SIU returns home for a battle against the North Dakota State Bison on Monday.
Meet the Bison:
The Bison are coached by Dave Richman in his 11th season as head coach. Richman took over for Saul Phillips when he left for the Ohio head coaching job in 2014-15. Richman made the NCAA Tournament in his first year as head coach. He also made an NCAA Tournament in 2019 and won the Summit League again in 2020 before the Tournament was canceled.
Coming into this season, the Bison were picked 3rd in the Summit League behind Kansas City and South Dakota State.
The Bison are 1-2 in D1 games this season so far with a loss at home to #185 Illinois State, a loss on the road at #244 Cal State Bakersfield, and a surprising overtime win on the road at #123 Santa Clara.
North Dakota State is a slow-paced team, they're 341st in the country in average possession length on the offensive end (19.4 seconds per possession). They're 6th in the country so far in 3 point attempts per field goal attempt taken (56.1%) and 44.3% of their points come from 3 (17th in the country). Their weakness this season has been creating turnovers on the defensive end. The Bison are 363rd in the country in turnover % (8.8%) and 363rd in the country in steal % (3.9%).
The leading scorer for the Bison is 6-3 Senior Jacari White averaging 22.5 points per game (good for 31st in the country). White spent one season at State College of Florida (JUCO). Last season, White averaged 10.3 points per game and was named to the Summit League all-defensive team. This season, White is getting the bulk of shots and possessions for the Bison. He's 48th in the country in % of possessions gone through him (32.4%). White is 213th in the country in effective field goal % (64.6%) and 151st in the country in true shooting % (69.3%).
The leader in assists and rebounds for North Dakota State is 6-10 Senior Jacksen Moni averaging 3.7 assists per game and 5 rebounds per game. Moni was born in Fargo, ND and spent 3 seasons at DII Northern State where he totaled more than 1,500 career points. This season, Moni is racking up assists for a big man, he's 171st in the country in assist rate (28.5%). Moni also leads the Bison in blocks with 1 block per game.
The Bison start another 6-10 big in Sophomore Noah Fedderson. Fedderson started 21 games last year as a Freshman for the Bison an averaged 7.4 points per game. In their loss at SIU last year, Fedderson scored 10 points on 5-6 FG.
Links:
SIU Game Notes
North Dakota State Game Notes
Really don't want to head to Florida still without a Division I win so this is one Southern needs to cash in or it likely will be a very rocky start to the season in the ole wins and losses dept.
Hopefully they don't allow too many clean looks from 3 (sounds like the Bison can shoot it), some of the Salukis who are "due" chip in and Kennard picks up close to where he left off last time at the formerly named SIU Arena.
SIU comes in as 7 point favorites
Good start for Hensley
Our length and athleticism is apparent so far. NDSU can't get any good looks
This is the kind of start I'm hoping we can see more of this season! Liking the athleticism of this group so far this year.
SIU 22-7. Feels like we're getting kind of lucky on NDSU just missing everything. Lot of open 3's
NDSU is 1-13 from the arc so far... reminds me of the Bulls game yesterday where they went 14-56(!) from the arc while getting demolished by the Rockets.
SIU 22-7. Feels like we're getting kind of lucky on NDSU just missing everything. Lot of open 3's
Yes. Don’t want to complain up 15 but giving up this many good looks from 3 is not sustainable.
NDSU is 1-14 from 3 so far, just air-balled a wide open 3
Any chance this is the game plan and they’re a really bad shooting team? If not, I have the same concerns as everyone else here.
Should note that Jackson Moni is out tonight for NDSU. He's their 2nd best player behind Jacari Whtie
Free throw shooting is a trainwreck again. 5-11
10 offensive rebounds for NDSU to 1 for SIU
10 - TEN - offensive rebounds for NDSU, compared to 1 for the Dawgs. That's the only thing keeping them in the game, as their arc shooting (1-16) is horrendous.
