The Bracket
Road To Muni Podcast
NSAA Tournament Schedule
NSAA Men’s Basketball Quarterfinals @ four higher seeds – Tuesday, Feb. 21
Game #1: No. 8 Presentation (S.D.) (6-20, 1-13 NSAA) @ No. 1 Mayville State (N.D.) (22-5, 12-2 NSAA) – 7:30 p.m. LIVE VIDEO LIVE STATS
Game #2: No. 5 Bellevue (Neb.) (15-13, 7-7 NSAA) @ No. 4 Valley City State (N.D.) (15-13, 8-6 NSAA) – 6 p.m. LIVE VIDEO LIVE STATS
Game #3: No. 6 Dakota State (S.D.) (12-16, 6-8 NSAA) @ No. 3 Dickinson State (N.D.) (13-14, 9-5 NSAA) – 6 p.m. (5 p.m. MT) LIVE VIDEO LIVE STATS
Game #4: No. 7 Waldorf (Iowa) (8-18, 4-10 NSAA) @ No. 2 Viterbo (Wis.) (15-12, 9-5 NSAA) – 7 p.m. LIVE VIDEO LIVE STATS
NSAA Men’s Basketball Semifinals @ Civic Arena – Watertown, S.D. – Saturday, Feb. 25
Game #5: Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner – 6 p.m.
Game #6: Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 winner – 8 p.m.
NSAA Men’s Basketball Championship @ Civic Arena – Watertown, S.D. – Sunday, Feb. 26
Game #7: Game 5 winner vs. Game 6 winner – 4 p.m
NSAA Opening Round Breakdown
Mayville State vs Presentation
Mayville State lost their coach in middle of November. Interim coach, Brandon McGruder took over, and now has Mayville State sitting at 22-5 overall and 12-2 in NSAA. They have good analytics, so we will see if they can get an at-large slot or not. For now, Mayville will be concentrating on locking up the NSAA’s 1 auto-bid as the NSAA Tournament Champions. Presentation, unfortunately, will be shutting down after this season. There are a lot of players and coaches who need new homes next year. It’s a tall ask, but maybe they can pull a few upsets on their way out! If they are going to do that they are going to have to stop Thomas Gieske, who has been really good all season long for Mayville State and may just take over Jack Monis for NSAA POY this season.
Valley City State vs Bellevue
Bellevue has seen recent success in the NSAA Tournament and will look to repeat it, this time from the 5-seed. This is a talented team led by Paulo Arujo. Bellevue is also playing it’s 4th straight road game so you wonder if that will have any affect on the Bruins. These two teams split their regular season games with VCSU winning on their home court just 11 days ago. Devonte Munson leads them in scoring and sits 10th in the NSAA. He went off for 21pts the last time these two met and will need another big scoring game if VCSU wants to advance!
Dickinson State vs Dakota State
Dickinson State has won 3 straight games and 6 of their last 8 coming into the NSAA Tourney. They are led by John Evans who comes into this game off of a 28pt performance against VCSU. Dakota State has lost 3 of its last 4 games, including a 84-78 loss at Dickinson State 11 days ago. They are led by the trio of Sam Muller, Deshawn Kelly and Ronnie Latting. Hall of Famer, Gary Garner is set to retire, but before he goes out, will look to make one final run for a NSAA Title!
Viterbo vs Waldorf
Viterbo gets the 2-seed here and with it gets to host Waldorf tonight. A team they just played 5 days ago and lost 71-56. The NSAA has been a highly contested league behind Mayville State. There is a ton of parity, so we may see a ton of upsets here. The good news, for Viterbo, is that they get to host this game. Reigning NSAA POY, Jack Monis, leads the NSAA in scoring despite having a couple of rough shooting nights the past two games. Khyle Washington and Waldorf have some confidence coming into this one and this is a gym that has treated Washington well.
