But here’s Thursday’s quirky stat…

Ben Woodside of North Dakota State, arguably the best player in the Summit League and a guy who scored 60 earlier in the season, shot a perfect 0-12 from the field against Western Illinois. To Ben’s credit, he did have 6 assists and 3 steals, but that 0′fer is cooky.

Not even close to being cookier than Woodside’s “off” night was the final score, a 61-52 victory on the road for the North Dakota State Bison (17-5, 11-1), the favorites to represent the Summit league in the Big Dance.

Best player can’t hit a shot, no problem, the Bison are ready to bust your butt anyway.

Look out 12 and 13 seeds, you don’t want to face this group.

Post from: EveryJoe

STAT of the DAY (Feb. 5th)

That is NOT the STAT of the DAY!

STAT of the DAY-

The 35 free throws Ben Woodside attempted.

And if you’re counting, Woodside knocked down 30 of em.

This 30/35 free throw performance just barely beat out the 55 minutes played by Stephen F. Austin’s Josh Alexander.

Way to be a trooper Josh.

Both of these teams play today, by the way.

Post from: EveryJoe

STAT OF THE DAY!

From Yours Truly:

Summit League 08/09

Predicted Order of Finish:

North Dakota State Bison (19-10, 13-5)
Oral Roberts Golden Eagles (20-10, 13-5)
Oakland Golden Grizzlies (18-13, 12-6)
IPFW Mastodons (16-13, 11-7)
IUPUI Jaguars (16-15, 9-9)
UMKC Kangaroos (14-17, 8-10)
Centenary College Gentlemen (11-19, 8-10)
South Dakota State Jackrabbits (13-18, 7-11)
Western Illinois Fighting Leathernecks (9-20, 6-12)
Southern Utah Thunderbirds (6-23, 3-15)

What you need to know.

22 out of 31- Conference RPI ranking for the Summit League in each of the last two seasons.

Oregon, Marquette, Oklahoma St., Kansas, Texas Tech, Utah- Casualties at the hands of Summit league teams throughout the past 2 seasons. Does beating Seton Hall count? What about Louisiana Tech, twice? Not bad, not bad. The Summit is not quite knocking on the door of the Missouri Valley in stature as of yet, but at least they’re in the neighborhood. Some will never be in the continent.

Guardplay- Guards rule this conference in more than one way. They not only light up the scoreboard from downtown, but they also grab more than their share of rebounds. Lots. Last season 6′5 Derick Nelson led the Oakland Grizzlies with 7.4, 6′6 Brett Winkelman led the North Dakota State Bison with 8.3, and 6′2 George Hill led IUPUI with 6.8. The big men you will find, and there are some actually, are your rudimentary mid-level giants who usually possess the muscle tone of Kevin Durant and the post-up game of Muggsy Bogues. Besides that, Summit league big men are studs.

Predicted Champion. North Dakota State (#14 NCAA). Coincidentally this happens to be the very first season in which the Bison are postseason-eligible. But the Bison seem to be the consensus these days. And for good reason. The three-headed monster returning for the Bison all redshirted their freshman year so that they would be able to have an opportunity like this. The littlest of the fifth year senior trio, Ben Woodside, scored over 20 ppg last season while also dishing out over 5 feeds. At 5′10, Woodside is a very creative attacker and gauging from the few times I have seen him play in person, he will hoist from anywhere, anytime. The giant of the group is Brett Winkelman, all 6′6 of him. While you already know he’s a terror on the glass, he’s also quite the assassin on the perimeter, hitting 43.8% of his threes last year. Winkleman is an efficient player and one not to shy away from the dirty work. He’d be in any team’s rotation. 6′4 Mike Nelson is the third head of this Bison monster. Often overlooked because of the other two, Nelson just goes about his business, you know, the usual 46.1% from downtown, 13.8 ppg, and 32 mpg. Not a shabby third option. All numbers aside, this Bison squad is downright hungry. They’re ready for the limelight, ready for the Summit league tourney.

Others considered. Oral Roberts, the Summit League representative in the tourney the previous three years, will always be in the discussion for the title. Oral Roberts consistently plays defense year in and year out the way it should be played: stay between your man and the basket. Alright, that may not be their textbook philosophy on defense, but a casual fan watching this team would probably not argue against it actually being THE PHILOSOPHY. Offensively speaking, combo guard Robert Jarvis and forward Marcus Lewis are the only returning players that averaged north of 5 ppg last season. Jarvis is a star though. He’s without a doubt the most streaky player in the conference (16.1 ppg in 29 mpg…off the bench). I’m not real sure Oral Roberts can survive the shoot first mentality of Jarvis as their point guard, but it sure looks like that will be their only chance to make it 4 straight tourney appearances.

Oakland finished third in the conference in 2008. They have one heck of an opening stretch of road games to begin the year. If they can come out of it with an upset or three, it might just be all the confidence this team needs to make a run. Scoring the ball is not a concern for head coach Greg Kampe. Guards Johnathon Jones, Erik Kangas and Derick Nelson all averaged over 14 ppg last season. Nelson has a tendency to try to do too much, but when he plays within himself, he can hurt you in a variety of ways, whether it’s on the offensive glass, in transition, or with an occasional trey. Defense and rebounding seem to be the problem for this team, especially up front. They can usually get away with lackluster defensive lapses against the weaker teams, but losing four out of five to last year’s strongholds IUPUI and Oral Roberts should be an indication of what Oakland must drastically improve on to legitimately be considered a threat . A pair of highly touted freshman (as opposed to lowly touted), 6′9 Jay Thames and 7′0 Ilija Milutinovic, hope to give this lacking front line a boost. Ilija, says coach Kampe, might be just what the doctor ordered: “There is a lot of hype with him and we have never had this much hype about a recruit before. He turned down six figures to play professionally in Serbia because he wants to go to the NBA.” Kampe later referred to Ilija as “very comparable” to Darko Milicic. I’m still not sure what to make of that.

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For more, visit Rush the Court.

They have everything covered.

Post from: EveryJoe

Summit League Preview

-2007/08 was the inaugural season for the Summit League.

-The league was called the Mid-Continent Conference from 1989-2007. From 1982-1989 it was called the Association of Mid-Continent Universities.

May 15th 2007

“Beginning June 1st, the Mid-Continent Conference will be known as the Summit League. The name change is part of the “Summit Plan” to try and turn the league into a premier academic and athletic mid-major conference. The Mid-Con has struggled in recent years to find an identity, as its schools are scattered throughout the country, and it has experienced turnover in member teams. Going forward, the league will consist of: Centenary College, IPFW, IUPUI, UMKC, North Dakota State, Oakland, Oral Roberts, South Dakota State, Southern Utah and Western Illinois. The new logo and name “summit” are meant to suggest the peak of excellence, and not have any association with being located around a mountainous region.”

Collegehoopsnet

-League consists of ten schools from nine different states. Travel budgets explode in this league.

-School enrollment’s range from a little over a 1,000 to more than 27,000.

-Western Illinois is the only member that has been in the conference from the beginning (1982).

-Valparaiso was a member of the conference as recently as 2006/2007. But Valpo apparently wanted to step their game up and arguably did so by escaping to the Horizon League.

-Oral Roberts has represented the league in the NCAA tourney for the past 3 years.

- Oral Roberts President Richard Roberts committed a couple of crimes and thought it would be all ok since God told him to do it.

-For the last two seasons the league has been nestled in the #22 slot (out of 30) in terms of conference RPI strength.

-Former IUPUI Jaguar George Hill chose to forego his senior year and it paid off big time. Selected in the first round of the 08 draft by the San Antonio Spurs.

-Not surprisingly the 08 Summit League’s Conference Player of the Year was George Hill.

-North Dakota State is somewhat of the favorite to take the regular season title and go into the conference tourney with a #1 seed. Collegehoopsnet.com believes they will come out of it with a NCAA berth. Oakland University is picked to be the Bison’s toughest challenger.

-This is the first season North Dakota State and South Dakota State are eligible for postseason play on the DI level.

-The conference tourney will be held in Sioux Falls, South Dakota in 2009. The top eight teams qualify.

Enlightened anyone?

Post from: EveryJoe

Getting to know the Summit League (II)