The North Dakota State University men’s basketball team, currently holding a 23-6 overall record and leading the Summit League at 13-1, is set for two important games this week. The Bison will travel to play second-place St. Thomas on Thursday before hosting third-place North Dakota on Saturday.
Thursday’s game against St. Thomas will mark the 29th meeting between the teams, with NDSU holding a narrow lead in the series at 15-13. Since St. Thomas joined the Summit League, both teams have won five games each against one another. In their previous matchup this season, NDSU defeated St. Thomas 68-65 in Fargo.
On Saturday, NDSU will face long-time rival North Dakota for the 313th time. UND leads the all-time series 165-147, but since moving to Division I, NDSU has a stronger record of 19 wins to UND’s eight over their last 27 meetings and has claimed victory in 13 of the past 17 encounters. The most recent contest saw NDSU win decisively, 83-66 in Grand Forks.
Both games will be available via live stream on the Summit League Network through the Midco Sports Plus app. The Saturday game against North Dakota will also air locally on WDAY Xtra television. Radio broadcasts with Sam Neidermann can be heard on stations including 107.9 The Fox and Bison 1660 and streamed online through GoBison.com/AllAccess and the NDSU Athletics app.
The Bison recently clinched their fifth regular season Summit League title under head coach David Richman, who now has six seasons with at least twenty wins during his tenure at NDSU. “This is the fourth time under head coach David Richman that the Bison have won at least 23 games in a season,” according to information from North Dakota State University Athletics.
NDSU is close to breaking its single-season win record of 26 victories—a milestone previously reached three times in program history: during the seasons of 1924-25, 2008-09, and most recently in Richman’s first year as head coach (2013-14). The team’s current league record matches its best-ever start through fourteen conference games since joining the Summit League.
Andy Stefonowicz has recorded two double-doubles this season—once with fifteen points and ten assists against South Dakota and again with thirteen points and eleven assists versus Kansas City—and is seeking to become NDSU’s first player since Ben Woodside (2005–09) to average five assists per game across a season.
Five players are averaging double figures in scoring during league play: Treyson Anderson (13.2), Damari Wheeler-Thomas (13.1), Trevian Carson (12.7), Markhi Strickland (11.5), and Noah Feddersen (10.8). Notably, despite these contributions no individual ranks among the top fourteen scorers within the conference.
Noah Feddersen leads all Bison scorers over his last eight games coming off the bench while shooting an efficient sixty-six percent from the field during league contests.
In national statistics, Markhi Strickland holds a spot as one of college basketball’s most accurate shooters by field goal percentage; Trevian Carson ranks among national leaders for total steals; Tay Smith remains effective from beyond-the-arc; and as a team, NDSU maintains strong numbers in turnover margin (+3.2 per game) as well as defensive discipline—committing fewer fouls than most Division I programs—with an average of just under fifteen fouls per contest.
Additionally, this year’s squad averages nearly twelve offensive rebounds per game—their highest rate since more than fifteen years ago—demonstrating continued effort on both ends of court as they approach postseason play.
