Bison Brett Basketball Bonanza

This past Saturday I had the opportunity to catch the last Bison Men's Basketball game of the season. The Bison overcame the Mastadons of the abbreviated school of IPFW which is Indiana Purdue Fort Wayne. NDSU won without the Mastadons putting up much a fight. I arrived at the game a 1/3 through the first half and they were up by 5. Final score was 73-57.

Although they won, State did not appear sharp until later in the 2nd half. Both teams were racking up turnovers and missing some easy field goals. It was nothing like that Wisconsin game last year. Senior Andre Smith bid farewell with a slam dunk with a little over a minute to play in the game. Smith has been the poster boy of most of the Bison basketball marketing. The win gave NDSU 20 wins for a season that feature competition ranging from Mayville State to Texas Tech. The Bison held there own against the big guns and really made headlines when they defeated Marquette in December.

I went to the game primarily because I had not seen much Bison sports. Additionally I went because I "know" Brett Winkelman who was just a kid while I was at Morris and his family went to MCC. DJ Segue has had more contact with him over the last few years but I wanted to catch this rising star for myself. Brett did not disappoint. He put in 18 points and 10 boards- a double-double and leading scorer. He's not too bad in the classroom either. Earlier in the week ESPN the Magazine named Brett an Academic All-American 2nd Team recipient (a 3.88 GPA in Engineering!) Brett is just a Sophmore (was red-shirted when he arrived at NDSU) and so we are sure to see more from Brett.