By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Like everybody associated with Washburn University men's basketball, Ichabod coach Brett Ballard went through some anxious hours waiting for the NCAA Tournament field to be announced Sunday night.
But now that the 21-10 Ichabods are safely in the field, Ballard is confident that his team can do some damage.
"I felt like we deserved to be in, but I'll be honest, I was really, really concerned we weren't going to get in,'' Ballard said. "I knew we just had so many good teams in our (Central) Region that it was going to be tough, but I felt like we deserved it and am obviously happy now.''
The Ichabods will face off with the Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs (25-5) at 2:30 p.m. Saturday in Sioux Falls, S.D. at the Sanford Pentagon.
Washburn is the No. 7 seed and coming off an 84-76 loss to Northwest Missouri in the MIAA Championship game. The Bulldogs are the No. 2 seed and fell to Minnesota State Moorhead 81-73 in the NSIC Championship game.
Tyler Geiman and the Washburn Ichabods will make their fourth appearance in the NCAA Tournament over the past five seasons Saturday, facing Minnesota Duluth. [File photo/TSN]
The Ichabods are 15-15 all-time in the NCAA Tournament in 15 previous appearances and reached the NCAA Championship game once during the 2001 season, falling to Kentucky Wesleyan, 72-63.
Minnesota Duluth is in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the 2002-03 season, while Washburn is in the tournament for the fourth time in five seasons under Ballard.
Washburn went though some tough times early in the season while playing without standouts Tyler Geiman, Jonny Clausing and Tyler Nelson, but the Ichabods caught fire after returning to full strength.
"We played the third-toughest schedule in the country, so early without our guys it was a struggle and it was frustrating, but it made us re-evaluate some things and it made us really lock in and focus on some details and we were able to get some guys some experience,'' Ballard said.
"And now that we've got all our parts, you can see what this team is capable of. We're playing well. Our region's tough, but I really like where our guys' head space is right now and feel like we can go beat anybody.''
Geiman leads the Ichabods in scoring average at 15.3 points per game, with 5.1 rebounds per game and 6.6 assists per game.
In the last 13 games he is averaging18.1 points, 6.3 rebounds and 7.6 assists.
Jalen Lewis is scoring 13.6 points per game while hitting 64 of 164 3-pointers while Clausing is averaging 15.3 points, 8.0 rebounds and 1.0 blocks since moving into Washburn's starting lineup seven games ago. For the season Clausing is averaging 10.7 points and 5.2 rebounds.
Michael Keegan, the 2021-22 MIAA freshman of the year, is averaging 9.3 points, 6.1 rebounds and 0.9 blocks per game.
The Bulldogs have all five starters averaging double figures, led by Drew Blair at 18.6 points per game. Austin Andrews is averaging 18.1 points with 9.5 rebounds per game. Joshua Brown is scoring 15.0 points per game, Charlie Katona 11.5 and Jack Middleton 10.4 points per game.
With a win, the Ichabods will face the winner of the Northwest Missouri-MSU Moorhead game on Sunday at 5 p.m.
