North Dakota State Basketball: 2019-20 season preview for Bison

By Austin Hamm | Sep 21, 2019

COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA - MARCH 22: Jordan Horn #33 and Vinnie Shahid #0 of the North Dakota State Bison react against the Duke Blue Devils in the second half during the first round of the 2019 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Colonial Life Arena on March 22, 2019 in Columbia, South Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /

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COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA – MARCH 22: A view of a megaphone used by the North Dakota State Bison cheerleaders in the first half against the Duke Blue Devils during the first round of the 2019 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at Colonial Life Arena on March 22, 2019 in Columbia, South Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /

Season Outlook

With so much production returning from a team that made the NCAA tournament, there’s reason to be excited in Fargo for the prospects of the 2018-19 season.

Shahid made a name for himself with 20 points against Duke, and expectations are high for his second season at NDSU. When coupled with the fact that South Dakota State, Omaha and IPFW, the three teams that finished ahead of NDSU in last years standings, all lost their top two scorers from a year ago, those expectations raise even higher.

Indeed, it is easy to picture NDSU easily going 12-5 or better within the conference and pushing their way into an automatic bid for the NCAA tournament without any huge changes or improvements from a season ago besides natural progression. But for all mid-majors, it becomes a question of what can you do once you reach the big dance?

For NDSU, that answer may hinge on their defensive performance. A year ago, the Bison were 70th out of 353 teams in offensive rating, according to sports-reference.com. That’s a very fine spot to be in, and with some guys taking steps and rounding out their games NDSU should be able to keep pace with most anyone.

Defensively, though, they ranked a paltry 306th on Sports Reference. A number like that gets you run through when you play tough high major team. Players like Ward, Eady and Griesel all look capable of being excellent defensive players, so if the system can coalesce NDSU will likely show themselves much more competitive in games like Kansas State and Marquette and have moments of dominance in conference play.

Next. Toughest non-conference schedules of 2019-20. dark

Based solely on losses versus returners, it’s hard to not pick NDSU to be the team to emerge from the Summit League for the NCAA tournament this year. Obviously, their performance in the non-conference will be pivotal in determining their seeding. If they can sneak even to the 14 line, the question will be if they can play just enough defense to give themselves a chance to spring an upset in the round of 64.