North Dakota State started its basketball recruiting for 2019 in its own backyard Wednesday night as the Bison received a verbal commitment from Breckenridge junior Noah Christensen.
Christensen is a 6’8 wing, who played all five positions on the floor this past year for the Cowboys, averaged 20 points and 10 rebounds a game in leading Breckenridge to the 2A state tournament. Christensen is a rising recruit in Minnesota, who was starting to get some high major attention, notably from Nebraska.
This was pardon the pun, a slam dunk for Dave Richman, who needed to make sure that Christensen stayed close to home. Christensen is just scratching the surface of his potential, he certainly needs to gain weight, but his height and shooting ability is appealing and watching him during his senior season will be fascinating.
This is the first verbal for the Class of 2019 for NDSU, the Bison will have five seniors come March 2019, so there will be scholarships available. Christensen committing is a good start for that class.
FCS Scheduling News
In a move many expected, ESPN announced that Jacksonville State will play in the FCS Kickoff for the second straight year, as the Gamecocks will face North Carolina A&T on August 25th in Montgomery, Alabama. North Carolina A&T finished 12-0 in 2017, they were the lone unbeaten team in FCS football as they won the Celebration Bowl for the second straight year. JSU joins NDSU as the only teams to play in consecutive FCS Kickoffs (Bison played Montana and Charleston Southern in 2015 and 2016), but as I wrote last year, this game doesn’t have the impact as it was sold to be. Week Zero as it is known, is now littered with FBS AND FCS games, and you’ll see it again on August 25th.
In another note, Missouri State has added a 2020 date at Oklahoma. That’s notable as the Sooners have stayed away from FCS schools in recent years. The Bears will get 600,000 dollars for the game and completes their non-conference slate that year, joining a home game with Montana and road game at Kennesaw State. MSU now has two games with Oklahoma State, Arkansas and the Sooners for Power 5 games coming up.
It will be interesting to watch this spring and early summer what NDSU does to fill out its upcoming schedules. The Bison still have a date in 2020 to fill and 2021 and 2023 are completely open.