking at a clip of 52.7% from the field right now. And he's doing more than just scoring. Katona's also averaging 6.3 rebounds a game, which is second on the team. Second only behind Andrews, who narrowly edges out Katona with a 6.9 rebound average. Speaking of Andrews… he sure can score, too- and efficiently. The junior forward's potting 12.3 points a game of his own on an eye-popping 60.4% field goal percentage. He's even dishing out 2.3 assists a game for good measure. Rounding out UMD's list of double-digit averagers is Brown, who's scoring 11.9 points a night right now while also averaging 4.8 rebounds a game. Watch for Brown to continue to climb these scoring charts- the junior forward has led UMD in scoring in three of its last four games.

BLAIR'S ALMOST THERE
Blair notched 35 more points last weekend, bringing his career total to 1661. He now needs just 34 more points to cross into the top five for scoring in UMD school history. Remember that Blair's average this season is 20.1 a game… something to keep an eye on this weekend, for sure.

BOARDS FOR THE HISTORY BOOKS
Speaking of storylines to follow, don't forget about Andrews. The junior forward actually sits just 79 points shy of hitting the millennium mark for scoring in his own right. There's always a chance he achieves that this weekend, but something that seems even more plausible is that he hits his quota to make history in a different field: that of rebounding. Andrews is currently just eight boards shy of career rebound number 500. With an average of 6.9 boards to his name so far this year, we like his odds of getting there sometime real soon.


SCOUTING REPORT ON SIOUX FALLS (13-5 OVERALL, 8-4 NSIC)

COACHING CONVO
Chris Johnson's a name that's been synonymous with Sioux Falls since the team entered the DII space. 

Let's not get too ahead of ourselves, though. Before Johnson ever even became a Cougar, he was once a Wildcat. All the way back in 2004-05, Johnson's coaching career started with a single-season stint in Canton, Mo. with Culver-Stockton. C-SC, the school's shorthand for itself, resides in the NAIA, particularly the Heart of America Athletic Conference (HAAC). It sure wouldn't take long for Johnson to win over the hearts of the NAIA space- he'd go on to earn the 2005 HAAC Coach of the Year Award. This came off of the back of a 16-15 campaign that saw the Wildcats host their first ever conference playoff game in program history. Certainly worse ways to throw your hat into the head coaching ring.

But Johnson wouldn't be long for a top coaching spot- at least not yet. He'd instead spend the next three seasons as an assistant with the University of North Dakota. In 2008, Sioux Falls came knocking to try to lure Johnson back into the head coaching space- he answered the door.

And with that acceptance, Johnson found himself back at the helm of an NAIA club once again. Must have been like riding a bike to him, because he immediately helped the Cougars to a 20-win campaign in his inaugural season with the club in 2008-09. That was fun- why not two more? From 2008-11, Johnson's Sioux Falls squads won a total of 69 games- they lost only 35. Included in this stretch was a 25-10 mark in 2009-10 that stands as the team's best single-season effort across its time in both the NAIA and the NCAA DII space. 

Speaking of the NCAA… of course, you wouldn't be reading this article if it weren't for Sioux Falls eventually jumping to the DII level and away from the NAIA. Johnson happened to find himself as the man calling the shots as this transition went down. He'd certainly seen to it that the Cougars' exit from their old stomping grounds was a memorable one- now it was time to make a meaningful first impression elsewhere. But first, a year of independence. Sioux Falls' 2011-12 tweener campaign as it awaited full NSIC membership was a successful one in its own right, the team finishing 18-8 and making it all the way to the Transitional Championship game. It was the season that followed, though, that held some real weight. 

To this point throughout his head-coaching resume, Johnson hadn't been much familiar with anything other than winning. Sioux Falls' debut in the NSIC would serve as a bit of a humbling experience.

That 2012-13 campaign would see the Cougars go 12-15 overall and 8-14 in conference action. The team would make it to the NSIC Tournament in its first try at it, but the run would be short-lived. Northern State defeated Sioux Falls in the first round.

This could have set a tough precedent for the Cougars that would go on to spell their NSIC fate for years to come. Instead, Johnson and co hunkered down for another crack at things in NSIC run number two. They'd be rewarded for their efforts with a flip in the script, a 15-12 overall record and an above-.500 mark of 12-11 in conference games. It'd be another first round loss for Sioux Falls in the NSIC Tournament, but they entered year three with building blocks in place. 

These two foundational seasons put into place a pattern that would play itself out for the next four seasons. The Cougars would post a losing effort one year only to immediately follow it with a season in the green. Something felt a little bit different about the 2017-18 campaign, though. That was the first time the Cougars hit 20 wins in the NSIC, closing the year at 20-10 with a stout 14-8 conference mark. Sioux Falls would get bounced in round two of the conference tourney, but at the end of the day… 20 wins are 20 wins. The Cougars hadn't hit that mark in seven whole seasons. Surely this could be parlayed into another winning year in the season to follow, right?

Right. In fact, after that breakout 2017-18 effort, Johnson's Cougars failed to post a losing effort for the next three seasons to follow. From 2017-21, the team would go 68-34. Sprinkled into this historic run was a 2019-20 result that set a new standard for success in Sioux Falls, a 22-8 season that included a 17-5 mark in NSIC action. For the team's effort, it won the NSIC South Title- for Johnson's, he won NSIC Coach of the Year.

2021-22 IN A NUTSHELL
But all good things must come to an end. 

After narrowly keeping the winning ways wave alive in a COVID-shortened 2020-21 season by posting a 7-5 record, the tides finally calmed in the Sioux in 2021-22. The Cougars finished just 11-14 last season, going 7-12 in NSIC games. This marked a second straight season without the team advancing to NSIC Tournament action.

CARTWRIGHT'S ALRIGHT
Silver linings, friends. Silver linings.

Last season may not have gone the way the Cougars wanted it to overall, but that doesn't mean there weren't positives to be found along the way. Chief among them? The play of Matt Cartwright.

In 2020-21 Cartwright played just three games before sitting out the year due to injury. Last year, the guard did more than just ease into reacclimation- he stormed back onto the scene. Cartwright averaged 19 points last season, good for the team lead. Talk about a comeback.

But was this sustainable? Well, yes and no. That exact 19-point figure wouldn't translate into 2022-23- it'd actually just get even bigger. 

So far this year, Cartwright is averaging a whopping 23.7 points a night. That clip isn't just the best in the conference- it's the third-highest scoring rate in the entire nation. In fact, all-told, the graduate guard stands as the country's leading scorer with 427 points. If you can believe it, Cartwright really likes to shoot the ball. He's second in the nation in field goal attempts with 306. The scariest thing is, he makes a pretty good amount of them- clearly. The guard is fourth on the nation in field goals made at 147. And don't even get us started on his work from beyond the arc in-isolation… those numbers are really something to beyond. Cartwright's shot-happy tendencies still apply here- he's actually first in all of DII men's basketball in attempts from three-point land with 155. The issue is… he's also first in threes made at 72. That's right- Cartwright's currently working at an efficiency clip of 46.5% from three. That's the 12th-best mark in the country from someone that shoots these kinds of shots more than anyone else out there.

 Suffice it to say… keep an eye out on Cartwright on Friday. That advice extends to both the Bulldog faithful and the Bulldogs themselves

APPLE JACK
Someone has to set all that offense into motion- introducing, Jack Thompson. 

The thing is, Johnson isn't even a poor scorer in his own right. The junior guard's putting up 12.3 points a game right now, a near two-point improvement from his 2021-22 average of 10.4. In terms of assists, though, Jackson stands in a league of his own in Sioux Falls. He's working at a rate of 4.4 assists a contest right now, a 0.4-dime upgrade from four assists a game last year. What's even better is that Johnson can do all of this while doing his fair share of rebounding, too- he's averaging 5.5 boards a game currently. 

CHASING THE GRINDE
Speaking of rebounds, though… nobody is better in that department in Sioux Falls than Chase Grinde. 

Grinde can play guard. He can play forward. At 6'4", 215, the possibilities are endless. One thing holds true regardless of where Grinde finds himself on the floor- the guy surecan rebound the basketball. 

As it stands, the redshirt-senior is operating at 6.2 rebounds a contest. Chuck in a stable clip of 5.9 points a night, and you've got yourself a pretty valuable asset on your hands. 


SCOUTING REPORT ON SMSU (11-6 OVERALL, 7-5 NSIC)

COACHING CONVO
There's been no name bigger in the head coaching space in Marshall than that of Brad Bigler.

In the midst of his 14th year with SMSU, Bigler is already far-and-away the longest-tenured coach in the history of the program. In fact, he's the only one to eclipse the 10-season mark. Perhaps it tracks pretty easily that Bigler would be the winningest leader in Mustangs history, too. He currently stands at an overall record of 216-171, good for a .558 winning percentage. No other coach has ever hit the 200-win mark with the men's program- only one other has even hit 100.

It hasn't always been easy for Bigler in his decade-plus in Marshall. Five seasons below the .500 line can be found across his time with the team. However, for every losing effort, there's been an equal-and-opposite winning campaign- and then some. Bigler's 50+ games in the green for a reason.

Reasons, really, ones you can see detailed across his coaching resume. How about helping SMSU to its first piece of NSIC Tournament gold en route to just its third NCAA Tournament appearance in 2011-12? Why not follow that up with a historic 2016-17 effort that saw the team go a whopping 28-6 en route to not only NSIC South Division and NSIC Tournament trophies but also an appearance in the Central Region Championship of the NCAA Tournament? Just to go out and win the NSIC South again in 2017-18 with a 25-9 mark?

It's almost hard not to look at Bigler's run with SMSU as something out of a movie. The man's been with the Mustangs since he was a college athlete himself, then going from grad assistant to head coach. This team has been a part of him for a not-so negligible part of his life. And there's a chance the story hasn't even hit its climax yet.

2021-22 IN A NUTSHELL
Last season was a step in the right direction for the Mustangs after two-consecutive campaigns that closed below the .500 line. SMSU went 15-12 with an exact 10-10 mark in NSIC play. The team would win a first round contest against Bemidji State in the NSIC Tournament but fall in Round 2 to Augustana. 

BYE-BYE BYERS
SMSU headed into 2022-23 with the difficult task of trying to maintain momentum even in the face of losing its best player from a season prior.

Kenny Byers did a little bit of everything for the Mustangs in 2021-22. He led the team in scoring first-and-foremost, posting an average clip of 15.3 points a night. He could distribute the ball well too, though, a scary ability for such a scary shooter to possess. The guard was second on the team in assists with 3.11 a night. And don't forget about his ability to clean up the glass- Byers was also second in average rebounding with 6.1 boards a game.

OMOT AND COSTELLO (AND PHIPPS)
It's never easy to lose a player of Byers' caliber. Something that dims the sting a little bit, though, is mitigating your losses elsewhere. 

The Mustangs had three players average double-figures in scoring last year- two of those three returned for another go-around with the club. A standout from this group in 2022-23 has been Dunwa Omot. Last year, Omot put up 11.9 points a game with hyper efficiency, working at shooting clips of 56.3% from the field and 56.6% from deep. He's not quite shooting with that level of efficiency anymore with increased offensive usage, but his scoring has seen an uptick. Did we mention last year was just his freshman campaign? Well, as a sophomore, Omot's scoring 14.8 points a game, which leads the team. He's also been a pretty reliable passer in year two, dishing out 2.18 assists a contest.

Next on the list of double-digit scorers for the Mustangs is actually a newcomer to the charts: Anthony Costello. Costello was. Reliable option for SMSU in his junior effort, putting up 8.4 points a night to pair with 3.1 rebounds. In his senior farewell, the forward's experienced a bit of a shooting buff- he's now potting 11.6 points a night. And it's been at no expense to his rebounding efforts, as he still averages 3.4 boards a game. 

Rounding out the top three scorers on this SMSU team is a name that's far from unfamiliar when it comes to residing in these ranks: Jake Phipps. Phipps had himself quite the year last year. His sophomore season saw him average a clip of 12.7 points (that was second on the team) with impressive precision, going 51.4% from the field. Not only that, but the center was a force to be reckoned with around the glass- he averaged 6.4 rebounds a game. So far in his junior campaign, Phipps has only grown to be a bigger problem for defenses everywhere. His scoring is down ever-so slightly at 11.5 points a night, but his efficiency's somehow made even more of a leap, improving to 56.6% from the field. Also on the rise is Phipps' averaging rebounding figure- that's at 7.2 now. 

McCRAY SAVES THE DAY
Cliff McCray doesn't quite score at the level of the trifecta mentioned above- although even in this arena, he's more than dependable. So far this year, the junior guard's putting up 8.2 points a night. McCray's bread-and-butter, though, is setting up guys like Omot, Costello and Phipps to score themselves. The guard's averaging a team-high 3.29 assists right now after having led the squad last season in that arena with 3.4 a game. 

THE MIGHT OF THE MUSTANGS
This SMSU team does more than just score- its defense is no joke. In fact, the Mustangs hold the 14th-best scoring defense in the entire country, holding teams to an average of just 62.3 points a night. That's the best mark in the NSIC. Also at the top of the conference is their work in guarding opponents to subpar shooting nights from deep. SMSU allows an average shooting clip of just 29.8% from deep, which lands at 16th in the nation. 

THE BROADCASTS
Follow all of this weekend's action live by clicking the links below:

vs Sioux Falls (Friday, Jan. 20 @ 5:30 p.m.): bit.ly/3J3jyk8
vs SMSU (Saturday, Jan. 21 @ 3:30 p.m.): bit.ly/3Y3guZR

UP NEXT
The Bulldogs will (hopefully) look to carry sustained road success back to Romano as they host a pair of new faces next weekend. UMD first takes on Wayne State on Friday, Jan. 27 at 5:30 p.m. before welcoming Augustana to town on Saturday, Jan,. 28 at 3:30 p.m.