It is a new calendar year and things have been totally different for this Omaha Men’s Basketball team since my last article. After only shooting 2 for 19 from three point land against Montana State, Omaha would bounce back in Sacramento by beating Sacramento State 70-60 helping the Summit League reclaim the Summit/Big Sky Challenge Trophy. Omaha would then find its struggles travelling to Iowa in the freezing rain losing 78-58 to Northern Iowa and went scoreless for almost nine minutes and ice cold shooting the basketball during this game. A couple of days later, the Mavs were playing on national tv (CBS Sports Network) against currently ranked #2 Iowa State in Ames. Omaha would be able to play with Iowa State for the first 13 minutes of the game having the score tied at 21 before the Cyclones started to pull away and end up beating Omaha 83-51.
Right before the holidays, Omaha took on Cal Poly at Baxter Arena part of the second half of a home and home series where Omaha came up short in California a year ago to get revenge back in Omaha by winning 86-82. A week later, Omaha hosted Mount Mary, an NAIA school from Yankton, South Dakota which is a team known to give the Dakota school teams fits in the past. Omaha had no issues or fits to worry about in this game and defeated Mount Mary 81-51. On January 2nd, conference play began where Omaha travelled to Grand Forks to take on North Dakota. It was a very high scoring game with Omaha up at the half 45-34. North Dakota would still hang around for a while before Omaha held on to win the game 95-85. The next game, Omaha took on North Dakota State where it was a homecoming for players such as Lance Waddles and Josh Streit and assistant coach Kyan Brown. The first half was a back and forth affair with North Dakota State leading 35-34 at the half. In the second half, North Dakota State would grow their lead to 12 points before Omaha would rally back with Lance Waddles making five straight three point baskets and Omaha ended the losing streak in Fargo dating back to my freshman year of college (February 2019) winning 85-80. This game in particular changed things big time for Omaha who was a 12.5 point underdog in this game.
On January 8th, Omaha would play its first ever DI nationally televised home game on CBS Sports Network against Summit League Preseason favorites Kansas City Roos led by Summit League preseason player of the year Jamar Brown who recently came back from injury. The game started off relatively close but momentum shifted after a Kam Thomas dunk and huge points by Marquel Sutton to go up 33-25 at the half. Kansas City had to deal with foul trouble early which Omaha threw UMKC off rhythm. Omaha in the second half would go on a 13-0 run and held Jamar Brown to just 12 points winning the game 77-58. On Saturday, Omaha played another rough Summit League team and the defending Summit League Champs South Dakota State Jackrabbits. Omaha started the game off very slowly with South Dakota State up 11-2. Omaha had to play catch up the rest of the first half with Lance Waddles, Marquel Sutton, and JJ White leading the comeback. Omaha took its first lead of the game with 2:48 left in the first half with a Lance Waddles three pointer only for the lead to grow. JJ White hit a jump shot at the buzzer putting Omaha up 38-29. In the second half, Omaha’s lead would grow to 17 points with 14 minutes to go in the game. Foul trouble would be a huge issue in this one with players on both teams fouling a ton and Omaha could not make their free throws down the stretch. South Dakota State cut Omaha’s lead to just four points with 44 seconds left in the game led by Oscar Cluff and Kalen Gary. Omaha was able to finally make their free throws at the most critical of times to go up eight and ended up winning the game 87-80 ending the long losing streak to South Dakota State dating back to my sophomore year in college (December 29th, 2019).
As a result of Omaha going 4-0 in conference play, outsiders are looking at Omaha now being on top of the Summit League and bracketologists currently have Omaha as the auto qualifier for NCAA March Madness as a 16 seed playing in the First Four in Dayton. There is still a lot of basketball left to be played and we are only a quarter of the way through regular season league play and a lot can happen between now and March 16th (Selection Sunday). Kyan Brown kicking the trash can is cool but Omaha needs to keep it up and not look too much ahead. Omaha’s next game is in Denver against the Denver Pioneers on Wednesday January 18th, which currently sits in dead last in the Summit League. This Denver team can not be overlooked especially the altitude coming into play for Omaha and Denver only lost to Stanford by three points and Colorado State by nine points. Denver also defeated Montana State, a team Omaha lost to earlier this season.