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Ninety-four points is a pretty strong offensive showing in college basketball. In the case of North Dakota State's game Sunday against Oak Hills Christian, that was the margin of victory.
The Bison won 108-14, a contest that saw them lead 60-5 at halftime.
Lance Waddles scored a team-high 19 points, while Jeremiah Burke and Damari Wheeler-Thomas had 15 apiece.
NDSU shot 59.7 percent from the field and went 15-of-34 from beyond the arc. In contrast, Oak Hills Christian made just six of its 49 shots, including a 1-of-20 clip from deep. Emmanuel Coffy accounted for half of his squad's offensive output, scoring seven points in his 30 minutes on the floor.
The margin of victory matches that of a 2019 game between Utah and Mississippi Valley State. The Utes prevailed 143-49, which at the time set a new record in a game featuring two Division I teams.
In the case of Sunday, North Dakota State overwhelmed a school that isn't even affiliated with the NCAA. The Minnesota-based university competes in the Association of Christian College Athletics.
With the win, the Bison improved to 7-4 on the season. They'll be back in action this coming Sunday on the road at Illinois State.
Chances are, David Richman's squad will face slightly stiffer resistance on the court.
IUPUI men's basketball coach Jason Gardner resigned Tuesday after being arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence Sunday.Â
Assistant athletic director Ed Holdaway confirmed Gardner's resignation to the Indianapolis Star.Â
According to the police report, officers found Gardner asleep at the wheel of his vehicle, which was stopped in an intersection around 4:30 a.m. ET Sunday. He failed multiple field sobriety tests and was held in jail until his release Tuesday.
The report did not specify Gardner's blood alcohol concentration.
Gardner spent the last five seasons at IUPUI, leading the school to a 64-93 record. The Indianapolis native played college basketball at Arizona before embarking on an international playing career, retiring in 2011. He then coached at Loyola of Chicago and Memphis as an assistant.
Byron Rimm II will serve as IUPUI's interim head coach next season. Rimm II previously served as the head coach at Prairie View A&M from 2006-15, leading the school to a 115â192 record. He resigned during the 2015-16 season after the team started 1-18.
IUPUI has not posted a winning record since Ron Hunter left the school following the 2009-10 season.Â
From right wrist to fingertips, no one in college basketball is more gifted than South Dakota State big man Mike Daum.
He's the nation's leading returning scorer, the guy who put up 51 points in a single game, scored 30 or more 12 times last season and earned 37 points in the Summit League championship game to send his team to the NCAA Tournament last March. He once made 12 threes in an AAU game in Las Vegas, which is the reason he's at South Dakota Stateâthe SDSU coaches just so happened to be in attendance and offered him a scholarship the next week.
That flick of the wristâtaught to him by his Hall of Fame momâcombined with the high release on his jump shotâreminiscent of his idol Dirk Nowitzkiâand the freedom he has to work in South Dakota State's offense altogether have put Daum on the NBA's radar.
"He's really skilled, nice size, plays the game the right way," an NBA scout told B/R.
But there are question marks that line up with stereotypes. He's a farm boy from Nebraska who plays at a small school in Brookings, South Dakota. Scouts want to know: Is he athletic enough to play in the NBA?
Some parents are so blinded by the success of their children that they lack awareness.
Not the Daums.
Michele Daum knew that a lack of quickness was her son's biggest limitation when he was a high schooler, so she enrolled him in a speed program called Action-X on Oct. 1, 2012.
"I knew he needed foot speed; I didn't know how to teach it,"Â Michele says.
The speed coaches wrapped a belt around Mike's waist that was attached to the wall in a resistance drill that helped with quick-twitch explosion.
The belt slowly slipped up to Mike's stomach, but he didn't think anything of it. He kept coming back for more. Two weeks in and four sessions later, he found himself on the floor in the kitchen at his friend Joshua Fearing's house in Cheyenne, Wyoming, in so much pain he could not stand.
Michele was in Oregon visiting her sick father. Mike's father, Mitch, was on the family farm working the corn harvest an hour away from Cheyenne in Kimball, Nebraska. Fearing and his mother, Lorriane Tyler, took Mike to an urgent care facility.
Health care workers there were stumped at what was going on, and then Mike started throwing up blood and collapsed on the X-ray table.
He had been bleeding internally for two weeks, the belt pushing into his ribs and lacerating his liver and spleen.
Mike was rushed by ambulance to the hospital in Cheyenne. He spent eight days there, unable to get out of his bed to walk or take a shower.
On the fifth day, doctors planned to remove his spleen, which would not heal, lowering his hemoglobin levels. It was a Tuesday. That morning, Pastor Hod Boltjes from the family church in Kimball visited along with some friends while Mike was prepped for surgery.
After Boltjes left, Mike looked at his mother and told her his spleen had closed up. Michele asked the nurses to check his levels againâit turned out that his levels had started to tick up. Instead of missing the entire basketball seasonâand surgery would have resulted in just thatâMike was on the floor again two-and-a-half months later.
"Every time he steps on the court, I thank God," Michele says. "It's like, 'Thank you for letting us have this chance to watch him one more time.'"
Mike Daum is blessed.
He bled for two weeks and lived to tell about it.
And then there's the timing of his arrival to college basketball, the school where he landed, the coach he now plays for, the parents who raised him. All of it.
It all came together in a perfect package to allow for Mike to drain jumpers at a record rate.Â
Psychologists argue nature versus nurture. Mike had both.
Michele was the leading scorer and rebounder at the University of Wyoming for four straight seasons and then played professionally overseas for three years before blowing out her knee and breaking both her feet.
"Cement courts," she says. "This was before the WNBA."
Mike's father, Mitch, was a 6'5" tight end on the Wyoming football team. He played one season for the Houston Oilers in 1987.
"I've got good genes," says Mike, who is 6'9" with broad shoulders and a 7'4" wingspan.
Michele took charge with the nurturingâbut in a way specific to her own talents and interests and, later, those of her son.
Starting at three years old, Mike would lay on the living room floor in front of the television next to his mom, and they would flick a basketball back and forth, catching the ball with the opposite hand. If Mom tossed it with the right, Mike had to catch it with the left.
Michele obsessed over making sure the backspin was perfect. They would argue over who flicked the straighter ball, and Michele found multiple strategies for training Mike in the ways of alignment. They would smash Hot Wheels into each other, and the cars had to collide head-on perfectly straight. "Let's go left hand this time," Michele would tell him.
"It was always with basketball in mind," she says in the lobby of the DoubleTree Hotel in Lawrence, Kansas, hours before Mike would score 21 points against fourth-ranked Kansas.
"It was weird," Mitch says.
"It wasn't weird," Michele says. "It was cool!"
Mitch supported the habit from a distance, taking care of the family farm as Mike and Michele traveled the country to chase hoop dreams.
Michele coached at the school in town just so she would always have keys and access to the gym, and mother and son spent countless hours together getting shots up. When Mike's high school practices finished, he'd text his mom. The Daums lived five minutes from the high school, and Michele made a beeline to the gym so Mike could get another 30 minutes to an hour of additional shooting with his mom rebounding.
Sometimes the entire family would come to the gymâMom, Dad, Mike and his sister Danika, who plays volleyball at Henderson State in Arkansas. Before they went home, the Daums always finished with an end-on-a-make game. Each member of the family had to shoot a left-handed layup, right-handed layup, a shot from their favorite spotâMike's is the top of the key, Michele's is a right-elbow jumper, Mitch's a turnaround jumper from the block and Danika's a baseline Jâthen a free throw. If one person missed a shot, they all had to start over again.
"We'd be there for 30 minutes sometimes," Mitch says. "I'd tell him, 'Mike, this is long enough. I've got to get home. I'm tired. I've got to work tomorrow.'
"'No, Dad. We have to finish this. Everyone has to make their shots.'"
Mike and Michele still play that game whenever she visits campus in Brookings.
"It's like my dream game," Michele says. "I'm like a little kid."
Michelle coached Mike during his junior high years, making sure he didn't ever get away from the fundamentals. Mike idolized Nowitzki and tried to sneak the fadeaway into his arsenal. One day, he decided to unleash it in a sixth grade game. After a few misses, Michele called timeout.
"I played super, super bad," Mike says. "My mom said, 'You're not in the NBA yet. When you make it to the NBA, then you can fade away.' All my friends loved it. They said, 'It's nice having you on the team, Mike. She'll just yell at you and never yell at us.'"
That same year, Mike accompanied Michele to a Hall of Fame ceremony at Wyomingâwhere she is in the Hall as the school's all-time leading rebounder and No. 2 scorer. On the trip, Mike told Michele, "Mom, I want this."
Soon after, they were in the gym, and Mike had made close to 60 straight shots from all over the floor.
"I was bawling," Michele says. "I was looking at him. I said, 'You've got this. If you want this, you take it to the next level.'"
The Daums were willing to do whatever their son wanted to help him with his dream. He joined an AAU program in Fort Collins, Colorado, which was an hour and a half from Kimball. Four times a week they would drive him to Fort Collinsâtwice for practice and another two times for individual workouts with his AAU coach, Brandon Valdez.
Mike was the man in Kimball, but he was the star in a town of 2,000 on a team that had 16 or 17 players come out for basketball.
"We had just enough to fill a varsity and a JV," Mike says. "If you went out, you made it."
Mike had a handful of Division I offers and even some high-major interest from Oregon and Oregon StateâMichele, who is from Prineville, Oregon, was still well-known in the areaâbut Mike played poorly in an AAU tournament in Anaheim and interest faded from the Oregon schools.
The tournament in Las Vegas was the final one of the July evaluation period, his last chance to get noticed in front of college scouts. Michele used to shoot pictures of Mike's AAU games and would always snap a shot of the coaches in attendance. When Mike buried 13 threes against a Florida team that included current Central Florida star Tacko Fall, she noticed then-SDSU assistant coach Brian Cooley was in the shot. The Daums had become fans of South Dakota State and its style when watching current Utah Jazz guard Nate Wolters and the Jackrabbits played Michigan in the 2013 NCAA Tournament.
The weekend after his 13 three-pointers, Mike was on his family's red CaseIH 785 tractor working the wheat harvest when then-SDSU coach Scott Nagy called.
The Daums visited Brookings, but Mike struggled during pickup games, which made the coaches wonder if they should have made the offer.
"I don't think Coach Nagy was sold," Michele says. "My heart tells me if we would not have taken the offer right there on the recruiting trip, we would have lost that offer."
Mike committed and arrived on campus overweight at 265 pounds and glued to the three-point line.
"I honestly was just this chubby farm kid with long hair, and I could shoot the ball, but that was it," Mike says. "I wasn't physical at all, and I think that's one thing the coaching staff saw."
The Jackrabbits did not know they had potentially one of the greatest scorers in college basketball history. They knew they had a guy who needed to redshirt, and so he did, the only one in his three-man recruiting class to sit out the 2014-15 season.
Mike lost 30 pounds. On the floor, he tried just to blend in, but he was mostly getting worked by Cody Larson, a transfer from Florida who won Summit League Defensive Player of the Year and was an all-league selection that season.
"He kicked my butt every single day," Mike says.
After winning the Summit League regular-season title and then getting beat in the conference tourney finals by North Dakota State, the Jackrabbits received an automatic bid to the NIT. They were paired to play Colorado State, which was led by J.J. Avila, one of the most skilled big men in college basketball that season. All season Mike had been mostly stuck to the block on scout team, mimicking opposing big men whose roles were typically to pass the ball out to the guards. He played Avila in practice that week and got a green light to attack.
"The Avila kid could do everything," SDSU assistant coach Rob Klinkefus says. "He could shoot it, drive it, and Mike had the full display going that week. That's kind of when we're like, 'Oh, man. OK, we've got something here.'"
As a redshirt freshman, Mike blew away expectations by averaging 15.2 points and 6.1 rebounds off the bench in only 20.8 minutes per game. He shot 44.6 percent from behind the three-point line but only attempted 65 shots from deep.
When Nagy left for Wright State after the season in April, the locals worried Mike might soon leave too. But SDSU's administration found the perfect coach to unleash the Dauminator.
At Iowa State, T.J. Otzelberger witnessed Fred Hoiberg start the wave of positionless basketball in college hoops. He allowed his big men like Royce White and Georges Niang to play like guards.
"I watched a lot of film from the year before and thought he really had unbelievable touch and knack for scoring the basketball," Otzelberger says. "His redshirt freshman year it was a lot more in the post, and they had some veteran guards that really got him the ball in the right spot."
Otzelberger told Mike they were going to play "mismatch basketball," and he would be at the center of it all.
"I don't think he wants to be just an around-the-basket and post-up kind of guy," Otzelberger says. "We'd be foolish if we weren't using his strengths and how good he is."
From a young age, Michele told Mike that not that many people have the mental capacity to be a scorer.
"Yes, defense is huge," Michele says. "My motto was you don't get your name in the paper for defense. You want to score."
Otzelberger put him in the newspaper, on the internet and on SportsCenter by moving him all over the court and increasing his usage. Mike shot 189 threes, making 79 (41.8 percent), and he led the nation in free throws made (7.2 per game). His 25.1 points per game ranked second nationally. He also had the third-best offensive rating among players who used at least 28 percent of their team's possessions, per kenpom.com.
"It's almost a blessing in disguise, Coach Otz coming in here, because he really just gave me that offensive freedom," Mike says.
Mike made such a name for himself that he was invited this past summer to the Under Armour All-America Camp in Philadelphia and Adidas Nations camp in Houstonâtwo showcase events that featured the best college players and the chance to play in front of NBA scouts.
"It took him a little bit of time to warm up, but he definitely held his own when all was said and done," the scout, who was at the Under Armour camp, told B/R. "I think his confidence grew as the camp progressed. He was one of the best shooters there."
The worry for some SDSU fans is that Mike could leave for another school next year as a grad transfer. "It's more noise I've been blocking out," Mike says.
SDSU is a school that can get to the NCAA Tournamentâheâs already been to two and SDSU is the favorite to win the Summit League this yearâand scouts will find him. Last year, Valparaiso's Alec Peters, who has a similar game, went in the second round of the NBA draft.
SDSU has also scheduled Power Five programs to allow Mike the opportunity to perform on bigger stages. He played at Kansas last Friday, and the Jackrabbits are currently at the Cayman Islands Classic, where they beat Iowa on Tuesday. They also have upcoming trips to Mississippi, Wichita State and Colorado.
Meanwhile, it would also be difficult for Mike to leave a place where he's adored and gets to play how he wants with not a hint of jealousy. When he scored 51 points last season at Fort Wayne, his teammates on the bench were all holding up five fingers with their right hands next to a fist.
"I didnât know what this meant," Mike says, reenacting the scene. "I thought they were calling out a play or something."
"He's humble, humble, humble," Klinkefus says. "It's not always easy for a guy who is going to get as many shots as he is to be loved by everybody. It bothers him to disappoint people, and he's very, very loyal. He's loyal to his teammates, and his teammates are very loyal to him."
At SDSU, Mike also has a chance to place his name in the record book. If he repeats his scoring average from his redshirt sophomore season this year and next, he'll be on pace to finish fifth on the NCAA's all-time scoring list. He'd also pass Doug McDermott as the top scorer since the turn of the century.Â
The Daums are loving every minute of it, crisscrossing the country to watch their son get buckets. Michele, who made the trip to the Caymans, texted on Tuesday to inform she had won a free-throw contest against two Iowa guys.
"Hehe," she texted. "It was fun."
Mike, who scored only 10 points, is in a bit of an early-season slump. He's averaging 17.5 points and shooting 38.2 percent from the field.
But his team won on Tuesday. And he got to play basketball and ended on a make.
So, it was a good day.
C.J. Moore covers college basketball at the national level for Bleacher Report. You can find him on Twitter @CJMooreHoops.
Oral Roberts basketball coach Scott Suttonâwho was fired Mondayâreportedly was given strict recruiting guidelines during his tenure.Â
Bill Haisten of the Tulsa World reported on the firing and cited sources who said Oral Roberts president Billy Wilson told the basketball program "to recruit only professed Christians" when he took over in 2013.
Scott Pfeil of KOTV in Tulsa, Oklahoma, shared a report from the station's John Holcomb on the guidelines that also stipulated recruits not have tattoos:
In addition to the recruiting mandates, Haisten noted Sutton said he learned of his firing from others who read about it on social media instead of directly hearing it from Wilson or athletic director Mike Carter.
There was a dramatic difference between the early days of Sutton's time with Oral Roberts and the latter years from a win-loss perspective. He finished with a winning record in 14 straight years from 2001-02 to 2014-15, with five regular-season conference titles during the span. The team also played in three straight NCAA tournaments from 2006 to 2008 and even beat Kansas in the 2006-07 campaign under Sutton's watch.
By contrast, the Golden Eagles were a combined 22-39 the last two seasons after narrowing their pool of potential recruits.
Kansas coach Bill Self, who used to coach at Oral Roberts, weighed in on the situation in March, per Haisten:
Your pool of (potential recruits) has been decreased tremendously. There were a lot of people whose lives were changedâpeople whose entire outlook was changed because of their experience at ORU.
Whether it was through osmosisâbeing around people of faithâit might have changed the lives of a lot of athletes. It would be sad to eliminate those types of kids.
In all, Sutton coached 18 seasons at Oral Roberts and amassed a 328-247 record.
Why do underdogs always have the best dances?
North Dakota State University fought Thursday night, and it fought hard.
After 45 long minutes of play, the 12th-seeded Bison managed to chop down fifth-seeded Oklahoma in a game that, at times, defied logic and belief.
Whatâs a team of young men to do after winning its first NCAA tournament game in school history? If you answered âWild karate dancing,â you would be correct.
The Bison hit the locker room and began breaking it down in front of cameras. It was a little bit frightening, but they got down with expert timing.Â
Thus continued the tradition of tournament underdogs showing off in postgame celebration dancesâa trend Florida Gulf Coast started during last yearâs tournament.
After upsetting Georgetown in the second round, the 15th-seeded FGCU Eagles went certifiably insane.
Cinderella dance parties are a tradition unlike any other. We can only hope NDSU keeps the trend alive and serves up some âCrane Styleâ against San Diego State in the round of 32.Â
Join me on Twitter for more sports news.
Taking a look at a list of the only players to rank in the top 20 in points per game the last two seasons in Division I, you would see familiar names such as All-Americans Doug McDermott and Nate Wolters. One of the names on that list of only five might be unfamiliar to some though: Frank Gaines.
Gaines is graduating from IPFW after an incredible career in the Summit League. He leaves as the all-time scoring leader in school history. He averaged 20.4 points per game over the last two seasons, which is what Paul Pierce averaged in his final season at Kansas. Good company for the All-Summit League member to be a part of.
Overlooked despite helping the Boyd H. Anderson Cobras to a Florida Class 6A title game, Gaines caught the attention of the Mastodons. They were one of the few schools to pay attention to Gaines, something that lit a fire under him when he received that chance to step on the court at the D-I level.
âIt motivated me every game,â Gaines said passionately. âThey didnât think I was good enough to play at that level. It was motivation to let them know what they were missing.â
Gaines also admitted that we he was probably overlooked because he didnât play much AAU basketball growing up. When he did play, it wasnât for a sponsored team. Gaines flipped the script on those who ignored him, averaging over 19 points per game over the last two seasons against tournament teams or teams from a major conference.
While IPFW experienced some good moments with Gaines leading the way, they had their struggles as well. They didnât post a winning record during either of the past two seasons nor advance past the semifinals of the conference tournament during Gaines' four years.
âA lot of ups and downs,â said Gaines reflecting on his college career. âI definitely enjoyed playing there. I wouldnât change anything.â
After finishing 10th in the nation in points per game as a junior, Gaines numbers took a slight dip because a lot of his team from the previous season was lost. Due to various reasons, the Mastodons lost their top four players in assists from the 2011-12 season. That includes the only player on their team to average over two per game, Jonny Marlin, who left to try and walk-on at Indiana.
Gaines elevated his team to new peaks at the end of the year, winning their last six games going into the Summit League Tournament. While there, they knocked off Oakland for a third time that season and held a 34-32 lead at halftime over South Dakota State. In the end though, the Jackrabbits would win the gameâand the tournamentâand leave the Mastodons empty despite Gaines' 25 points. He was the only player on his team to top double-digits.
âWe were just wore out I guess,â Gaines said on the second half and the conclusion of their winning streak.
Now preparing for the NBA Draft and a career professionally, Gaines is in Atlanta, Georgia working with Bo Bell and says he has been working out with him every day. Bell is a renowned basketball trainer who has worked with the likes of Lou Williams and Mickael Pietrus among others.
Gaines possesses great quickness on the court that allows him âto get to the basket so easily,â as he put it. For the next level though, he will have to move into more of a true point guard role after being allowed to play off the ball most of the time at IPFW.
âImproving my ball-handling skills,â Gaines said on what he is working on the most. âPlaying with the ball more in my hands and coming off ball screens.â
Playing the point is something Gaines has done before and he doesnât think the transition will be difficult.
âI donât think itâs that hard,â Gaines stated. âI played (point) all summer at the Indianapolis Pro-AM. I feel like itâs just like riding a bike.â
While Gaines looks to make that adjustment and improve his ability to play point, he will still never lose his true identity of a hustling combo guard. He has already received interest from a handful of teams to fill that type of role. The undersized scorer who hustles after loose balls and crashes the boards is reminiscent of old-school players. Fittingly, Gaines wears similar attire to the players of the past as he wears shorts that end above the knees.
âIâm not a fan of big shorts,â said Gaines on his decision to wear the shorts that he does. âI like to run a lot and I feel like big shorts hold me back and limit my quickness. I need to make sure I have enough room.â
Another reason for Gaines' old-school demeanor is his fatherâalso named Frankâwho has taught him the game and how to play the way that he does: with heart and hustle. Gaines' biggest support system has been his family and what pushes him to try and achieve greatness in basketball.
âBiggest motivation is my family. Theyâve done so much for me throughout my college career.â
All quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Follow Josh (@JGleas) for more content!
People, listen to me. Do not skip work to watch March Madness. Itâs tempting, but this is not a good plan. Bosses around America have read the studies. They know that the tournament is upon us.
They know you were healthy on Wednesday.
I know that it is the Big Dance. I know you are excited to watch teams like the North Carolina A&T Aggies and the South Dakota State Jackrabbits. However, the idea of having a job is to stay employed.
Besides, if you were to skip work, you would probably get caught. Here are a few mistakes that you might make:
When you leave the message for your boss on his or her voicemail, you might be unconvincing with your gravelly voice or fake, obligatory cough. You could email or text your supervisor, but that might be too suspicious.
Once you have left your message, you might forget that you are skipping work as you get lost in the revelry of the close games. After heading to local sports bar with your buddy (who is also skipping work), you decide to post a picture of your wings and adult beverage on your Facebook account. Someone will see your ill-timed picture and forward it to your boss.
Busted.
Another problem with skipping work is that games are also scheduled on...wait for it...Friday! Do you dare skip two days of work? Do you tempt fate? If you return to work on Friday, you must come up with the details of your mystery illness and explain how you miraculously recovered in just a day.
You must have a great immune system.
Oh, and did I mention that the tournament will re-commence the following week? Awkward dilemma...part II.
There are solutions, of course. You could look for a job where you do not work Thursday through Sunday so that you can watch the Big Dance every year. However, this might be a tough way to make a living.
You could work in a sports bar or an electronics store that does not do much business. Granted, those types of businesses probably arenât doing much hiring right now.
You could attempt to convince your boss that watching basketball is research for a potential client. Good luck with that strategy.
Or, you could actually take some vacation days and enjoy the magic that is March Madness.
Now, you could watch at work (via NCAA.com) but you had better keep your mouse close to the âBoss Button.â Also, you may want to avoid shouting in your cubicle when that lower-seeded team hits a buzzer-beater to win the game.
Why would people risk their livelihood to watch a bunch of kids play basketball? It isn't called March "Madness" for nothing.
Enjoy the tournament. Favorites. Upsets. Buzzer-beaters. Cinderellas. Just don't skip work.
Nate Wolters is already regarded as the best player for South Dakota State since the Jackrabbits' move to Division I in 2004. Now he just needs to lead his team to a second-round upset victory in the NCAA tournament to become a star nationally.
The 6'4" point guard from St. Cloud, Minn. ranks fourth in Division I in scoring with a 22.7 points per game average. Wolters also averages 5.8 assists per game to go along with 5.6 rebounds per contest.
Already this season, the senior has become the all-time leader in scoring and assists at South Dakota State. In addition, Wolters has been named to the All-Summit League first team three seasons in a row.
This year, Wolters was selected as the Summit League Player of the Year and the Summit League Championships MVP, the second time in the row he has been bestowed that honor.
For all that he has accomplished as a Jackrabbit, Wolters has yet to have a game that is truly memorable, one that people will talk about for years to come. Earlier in the year, Wolters scored 53 points at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, but the Mastodons are not a team that many college basketball fans pay attention to.
Wolters had a chance to be a hero in a nationally televised game against Alabama in South Dakota State's first game of the year, but it was the Crimson Tide's Trevor Lacey who made a three-point basket as time expired to give his team the 70-67 victory.
For those that don't remember Bryce Drew, the current coach of the Valparaiso Crusaders, as a player, he played for the aforementioned university from 1994 to 1998. On March 13, 1998 at the Myriad Convention Center in Oklahoma City, the No. 13-seeded Crusaders challenged the Ole Miss Rebels, the No. 4 seed in the Midwest Region of the NCAA tournament.
Valparaiso was down by two points. 69-67, with the ball and 2.5 seconds remaining in the contest. From the far end of the court, Jaime Sykes threw an inbounds pass over the midcourt line in the direction of Bill Jenkins.
Jenkins outjumped an Ole Miss defender for the ball and quickly tapped the ball to a running Drew. Drew's 23-foot three-point shot went in as time expired to give the Crusaders the upset victory that led to an eventual place in the Sweet 16.
Although Drew averaged just 4.4 points per game in six seasons in the NBA, his herculean effort in the 1998 Men's NCAA Tournament is still remembered to this day.
There are questions regarding Wolters' future in the NBA. As positives, he can create his own shot and possesses a quick release. Wolters is also quite effective in pick-and-roll situations.
On the negative side, Wolters needs to get stronger and he may lack the athleticism and explosiveness to succeed at the next level. In addition, there are reservations about Wolters' ability to defend other point guards.
In case Wolters does not make it in the NBA, it would be advantageous for him to leave a lasting memory before his collegiate career ends. Last season, several pundits predicted that the Jackrabbits would defeat Baylor in the NCAA tournament. However, after South Dakota State captured an early lead, the Bears pulled away for a 68-60 victory.
This time around, South Dakota State, the 13th seed in the East Region, will take on the Michigan Wolverines. The Wolverines have been inconsistent lately, losing three of their last six games.
The fact that Michigan was ranked No. 1 in Division I earlier in the season would certainly create the backdrop for what could be a remarkable contest. Wolters is bringing along three other starters from last season's squad to help him create a possible magical moment in Auburn Hills, Mich.
If the Jackrabbits do pull off the upset, hopefully Wolters' moment in the sun won't be interrupted by an astronaut.
Both Omaha Maverick fans and basketball fans in general came out in record numbers Thursday night to get a glimpse of a great player.
What they saw was a great team.Â
South Dakota State rolled into the Ralston Arena looking like a legitimate NCAA Tournament team.
Led by their highly touted point guard, Naismith Award finalist Nate Wolters, the Jackrabbits put on a shooting, rebounding and all-around basketball clinic on their way to a 100-82 win.
Omaha fell behind 7-0 early on and trailed the rest of the night. A short back-and-forth exchange where the ball bounced their way for a couple of minutes brought the Mavericks within five points about eight minutes in, but it never got any closer than that.
Nate Wolters may get all the headlines, but South Dakota State looked solid throughout an eight man rotation.
The powerful play of Jordan Dykstra (12 points, 17 rebounds) inside combined with guard Chad White's ability to shoot the ball effectively (8-of-11 from the field) from anywhere on the floor had more to do with the outcome than anything Wolters did.
Justin Simmons, Omaha's leading scorer, did his best to keep the Mavericks in the game with 29 points. He spearheaded a run in the second half that brought the home crowd to life and made the game interesting.
Senior Alex Welhouse shot the ball well all night (4-of-6 from three-point range), helping Simmons keep Omaha in the game.
Several different Omaha players seemed to take turns guarding Wolters. It was Caleb Steffensmeier, however, whose gritty effort against the NBA prospect stood out most.
Despite a considerable size disadvantage, Steffensmeier was relentless in his defense of Wolters, at one point drawing a sizable roar from the crowd in the second half for his effort while chasing after and winning a loose ball.
After the game, Coach Derrin Hansen touted Steffensmeier's effort, saying the 6'1 junior guard "isn't afraid of anybody."
However, all the hustle and fearless play in the world didn't seem like it would have been enough to knock off the South Dakota State Jackrabbitsâa team that looks primed for a solid postseason run and a date with March Madness.
The Jackrabbits out-rebounded the Mavericks 50-24 and shot .578 from the field.
Omaha (11-19) will finish off its season with a home stand against North Dakota State on Saturday.
The game marked the end of South Dakota State's regular season, as they clinched a share of the Summit League title and finished with a record of 22-9.
