Treysen Eaglestaff returning to UND men's basketball next season
Mar. 25—GRAND FORKS — Sophomore guard Treysen Eaglestaff is returning for his third season, he confirmed to the Herald Monday.
"I really enjoyed my first two years here at UND," he told KX News in Bismarck Monday, "and the third one is going to be just as fun, I feel like. More exciting."
The 6-foot-6 guard from Bismarck started all 32 games for the Fighting Hawks in his second year. He averaged 14.4 points, third-best on the team, 2.3 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game.
Eaglestaff led UND with 2.5 made 3-pointers per game and ended the season shooting a team-leading 38.3% from deep, with a minimum of 25 attempted threes.
Eaglestaff clearly improved from his freshman to sophomore seasons. He went from just a 3-point shooter to a threat at all three levels. UND coach Paul Sather opted to play him in the post as the season progressed, and Eaglestaff's defense was markedly better than his first college season.
His
maturity and confidence helped UND
win 10 of its last 13 Summit League games this season.
"He's really starting to believe that he isn't just a good shooter," Sather said in February. "He's a really good basketball player."
Eaglestaff said the opportunity to play his freshman year — he started 11 games and appeared in all 33 games — helped him improve as a sophomore.
"If I would've redshirted, I wouldn't have had the season we're having this year," he told the Herald earlier this month. "Having those ups and downs and playing pretty good toward the end of the season last year really helped me this year."
UND will return just three of the seven rotation players from this year — Eaglestaff, Amar Kuljuhovic and Eli King.
Tsotne Tsartsidze and Brady Danielson exhausted their eligibility this season, while UND's
leading scorer B.J. Omot
and
starting point guard Tyree Ihenacho
both entered the transfer portal.
Sophomore guard
Elijah Brooks
and redshirt freshman Daniel Hong also elected to enter the portal after the season.
UND had its best campaign, and first winning season, under Sather this year, finishing 18-14 overall and 10-6 in the Summit League.
The Hawks took the No. 3 seed into the conference tournament, but lost to No. 6 Omaha in the final minutes of the quarterfinal despite leading by 10 with five minutes remaining.
Eaglestaff had one of his best complete games of the season, though. He ended with a team-high 18 points, joining Omot and Tsartsidze as the only Hawks to end in double figures.
UND saw a big turnaround at the end of the season. The Hawks weathered a six-game losing streak at the start of Summit League play and responded with a seven-game winning streak that launched them to the top of the conference standings.
It was something that "you see in movies," Eaglestaff said after the Omaha loss.
"I'm just proud of everyone, and how far we've come from the beginning of the year to now," he said. "It's just crazy."
