This time last year there were many questions surrounding the future of the Bison men’s basketball team. It’s interesting how much can change in a year. Dave Richman re-tooled his roster, adding six players last season, including three late last spring.
Odell Wilson redshirted this season and his potential is untapped. Jordan Horn transferred from Siena and was granted eligibility for this past season, averaging four points a game. Sam Griesel was let out of his commitment to South Dakota and may have been the biggest addition to the Bison roster. Griesel missed time with a knee injury, but when healthy, was an impact player on the floor for the Bison. Jaxon Knotek and Jarius Cook got limited minutes as freshmen, both have high ceilings, I would expect their minutes to go up next year.
The biggest addition was unquestionably Vinnie Shahid, who even earned praise from Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski, who called him a “warrior” after the game on Friday night. Joel Sipper profiled Shahid after the game for WDAY Sports, Shahid was named team captain even before he played a game for the Bison. He was the unquestioned leader of this NDSU team and will be a marked man in the Summit League next season.
More from Coach K on #NDSU: pic.twitter.com/0NL1h7v5F7
— Dom Izzo (@DomIzzoWDAY) March 23, 2019
Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski with some high praise for #NDSU: pic.twitter.com/4zn064N4xS
— Dom Izzo (@DomIzzoWDAY) March 23, 2019
As far as NDSU goes, they too will be a marked team next season. The entire roster returns for the 2019-20 season and will add in Breckenridge big man Noah Christensen. The Bison may add another player, but it will have to be a walk-on at least for next season. NDSU is out of scholarships with Christensen, unless someone leaves the team. As far as Dave Richman’s future, that should be cleared up in a short amount of time. Richman has a year remaining on his contract, but he should be extended fairly soon by Matt Larsen. Richman has earned two NCAA Tournament wins in five years, which is outstanding for many mid-majors.
On the school side of things, the amount of exposure was even higher than what I wrote about on Friday. According to two separate websites, NDSU had over six million people watching its game Friday night against Duke. That’s six times as many that watched the Bison national championship win over Eastern Washington. We’ll see how that manifests itself going forward for the school, but safe to say that it was a monument evening for North Dakota State, no matter what the final school was.
There is plenty to be excited about for Bison men’s basketball. On the women’s side, the screening process began today for the applicants for the open head coaching job. We are working on the applicant list for the job.