Sad eyes, turn the other way
I don’t want to see you cry
Sad eyes, you knew there’d come a day
When we would have to say “goodbye”
Any person who listens to noon to 3 on KFAN knows that when any Minnesota sports team has their season end or eliminated from playoff contention, they play the song Sad Eyes from Robert John. Sadly, this article will apply to the UND Men’s Basketball team.
After dropping a 84-74 decision to St. Thomas on Tuesday, the loss dropped UND to 6-24 on the year and 2-15 in the Summit. That meant that they would be unable to overtake Omaha for the final spot in Sioux Falls. They will have the dubious distincting of being the only team left out of the Summit League Tournament (St. Thomas isn’t elgible so they aren’t included in this).
It is tough to be the team that is left out. One could make the arguement that it wouldn’t have matter, that UND would have hammered by 50 against SDSU had they got it. However, you rather have a chip, chair, and chance in March, than be the one that is left out of the fun.
Now next year, everyone gets to make it. So UND will be the final team to have this happen to, but it doesn’t make it any better. There will be a time and place to discuss what happened that lead to this, but we can say that tomorrow afternoon’s game will be the final game of the season.
A home tilt against NDSU.
The Bison come in looking to get to the 2 seed in Sioux Falls and they appear to be rounding into form to make yet another run in Sioux Falls. They would love nothing more than to thump their in-state rivals on their home court and roll into Sioux Falls and walk away with another Summit League title, just to rub salt into the wound. However… it is the rivarly and you can throw out the record books.
Needless to say, there is a reason to celebrate. It is Senior Day for UND. UND will be saying goodbye to at least one senior: Bentiu Panoam.
Bentiu Panoam has been with the UND program for 4 years, he came in after a year of JUCO basketball and got some time under Coach Jones. Then after the coaching change, he saw his minute decrease in his 2nd season. Now, you wouldn’t have blamed him if he decided to leave the program and go elsewhere. Instead, he stuck it out and kept grinding, waiting for his next opportunity. In the crazy COVID season, he found that opportunity. After an awful game against NDSU, where UND attempted zero free throws, he found himself inserted into the starting lineup and never looked back. He put together a solid 13 games, including a weekend against South Dakota that no UND fan will ever forget, where he was the best guard on the court and USD couldn’t do a thing about it. He could have left and called it a career, but decided to take his COVID year and run it back after UND was devestated with transfers. While his first full year of starting didn’t quite produce the Bentiu magic of 2020-21 season, he was still a reliable starter who could be relied on with that great work ethic. He torched USD one more time in Vermillion, scoring 19 points on 7-9 shooting. Hopefully UND can send Bentiu out a winner. We thank Bentiu for being a great ambassador to the UND program and being a great example of what happens when you come to practice and work hard and taking advantage of the opportunities that was presented to him.
As of now, we don’t know if Ethan Igbanugo and/or Mitchell Sueker will also be honored, which could be a tell as to whether or not they are moving on. Both players still have their COVID year to use and will have to make a decision on that during the off-season.
The other thing to watch is the play of Paul Bruns, the freshman from South Dakota is 6 points away from breaking the freshman scoring record, held by DAE. He had a tough game against UST, but unless something goes sideways… he should get it.
I was hoping to not write this article so soon, but the season will be done by 3 PM tomorrow. Lets see if UND can end with a win, pick up the pieces, and then move forward to the next season.