Ok, so by now you already know that the Mavs from Mankato won the guys side and that the ladies from Concordia were tourney winners also. This column isn't going to be reviewing each game, but instead talking about the experience of a football guy who went to watch 3 of the 4 days of the event.

Now I'll be the first to say that I'm a far bigger small college football fan than I am a hoops person. That said, I'm not completely ignorant when it comes to hoops. Oddly enough, I attended the Big 8/12 Men's Basketball Tournament for years in KC, along with attending the inaugural Big 10 Men's Basketball Tournament in Chicago. I've gone to the Summit for years here in Sioux Falls, and parts of this NSIC tourney reminded me of the Summit.




Day One:
The Augie women lose to the Wolves from Aberdeen. This ends up being the last game for Emily Schulte. While I'm admittedly no Augie fan (being a USF supporter), I felt bad for Emily as she struggled shooting in her last game but played her tail off defensively. Per usual. Schulte hit a 3-ball with under a minute to play to tie it up, but Northern was able to answer and the Vikings came up a little short after a furious comeback (down 18 near half). All said, this was a great game was a good curtain-jerker to the event since you had 1 local team and the other from in-state, playing a game that went down to the wire.

In the night session the USF women shock Wayne State and advance yet another round, after limping to the finish line in the regular season. This game got the biggest 'pop' from the crowd of the entire tournament as USF hits a 3-pointer at the final gun of regulation that bounces all over the rim before dropping. Fantastic drama. The USF students really showed up and cheered loud, boosted the Coo. Kudos to the students who came out to the tournament. Also, love to watch sophomore Taylor Varsho. What a warrior.



The Augie men then take the floor for the main event, in my eyes. Augie having a Sioux Falls advantage should have been a real challenge for the Mavs, yet it was not. I've thought for a while that the Mavs had the most firepower in the conference and should be the clear #1. That's not quite how the regular season played out, but the Mavs pretty much rolled once they hit their stride in this tourney.

I was watching this game with some fellow USF fans and kept waiting for Yuriy Malashenko to hit a 3-pointer and to see him do his blowing out his guns, then tucking them into the holsters..thing. Heck I was even waiting patiently with the camera for it. Nuttin. One of the fans even said, "Malashenko, where's yer guns?" This happened a few times, but no 3-ball from Yuriy. Then late in the game a backup guard for Augie hits a 3 in garbage time and he does the guns! This prompts, "Malashenko, he's got your guns!!" Anyway, it was all in good fun.

I was a little surprised that Schilling didn't get more involved on offense in the game, being shutout in the first half and finishing with just 2 points. Jansen played well. That Augie team should be really set for the future, but the Mavs right now are just too much.

Oh by the way, Gage Wooten for Mankato goes for 32. He's their third option. He would be the best player on plenty of NSIC teams, just sayin. Zach Monaghan showed why he was the NSIC POY, as he was in great control of their offense throughout the tourney and knew when to distrubute and when to get his own points. He's a fantastic weapon for the Mavs at the point.



After the game the question for many fans was, "why didn't the Augie students show up?" I'm not entirely sure, but in speaking with some folks close to the program they were less than thrilled about this. It started the talk of "if they didn't come here do you think they are going to come to the Arena next year?" Certainly a fair question, but something Augie now has a while to figure out. I expected the Augie students to show up to some extent, this suprised me. Overall the Augie fan base (older fans) showed up well and filled in the stands admireably.

Day 2:
I wasn't there on day 2. No local teams playing, but watched on the internet most of the day. The stream is a good 15-seconds behind the video. This is nothing new with streams, but frustrating nonetheless. Most of the games were pretty one-sided. Winona men win, SMSU men win as well.

Day 3:
Now we move into Monday night. USF vs Concordia women. The Coo fights hard, but Concordia beats them 9 times outta 10 and in the second half they impose their will on USF. The point guard from Concordia is a handful, and eventually ends up getting the MVP of the tournament. Once again, the students came out in force and tried to propel the Coo, but it wasn't enough. As the 3 seniors for USF left the game with about 20 seconds left, the student section chanted "Thank You Seniors....Thank You Seniors". This was a really classy moment from the students and a moment that I doubt any of those 3 athletes will forget anytime soon.



Late game is the MSU-Mankato and SMSU. The Mustangs get out to a fast start and look fantastic. Great crowd from Marshall made the trip and are cheering vigorously. In the second half the Mavs show they are just better and run past the Mustangs and never look back. Very physical game.

Day 4:
Championship games. Got the kids (4 and 6) with me for the last round here. My buddy from Mankato makes the trip out to support his Mavs and all head to the game together. We get the tour between games as well, which was kinda cool. Heading to our seats my 4-year-old walks melon-first into a railing and this causes a temporary disaster, but moments later the tears are gone.

As for the first game, the Concordia women dominate an NSU team that was having trouble scoring points (30 with 6 minutes left in the game). Good tourney by Northern as they beat Augie and then Mankato, but Concordia looked like the class of the conference in this tourney. They win by almost 20 in the final.

The mens game is a slug-fest. Winona looks like they want to slow the game down and make it more of a football game, than hoops. Kato gets off to a quick start but then Winona starts to control the pace and the game slows down. The Mavs make a run before half and essentially ride that wave til the end and win by 9. Kellen Taylor from WSU really plays long. Great at blocking shots and also gets to the rim with his length on the offensive end. Coach Mike Leaf was also very entertaining, very spirited.



One of the most physical basketball games I can recall seeing. At times the degree on contact seemed a bit silly, as it felt like a fight might break out on the court at any time. Both coaches were getting very fired up, as were their star players. The Mavs get a lot of blocks in this one and just ended up looking like a team with more weapons.


Overall Impressions:
After experiencing this tournament close-up and in-person I have some thoughts about what's good about this event, and what could've been better.

The Pentagon - One fantastic facility. The building itself is a perfect fit for a D2 event with it's 3200 capacity. This facility is very well-appointed and is very unique, versus the cookie cutter gyms you often see today. This arena didn't remind me of any other facility. That's a good thing. Everything at the arena was first-rate. Ok maybe the food was average at best, but I can live with that.

I sat in about 5-6 different locations while watching games, anywhere from media row to the hospitality suites. The place I most enjoyed was behind the team's benches. Being that close to see and hear the interactions with the coaches and players is really an inside look. You also get to see how physical the game really is, up close.



Tournament Schedule - could be better. Easily the biggest complaint I heard all weekend. This event should run from Thursday to Sunday, period. I realize this event was being run as a "smaller Summit", but that event runs through Tuesday night solely to get ESPN coverage that they would never get on a Sunday. The NSIC has no reason to play Sat-Tues as ESPN isn't carrying any D2 tourney, and Midco isn't ESPN, but Midco did a fantastic job with the coverage.

If you put the tournament Thursday through Sunday you would get a better fan experience and far more people would make a weekend out of it. You then play your final games on Sunday, noon start and 3pm start, and everyone can have a little more time to get home before the night fully hits and all that.

I thought the weather would really pull down the attendance, but the crowds were still pretty solid inspite of the fact that we had snow and plenty of 0 degree weather.



Sioux Falls Sports Authority / Sanford - They do a fantastic job of rolling out the red carpet for events like this and make it feel 'big time' for the fans and the student athletes. Speaking of that, on the first day of the event I couldn't help but notice United States Senator (SD) John Thune in the house, taking in a game. He sits down 2 seats from me. Funny stuff. Either he's real skinny or I'm pretty fat. I'm thinking he's really skinny, at least that's what I'm going with here. When you see a guy who could be one of our next presidents (seriously though) a few seats down from you, well it makes the event kinda feel important. Big time. Which isn't common in D2.

Neutral Floor - for the most part I think so. If you are trying to get a tournament that's well attended (more fans at this tourney in day 1 of the event than the entire Rochester tournament last year) than you will need to be close to a few of the schools. This location is very good to accomplish that. The energy of playing infront of a solid crowd at a great facility seemed to really fire up some teams. Overall, the cream rose to the top.



Overall the tournament was a great success in the minds of 9 out of every 10 people you spoke with. This was NSIC Commishioner Butch Raymond's last and he said that he was thrilled by the support for the event. Taking this event to new heights should be the goal. Personally, I think it was mission accomplished.