The Summit League Tournament is underway! The Leathernecks will once again face off against NDSU, but this time it's win or go home. The Bison have not seen action since WIU beat them 77-64 last Saturday and meanwhile WIU played this past Wednesday and beat down UNO 72-51 to finish off their best regular season in over a decade.
It's been a lot of fun up here so far, Souix Falls is not half bad a town, but I'll right more about our adventures later on. Right now, it's time to preview tonight's game...
WIU has now won two straight and comes in to the tourney as the number four seed. They still maintain the best defense in the conference and are now 23rd in the nation for defense. They are also number two in severak catagories including field goal percent defense, turnover margin, and assist to turnover ratio. However, they have the worst free throw percentage in the conference at 68%, although they have definitely improved their shooting at the line in the past few game. They will need to continue improving if they want to make a NCAA Tournament run (WIU has never been to the NCAA's).
As for some individuals, Ceola Clark finished off a great regular season leading the Summit League in assist to turnover ratio and is also 7th in the nation. He is 3rd in the conference in assist and his three point shooting is still lights out at 46%, good enough to be 7th in the nation. Clark was also named the Summit League's Defensive Player of the Year, making him the only player in conference history to win the award twice (he also won it in the '09-'10 season). Besides that he was also named second team all conference. Terell Parks leads the conference in rebounding and was named to the the All-Newcomer team for the Summit League along with Obi Emegano.
As for the Bison they are the number five seed for the tournament and shoot the ball better than any other team in the conference and are also 6th in the nation in field goal percentage. They also lead the conference in field goal percent defense and blocks per game. They are 3rd in the conference in scoring offense. Even their loss to us last week they managed to shoot the ball pretty well, 47%. So we will need to make sure and keep the pressure on them.
Looking at their individuals, they have a first team all conference player by the name on Taylor Braun 10th in thwe conference in field goal percentage and 55th in the nation. He is also 6th in the Summit League in rebounding. They also boast a pretty good three point shooter, Mike Felt. He made some tough three's against us in the last game so our guys need to make sure and be right in his face in the perimeter.
This is going to be the third time we play NDSU this year and we swept the season series against them. However, it's tournament time and the regular season can be throw out the window. It doesn't matter anymore what you did in the regular season because only one team is going to represent the Summit League in the NCAA Tournament.
A couple tourney note so far: our Women's team proved just how much the regular season means at this point as they upset the #2 seeded Oral Roberts Women's team yesterday to move on to the semi-finals. They played a great game and actually never trailed. They built a 22 point half time lead and never lead by less than seven in the second. Big congrats to the girls on that win and they'll play the winner of UMKC vs Oakland tomorrow.
On the Men's side, Oral Roberts barley pulled out a win in their first tournament game last night as IPFW really showed up to play and almost came away with the huge upset. South Dakota State (the #2 seed) also won their first game. The winner of our game tonight will play ORU and the winner of Oakland vs Southern Utah will play SDSU.
That'll do it for now, tip-off is at 6pm tonight and as always...GO LEATHERNECKS!!!
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