MMBOW #11: Ben Woodside, North Dakota State

January 26, 2009 12:20 pm ET by Kyle Whelliston

There was that 51-minute, 60-point effort against Stephen F. Austin that earned him MMBOW honors back in December, which would have earned wider play had his team actually won the game. No matter about that, because ever since the North Dakota Bison have entered the Badlands Conference schedule, they've been victorious plenty. NDSU is 8-1 in league play with a 14-5 overall record, and is currently enjoying a six-game win streak. You can credit a lot of that success to the senior guard who leads the team in PPG (24.2), minutes (33), free throws (84 percent), 3's (47.1 percent) and assists (6.4). Dude's good. The AP has noticed, the University of Minnesota didn't, and Ben Woodside is our 11th Mid-Majority Baller of the Week for the 2008-09 season.

In a lot of ways, this week's effort is even more impressive than the week that made Mr. Woodside our fifth selection of the year and momentarily charmed the populace. It started out with a step out of league play, a 28-point night built on 8-for-12 shooting against future Great West member Utah Valley. He scored half the points from his signature game, but in much less than half the time -- it only took him 22 minutes to compile that statline. But on Saturday, the Albert Lea, MN native showed his endearing endurance, playing 44 minutes in an overtime battle on the road against Badlands foe South Dakota State. In a game where the Bison slammed the pedal down in OT to win by 10, Woodside shot 10-for-20 for 30 points, hit a pair of 3's, and made eight of his nine free throws. He's currently the nation's sixth-leading scorer.

The Bison are tied for first in the BLC with Oral Roberts, but the G'Eagles' single loss was to, yep, North Dakota State (Woodside: 24 points). So it's safe to proclaim the existence of an emerging disorder sweeping its way across Hoops Nation: Bison Fever. You may recall that this is the team's first year of postseason eligibility, that they redshirted Woodside's entire class to prepare for this moment, and that they beat Marquette and Wisconsin during their long wait. Get on this, folks... this is a train you want to be on once it leaves the station in March, and you need to get geared up early. This is the kind of story we lovelovelove here at TMM, we're just sounding the alarm.

Oh, and congratulations to Ben Woodside, you're the Mid-Majority Baller of the Week.

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FEBRUARY 11, 2012
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