Saturday will be the second meeting between North Dakota State and Western Michigan. The Broncos won 79-57 in Kalamazoo on Dec. 8, 1956. NDSU is 2-2 against the Mid-American Conference since joining Division I in 2004-05 (Eastern Michigan 1-2, Northern Illinois 1-0).
Saturday will be North Dakota State's second appearance in the BracketBusters event. NDSU won 77-69 at Milwaukee in a non-televised game Feb. 21, 2009. The Bison qualified for the NCAA tournament in their first year of eligibility in 2009. This is the first year The Summit League has had all 10 members participate in the event. The league has a 5-6 record dating back to 2005 (NDSU 1-0, Oral Roberts 3-3, South Dakota State 0-1, Valparaiso 1-2).
Summit League teams are 2-4 against the Mid-American Conference this season and will play three head-to-head matchups in Saturday's Sears BracketBusters event including Buffalo at South Dakota State on ESPNU and Akron at Oral Roberts on ESPN2. The leagues have met only once before in BracketBusters with Western Michigan beating Valparaiso 89-80 in overtime in 2007.
North Dakota State ranked fourth in field-goal shooting percentage (.498), 35th in 3-point shooting percentage (.382) and 46th in scoring offense (74.6 ppg)
in the NCAA Division I statistics through Sunday, Feb. 12. Individually, Mike Felt was 12th in 3-point percentage (.446) and 44th in 3-pointers made per game (2.6), and Taylor Braun was 41st in field-goal percentage (.535).
North Dakota State has gone from first to eighth in The Summit League in 3-point defense over the past seven games, going 3-4 in that stretch. NDSU was holding league opponents to .289 shooting from the arc through the first eight league contests, but that number has ballooned to .395 with opponents shooting 45 percent or better in six of the last seven games. The Bison allowed a season-high 63.2 percent last Thursday at UMKC, which went 12-for-19 from the arc.
North Dakota State's scoring defense is one of the best in the program's modern era dating back to 1950. NDSU's 67.2 points allowed per game through the first 25 contests would rank seventh in school history.
North Dakota State's roster includes 10 underclassmen this year with a combination of seven sophomores and three freshmen. Two of those sophomores could be juniors by now, but Mike Felt was granted a hardship year in 2009-10 with an early foot injury and Jordan Aaberg sat out all of last season to recover from a concussion. This is the youngest team NDSU has fielded since listing 13 underclassmen in both 2005-06 and 2006-07.
North Dakota State is 7-5 in overtime games since joining The Summit League in 2007-08, including a 1-1 mark in OT this year. NDSU won 72-69 at Southern Utah on Jan. 7 but lost at home to South Dakota State 91-88 on Jan. 21.
North Dakota State has played more close games the last two seasons than any other years in the program's Division I history. NDSU is 5-5 this year in games decided by five points or less, an improvement from last year's 2-8.
North Dakota State returns four players who started at least 20 games for last year's 14-15 team that placed seventh in The Summit League with an 8-10 record. NDSU has three of its top four scorers back including senior forward Eric Carlson (10.1 ppg), sophomore forward Marshall Bjorklund (8.7 ppg) and sophomore guard Taylor Braun (8.2 ppg). The other returning starter is senior guard Drew Lundberg (8.0 ppg).
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