For the 28th season in a row, Tom Izzo and the Michigan State Spartans are dancing. Sunday’s Selection Show revealed that MSU would be a 3-seed in the 2026 NCAA Tournament, and tasked with a first round matchup in Buffalo, NY against the Bison of North Dakota State. The first ever hardwood matchup between these two schools will tip-off at 4:05 PM ET on Thursday afternoon, broadcasted live on TNT.
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While our Spartans will enter the tournament on a two-game skid, NDSU
is riding high on a four-game win streak that helped them claim the Summit League Championship (both in the regular season and conference tournament) and a #14 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The Bison, led by 12th year Head Coach David Richman, boast a 27-7 overall record and 14-2 in-conference record. For Coach Richman, the 2025-26 season marks his fourth appearance in the big dance, and the sixth overall for the North Dakota State program. Since the Bison earned the Summit League’s automatic bid to the unfinished 2020 NCAA Tournament, their most recent actual game in March Madness came in 2019, as a 16-seed. That year, NDSU won their First Four game against North Carolina Central, before losing to the overall one-seed in Duke, who would later be upset by none other than Cassius Winston, Kenny Goins, and the Michigan State Spartans.
Six years later, Richman has brought the Bison back to the top of their conference once again, with the help of a veteran squad that relies on a balanced attack, rather than one single superstar. Let’s get to know this deep North Dakota State team, representing Fargo and a university born of the same Morrill Land-Grant Act that led to the founding of Michigan Agricultural College (now MSU).
NDSU Starters
#1 6-0 SR G – Damari Wheeler-Thomas 14.4 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 2.8 apg, 40.4% FG, 38.5% 3FG
#5 6-2 SO G – Andy Stefonowicz 9.2 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 4.9 apg, 41.7% FG, 38.7% 3FG
#0 6-3 JR G – Trevian Carson 12.0 ppg, 6.4 rpg, 2.8 apg, 48.1% FG, 37.9% 3FG, JUCO transfer (Des Moines Area Community College)
#30 6-6 SR G/F – Markhi Strickland 11.8 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 59.8% FG (0-1 on three pointers), Western Michigan transfer
#44 6-10 SO F – Treyson Anderson 10.4 ppg, 5.4 rpg, 1.0 bpg, 50.2% FG, 36.9% 3FG
Before going through individual players, the first thing that jumps out is the three point percentages. All but one of the Bison starters can shoot the three ball at a 35% or better clip, led by both Andy Stefonowicz and Damari Wheeler-Thomas at 38% and change.
Naturally, we’ll start with the point guard, Damari Wheeler-Thomas. The six foot senior has spent all four years in Richman’s program at NDSU, and seen his averages take a jump each season. Thomas is the heartbeat of the team, coming off of a conference tournament in which he scored 18, 15, and 19 en route to earning Summit League Tournament Most Valuable Player honors. These three neutral site performances extended DWT’s double-digit scoring streak to nine games, and he has done it in a multitude of ways. While he is undoubtedly a quality outside shooter, he is also lightning quick driving the lane and can finish in traffic. If there is any weakness to Wheeler-Thomas’s game on paper, he does not have the assist numbers you would expect from a point guard on a team stock full of perimeter shooters, averaging only 2.8 per game.
Andy Stefonowicz is one of the younger players on this Bison squad, but much like Wheeler-Thomas, the sophomore is comfortable both handling the ball and scoring. He is one of NDSU’s best free throw shooters, converting at a 90.3% rate, and put up 11 points of his own against North Dakota in the Summit League Championship. Stefonowicz is certainly someone the Spartans cannot abandon beyond the arc, as he has done a lot of his damage off of drive-and-kick, or offensive rebound kick out threes.
On the wing the Bison will trot out junior Trevian Carson, the team’s leading rebounder at only 6-foot-3. That tells you everything you need to know about Carson, who plays a bit of a similar physical style to MSU’s Jordan Scott from the wing position. He is a stout defender, earning his way onto the Summit League All-Defensive team, and has no fear battling with bigger forwards on the boards. The JUCO transfer plays the second most minutes to only Andy Stefonowicz, and can also light up the scorebook when his number is called offensively, as evidenced by his 29 points against Drake in a non-conference matchup. Carson has also put up 23 points on two separate occasions and scored 17 versus Oral Roberts in the Summit Conference Tournament.
Next up is Markhi Strickland, a former Saint Louis Billiken and Western Michigan Bronco who played two years under Dwayne Stephens in Kalamazoo. In fact, Tom Izzo remarked that he is going to try and get Coach Stephens, the former MSU assistant, to accompany his staff during this NCAA Tournament. Strickland is not a threat from three-point land, but at 6’6” is a talented slasher and inside scorer, with a field goal percentage just under 60%. The former IMG Academy product is in his fifth season of college basketball, and has provided physicality and experience for NDSU.
Treyson Anderson rounds out the starting lineup, playing the forward spot for David Richman. He is your typical modern stretch big, who provides great size and rim protection, along with the ability to step out and knock down threes at a very solid clip. As is the trend on this very balanced lineup, Anderson averages ten points, but has had his moments of explosive scoring, putting up 20+ points in three straight games in January.
NDSU Bench
#34 6-10 JR F – Noah Feddersen 9.4 ppg, 5.1 rpg, 51.2% FG, 29.3% 3FG
#3 6-2 SR G – Tay Smith 7.7 ppg, 2.6 rpg, 38.8% 3FG, Lenoir-Rhyne (DII) transfer
#8 6-5 JR G – Emil Skyttä 3.7 ppg, 1.8 rpg, 0.7 apg, 56.2% FG, 28.6% 3FG, Sacramento State transfer
#7 6-6 RS FR G – Carson Smith 3.1 ppg, 1.4 rpg, 37.5% FG, 22.6 3FG
The Bison go about nine deep, and lean heavily on their sixth man, forward Noah Feddersen. The 6’10 junior actually averages more minutes per game than starting big Treyson Anderson, and is yet another NDSU contributor putting up just about ten points per game. The two bigs are relatively interchangeable, as the similarly built bigs are good for 20 points, 10.5 rebounds, and 2 blocks per game from that center spot. Feddersen can also step out and shoot the three, but is more of an inside finisher around the rim than his counterpart.
Tay Smith is the last major piece of the puzzle for Richman’s rotation, as the senior guard has served as a sparkplug and sharpshooter off the bench for the Bison. He is nearly a 40% three point shooter, and has caught fire for performances of 24, 24, and 28 throughout the 2025-26 season. Most recently, he had a standout first half in the Summit League Championship against rival North Dakota, where he went 4-7 from deep and helped the Bison pull away to secure their NCAA Tournament berth.
Keys to the Game
Now that we’ve gotten to know the Bison, it is clear to see that they do not fit the profile for your usual Cinderella team, with one clear star who makes a name for himself by going nuclear and knocking off a top seed. The danger posed by the Bison is that of a well-constructed roster with several players who can be “the guy” on any given night. Will it be Damari Wheeler-Thomas, the senior leader, who takes charge? Or will we see a flurry of three-pointers from Andy Stefonowicz, Tay Smith, and Trevian Carsen to give the Spartans a scare? Here are some keys to the game to make sure MSU has all of their bases, or, should I say, Bison covered on Thursday afternoon.
Defend the Drive-and-Kick – As Mike pointed out in Monday’s article, MSU as of late has greatly struggled with perimeter defense. This starts with defending drives to the interior, as UCLA’s Donovan Dent was able to live in the paint and carve up the Spartans for 23 points and 12 assists in State’s Big Ten Tournament loss. This led to the Bruins going 13-27 from deep, and lighting up MSU for 88 points.
Without repeating all of the great statistics and trends pointed out by Mike; the bottom line is that Jeremy Fears, Jordan Scott, Kur Teng, and Trey Fort need to improve ballscreen defense, and cut out a bad habit of over-helping on drives and leaving open shooters. This is especially imperative against a team that will have at least four shooters on the court at all times. If I am Coach David Richman of NDSU, I am prepping for a very similar gameplan to that drawn up by Mick Cronin of UCLA. Michigan State cannot allow Bison guards like Damari Wheeler-Thomas and Andy Stefonowicz to have a Donovan Dent-esque performance.
Limit Second-Chance Points – This one plays into what has been one of Michigan State’s strengths all season- defensive rebounding. The Spartans still hold the #1 spot in the land when it comes to defensive rebounding percentage, bringing down 79.7% of opponent’s missed shots. However, this is one area that NDSU has a strength of their own. The Bison average 10.4 offensive boards per game, a very solid mark for a mid-major program, and good for 55th in the entire NCAA. Much like the need for State to shut down NDSU’s drive and kick game, they will need to crash the defensive glass hard, to prevent the several Bison shooters from receiving kick-out looks off of second chance possessions.
Winning this strength-on-strength battle and limiting North Dakota State’s offense to one shot per possession will go a long way in this one. It isn’t just up to Spartan bigs Carson Cooper, Jaxon Kohler, and Cam Ward, though. The 6’7 Jordan Scott and 6’6 Coen Carr both have substantial size advantages versus the NDSU wings in 6’2 Andy Stefonowicz and 6’3 Trevian Carson. If Scott and Carr can translate these physical advantages on paper into dominating the rebound battle, Michigan State should be able to continue their trend of strong defensive rebounding and make it very difficult for North Dakota State to hang around in this one.
Control the Pace – Once again, the Spartans will need to improve on something that they struggled with against UCLA. This time, we’re talking about pace of play. The Bruins were able to slow down MSU’s break drastically and force the game into more of a half-court showdown. NDSU, while not the slowest team out there, does only average 69.2 possessions per 40 minutes of gametime, good for 249th in the nation. For reference, Michigan State is 61st in the nation, with a much faster usual pace of play.
The Bison are not accustomed to the speed with which MSU likes to play, and it’s no mystery that the Spartans play better with Jeremy Fears running the fast break and finding Coen Carr on lobs. In fact, State is 11-1 in games where they score 15 or more fast break points, as opposed to 14-6 in games they do not. Our Spartans should be very well rested after their early departure from the Big Ten Tournament, and will attempt to speed up the squad from the Summit League and turn this game into a track meet, rather than a slow, drawn out game.
Final Thoughts
Did those keys to the game sound familiar? That’s because they aren’t too far at all from the usual MSU Basketball mantra of Defend, Rebound, Run. Sure, they might feel a bit simple, but it is this identity that has not only led to Michigan State earning a 3-seed in this year’s tournament, but the 28 straight years of tournament appearances, 8 final fours, and a national championship that has defined the Tom Izzo era. As far as this year’s team goes, take it from the 71-year-old Hall of Famer himself. “We have to get back to who we are and who we have been most of the year.”
This team has shown flashes. Big time non-conference wins against the likes of Arkansas, Kentucky, North Carolina. Emerging victorious on the road at Purdue, and at home vs Illinois. However, we’ve also seen the challenges this team has faced, in losses to one-seeds Duke and michigan, along with slip-ups to teams like Minnesota and UCLA. Which version of the 2025-26 Spartans will we see come tournament time? Will they make the necessary changes and batten down the hatches to survive the Madness that comes with the month of March? The road to Indianapolis, Tom Izzo’s ninth Final Four, and defining the legacy of seniors like Carson Cooper and Jaxon Kohler appears ahead. And it all starts with a matchup this Thursday against North Dakota State.
What do you think of this matchup? Should MSU be favored so heavily? Will the Spartans clean up the issues that saw them fall to UCLA in the BTT?
GO GREEN!!!!
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