UMD Men’s Basketball Embracing Challenges of Tough NSIC Conference

So far, the Bulldogs are 8-2 in their first 10 games of action.

DULUTH, Minn.- The UMD men’s basketball team is nearing the midway point of their season.

So far, the Bulldogs are 8-2 in their first 10 games of action.

This week UMD will hit the road Thursday to play Concordia-St. Paul before returning home Saturday to battle Winona State.

Both teams rank in either the middle or the top of the NSIC standings.

The one that the Bulldogs have their eyes on though is Saturday’s matchup with the Warriors as Winona is a game ahead of UMD in the standings.

Head Coach Justin Wieck says he’s been telling his team to not get ahead of themselves though.

“Our conference is as tough as ever, it’s as deep as ever. We have to be at your best every night to win. For the most part, we have been. So for us we just try to stay in the moment. Focus on the next game. Know it’s a really long season. For as good as we were last year, we weren’t 30-0. We definitely had some bumps along the way. This season is going to be full of ups and downs,” said Wieck.

The Bulldogs find themselves in unfamiliar territory as they are coming off their first conference loss to Southwest Minnesota State last weekend.

UMD graduate guard Drew Blair doesn’t seem to be phased though as he’s confident the team will bounce back.

“We just pretty much played seven or eight great halfs of basketball in a row. Put together a couple week’s of really good basketball. So keep playing together. We played 15 minutes of bad basketball on both ends of the floor so try not to freak out about it but continue to play together. Make the extra pass and then get back to our defensive identity there. We struggled to get stops on Saturday so clean a couple things up on ball screen defense, stuff like that and let it go from there,” added Blair.

UMD and Concordia-St.Paul tip off at 5:30 on Thursday.