SALT LAKE CITY, Utah -- After taking Thanksgiving Day off, UND will take on host Utah on Friday at 9 p.m. CT in game set to be televised on the Pac-12 Network.
IN THE PAINT...
• North Dakota opened the Thanksgiving Tournament in Salt Lake City with a 75-68 victory over Alabama State. It was the first meeting between the two teams on the hardwood and first for UND against a team from the SWAC.
• UND's win over Alabama State was its first over a non-conference foe on a neutral court since knocking off Eastern Michigan 54-49 (Dec. 4) in Idaho during the 2010-11 season. UND is 2-7 now in multi-team events since moving up to the Division I level prior to the 2008-09 season.
• The host Utes are the only other first-time opponent besides Alabama State that UND will face this season. Utah opened the multi-team event with an 85-48 victory over Texas-Pan American.
• UND's former Great West foe will be the team's third opponent and those two squads play Saturday at 5 p.m. CT. UND leads the all-time series with UTPA at 7-3.
• UND has been a frequent visitor to the Beehive State during its Division I era (since 2008-09), moving its record to 7-8 record with the win over Alabama State.
• This is the second consecutive season that UND will spend Thanksgiving week playing in a tournament hosted by a Pac-12 school. Last season, UND went 0-3 in a similar event hosted by the University of Oregon.
OPPONENT PREVIEW: UTAH
• Head coach Larry Krystowaiak has the Utes off to a 3-1 start and receiving votes in both the USA Today coaches' poll and the Associated Press.
• The Utes opened their Thanksgiving Tournament with a 85-48 victory over Texas-Pan American.
• Senior Deion Wright is on the Wooden Award Watch List and averaging 11.3 ppg this season. He was the first Ute in school history to earn first-team All-Pac 12 honors last season after averaging 15.5 ppg and upping that to 16.9 ppg in league play.
• Junior Jordan Loveridge is also back from last season's 21-12 team that went 18-2 at Huntsman Arena. He averaged 14.7 ppg and is leading the team this season at an 11.5 ppg clip.
• Freshman Kyle Kuzma has led the Utes in scoring two games in a row coming off the bench. He had 14 in the blowout of the Broncs. Kuzman had 19 in an 88-42 win over UC Riverside.
• Classmate Jakob Poetl is a 7-foot freshman from Austria that has come in and started the first four games of his collegiate career. Poetl is averaging 9.3 ppg and 9.0 rbg. He also has 12 blocked shots to lead the team.
• Junior Brandon Taylor led the Utes in scoring the first two games and is the third Ute averaging double figures this season (10.8 ppg).
LAST TIME OUT: UND 75, Alabama State 68
Senior Jaron Nash scored a season-high 22 points and classmate Lenny Antwi added 14 off the bench to lead North Dakota to a 75-68 wire-to-wire win over Alabama State Wednesday at Huntsman Arena.
Nash had 19 of his game-high point total in the opening 20 minutes as UND raced out to a 42-21 advantage at the break in game one of the team's Thanksgiving Tournament at the University of Utah. Antwi hit a trio of 3-pointers in the second half to help fend off a late rally by the Hornets that saw them close within five with less than a minute to play.
The Hornets had closed to within nine with just over four minutes to play, but Terrel de Rouen converted a 3-point play for UND to extend the lead back to double digits and the Green and White (2-2) would find a way to hold on for their second win of the season.
ASU made things interesting as UND, who made 12 of its first 14 free throws, struggled down the stretch before De Rouen iced the win with two late ones. He finished with nine points.
Senior Chad Calcaterra rounded out a trio of UND scorers in double figures with 10, while Nash added 10 rebounds to record his second double-double of the season.
UND led the rebounding category 45-42 and went 9-for-22 from beyond the arc to aid in the victory.
WORTH NOTING: LAST TIME OUT VS. ALABAMA STATE
• Senior Jaron Nash tallied a season-high 22 points on 7-of-13 shooting from the floor and also added 10 rebounds to post his second double-double of the season.
• Classmate Lenny Antwi added 14 points and went 4-for-7 from beyond the arc, including three key makes after halftime. Antwi is now 7-for-14 on the season and leads the team with a 50 percent clip.
• Nash had 19 points in the first half that saw UND never trail and build a 42-21 advantage at the break. The Texas Tech transfer also had the best game of his career from the foul line where he made a career-high six in only seven attempts (career 34.9 percent).
• Senior Chad Calcaterra had 10 points and reached double figures for the second straight game for the first time in his career. He had 13 points at South Dakota State, which was one shy of his career high of 14 set against Omaha during his freshman season with Colorado State.
• Sophomore Quinton Hooker was limited to only 18 minutes as the point guard went down with an injury in the opening minutes of the second half. Hooker expects to be back for Friday's game vs. Utah.
• It's early in the campaign, but the UND defense has been stout, topping all Big Sky teams by allowing only 61.2 ppg.
UTAH TOURNAMENT: NUTS AND BOLTS
The North Dakota men's basketball team will be in Salt Lake City over Thanksgiving taking part in a Holiday Tournament hosted by the University of Utah. Here is the schedule for three-game, round-robin event featuring Alabama State, North Dakota, Texas-Pan American and Utah:
Wednesday, Nov. 26
Utah 85, Texas-Pan American 48
North Dakota 75, Alabama State 68
Friday, Nov. 28
Alabama State vs. Texas-Pan American - 6 p.m. CT
North Dakota at Utah - 9 p.m. CT (Pac-12 Network)
Saturday, Nov. 29
Texas-Pan American vs. North Dakota, 4 p.m.
Alabama State vs. Utah, 7 p.m.
There will be no video stream available for UND's games during the tournament, but live stats will be available via Gametracker on www.UtahUtes.com. Live audio streams will be available for all three games on www.UNDSports.com with Paul Ralston calling the action from Jon M. Huntsman Arena.
NEW ARRIVAL LEADS TO NEW FORMAT IN THE BIG SKY
With Idaho coming back to play all sports but football in the Big Sky starting this season, the league will now play an 18-game schedule as opposed to the 20-game schedule UND faced in its first two seasons as a member. The Vandals bring the total number of teams to 12, so a full round-robin schedule is off the books as well. Idaho will be one of the four teams that UND only plays once during the season. That matchup is set for Jan. 22 in Moscow. UND has played the Vandals only once before, falling 64-43 at their place in December of 2010. The other three are Eastern Washington, Idaho State and reigning Big Sky champion Weber State. UND will play the remaining seven teams in home-and-home series and league actionstarts on New Year's Day this season (UND at Montana State). The team has only played on the first day of the calendar year just twice before, winning at Minot State 46-45 during the 1947-48 season and losing at Washington University (Missouri) 61-45 the next season.
SO LONG TO A STELLAR SENIOR CLASS
Jones will have to replace three starters and five letterwinners from last year's Big Sky runner-up squad. He does have nine letterwinners back to replace the production lost by the departure of seniors Aaron Anderson, Troy Huff, Josh Schuler, Alonzo Traylor and Jamal Webb.
Anderson (1,430), Huff (2,005) and Webb (1,165) all scored more than 1,000 points in their careers and combined to start 318 games over respective four-year careers at UND.
Huff finished his career as a two-time Lou Henson Mid-Major All-American and became just the third player in UND history to eclipse 2,000 career points in his final collegiate game.
Webb finished his career as the program's all-time leader in career steals (240) and second in career assists (485), while Anderson was 11th in career scoring and played in more games (133) than any other player in UND history.
NASH IS BACK, GETS SIXTH YEAR FROM NCAA
For a while it looked liked Jones was going to have to replace four starters, but Texas Tech transfer Jaron Nash was granted a sixth year of eligibility after receiving a hardship waiver from the NCAA. Nash averaged 10.8 ppg during his first season with UND and is the team's top returning scorer.
LUCKY NO. 7, 2014-15 TEAM LOADED WITH TRANSFERS
Nash will be one of seven Division I transfers on the 17-man roster this season. He is joined by classmate Chad Calcaterra, who began his collegiate career at Colorado State before playing one season at Western Nebraska. He playd in 30 games last season for UND (2.7 ppg, 2.2 rpg).
Guard Estan Tyler is eligible after sitting out last season and playing his first two seasons at Kansas City. He averaged 11.4 ppg as a sophomore with the Kangaroos and has two seasons left for UND.
Senior Cole Stefan played in 31 games a season ago for UND (3.7 ppg, 1.1 rpg) after playing at LaSalle as a freshman (2010-11) and Green Bay as a sophomore (2011-12).
Junior Terrel de Rouen transferred to UND this past summer and received a waiver to play immediately this season. He was with the New Mexico State program for three seasons, but was only able to play for the Aggies in 2012-13 when he averaged 5.6 ppg and 1.8 apg. NMSU advanced to the NCAA Tournament that season.
Junior Dustin Hobaugh started his collegiate career at Houston Baptist, but transferred to UND a year later to pursue a degree in commercial aviation. Hobaugh saw action in 11 games a year ago (1.5 ppg and 1.0 rpg).
Redshirt freshman Carson Shanks will be eligible after UND's fall semester is concluded after transferring into the program this past January from Utah State. The Prior Lake, Minn., native was in the middle of a redshirt season for the Aggies.
EXPERIENCE COUNTS
Sophomore Quinton Hooker emerged as a starter late in his true freshman season with 12 of his 14 starts coming Big Sky play. Hooker played in all 34 games (4.2 ppg, 1.9 apg) and is one of four players on the roster that earned double-digit starts a season ago. Nash led all returners with 22 starts, while Calcaterra (13) and Salmonson (15) split most of the starts at center for Jones.
IOWA HOMECOMING
The trip to Cedar Falls to open the 2014-15 season was a homecoming for several of the players and coaches within the basketball program. Head coach Brian Jones is from across the state line in northwest Illinois, but he played four seasons at Northern Iowa from 1990-94.
Jones has two former Iowa Hawkeyes on his staff as well. Jason Shay, who was a high school rival of Jones' played at Iowa from 1991-95. New director of basketball operations Jeff Horner also played for Iowa (2003-06).
As for players, there are three native Iowans on this year's roster. Senior Jaron Nash grew up in Waterloo, Iowa, which is a neighboring city of Cedar Falls, while juniors Shane Benton and Josiah Coleman both grew up 60 miles south of UNI in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Coleman is making his UND debut against the Panthers.
The trio of Iowans combined for more than 40 percent of the team's scoring in the 64-52 setback. Nash, who played in front of more than 50 friends and family members, shared the team lead with 11 points, while Benton and Coleman both added five points in their return to the Hawkeye State.
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