Tenacious D: Minnesota Uses Defense to Overcome Pesky North Dakota State
Monday, November 13, 2006

Tenacious D: The Pick of Destiny, a new movie starring Jack Black and Kyle Gass, is scheduled to open in theaters nationally on December 1.

No one knows whether Black and Gass were in attendance at Williams Arena to promote their film on November 13, but it is certain that Tenacious D (for defense) was on display courtesy of the University of Minnesota basketball Gophers.

The Gophers relied on a tenacious defense to subdue a pesky North Dakota State (NDSU) team by the score of 63 to 49 before an announced crowd of 10,327 at the Barn. Unlike this year’s football game with the Gophers, NDSU fans did not show up in great numbers for the basketball tilt. Unless an event falls on a weekend, North Dakota people apparently tend to stay close to home.

The game had all the earmarks of a NDSU victory, given the Gophers’ loss to Winona State on Wednesday of the previous week. The Bison also brought back the best players from last season’s shocking 62-55 upset of 13th-ranked Wisconsin in Madison. In that contest, NDSU raced to a 16-0 lead over the Badgers and hung on for the victory.

Against Minnesota, however, there would be no 16-0 lead for the Bison. In fact, it appeared that a scoreless outcome was possible. Nearly four minutes elapsed before Dan Coleman’s basket gave the Gophers a 2-0 lead. Until then, the most exciting moment was when NDSU’s Mike Nelson, racing at full speed at one end of the court, was unable stop at the edge of the raised Williams Arena playing surface, lept, and continued running into the concourse, no doubt startling late-arriving spectators.

Lucas Moormann scored to tie the game at 2-2, and Minnesota coach Dan Monson retaliated by benching all five players and bringing in five others. It was two-platoon basketball, something seldom seen in Williams Arena since the facility opened for business in 1928. One of the starters, center Spencer Tollackson, did not come back until the second half. Another, Brandon Smith, did not return at all.

The second unit proved to be as inconsistent as the first. With seven minutes and 46 seconds left in the half, the score was only 6-5. On August 31, North Dakota State University accepted an invitation to join the Mid-Continent Conference for the 2007-08 season at which time the league will feature teams such as Southern Utah, IUPUI, Centenary, UMKC, South Dakota State, and IPFW. The first half of the Gopher game no doubt resembled an early season match between the bottom two teams of the Mid-Continent Conference or even the North Central Conference, the former home of the Bison. By the time the horn sounded to end the first half, every manner of missed shot, turnover, foolish foul, and poor pass had been attempted. A pair of students dressed in gorilla costumes attempted to join the fray and, had the rules allowed it, might very well have done no worse than those in basketball costumes.

The half ended with Minnesota in the lead by 23 to 18. NDSU could hit only six of 29 field goal attempts. The Gophers were not much better at 32 percent.

NDSU is in its fourth year of a five-year reclassification to Division I status. The move from Division II was announced in 2002. This is the third for the Bison as a Division I independent. A sure sign that coach Tim Miles’s team has “arrived” (even more than the Wisconsin win at Madison) is that Nike is supplying NDSU with three sets of uniforms (one green, one white, and one yellow).

The second half began as sloppy as the first with nearly two minutes elapsing before the first basket. Bison point guard Ben Woodside, from Albert Lea, Minnesota, fed Andre Smith, from St. Paul, who hit a three-pointer to bring NDSU within two points. After the game, Monson admitted that the Gophers were keying on Woodside and attempting to prevent the NDSU patented pick-and-roll. Woodside had destroyed Wisconsin with 24 points, including 10 shots in a row. “We know all about Woodside,” Monson said, “and what he can do to a defense. I must have seen him play 15 times when he was in high school.” Monson used 6-5 point guard Kevin Payton to shut down Woodside. “Payton’s height clearly bothered Woodside,” said NDSU’s Miles.

The Bison never got closer than 25-23. Woodside finished with only six points and was 2-for-10 from the field. Minnesota’s first double-digit lead (40-29) came with a dozen minutes left in the game on a two-point jumper by Limar Wilson. It grew to 57 to 39 on a three-pointer Lawrence McKenzie, who finished the night with a game-high 20 points. Smith was truly Andre the Giant in the middle for NDSU with 17 rebounds and 17 points.

Both coaches credited Winona State for the outcome. The exhibition loss served as a wake-up call. “We blame Winona State for our defeat,” said Miles, who is familiar with the Warrior program, having spent four years at Southwest Minnesota State, like Winona State, a member of the Northern Sun Conference. “Losing to Winona State put a fire under the Gophers’ butts.”

Monson agreed. “I really believe this in my heart that if we wouldn’t have gotten embarrassed like we were on Wednesday, we probably wouldn’t have won this game. We needed that, and it was very evident that we were better tonight.” Credit the Gophers’ tenacious D.

The lack of Bison fans in the building could be explained in the team’s media guide which indicates, at home, NDSU averaged only 2,488 fans in the 6,000-seat Bison Sports Arena in Fargo, hardly enough to support a Division I program. The revenue dip is likely offset by NDSU football revenues. For that sport, the Bison play home games in the Fargodome.