Ryan Pravato of College Fast Break is the RTC correspondent for the Summit League.
NDSU 15-5 (9-1)
The Bison are pouring it on now. 5th year seniors Brett Winkleman and Ben Woodside combined for 59 points in a 10 point overtime victory at SDSU on Jan. 23rd. Interesting to note the Bison only managed 8 assists the entire 45 minutes. On Thursday night (Jan. 29) NDSU used a 13-0 run inside of the 6 minute mark of the 2nd half to drown the Grizzlies. Ben Woodside notched his 3rd double-double of the season with 16 points and 10 dimes. This win puts NDSU up 3 games on Oakland and a half a game ahead of Oral Roberts. The NDSU “team of destiny” murmurs are now circulating the Summit League landscape (gut source).
Oral Roberts 10-11 (8-1)
The last 2 Golden Eagle opponents have scored 54 and 51 respectively. Holding both opponents under 37% shooting will drastically help out the cause most nights. Oral Roberts is playing so well right now that Robert Jarvis (17ppg) has not needed to be a prime time offensive force (just 23 total points in the last 2 games). Senior forward Marcus Lewis scored 26 on 11-13 from the field in a victory over Southern Utah on Jan. 24th, all but ending the silly talk of Oral Roberts being too reliant on Jarvis shooting 20 + times a game. Really.
BIG GAME- Oral Roberts @ Centenary(5-4) Jan. 31st
Oakland 13-10 (6-4)
Before the Thursday night’s showdown with NDSU, Oakland was seemingly firing on all cylinders. Brimming with confidence after destroying 2 straight opponents by an average of 29 points, surely helped by Erik Kangas’s 2nd Summit league player of the week award in as many weeks, OU looked prime to shock NDSU on the road. But while sophomore Will Hudson and redshirt sophomore Keith Benson held their own inside, Oakland’s lack of depth proved detrimental (Jones-40 min, Kangas-39min). Kangas shooting 5-16 didn’t help matters either.
Tough loss, but believe me, many OU fans still believe they can make it to the promised land this season.
Centenary 7-14 (5-4)
Winners of 4 in a row, the Gentleman are playing almost as good as anyone right now. Their guard duo of Chase Adams and Nick Stallings are proving to be too much for the bottom feeders of the conference to handle as evidence by the 43 points combined they put up against Southern Utah on Jan. 22th and the 35 points, 10 assists, and 10 rebounds they put up against UMKC 2 days later. Since unheralded freshman Maxx Nakwaasah was placed into the starting lineup 3 games ago, he has not disappointed, scoring in double figures each game (8-11 from deep), keeping the notion alive that if you have a weird name you’re likely to get mentioned by me on the internet trying to be witty.
In case you skip around when reading my Summit league wraps,
BIG GAME- Oral Roberts @ Centenary (5-4) Jan. 31st.
The REST
Four teams follow the pack at 4-6. I could discuss which team is most capable of pulling off a stunning upset, but that would be like gobs and gobs of pre-game Super Bowl coverage. Pointless. Overkill. Cards are winning by 4. You saw it here first.
Wait…
There is some unsettling news out of UMKC (2-8) you should be aware of. Sophomore guard and UMKC’s second leading scorer Reggie Hamilton announced earlier in the week that he quit the team. This piece of goodness puts to rest the need to ever mention UMKC on here again. And yes, actually there was a need to keep mentioning UMKC– see, Kangaroo fan Greg kept sending me disparaging emails threatening to kidnap and drag me out to a game at UMKC otherwise. I must change my email.