What an accomplishment for North Dakota!! The NDSU Bison were finally eligible for the NCAA national tournament. They would have to beat Oakland to win the Summit in Sioux Falls South Dakota. It was a tough match NDSU was down most of the game but in the final minutes they put it together and had to make a last second shot to win 66-64.
The team is stacked with 5 year seniors that ended up red shirting their first year to become eligible to play in the NCAA tournament if they would make it and guess what it paid off for them. NDSU is now going to be up against coaches that get paid millions of dollars and players that are just waiting for the NBA draft. Even though the odds are against NDSU for winning their first playoff game, this will be something that the players and coaches will always be able to remember that the first year eligible they get to play in the tournament.
I think that even though we will probably get stomped in the game it is a good PR for North Dakota. We aren’t just a bunch of farmers who live in cold weather and raise cattle. This is going to show that North Dakota is going to be a competitor in the future to come with basketball. I am guessing since we made it the first year that we were eligible we will have more money in the next few years to come so maybe we will be able to get some good drafts and maybe have a shot at the title some day.
I am glad that the team worked hard and glad that the seniors now like Woodstock who was Conference player of the year that they put as much time and effort to try and give North Dakota a name for another sport.
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Great PR for North Dakota indeed! Pretty awesome to think that ND will be playing in a tournament as big as the NCAA championship. Being a former college football player, I remember the want to play on television in front of millions of people. I can just imagine the excitement the players of the NDSU basketball team must be feeling. Hopefully North Dakota will benefit from these athletes. I have read statistics that a college’s enrollment goes way up when they’re collegiate team makes national play offs.
ReplyDeleteGreat news for the University’s team. How exciting for a relatively new program to compete with larger / more funded established programs.
ReplyDeleteWorking at FAU I know exactly the excitement that is generated when your local team excels and is able to take steps towards winning a championship.
I am sure that this is also good news for the fundraising / foundation of the school. This will help generate much needed PR that the university advancement team can capitalize on to increase revenues for athletic programs/scholarships/marketing.
An additional benefit is the school spirit that an event like this provides the students. It is great to see students come together for a common cause. This also helps the sales of promotional items which in turn creates more visibility and adds extra monies for programs.