The No.11 ranked University of Minnesota Duluth men's basketball team gears up for their first matchup in the postseason, facing off against the Augustana University Vikings in the quarterfinal round of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC).
MATCHUP INFORMATION
Saturday, March 2
1:30 PM vs. Augustana
Watch Live: https://www.midcosportsplus.com/
Live Stats: https://northernsun.org/sidearmstats/mbball/summary
THE SEASON SO FAR
The Bulldogs completed their regular season with a double digit win over the St. Cloud State Huskies. UMD finished with a 23-5 overall record and a 18-4 conference record, securing themselves a second place spot in the standings and an opening round bye straight to the quarterfinals at the Sanford Pentagon.
RANKINGS, RANKINGS, RANKINGS
The Bulldogs slotted in at the No.11 spot in the most recent NABC national rankings. MSU Mankato and Moorhead slotted in ahead of UMD at No.3 and No. 9 respectively, while Minot State dropped out of the top 25. UMD continues to hold the highest average free throw attempts per game (22.8) and lowest average turnovers per game (8.5) in the conference, while also remaining top three in assist/turnover ratio (1.38), blocks per game (3.7), effective field goal percentage (54.3%), field goal percentage (48.7%), scoring margin (+11.4), scoring offense (80.8), and turnover margin (2.4).
SCOUTING REPORT - AUGUSTANA
The Augustana University Vikings ended their regular season with an overall record of 18-10 and a conference record of 13-9, putting them at the seventh seed ahead of the tournament. They were able to take down the Wayne State College Wildcats in their opening round matchup, 75-62. The Bulldogs are 4-8 against the Vikings since 2014, but have defeated them twice already this season.
WIECK'S 100 WINS
Head coach Justin Wieck reached 100 wins under the UMD men's basketball banner earlier this season against Northern Michigan. Now in his sixth season with the Bulldogs, the head coach has reached 119 wins and continues to tally on as the season goes.
BLAIR BREAKS SCORING RECORD
Fifth year senior Drew Blair became UMD men's basketball all time leading scorer earlier this season, breaking the previous record of 2,045 career points formerly held by Brandon Myer. Blair is now up to 2,638 career points as he also leads the Bulldogs this season in points with 620.
KATONA - DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Senior Charlie Katona became the first Bulldog since Jake Nettleton in the 2001-02 season to earn the NSIC Defensive Player of the Year award. Katona ranked seventh in the NSIC for steals this year and set a career high 16 rebounds in a game against MSU Mankato, all while helping lead the third best defense in the NSIC which held opponents to an average 70.0 points per game.
ALL CONFERENCE SUPERSTARS
Senior Charlie Katona and fifth year senior Drew Blair both earned NSIC all conference first team nominations this year. This nomination makes Blair the first Bulldog to ever earn four all conference team nominations throughout their career. This all conference nomination is Katona's second overall nomination, but first all conference first team nomination.
WIECK'S MILLENNIALS
All five of the Bulldog's core starters (Austin Andrews, Drew Blair, Joshua Brown, Charlie Katona, and Jack Middleton) have achieved 1,000+ career points. The group currently has 7,781 combined points and look to grow that number throughout the season.
LOOKING AHEAD
If men's basketball were to win their matchup, they would move on to the NSIC tournament semifinals where they will play the winner of MSU Moorhead vs. Winona State. That matchup is scheduled to tip off on Monday, Mar. 3, at 1:30 PM.
