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| The Bison men's basketball team is on the road this weekend to take on IUPUI and Western Illinois. (Photo by Daniel Gunderson) |
No Taylor Braun
The Bison's leading scorere, junior guard Taylor Braun, left the second half of last Saturday's game against Oakland University with what appeared to be an ankle injury. After being taken to the hospital for x-rays, it was revealed that he had broken a bone in his right foot and would be sidelined for the next 4-6 weeks.
The hope is that he will be back in time for the Summit League tournament in Sioux Falls, S.D. come March 9. In the meantime, NDSU is going to have to learn to play without him. So, who is going to play where and how is the bench going to be effected?
Here is what I would hope head coach Saul Phillips will do. Option one, play senior Nate Zastrow at the point guard, move Lawrence Alexander to the two, Kory Brown the three and TrayVonn Wright and Marshall Bjorklund would be the four and five respectively.
This still allows for you to bring Mike Felt and Chris Kading off the bench, giving your bench more offensive depth.
Option two, play Mike Felt at the two and move Kory Brown up to the three. Zastrow would still spell LA when needed, but I don't like this option as much because I think Felt is more effective off the bench instead of starting.
It will be interesting to see how the rest of the season plays out with the starting line-up going forward.
Brett VandenBergh
The freshman from De Pere, Wisconsin will now get increased minutes because of the injury to Braun. What he does with it will be another story. It was never a question that he was going to see time this season, but an early season injurie and illness have caused him to only now start seeing an increase in playing time.
The injury forces coach Phillips to go deeper in his bench but it isn't as scary as it has been in years past. He finally has the added luxury of depth and could go as far as putting in Jordan Aaberg to help at the forward/center positions in case Chris Kading and/or Marshall Bjorklund get into foul trouble.
Coach Phillips said at the press conference follwing the Oakland game that there was a spot for him in the rotation regarless of what went on. Now, his oppurtunity is here and we will see how he reacts. For NDSU, they hope he can score anywhere between 5 and 8 points a game to help balance the loss of Braun.
How good is Western Illinois?
Western Illinois comes into this weekend's set of games with a 14-3 overall record, 6-0 in the Summit League. They will take on South Dakota State Thursday night and follow that up with NDSU Saturday. The two toughest home games of the year for them.
Those games will either legitamize the Leathernecks as one of the top three teams in the league or pretenders that thrived off a weak non-conference and conference schedule. Defensively, WIU is one of the best in the country, allowing only 52 points per game, which is fourth best in the nation.
Offensively, the only average 62 points per game, which is 273rd in the nation and last in the Summit League. They only get up about 46 shots per game. They obviously rely on the idea that defense wins games. What happens if they can't defend NDSU?
They'll have two-time Summit League Defensive Player of the Year, Ceola Clark, on Alexander while Terell Parks will match-up with Bjorklund. I think that it is advantage Bison in this regard because who guards Felt and Wright? Not only that, NDSU will be taking on WIU after SDSU had just played them on Thursday.
Predictions: NDSU 70 IUPUI 55
NDSU 60 WIU 56
They've proven they can win on the road this year and I think they come up with the sweep despite missing the services of Taylor Braun.
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