History in the Making

From Ben Woodside through Taylor Braun & Lawrence Alexander to Grant Nelson, the NDSU men's basketball team has regularly had star players who lead them to Sioux Falls and the opportunity to compete on the biggest stage of college sports. Doing it all under one coach would be remarkable - that it's been maintained through three different leaderships is in a different stratosphere altogether.

I will grant that Dave Richman has had some warts but most of those came in the early days of his tenure. Now, even when many high-profile coaches are leaving the profession due to the added challenges of the portal and the payments, he's managed to adapt to the new landscape and once again has the Bison in a position to contend in Sioux Falls.

As impressive as it is to have the makings of a long-time men's basketball coach in this era, it's not exactly history in the making.

That threshold requires the fruit of the excellent work that Jory Collins has been putting in since 2019. The improvement for the women's program was almost instantaneous. Finding Heaven Hamling and a slew of other regional players laid the groundwork from there to go from the cellar to the second tier of the conference. Now they have a Player of the Year contender - Avery Koenen, a Freshman of the Year frontrunner - Karrington Asp and several more All-League level performers which have helped them rattle-off 13-straight victories and be in a dead heat with the dominant force from Brookings.

Going into Saturday's meeting in the Rabbit Cage SDSU has won 67 straight conference games - the fifth longest Division 1 winning streak to date. A win by NDSU would make Sportscenter. Would improve their already-great NET ranking. And would all-but solidify them for an at-large spot in the NCAA tournament should they not prevail in Sioux Falls.

But that is on the table

The chance to leave nothing to chance but to make that history of the first berth is where Jory Collins has managed to guide the program.

You may care little about basketball and less about the female style of the game but if you're a Bison fan then that should get your attention.

And these women have the chance to begin making that statement in SDSU's building BUT they are not the only ones.

Slightly earlier in the day Saturday the men will go to work at home against the new kids on the block who want to take the Summit by storm. St. Thomas is still an infant in the Division 1 level but they have quickly run up the standings and the latest outcome at the SHAC will be a significant factor in deciding seedings for the tournament. Due to the history of the program, a win over the Tommies wouldn't be considered historic but the outcome will give one or the other the inside-track to the top seed.

So in conjunction with the opportunity available to the women, this Saturday is as big of a day for the basketball program as a whole as NDSU has had in all their regular seasons.

So you can hold onto your complaints about the sport, the facility, the weather, the food, the whatever - ever seat in the lower bowl of the SHAC should be filled and there should be a solid showing of support in Brookings because it could be a marquee day for the Bison!