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North Dakota vs. New Jersey Tech


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Overall Record: 5-17

Conference Record: 2-3 (5th)

RPI: 311

Last Action: 57-50 victory over Souther Illinois-Edwardsville

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Overall Record: 7-14

Conference Record: 2-2 (4th)

RPI: 334

Last Action: 55-64 loss to Longwood

New Jersey Tech Website

  • Both the women's and men's games with New Jersey Tech on Thursday will be televised on the Fighting Sioux Sports Network

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The weather here in New Jersey is a real mixture today--snow,rain,hail,snow. I doubt too many flights are leaving Newark Liberty International today or Thursday morning. Of course, in North Dakota,people would probably be outside getting a tan or playing tennis on a day like this :)

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betty is being used that nite for class b basketball playoffs that have been scheduled there for over a year

NJ Tech's game at USD was also re-scheduled. That game is now on Sunday, March 7. At least on a Sunday, you'll still get fans. But on a Tuesday afternoon? Wasn't it possible to swap so that USD and NJ Tech could play in the evening on February 23, and UND got the March 7 game?

Or how about playing at night at Hyslop (I'm assuming this may be too short of notice to get the Al)? Anything is better than playing on a weekday afternoon.

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There was just a scrum on the court that had both teams pushing each other around. It started with Mertens and a NJIT players ending up on the ground while trying for a rebound. The coaches even got in each others faces and apparently had words for each other.

Mertens and the NJIT players were apparently ejected with flaggerant fouls and then another player for NJIT was tossed for leaving the bench.

Similar to the scrap with Northern Illinois.

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Up In the Air

With outposts spread from Newark, N.J., to Orem, Utah, along its X-axis (2,180 miles), and from Grand Forks, North Dakota to Edinburg, Texas, along its Y-axis (1,647 miles), the Great West Conference is in a league of its own in terms of area. Yet it is precisely because the seven schools who comprise it were not in a league of their own that the conference was formed.

"It gets to this point of the season when you're an independent and you hit a lull," says New Jersey Institute of Technology coach Jim Engles. "If there's no conference title or tournament to play for, you're simply playing for pride."

And so it was that the Great West Conference-Chicago State, Houston Baptist, NJIT, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas-Pan American and Utah Valley State-came into existence as a basketball conference this season. While the conference champion cannot receive an automatic bid to the NCAA tourney (the earliest possible date for that will be 2020), the geographically liberal confederation of schools allows each to come in from the figurative cold of being a low-level independent. That the inaugural season happened to coincide with one of the worst winters in recent memory made for a most unusual week, however, for Engles' Highlanders and the Fighting Sioux of North Dakota.

The two schools, whose men's and women's teams play back-to-back, had never met in basketball before February 11th. And then not even then, as a massive snowstorm canceled all flights out of the New York City area. That game was rescheduled for last Tuesday.

Because NJIT travels commercially-and on a tight budget-the Highlanders departed for Grand Forks last Sunday out of JFK in Queens, even though Newark Airport is just two or three miles from campus. The Highlanders flew from JFK to Minneapolis, then traveled by bus the final five hours to Grand Forks.

"Jet Blue flies out of JFK and they have better rates and TVs onboard," says Engles, who is in his second season at NJIT. "I just remember arriving at our hotel and seeing eight-foot high snowdrifts."

Again, to accommodate travel, the women played at noon last Tuesday and the men immediately afterward (the Sioux won, 90-78). Then it was back to Newark for a Thursday game against South Dakota. "I'm kind of ashamed to say this," says Engles, "but we didn't even practice between the North Dakota game and the South Dakota game. I was too wiped out. And if I'm wiped out, I can imagine how the players must feel."

NJIT's travel woes were done for the week, but North Dakota's were only beginning. The Sioux were scheduled to visit NJIT on Saturday but their own flight into JFK was canceled due to this week's snowstorm in the northeast. The Sioux played Wednesday at Chicago State, spent Thursday night in a hotel in Detroit where their connecting flight was canceled (if you are not flying non-stop between Chicago and New York City, that is the epitome of cost-consciousness), and then spent Friday and Saturday in Newark waiting to play Sunday afternoon's game. The Highlanders won, 91-73.

"I'm one of the few coaches in America who always has the Weather Channel on,"joked Engles after Sunday afternoon's win. But there is also a hint of trepidation in his voice. On Wednesday the Highlanders depart for a road trip that will (hopefully) land them in Orem for a game on Thursday, back to Chicago for a game on Saturday, then up to Vermilion, South Dakota, for Sunday's regular-season finale.

After that? "We're heading straight from South Dakota back out to Orem for the conference tournament," says Engles.

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