Advertisement

Blue Hawks begin North Star schedule this weekend

gaylon wm. parker, the dickinson press, n.d.
·4 min read

Jan. 11—DICKINSON — All that hard work has to pay off, somehow, as the early season games Dickinson State University scheduled against teams like #6-ranked Montana Tech and Rocky Mountain on the men's side and various "Classics" and "Clashes" for the women's team should all come through as the program gets going with the North Star Athletic Association schedule and takes on Bellevue (Neb.) this Friday, with the women's team tipping off at 5:30 p.m. and the men following, thereafter. It's a dense-packed NSAA schedule, and it runs through the remainder of the season with games coming twice per week.

The Bellevue Bruins men's team already has an NSAA game under their belts with a thrilling 69-68 win over Dakota State on Jan. 6, but they are the lone teams who have played each other. On the women's side, Dakota State came out on the winning side of that Jan. 6 matchup, 66-41.

"I think starting off with four home games in a row is going to be really nice, and we played a really tough preseason schedule and we have three top-25 wins," DSU men's basketball coach Derek Selvig said. "I think this is just about as prepared as we can be for conference play."

He added, "Conference games have a little bit more heightened intensity to them, every possession matters a little bit more, and we're ready to get going."

As it pertains to the overall standings, Mayville State's men's team has the best overall record at 12-3, with Dakota State coming in at 10-7, DSU is at 9-6, Valley City State stands at 8-6, Waldorf University (Iowa) is under-.500 at 6-9 and Viterbo (Wis.) is down at 6-10. The women's standings are somewhat similar, with Mayville State (ND) carrying an 11-2 record, Dakota State just behind them at 13-4 overall, Viterbo is an even .500 at 6-6 and all the other women's teams in the NSAA are under-.500 with Bellevue at 7-9, Valley City State at 6-8, and DSU is even with Waldorf University at 5-9.

"The North Star, I think we have two really, really good teams that are both ranked in the country, so I think those two kind of separated themselves," Blue Hawks women's coach Eric Nelson said. "But from #3 through #7, it's kind of anybody's game."

He added, "For us, we're just excited to be getting into conference play because we played a really tough schedule with a lot of ranked teams, so we feel like we're battle-tested for that and we play our first couple games at home, which is nice."

One nice feature of the schedule the rest of the way is that both the women's and men's teams play on the same day against the same opponents, with the women's teams tipping off first each game. After Friday's date with Bellevue, the Blue Hawks will square off against Dakota State on Saturday at 3 p.m. at Scott Gymnasium, which is part of a four-game homestand for DSU to open NSAA play. Valley City State comes to town next Friday, Jan. 19 for a 5:30 p.m. start-time and then a Saturday tipoff versus Mayville State on Jan. 20 starts at 3 p.m.

The Blue Hawks head out of town to Waldorf, Iowa on Jan. 26 and then on to Viterbo the next day, before continuing the road-trip to Valley City State on Wednesday, Jan. 31 and follow that up with a trip to Mayville State on Feb. 3, which is a Saturday. DSU returns home to the comfy confines at Scott Gymnasium for a Feb. 9 game versus Waldorf University and the next day versus Viterbo before heading out on the road for the final two game against Bellevue on Feb. 16 and Dakota State on Feb. 17 to finish off the season.

Mayville State won the men's conference and tournament titles last season and has earned a pair of conference trophies, while Bellevue shared the conference title with Viterbo in 2021-22 and has five conference trophies to its credit on the men's side. On the women's side, Dakota State has won the last three conference titles but lost the tournament title to Mayville State.

Dickinson State University joined the NSAA in 2014 and will soon be leaving it to return to the Frontier Conference for the 2025-26 academic year. DSU was a member of the Frontier Conference briefly during the 2012-13 and 2013-14 academic years, and competes in the NAIA for football, baseball, basketball, volleyball, cross-country, indoor and outdoor track & field, golf, softball, cheering and wrestling.

For more information about DSU Blue Hawks men's basketball, please keep reading your Dickinson Press or visit their website at

https://www.dsubluehawks.com/sports/mbkb/index

and for more information about Dickinson State women's basketball, please visit

https://www.dsubluehawks.com/sports/wbkb/index

.