The North Dakota State men's basketball team will play an exhibition game at the University of Minnesota on Thursday at 7 p.m. inside Williams Arena.
 
The game will be streamed for subscribers on B1G+. Sam Neidermann will have the radio call on 107.9 The Fox.
 
The Bison and Gophers have not met in men's basketball since Dec. 11, 2012 – a 70-57 victory for Minnesota. Sophomore Lawrence Alexander led NDSU with 19 points and six assists in that game, and juniors Taylor Braun (15 points) and Marshall Bjorklund (12 points) both scored in double figures for the Bison.
 
The two schools played seven regular season games from 2005-12, during and following NDSU's transition to Division I. Excluding offseason foreign trips, Thursday's exhibition will be the earliest game on the calendar in school history.
 
About Minnesota: The Gophers were voted 16th of 18 teams in a Big Ten preseason poll conducted by the Columbus Dispatch and the Indianapolis Star. Thursday's game will be the on-court debut for new Gophers head coach Niko Medved, who was hired after a successful seven-year run at Colorado State.
 
NDSU Preseason Notes
 

• NDSU's Noah Feddersen and Markhi Strickland were voted to the preseason All-Summit League second team. Feddersen started all 32 games for the Bison last season, averaging 8.3 points and 6.0 rebounds with 52-percent shooting. Strickland is a senior transfer from Western Michigan, where he started every game for the Broncos last year, led the team in minutes, and averaged 11.3 points per game.

 

• NDSU was picked to finish fourth in The Summit League this season, according to the annual preseason poll of league head coaches, sports information directors and media.

 

• The Bison have played in 9 of the past 13 Summit League Tournament championship games, dating back to 2013.

 

• Head coach David Richman has accumulated 211 wins in 11 seasons at NDSU, ranking him second in school history. He has led the Bison to seven Summit League Tournament championship games, posting a record of 18-8 in the conference tournament.

 

• The Bison were the top three-point shooting team in Division I last season, making 39.8 percent from beyond the arc to lead all 350-plus Division I schools. NDSU also led the nation in true shooting percentage (62.2%) and ranked second in effective field goal percentage (58.2%).

 

• The Bison set a school record with 380 three-pointers made last season – an average of 11.9 made three-pointers per game, which ranked them among the top 15 in NCAA Division I history for threes per game.

 

• NDSU was one of only three teams to rank Top 25 nationally in three-point percentage, two-point percentage, and free throw percentage last season.

 

• NDSU graduated a trio of elite three-point shooters following last season. Masen Miller drained 90 threes last season, shooting 46 percent from beyond the arc and 49 percent in league play. Jacari White made 88 three-pointers at a 40-percent clip, and Jacksen Moni hit 64 threes on 41-percent shooting from downtown.

 

• The Bison return just 20 percent of their minutes played and 14 percent of their scoring from last season.

 

• Junior guard Damari Wheeler-Thomas returns this season after redshirting in 2024-25. As a sophomore in 2023-24, he started every game, averaged nearly 34 minutes per contest, and scored 10.7 points per game.

 

• NDSU returns four players who have seen game action for the Bison – juniors Noah Feddersen and Damari Wheeler-Thomas, and sophomores Andy Stefonowicz and Treyson Anderson. Redshirt freshman Carson Smith was with the program last season, but redshirted and did not play.

 

• NDSU has nine newcomers this season from a variety of levels of basketball.
  • Division I transfers – Markhi Strickland (Western Michigan) and Emil Skytta (Sacramento State)
  • Division II transfer – Tay Smith (Lenoir-Rhyne)
  • Junior college transfers – Trevian Carson (DMACC) and Max Majerle (Pima CC)
  • Freshmen – Riley Massey, Dom Clay, Riley Saunders, Caleb Schoenrock

 

• Two of NDSU's newcomers have fathers who played in the NBA. Max Majerle is the son of Dan Majerle, who played 14 seasons in the NBA from 1988-2002 for the Suns, Cavs and Heat. Markhi Strickland is the son of Mark Strickland, who played eight NBA seasons from 1995-2003 primarily with the Heat, Nuggets and Hawks. The two were teammates with the Miami Heat from 1996-2000.

 

• Fifth-year transfer Tay Smith comes to NDSU with 1,572 points, 575 rebounds, and 227 three-pointers made in his career. He played two seasons at NAIA Brescia University in Kentucky, before playing the most recent two seasons at Division II Lenoir-Rhyne University in North Carolina. Smith has averaged just under 14 points per game for his career.