Arena #172: Schoenecker Arena - St. Thomas vs. Crown College

Having previously visited the only Division I college basketball venue in the state of Minnesota (Williams Arena - University of Minnesota), I can't say I was thrilled to see the University of St. Thomas decide to transition to Division I for the 2020-21 season since it meant I needed to make a return trip to Minnesota to re-complete the state.  St. Thomas, located in St. Paul, MN, made the extremely rare double division jump in going from Division III all the way up to Division I because they basically outgrew and outspent their former Division III home.  Going into this game, I had no idea what to expect from the campus or the arena given the arena is the same as it was when they played in Division III and, honestly, I didn't expect much from the game itself either since this was another unfortunate non-D1 matchup as the Tommies hosted the Crown College Polars in this contest.

The arena itself surprised me as it was pretty decent for a low major D1 school, which means it probably was an incredible venue for a Division III school.  Schoenecker Arena is located in the middle of the St. Thomas campus and holds approximately 1,800 fans, though there was certainly not a capacity crowd on this frigid December evening.  While most of the venue has general admission bench seats, there are a few sideline sections that offer chairbacks, though at $35 each for a non-D1 game, these sections were unsurprisingly sparsely populated for this game.  Additionally, while the student section isn't very large, there were a few dozen students who were pretty into the game, which certainly helped to make the atmosphere of the game better than expected for a game that expectedly turned into a blowout pretty quickly.

Pregame at Scheonecker Arena

Opening tip between the Tommies and the Polars

It was pretty impressive to think St. Thomas absolutely crushed a team that just 2 years ago would have been in the same division as them.  It wouldn't surprise me to see St. Thomas become fairly competitive in the Summit League over the next couple years and even challenge for a conference tournament title before their Division I transition period ends a la Bellarmine in 2021-22.

Tommies attempting a 3-pointer

Arena #139: Betty Engelstad Sioux Center - North Dakota vs. Oral Roberts

About 75 minutes north of NDSU is the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, where we would catch our second game of the day, and complete the D1 schools in the state, with a Summit League game between the Fighting Hawks (nee Sioux) of North Dakota and the Oral Roberts Golden Eagles.  The Betty Engelstad Sioux Center is a beautiful brick basketball facility constructed right next door to its larger, and more well-known, neighbor, Ralph Engelstad Arena, where the multi-time national champion North Dakota hockey team plays.  Inside the seating bowl of the arena, the sideline seats are pretty nice and contain probably 25-30 rows from floor to ceiling, including a small luxury booster club area in the middle of the rows right at halfcourt for the most generous supports of Fighting Hawks sports.  The baseline seating, on the other hand, leaves a bit to be desired with the 8-10 rows of temporary bleachers looking a bit tired.  The student section is supposed to be behind one of the baskets, but on this cold, winter night I could probably count the students in attendance on both my hands.  I wasn’t sure what to expect from this matchup as I admit, I wasn’t too familiar with either team’s roster and skillsets.  Turns out, the game was quite competitive for the majority of the night, especially in the first half.  The Fighting Hawks got hot from behind the arc in the second half and were able to pull away for a comfortable 11 point win over the Golden Eagles, sending the home fans happy into the frigid Grand Forks evening.

Main entrance to the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center in Grand Forks, ND

Certainly more people than I anticipated for this matchup on a cold, North Dakota night.  Though the student section was quite sparse...

Opening tip between the Fighting Hawks (nee Sioux) and the Golden Eagles

Tussle for the ball under the basket during the first half

Arena #138: Scheels Center - North Dakota St. vs. South Dakota St.

When you have to get to 351 schools in 49 states to complete Mission 351, there’s little wins that you have to get excited about; like when you can complete an entire state in one weekend as was the case in visiting North Dakota for two games.  Mission 351 requires planning, but also some luck when trying to see games in outposts like North Dakota where the weather can be 40 and sunny or 10 degrees and a blizzard on a given weekend in winter.  Thankfully, the weather from Wisconsin to North Dakota was perfectly clear for 95% of the drive for these 2 games. Game 1 of the North Dakota doubleheader was at the Scheels Center in Fargo for a Summit League matchup between the North Dakota St. Bison and the South Dakota St. Jackrabbits.  Confusingly, Fargo boasts the Scheels Center where NDSU basketball plays and the Scheels Arena where the local minor league hockey team plays so when we went to the Scheels Arena to start with to find a pee wee hockey game going on, we knew we might be in the wrong place.  The Scheels Center is across the street from the Fargodome, where the multiple times national champion NDSU football team plays and is dwarfed in size by said dome.  Scheels Center is a new facility that probably seats around 3-4,000 people and provides the fans with a great place to watch a game of basketball.  I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the building as well as the fan support, though there were also a number of Jackrabbit fans who had made the drive up from Brookings, SD to Fargo.  SDSU was the clear favorite in this game, but the Bison were hot early and often from three in building a 9-point lead at halftime as the majority of the Jackrabbits outside of star forward, Mike Daum, struggled to score.  The second half was much of the same for both teams as the Bison had a 7 point lead at the final media timeout when we had to leave to make it to Grand Forks for the second game of our North Dakota doubleheader.  Frustratingly, it turns out the Jackrabbits had the Bison right where they wanted them as SDSU buried a three from halfcourt at the buzzer to come back and steal a victory in Fargo and I can’t believe I missed what would have been only the second buzzer beater I’ve seen along the journey!

Outside the Scheels Center in snow covered Fargo in mid-February 

Impressive facility on the campus of NDSU with a boisterous crowd for this cross-state contest

Opening tip between the Bison and Jackrabbits

Future 3,000 career point scorer Mike Daum rises up for 3

Arena #108: Western Hall - Western Illinois vs. South Dakota St.

After a couple hours on the backroads of Illinois to get from Edwardsville to Macomb, we arrived at Western Hall for a Summit League matchup between the Leathernecks and the Jackrabbits from South Dakota St.  Western Hall is definitely not one of the nicer or newer arenas I've been to on this journey so far, but it's sized right for the fanbase and one has to remember that Western Illinois hasn't really been good in basketball in recent times.  SDSU brought the clear best team in the league to Macomb, including reigning Summit League POY Mike Daum and it was obvious from the start of the contest that the Leathernecks were simply outmatched in this contest though it was a pleasure to watch how hard, yet effortlessly Daum competed throughout the game.

Main entrance to Western Hall - could use a few more lights in the evening...

Seating area of Western Hall

Opening tip between the Jackrabbits and Leathernecks

Mike Daum (#24) closing out the first half with a bucket