GRAND FORKS - The University of North Dakota's five-year transition to Division I athletics has had its ups and downs.
Both UND basketball programs, however, have no complaints in their final days of the transition.
The UND men will play in the CollegeInsider.com Tournament on Wednesday against Drake, while the Sioux women are headed to the Women's Basketball Invitational and are expected to learn who they'll play and where today. There had been no announcement as of late Sunday night.
UND won both the men's and women's Great West Conference postseason tournaments over the weekend in Chicago. For the Sioux men, it was their second straight postseason title. The women won their first after finishing second in 2010 and 2011.
Combined, the programs went 38-25 this season as both will turn their attention toward the Big Sky Conference after their respective postseason tournaments.
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UND and Drake have some history as the Bulldogs beat the Sioux 72-63 in 2009.
Drake finished 17-15 this season, falling by nine points to Creighton in the semifinal round of the Missouri Valley Conference postseason tournament. The Bulldogs are led by all-MVC second-team selections Rayvonte Rice (16.6 ppg) and Ben Simons (16.2), who rank third and fourth, respectively, in MVC scoring.
"I do know they can really score the basketball and have multiple weapons on the offensive end, so we'll have a couple of days to find ways to slow them down," said UND coach Brian Jones.
The Sioux men did not return from Chicago after Saturday's win. Instead, they bused to Des Moines, Iowa, where they'll spend the next two days preparing for the game.
UND had hoped to host a CIT game, but instead were sent on the road for the second straight season. Last season, UND played a CIT game at Air Force.
The CIT is a single-elimination tournament that began in 2009. It consists of five rounds -- all on campus sites. The top four remaining seeds after this week's first round will receive a bye in the second round.
The quarterfinals will be played March 20-21, semifinals March 23-24 and the championship March 28.
The UND women hope to host a WBI game. The WBI is a 16-team event played entirely at home sites. Alabama-Birmingham won last year's tournament.
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The WBI also will be the final event for Sioux coach Gene Roebuck, who is retiring at the end of the season after 25 years as the UND coach.
Nelson is the sports editor for the Grand Forks Herald, which is owned by Forum Communications Co.
