SEWARD, Neb. – The Concordia University, Nebraska Men’s Basketball team will have had more than a week between games when the ball is tipped off Wednesday night in Sioux City, Iowa. The Bulldogs had the Thanksgiving weekend off following an 89-78 home win over Midland on Nov. 26. The much-needed victory put Head Coach Ben Limback’s squad at 4-2 overall (1-2 GPAC) entering this week. Concordia will resume GPAC play this week with a trip to No. 23 Morningside on Wednesday and a home matchup with Briar Cliff on Saturday.
This Week
Wednesday, Dec. 4 at No. 23 Morningside (7-1, 3-1 GPAC), 7:45 p.m.
--104.9 Max Country | Live Webcast | Live Stats | Location: Rosen-Verdoorn Sports Center (Sioux City, Iowa)
Saturday, Dec. 7 vs. Briar Cliff (4-5, 2-2 GPAC), 3:45 p.m.
--104.9 Max Country | Live Webcast | Live Stats | Location: Friedrich Arena (Seward, Neb.)
By the numbers
· Two mid-November losses were enough to drop the Bulldogs from the NAIA top 25 that was released on Nov. 27. Currently, Concordia is listed third in the “receiving votes” category of the poll. The ranked GPAC teams are No. 8 Northwestern, No. 17 Dordt and No. 23 Morningside. The Defenders and Mustangs are the two squads that defeated the Bulldogs during the season’s first month. Prior to those losses, Concordia had held NAIA national rankings of 11th (preseason) and ninth (Nov. 13). The No. 9 ranking represented the highest poll position for the program during Limback’s 12-year tenure.
· The entire league took this past weekend off from conference play, although some teams chose to fill it with a nonconference contest. In the early GPAC standings, both Northwestern (9-0, 3-0 GPAC) and Dordt (10-0, 2-0 GPAC) are undefeated. Another three teams have exactly one GPAC loss: Morningside (3-1), Mount Marty (3-1) and Dakota Wesleyan (2-1). Pegged 10th in the conference preseason poll, the Lancers have been an early surprise and have claimed league wins over Midland, Waldorf and Hastings. With GPAC Player of the Year Reggie Thomas having transferred after last season, the Broncos have struggled to an 0-3 start in GPAC play.
· Concordia had to have last week’s game with Midland if it was to keep hopes alive of contending for a third GPAC regular season title since the start of the 2021-22 season. The clash with the Warriors on Nov. 26 began inauspiciously as the Bulldogs faced a 20-4 deficit out of the gate. All-American Noah Schutte came to the rescue and filled the stat sheet with 27 points, 10 rebounds, six assists and two steals as part of the 89-78 win. An 11-0 run to open the second half put Concordia in a lead that it maintained for the final 13:45 of game time. Schutte was joined in double figures by five teammates: Hayden Frank (13), Brad Bennett (11), Jaxon Stueve (11), Lukas Helms (10) and Tristan Smith (10). The program’s newest 1,000-point club member, Smith added four steals to his stat line. The Bulldogs overcame 33 points from Jake Orr and toppled Midland (6-4, 1-3 GPAC) for the 12th-straight series meeting.
· The 27 points from Schutte were a season high and pushed his 2024-25 scoring average to 17.5 through six outings. The Laurel, Neb., native continues to chase 2,000 career points. His career totals in 121 games as a Bulldog include 1,932 points, 763 rebounds, 211 assists and 82 steals. Now in his ‘COVID Year,’ Schutte has a shot at repeating a feat he achieved in high school at Laurel-Concord-Coleridge – reach 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds for a career. Schutte was named an NAIA Third Team All-American in 2023-24.
· Limback and his staff are not overly worried about what their team can do on the offensive end. The team’s ability to compete for a championship will likely come down to how much it grows on the defensive end. In the losses, the Bulldogs struggled mightily in allowing Morningside to shoot 57.1 percent and Dordt to scorch the nets at a 54.5 percent rate. After Midland shot 56.0 percent in the first half last week, it slipped to 43.8 percent in the second half. The 6-foot-5 Smith is a key to the team’s interior defense. He is averaging 2.2 steals and 1.5 blocks per game through six contests. In all four wins this season, the opposition has shot below 50 percent from the field.
· The 0-2 start to GPAC play matched what the 2023-24 Concordia team did. The ’23-24 Bulldogs then went 15-3 over the final 18 conference regular season games and shared the GPAC title with Hastings and Northwestern. Under Limback, Concordia has won at least 11 league games each season from 2019-20 through the present. Since the start of the 2019-20 season, the program owns a GPAC league record of 68-35.
Concordia Projected Starting Five
G – Brad Bennett, 6-1 (9.8)
G – Hayden Frank, 6-2 (8.5)
G – Jaxon Stueve, 6-4 (7.2)
F – Noah Schutte, 6-4 (17.5)
F – Tristan Smith, 6-5 (19.2)
The opponents
Morningside stands at 7-1 with its lone loss coming at the buzzer at the hands of crosstown rival Briar Cliff. Despite that result, the Mustangs cracked the NAIA top 25 last week. Their resume includes two wins over top 25 foes (based on rankings at the time games were played): No. 24 Kansas Wesleyan University and No. 9 Concordia. Head Coach Trent Miller guided the 2023-24 team to the NAIA national quarterfinals. A deep backcourt is led by prolific scorer Joey Skoff, who ranks third nationally in scoring at 24.3 points per game. The high scoring Mustangs have hit at least 90 points in six of their first eight games and pace the GPAC with an average of 96.9 points per game (while allowing 73.9 ppg). The Bulldogs managed to come away from Sioux City with a win last season, 99-88, over a Morningside team that was ranked 19th at the time.
Morningside Projected Starting Five
G – Justin Sitti, 6-3 (9.9)
G – Joey Skoff, 6-3 (24.3)
G – Aidan Vanderloo, 6-1 (14.1)
F – Brendan Buckley, 6-4 (9.5)
F – Caleb Dreckman, 6-7 (8.5)
It's been an up and down first month of the season for Briar Cliff, which sits at 4-5 (2-2 GPAC). The biggest high to this point came when Matthew Stilwill sank a buzzer beater to lift the Chargers to an 82-79 win over rival Morningside on Nov. 20. Stilwill is a graduate student who averaged 21.2 points per game in 2023-24 and was named a First Team All-GPAC honoree. Head Coach Mark Svagera is in his eighth season at the helm of the program. During that time, Briar Cliff has made three national tournament appearances with its most recent one coming in 2022 when it shared the GPAC regular season title with Concordia. The Chargers’ other GPAC win this season came at home versus Hastings. Prior to Thanksgiving, Briar Cliff fell at Dakota Wesleyan, 76-68. The Bulldogs have won each of the last five meetings with the Chargers. Last season’s two matchups were decided by a combined nine points.
Briar Cliff Projected Starting Five
G – Jamison Helmers, 6-0 (13.1)
G – Wil Lugar, 6-5 (6.3)
G – Blake Sindelar, 6-4 (12.9)
G – Matthew Stilwill, 6-2 (20.2)
F – Jaxson Wingert, 6-7 (10.7)
Next week
The final conference games of December will unfold next week as the Bulldogs prepare to host Hastings on Dec. 11 before playing at new GPAC member Waldorf on Dec. 14. Those two contests will lead into a trip to the Phoenix area.