Omaha Athletics

This Weekend
The Omaha men's basketball team hosts North Dakota State for its home finale this Saturday, Feb. 24. Tipoff is set for 1 p.m. at Baxter Arena, and the game will be televised on YurView Cox Channel 1013. Gary Sharp and John Karhoff will have the radio call on 1180 Zone 2, and links to live stats, audio and video will be available on OMavs.com.
 
Omaha's senior quintet of Alex Allbery, Daniel Meyer, Daniel Norl, Renard Suggs and Lamar Wofford-Humphrey will be honored with pre-game Senior Day festivities.
 
Quick Hits
• Entering Saturday's regular-season finale, Omaha and North Dakota State are tied for sixth in the Summit League with identical records of 4-9. The losing team will be the No. 7 seed at next week's Summit League Tournament and face No. 2 seed South Dakota.
• Four Mavericks average double-figure scoring: Zach Jackson (17.8 ppg), Daniel Norl (13.0 ppg), Mitch Hahn (12.4 ppg) and JT Gibson (10.3 ppg).
• Jackson has scored in double figures in all but two games this season.
• Jackson averaged 17.4 points per game in non-conference games and has 18.3 ppg in league play. He also has 1.4 assists per game in league games, compared to 0.6 apg in non-conference.
• Norl has scored in double figures in 13 of his last 14 games.
• Ayo Akinwole's 2.5 assist-to-turnover ratio is third among Summit League players.
• Five Mavericks have had at least one 20-point scoring performance this season.
• Omaha's Feb. 10 attendance of 4,106 vs. Fort Wayne marked the largest men's basketball crowd in Baxter Arena history.
• Head coach Derrin Hansen earned his 200th career victory Dec. 17 vs. Cornell College.
• By Dec. 3, Omaha had played in all four time zones in the contiguous United States.
• The Mavericks shot .500 or better as a team in four straight games from Nov. 20-29 and 11 times overall this year.
 
Scouting the North Dakota State Bison
North Dakota State is 13-16 (4-9 Summit League) following an 82-74 road loss to Western Illinois Thursday night. Paul Miller paced the Bison with 27 points, and Tyson Ward had 14. Deng Geu added eight points and eight boards.
 
Head coach David Richman is in his fourth season with NDSU, carrying a career record of 75-50.
 
Saturday's game marks the 73rd meeting all-time between Omaha and NDSU, with the Bison leading the series, 43-29 overall and 9-3 in the Mavericks' Division I era. Omaha seeks its third straight home win over NDSU this weekend.
 
The two teams last met on Jan. 25 in Fargo, N.D., where NDSU prevailed 73-58.
 
Last Time Out: Oral Roberts Denies Mavericks, 83-75
Omaha opened its final homestand of the season Thursday night, falling 83-75 to Oral Roberts at Baxter Arena. Junior Zach Jackson finished with a game-high 26 points on 10-of-15 shooting alongside a team-leading eight rebounds and a steal. Classmate Mitch Hahn scored a season-high 23 points on 9-of-14 shooting with five 3-pointers, adding four boards, two assists, two steals and a block.
 
Senior Daniel Norl also had 10 points with a pair of threes, two rebounds and three assists, and sophomore JT Gibson dished out a game-leading five helpers.
 
Omaha shot .492 (31-of-63) to ORU's .485 (32-of-66). The Golden Eagles had a 38-29 rebounding advantage, including 14-7 on the offensive glass, and capitalized with 16 second-chance points. The Mavericks committed a season-low six turnovers for the night.
 
The Home Stretch
Omaha has been strong late in the season over 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17, going a combined 5-0 over the final week of regular-season play. That included three straight wins in regular-season finales and a 2-0 advantage on Senior Days set at Baxter Arena.
 
Action Jackson
Junior Zach Jackson is in his third year as a starter, averaging team bests of 17.8 points and 6.5 rebounds per game. The Wichita, Kan., native has scored in double figures in all but two games, including 11 performances with 20+ points.
 
Jackson ranks in the top five in the Summit League in five categories: third for free throws made (112), fourth for field goal percentage (.534) and fifth for points (517), points per game (17.8) and field goals made (87). He tallied in double figures in 21 straight games from Nov. 24 to Feb. 14, and in that span averaged 18.9 points and 6.8 rebounds while shooting .557 from the field, .457 from 3-point range and .838 from the free throw line.
 
Against high major opponents this season, Jackson averaged 18.3 points, 6.8 rebounds, 1.2 assists, 1.2 steals and 0.7 blocks in six games. Combined against Oklahoma, New Mexico, Louisville, TCU, Washington and Kansas, he has shot .507 from the field and .763 at the stripe.
 
Feelin' Hahn, Hahn, Hahn
Junior Mitch Hahn is back in the lineup after more than seven weeks out due to injury. Since Jan. 25, the 2016-17 Summit League All-Newcomer Team selection has averaged 12.6 points, 6.9 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game, and Thursday's effort against Oral Roberts (Feb. 22) included a season-high 23 points with 9-of-14 shooting and five 3-pointers.
 
To start the season, Hahn scored in double figures in three straight games with 12 points at Montana State (Nov. 10), 13 at Oklahoma (Nov. 12) and a season-high 16 at New Mexico (Nov. 14). After missing three games from Nov. 17-25, he returned to the lineup vs. Drake (Nov. 29), posting four points, five rebounds and two assists. He followed up with a double-double on 15 points and 10 rebounds at Washington (Dec. 3) and another with 13 points and 13 rebounds at UC Santa Barbara (Dec. 5). After suffering an injury late in the game Dec. 5 at UCSB, he was out of commission until returning Jan. 25 at North Dakota State.
 
Gibson at Full Strength
Sophomore JT Gibson is fourth on the team for scoring with 10.3 points per game and has 11 double-figure scoring efforts this season. Omaha's triples leader, he owns 16 performances with two or more treys, including a perfect 3-of-3 showing Feb. 14 at Denver.
 
With 105 career assists to his credit, Gibson is Omaha's active career leader in the category.
 
Here's to You, Mr. Robinson
Sophomore KJ Robinson has assumed a starting role in 2017-18, averaging 9.4 points, 2.2 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game. He scored in double figures in three straight games against North Dakota State (Jan. 25), South Dakota State (Jan. 30) and Western Illinois (Feb. 8).
 
A native of Blue Springs, Mo., Robinson had a standout performance vs. No. 18 Louisville (Nov. 17) with a then-career-high 14 points, three rebounds, five assists and three steals. He followed by dishing out a career-best eight assists at TCU (Nov. 20) while adding 11 points, four rebounds and a steal. Against Tennessee Tech (Nov. 24), Robinson went off for a career-high 25 points while hitting seven 3-pointers and adding five rebounds, five assists and a block. It was the most threes in a game by any Maverick since Marcus Tyus had eight at South Dakota State (Jan, 7, 2017).
 
Norl's Senior Campaign
Senior Daniel Norl has been strong in his senior season, ranking second on the team for scoring with 13.0 points per game alongside 3.5 rebounds and 2.6 assists per contest. The Clarksville, Tenn., native earned his first career start at Montana State (Nov. 10), exploding for career highs of 29 points, nine rebounds and two steals while shooting 13-of-18. He posted a game-high 23 points, three boards, a career-high-tying seven assists and a career-best three steals at Oral Roberts (Dec. 30), then achieved his third 20-point game at Denver (Feb. 14) with 21 points.
 
The Pile Driver
Freshman Matt Pile averaged 6.3 minutes per game over the first three contests this season but has seen his court time increase to 18.6 minutes per game since then. In that stretch, Pile has boosted his averages to 6.8 points, 4.7 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game. He joined the starting five Jan. 30 at South Dakota State.
 
Pile notched his first career double-double vs. Doane (Jan. 2) with career highs of 18 points and 10 rebounds and 9-of-11 shooting. He put together a six-block performance vs. Denver (Jan. 18), which marked the most of any Maverick since Adam Wetzel's six in 2002.
 
Pile ranks third in the Summit League for blocks (32) this season and is Omaha's active career leader in the category.
 
More on Meyer
Senior Daniel Meyer made his second collegiate appearance in his home state Nov. 10 with Omaha's season opener at Montana State. The Billings, Mont., native is Omaha's active career leader for games played (110).
 
Meyer was on fire in the Mavericks' last homestand vs. Western Illinois (Feb. 8) and Fort Wayne (Feb. 10), averaging 8.5 points, 4.5 rebounds and 1.0 assists per game in reserve while shooting .667 (8-of-12). Against the Leathernecks, he posted eight points, then followed with season highs of nine points and seven boards against the Mastodons.
 
Meyer has been mainstay for Omaha over the last few seasons. He appeared in every game in 2015-16 and 2016-17, making 11 starts as a junior and finishing the year with 2.8 points and 3.1 rebounds per game.
 
Off the court, Meyer is a fully-rated instrument and private aircraft pilot.
 
Home Sweet Homaha
Omaha had a record of 8-4 at home last season, and the Mavericks averaged 90.9 points per game with a 12.6 margin of victory at Baxter Arena.
 
The Mavericks play 12 games at home in 2017-18, and eight of their nine wins have come at Baxter. They won five straight in their own facility to start before South Dakota State snapped the streak on Jan. 6.
 
Up Next
Omaha returns to action March 3-6 at the Summit League Championship in Sioux Falls, S.D. A full tournament bracket will be released at the conclusion of all regular-season games on Saturday, Feb. 24.