The North Dakota State Bison and the Western Michigan Broncos meet in college basketball action from WMU University Arena on Monday night.

North Dakota State Team Preview

The North Dakota State Bison come into the 2023-24 season looking to build on a decent 2022-23 season that saw the Bison finish 14-16 overall and 11-7 in Summit League conference play, finishing as the 3-seed in the Summit League tournament. The Bison took out South Dakota and South Dakota State before being routed by Oral Roberts in the conference championship game. The Bison will be tasked with replacing their top scorer and rebounder from last year (17.9 PPG, 9.3 RPG) but luckily two of their double-digit scorers from last year’s squad in Boden Skunberg (15.1 PPG, 5.3 RPG) and Andrew Morgan (10.5 PPG, 5.3 RPG). The wild card will be redshirt freshman Noah Feddersen, who is a 6’10 forward with plenty of upside for the Bison with a huge amount of versatility.

Western Michigan Team Preview

The Western Michigan Broncos come into the 2023-24 season hoping to turn things around after a disappointing 2022-23 season, where WMU finished 8-23 overall including a 4-14 mark in MAC play. The bad news is that the Broncos lose their two double-digit scorers from last year’s squad in Lamar Norman (17.3 PPG, 3.1 APG) and Tray Maddox (12.5 PPG, 3.8 RPG), but the Broncos do have B. Artis White coming back, which is good considering he didn’t start practicing until December, but once he got reacclimated, he was arguably WMU’s best player from that point on. The road is a tough one for WMU but there is a path for improvement in 2023-24.

Chris’ Pick

I’m going to be on North Dakota State here. The big thing for me coming into any season, especially college basketball, is returning production and WMU loses a lot of players from last year’s team. North Dakota State lost a lot as well, but I just feel like their returning pieces have the higher ceiling. Not one I’m going to rush to bet, but give me the Bison here.