The No. 11 ranked University of Minnesota Duluth men's basketball gears up for their third consecutive Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) championship game, taking on No. 3 ranked rival Minnesota State Mankato.
MATCHUP INFORMATION
Tuesday, March 5
4:00 PM vs. MSU Mankato
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. UMD have made it through to the first two rounds of their tournament run, taking down Augustana 88-74 in the quarterfinals and Winona State 90-76 in the semifinals
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), lowest average turnovers per game (8.5), and field goal percentage (49%) in the conference, while also remaining top three in assist/turnover ratio (1.43), blocks per game (3.6), effective field goal percentage (54.8%), scoring margin (+11.6), scoring offense (81.3), and turnover margin (2.4).
SCOUTING REPORT - MANKATO
The MSU Mankato Mavericks are 28-2 overall on the season, defeating the USF Cougars 78-64 in the quarterfinal round and SMSU 68-67 in the semifinal round. The Bulldogs are 5-7 against the Mavericks since 2014, most recently defeating the top three ranked team 85-70 at home in Romano Gym. The Bulldogs defeated the Mavericks in last year's tournament, taking them down 88-68 in the opening round.
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 121 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 2,711 career points as he also leads the Bulldogs this season in points with 693.
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 7,939 combined points and look to grow that number throughout the season.
