Mavs Host North Dakota in First Round of CIT
Mar 18, 2014 | Men's Basketball
For complete notes, refer to the PDF version.
This Week
The Omaha men's basketball team (16-14, 5-9 Summit League) makes its first Division I postseason appearance this week, hosting North Dakota in the first round of the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament on Wednesday, March 19. Tipoff is set for 7:07 p.m. at Ralston Arena, and KOZN 1620 AM will carry the radio broadcast live with Gary Sharp and Grant Nieland calling the action. Fans can also stream the broadcast on their smartphones by downloading NRG Media's app “1620 The Zone.” Links to live stats, audio and video will be available on OMavs.com.
Fans are encouraged to arrive early, as Ralston Arena will offer $2 hot dogs and beverages starting at 6 p.m.
Scouting North Dakota
North Dakota enters Wednesday's game with a record of 17-16 (12-8 Summit League) after an 88-67 loss to Weber State last Saturday in the Big Sky championship game. Troy Huff led the way with 17 points on 6-of-14 shooting, while Alonzo Traylor added 15 points off the bench.
Huff has led UND with 19.4 points and 6.8 rebounds per game this season, while Aaron Anderson (11.0 ppg) and Jaron Nash (10.8 ppg) also average double-figure scoring. North Dakota is led by head coach Brian Jones, who holds a record of 119-130 over eight seasons in Grand Forks.
North Dakota leads the all-time series with Omaha, 54-35 since 1934. The two teams last met on Feb. 23, 2013 in the ESPN BracketBusters series at Ralston Arena, with Omaha earning an 83-75 win.
Quick Hits
•Wednesday marks the men's basketball program's first Division I postseason appearance in school history.
•Omaha is 5-3 against North Dakota in the Derrin Hansen era.
•The Mavericks have assured themselves of a winning record for the first time since 2010-11, its last year in Division II.
• UNO's 10 home wins this year have come at an average margin of 22.7 points.
•Kenpom.com lists Omaha's adjusted tempo of 74.2 possessions per 40 minutes at fourth nationally.
•The Mavericks' average scoring margin of 5.4 points is 80th in the country. UNO's wins have come with an average margin of victory of 18.3 points, while their losses have come by an average of 9.3.
•Junior guard CJ Carter had four treys made against Fort Wayne on March 1, which moved him up to 13th in school history for career 3-pointers.
•Carter finished with 20 points against Fort Wayne, while sophomore guard Marcus Tyus had a team-best 21. It marked the first time this year that two Mavericks scored 20 or more points on the same night.
•UNO is 11-3 this season when scoring 80 or more points in a game.
•Omaha finished with a season-high .556 shooting percentage in its win at South Dakota State on Jan. 18. In the last two years, Omaha is 13-5 when shooting .500 or better as a team, including a perfect 10-0 this season.
•Senior guard Justin Simmons has 13 career scoring performances with 20 or more points. Senior center John Karhoff is just behind him with eight, and junior guard CJ Carter has six.
•Omaha tallied its 16th win of the season on Feb. 28, defeating IUPUI at home, 88-66. This season marks the Mavericks' highest wins total since going Division I.
•The Mavericks' five-game win streak from Nov. 25 to Dec. 14 was their longest stretch since beginning the Division I transition, and it was the UNO's longest since the 2010-11 season.
•Omaha received votes in the CollegeInsider.com mid-major poll for five straight weeks from Dec. 16 to Jan. 13. This year marks the Mavericks' inclusion for the first time in school history.
•Over 2012-13 and 2013-14, Omaha is 14-7 when Carter scores 15 or more points in a game. Carter led the Mavericks in three straight games to open the year with 18 points at Northern Illinois, 22 at Iowa and 22 vs. UMKC.
Last Time Out: vs. Fort Wayne (March 1)
Omaha dropped a heartbreaker in its final regular-season game of the season, falling 96-95 in overtime to Fort Wayne. With the loss, the Mavericks closed the regular season at 16-14 (5-9 Summit League). Sophomore guard Marcus Tyus led UNO with 21 points, shooting 5-of-12 from the field and 9-of-10 at the line. Junior guard CJ Carter added another 20 points on a 7-of-15 day with four 3-pointers made.
Senior center John Karhoff also chipped in 14 points and eight rebounds, while junior forward Mike Rostampour had 13 points and nine boards. Senior guard Justin Simmons rounded it out with 12 points and four steals, and senior forward Matt Hagerbaumer pulled down eight rebounds.
Steve Forbes led Fort Wayne with 21 points, including the game-tying and game-winning overtime free throws. Luis Jacobo added 20 points with four 3-pointers, and Pierre Bland and Joe Edwards each had 18.
Karhoff, Carter Named All-Summit Honorable Mention
Senior center John Karhoff and junior guard CJ Carter were named Honorable Mention All-Summit for the 2013-14 season, the conference office announced Thursday.
Karhoff started all 30 games in his senior campaign, averaging 13.1 points, 4.0 rebounds and 1.9 assists over 26.0 minutes per game. The Creighton Prep product had 21 double-figure scoring efforts, including a career-high 28 points against Central Arkansas. Karhoff shot .490 from the field and .831 from the free throw line. He finished the regular season at fourth among league players for field goals made (146), fifth in free throw percentage and sixth in points per 40 minutes (20.2).
Carter led Omaha with 13.9 points per game this season, as well as 2.6 rebounds and 3.4 assists per contest. He shot .422 from the field and .778 from the line, averaging 30.3 minutes per game. Carter was sixth in the conference in assists (100), seventh in total points (403), eighth in points per game (13.9) and ninth in 3-pointers made (48), steals (37) and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.8). He notched 23 double-figure scoring games in his junior season.
Home Sweet Home
The 2013-14 season marks UNO's second season playing at Ralston Arena, which serves as the home of Maverick men's basketball, Omaha Lancers hockey and Omaha Beef indoor football. The Mavs will play a full Summit League schedule this year with seven conference games, and in total they have 14 games on the slate at Ralston.
The Mavericks are 10-3 at home this year, starting with six straight wins over UMKC (101-71), South Carolina State (91-59), Iowa Wesleyan (86-36), Waldorf College (100-66), CSU Bakersfield (93-88) and Seattle (76-69). UNO was dealt its first loss on Jan. 23 against Denver before wins over South Dakota (77-73), Peru State (86-62) and Western Illinois (71-60). Omaha then dropped losses to South Dakota State (77-60) and North Dakota State (75-59) before picking up a victory over IUPUI (88-66). The Mavericks lost on a last-second shot in their last game, falling 96-95 in overtime to Fort Wayne on March 1.
UNO's 10 home wins have come at an average margin of 22.7 points, and the Mavs have scored an average of 81.6 points per game on their home court while holding their opponents to 69.4.
No Longer the Newcomers
Omaha is in its third year as a reclassifying Division I school in 2013-14 and its second as a member of the Summit League. In 2012-13, the Mavericks played their first full season as a member of the conference, finishing 6-10 in league play and sixth in the standings.
UNO is ineligible for the Summit League Tournament and NCAA/NIT postseason play until 2015-16 but will play a full regular-season conference schedule through its transitional years. It is, however, eligible for the College Basketball Invitational (CBI) and CollegeInsider.com Tournament (CIT) in the postseason. The CIT extended an invitation to the Mavericks earlier this month, and Omaha was the first reclassifying school to receive an at-large bid in the tournament's history.
