Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Kudos, Bison

Just got done watching North Dakota State's exciting win over Oakland to win the Summit League tournament and clinch an NCAA Tournament berth in their first year of eligibility. The Bison are coached by former UW assistant Saul Phillips, who will likely be a hot coaching prospect moving up the ladder in coming seasons. Saul, of course, played for Bo Ryan at Platteville and coached under him at UWM and UW.

Bo's son, Will, is an assistant under Phillips, and it wouldn't be a stretch to project him moving up with his boss or back to work with his dad at some point in the future.

That team has a lot of seniors, many of whom were on the court three years ago when they shocked the Badgers at the Kohl Center in what is undoubtedly still the biggest head-scratching loss of the Bo Ryan era.

Other Wisconsin ties from North Dakota State include director of basketball operations Dan Weisse, who played at Oshkosh West and UWM, and senior Mike Nelson of Madison Memorial.

Best of luck to these guys against whichever #1 or #2 seed they draw, hopefully they can pull a shocker like they did in Madison that horrible day in January 2006.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sad to say but I think you are underestimating the Bison. They will at least be a 14 seed with a 13 as a possibility. Entring the game last night, Lunardi had them as a 13. I think they have a chance of pulling an upset. If they get a team that thinks NDSU is a bunch of slow chumps, look out.

Coach Scott Tappa said...

Thanks for the comment frye. There was no disrespect intended in my post, as I really don't know anything about NDSU's resume, just assumed they would land in one of those lower seeds. Wish them nothing but the best, as long as they aren't playing UW!

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