This Week's Men's Basketball Storylines:BACK ON THE ROAD: After enjoying consecutive weekends at home, the Winona State men's basketball team hits the road in search of its first victories away from McCown Gym of the season. The Warriors take on No. 6 Augustana Friday at 8 p.m. at Sioux Falls Arena before visiting Wayne, Neb. for a 6 p.m. matchup with Wayne State inside Rice Auditorium.
AUGUSTANA SERIES HISTORY: WSU and the Vikings will be meeting for the 20th time in series history dating back to Dec. 17, 1937. The Warriors hold a slim 10-9 series advantage, and the two teams each won the opponent's home floor last season. The Warriors beat Augustana 78-62 on Feb. 8, before the Vikings got revenge just a couple weeks later, downing WSU 79-70 in the regular season finale on Feb. 22.
WAYNE STATE SERIES HISTORY: WSU and the Wildcats will be meeting for the 43rd time in series history dating back to Nov. 30, 1959. The Warriors hold a 31-11 series advantage, with Winona State winning the past 18 matchups between the two squads. The last Wildcat victory over WSU came on Jan. 14, 2005 in an 87-84 overtime victory. Last season the Warriors won 79-67 in Wayne, before claiming a 75-57 victory in McCown Gym.
SCOUTING THE VIKINGS: Augustana moved up to No. 6 in this week's NABC Top 25 Poll and is off to its best start in school history with a record of 17-1, with an 11-1 mark in NSIC play. The Vikings, winners of 10 straight, are led by the one-two punch of Daniel Jansen and Casey Schilling, along with four players in total averaging double figures. Jansen leads the NSIC with an even 20 points per game, while Schilling is fifth in the league at 17.9 points per contest. Alex Richter (15.8) and Jordan Spencer (11.1) also help the Viking offense. As a team, the Vikings boast the league's number one scoring offense (86.3 ppg), number one rebounding offense (39.1 per game), second best scoring margin (+20.1) and third best field goal percentage (.494).
SCOUTING THE WILDCATS: Wayne State enters the weekend with a record of 3-15 overall and 0-12 in NSIC play. The Wildcats narrowly missed an opportunity to notch their first conference win of the season last week, falling to Minnesota Duluth 94-80 in overtime. WSC has a pair of players scoring in double figures, led by Patrick Kurth (13.1 ppg) and Trae VandeBerg (11.3 ppg). The Wildcats average 71.9 ppg and give up 78.1 ppg. They rank 16th in the NSIC in field goal percentage defense, allowing opponents to shoot 49.7 percent while also ranking 16th in 3-point field goal percentage, shooting just 31.7 percent from beyond the arc. On the flip side, opposing teams are shooting a league-high 42 percent from beyond the arc against Wayne State.
HEATING UP: The Warriors appear to have resolved some of their early season shooting woes. After shooting under 50 percent from the field for their first eight conference games, WSU has shot 50 percent or better in three of their past four games while winning all four. The Warriors also have shot better than 40 percent from 3-point range in all four games during their winning streak while only reaching that mark twice in the first eight NSIC contests.
BLOCKS GALORE: If there's one statistical department the Warriors dominate this season, it's blocks. The Warriors lead the NSIC in blocks with 70 and blocks per game with 4.4. The next highest average is Sioux Falls at 3.8 per game. In Saturday's win vs. Minot State, Kyle Bauman swatted eight Beaver shots, the most in a game for WSU since 2007 and only one shy of tying the career mark of nine set most recently by now-graduate assistant coach John Smith. Bauman has 22 blocks on the season, whose 1.4 per game average is good for fourth in the NSIC, while teammate Mohamed Ali Ben Ammar is 12th in the NSIC with 12 blocks on the year.
MASBERG'S EMERGENCE: Junior guard Conrad Masberg put together perhaps the best weekend of his WSU career last weekend against U-Mary and Minot State. Masberg tied a career-high with 17 points Friday night, then followed up with 16 points on Saturday. Both nights Masberg shot 5-of-6 from the field while going a perfect 3-of-3 from 3-point range. He also grabbed five rebounds and recorded four steals against the Marauders.
