Gritty defense expected to be UMD men's strength this season
DULUTH — The 13th-ranked Minnesota Duluth men's basketball team will open its 2024-2025 season schedule on Friday when it plays host to Southeastern Oklahoma State of the Great American Conference for a 5 p.m. tip-off.
The non-conference tilt is the first of two for the UMD this weekend as the team returns to its home court on Saturday to take on Oklahoma Baptist at 3 p.m. for the final game of the American Family Insurance Classic tournament.
Looking ahead to Friday's matchup, UMD head coach Justin Wieck expects an up-tempo pace from the defending GAC regular season champions, which finished last season with a 23-9 record.
"They lost some guys, but they always have good players," said Wieck on the Savage Storm. "They always have good point guards. They're gonna push the pace. I think they're gonna press a little bit, so we'll see an up-tempo style.
"A little bit different than what we see in our league night-in and night-out at this time of the year, so you've gotta be ready for everything," he added.
The weekend slate of home games kicks off a six-game homestand to start the season— a welcomed reprieve from the Bulldogs' 2023-2024 season which opened with six straight road contests before its home opener.
"It felt like we were gone the entire month, so to have five home games to start is awesome," said Wieck. "Hopefully we can use that momentum and use that crowd and use that familiarity with this gym (to our advantage)."
The offseason build up to Friday's season-opener has been a long one for the Bulldogs following a scrimmage against Upper Iowa and two exhibition games against Division I Iowa and Division III Wisconsin-Superior in a two-week span.
Between the recent preseason matchups and months worth of practices, the team's willingness to play hard on defense has become apparent, and will likely be a hallmark of this year's Bulldog group.
Last year, UMD finished fifth in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference in team defense with opponents held to 70.3 points per game.
"I think defense is our identity," said redshirt sophomore guard Caleb Siwek. "We've got (NSIC) Defensive Player of the Year, Charlie Katona, Mattie Thompson, Josh Brown (who) are all great defenders, (along with) Austin Andrews. All the guys on the starting five are great defenders, physical guys."
Siwek, who will step into the starting point guard role after averaging 12.5 minutes off the bench last season, expects the transition game to also be a factor this season.
"I think we'll be a team that can run in transition, a very athletic team," he said. "We can run up and down the court...I think our identity will kind of be beating teams up on the defensive end and getting offense off of that."
After the graduation of Jack Middleton and all-time leading scorer Drew Blair, UMD will have three-fifths of its starting five back from last season in Andrews, Brown and Katona. Siwek and University of Illinois-Springfield transfer Jayden Johnson will round out the remaining two spots. Johnson, a 6-foot-6 guard out of Batavia, Illinois, averaged 7.2 points per game last season for the Prairie Stars.
The scoring ability of Blair, whose 754 total points ranked third across all of D-II last season, will be among the biggest gaps left for UMD to fill this season. Through the scrimmage and two exhibition games, Wieck remains optimistic about the team's offensive ability.
"I've been really happy with our ball movement and the way we've cut and the way we've run our offense here in the preseason," said Wieck. "We've been at a pretty high level against Upper Iowa, Iowa and UWS — really different ends of the spectrum, right? We've been pretty good offensively, so I like what we're doing."
The team's depth as an eight to 10-man rotation will go a long way towards filling that void, as Wieck points to guys like Nick Katona and Noah Paulson as players who will see considerably more minutes this season.
"Nick (Katona) will probably be our first guy off the bench, but will be in bigger minutes," said Wieck. "I think one of the bigger ones for us is Noah Paulson. He was probably our third big guy last year (behind) Andrews and (Lincoln) Meister...You watch him in practice, he was good enough and was performing well enough to play in this league, and he was just stuck behind two really good players."
Paulson's ability to post up, in combination with a well-rounded shooting ability, makes him a unique scoring threat.
"He's brought a good offensive dimension to that spot so I'm excited for him because he's been here," said Wieck. "...He's really stuck with it. He's always continued to keep working even when he's seeing some older guys in front of him. He really trusted the process and keeps getting better and better."
