Reusse: Huge stakes on the court this weekend for Concordia-St. Paul

Seven public institutions in the Midwest took a new name in 1992, the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference, and moved their competition to Division II in the NCAA. Concordia University in St. Paul became the first private college to join in 1999, as the number of teams was reaching 10.

The NSIC then charged into expansion, taking four leftovers from the demise of the North Central Conference in 2008. It then grew to 16 teams in 2012, several years before the power FBS conferences started devouring themselves in the quest to hog the TV billions.

Football has been an issue in the NSIC, not due to greed but to keep the smaller and/or low-spending schools from being slaughtered on a regular basis. Minnesota-Crookston finally gave up the gridiron for humanitarian reasons. So did St. Cloud State, due to an obtuse leadership overseeing the decline of a formerly-vibrant campus.

You’re free to dismiss that statement as the view of someone who covered the Huskies long, long ago and consumed many beverages with coaches in a relentless search for scoops.

The NSIC did lose Upper Iowa recently, reducing the number of schools to 15 and the football teams to 13. Jamestown University, a small religious school in North Dakota, will provide even numbers in both when it joins next fall.

The odds the Jimmies will be competitive in football are remote, but in sports where lesser numbers and resources are required — anything might be possible.

Just take a gander at the men’s basketball standings entering the final weekend of the regular season:

Go back to 2018, when Parker Fox was a redshirt freshman, Northern State from Aberdeen, S.D., was 20-2 in the conference, 36-4 overall and lost by two points in the national title game in Sioux Falls. This season, as Parker’s college career is alleged to be ending with the Gophers, Northern is holding last place at 1-19 (2-24 overall).

Go back to last March, Minnesota State Mankato was finishing 35-2 and winning the national championship (joining its women’s team in a title sweep). This season, the Mavericks are 14-6 and in a five-way tie for first, with difficult road games remaining at St. Cloud State on Friday and Moorhead State on Saturday.

“No team is great, but so many of our teams are good this season … it’s amazing,” said Matt Margenthaler, in his 24th season as the Mavericks coach.

The teams tied with MSU Mankato at the top are Southwest Minnesota State, Winona State, St. Cloud and Concordia

The surprise team: Concordia, for sure.

Matt Fletcher was hired from Bethany Lutheran in Mankato before the 2020-21 season. Being a two-time UMAC Coach of the Year is one thing; making Concordia hoops competitive in the same league as the big college in Mankato is quite different.

“It wasn’t going to happen fast,” Fletcher said. “First season was COVID-19, second season we were 3-25.”

They were only slightly improved in Season 3, but they did add Antwan Kimmons, a guard who was a bit of a legend on the East Side of St. Paul and then Tartan High. He was at Northern Iowa for three seasons, a redshirt and two seasons of limited playing time.

Kimmons transferred to Concordia and was the NSIC Newcomer of the Year for 2022-23, averaging 21 points a game.

Dave Thorson, assistant to Ben Johnson with the Gophers and the ultimate Twin Cities hoops-head, was putting in a plug for Fletcher’s coaching acumen this week and added:

“Their best player is a kid I love … Antwan Kimmons. That kid is a survivor, a dynamic player."

Kimmons said this week his reason for leaving Northern Iowa wasn’t as much playing time – “I would be getting more of that, if I stayed,” he said – but the fact Linnie Anderson was going to become the mother of their child.

“Veyah … she’s two now, she’s great," Kimmons said. “She comes to practice sometimes. The players on our women’s team, they find out she’s here, they just run out to play with her.”

Kimmons' back was bothering him in the fall of 2023. He started the season, but the pain was constant.

“We sent him for X-rays and he had a double fracture in his back,” Fletcher said. “He was done.”

And Concordia’s return from oblivion was delayed: a familiar 5-17 in the Northern Sun last season. It became an injury season for Kimmons and he could play again in 2024-25.

Big man Cade Meyer transferred in from Northern Kentucky. Japannah Kellogg III, a transfer from Albany, joined the lineup after recovering from injury.

Players from near (Ben Kopetzki, Reid Patterson) and far (Marcus Skeele, Ian Sluice, Sean Mathieu) have given Fletcher’s fifth team depth.

And this opportunity:

“If we can win our games at Bemidji and Crookston this weekend, we will get at least a share of the Northern Sun championship.” Kimmons said. “And that would be something that’s not been done before at Concordia.”