North Dakota
Everything you need to know when Notre Dame men’s basketball hosts North Dakota
NOTRE DAME MEN’S BASKETBALL
Fire up that flat top. Throw some more cherry-flavored wood on the smoker. Make sure there’s plenty of propane available for the gas grill.
It’s time for Notre Dame men’s basketball to enjoy some home cooking.
The Irish are out of the gate at 3-0 after three games in 11 days. They have a chance to get to 5-0 with two winnable home games this week. That precedes four straight games away from home, starting next week in Las Vegas. That means win this week and win at home.
Notre Dame is a together group. Notre Dame is a confident group. Notre Dame believes that it can be even better than it’s shown three games in.
Time to continue to cook.
When does Tuesday’s game between Notre Dame and North Dakota begin? Is it on TV? Are tickets available?
☘ WHO: Notre Dame (3-0) vs North Dakota (2-1)
☘ WHERE: Purcell Pavilion (9,149).
☘ WHEN: Tuesday at 7 p.m.
☘ TV: None. The game can be seen on-line at ACC Network Extra (ESPN+).
☘ RADIO: WSBT (960 AM).
☘ TICKETS: Available.
☘ ONLINE: Follow every Notre Dame game with live updates from Tribune beat writer Tom Noie at X (formerly Twitter) at twitter.com/tnoieNDI.
Three pressing questions for Notre Dame
☘ Is scoring 80-plus points now the norm for these Irish?
☘ How about junior forward Tae Davis?
☘ Can power forward Nikita Konstantynovskyi bottle that eight-point, eight-rebound effort he offered at Georgetown?
Scouting the Hawks
In a game that featured seven ties and a staggering 23 lead changes, North Dakota scored 44 points in the second half Thursday at home to beat Utah Valley, 77-71. The Hawks have been idle since that win. … A school of 15,000, North Dakota is located in Grand Forks. … The Hawks returned two starters and 10 players off last year’s team that finished 18-14 overall, 10-6 and tied for second place in the Summit League. North Dakota was picked in a preseason coaches’ vote to finish sixth in the nine-team Summit League this season. It received one first-place vote. … North Dakota had a game at UTSA postponed on Saturday, Nov. 9 (rescheduled for Dec. 13) because of flight issues/weather in Texas. That means the teams (originally scheduled to play on Dec. 15) will play a unique hone-and-home series in Grand Forks and then San Antonio on Dec. 13 and 15. … The Hawks are in a stretch of seven of eight games away from home.
By the Numbers
0.68: North Dakota ranks 335th nationally in assist/turnover ratio (0.68).
1: In its lone NCAA tournament game in program history in 2017, No. 15 North Dakota lost to No. 2 Arizona 100-82, in a West Regional first-round game.
4: North Dakota ranks fourth in the country for 3-point field goal percentage defense (.190 percent). Opponents are a combined 12-of-63 from 3 against the Hawks in the first three games.
2008: Year that North Dakota elevated all of its athletic programs to Division I.
2016-17: The Hawks’ 18 victories last season were their most since 2016-17 when they finished 22-10 as a member of the Big Sky conference.
Keep an eye on …
Treysen Eaglestaff, a 6-foot-6, 190-pound junior guard from Bismarck, North Dakota. Eaglestaff is averaging a team-high 20 points with 2.0 rebounds and 2.6 assists in 27.0 minutes per game. He scored a game-high 31 points in 34 minutes Thursday against Utah Valley. A first-team All-Summit League preseason pick, Eaglestaff can play point guard, shooting guard, wing guard and small forward. As a senior in high school in 2021-22, he was named Mr. Basketball in North Dakota.
Quoting the Hawks
“We have so much growth in front of us, and our goal is to be the best team we can be. We don’t want to just be satisfied by getting a win. Winning’s nice, but we have a lot to learn and a lot to improve on. If we stay with that truth, then we can get those things done.”
— North Dakota coach Paul Sather.
Series history
The teams have met once – on Feb. 2, 1941 – in the old Fieldhouse. Notre Dame won 46-38.
Scouting the Irish
Graduate student Matt Allocco scored 17 points with five rebounds and seven assists and Tae Davis added 13 points and eight rebounds in Saturday’s 84-63 win at Georgetown. Notre Dame led for the final 35:18 and by as many as 25. … Davis is averaging a career-high 16.3 points through three games while Allocco has 11 assists to one turnover in 90:21 minutes through three games. … Opponents are averaging only 68.45 ppg., against Notre Dame’s defense, which ranks eighth in the Atlantic Coast Conference in scoring defense (66.6 ppg.) and third in field goal percentage defense (.352). … After ranking 86th nationally last season in field goal percentage defense (.422), tied for 289th in 3-point field goal percentage (.318) and 330th in field goal percentage (.407), the Irish are at 30th (.352), 58th (.391) and 14th (.534) nationally. … Notre Dame looks to start 4-0 for the first time since opening 5-0 in 2022-23.
By the Numbers
1: Notre Dame leads the ACC in rebounding margin through three games (+13.00).
20: Notre Dame finished with 20 assists against Georgetown, its most under Micah Shrewsberry.
14:24: Amount of time that Notre Dame has trailed through 120 minutes over three games. That doesn’t include the exhibition win at Fort Wayne when the Irish never trailed.
86.3: Average points for Notre Dame through three games. The Irish averaged 64.0 ppg., last season.
4,626: Average attendance after two home games for the Irish.
Keep an eye on …
Graduate student forward Burke Chebuhar, who went from DNP-CD (did not play, coach’s decision) against Buffalo to nine points and three assists in 10 minutes against Georgetown. Despite averaging only 7.7 minutes per game, Chebuhar is averaging 6.0 points and 2.0 rebounds while shooting 80 percent from the field and from 3 this season.
Quoting the Irish
“As we’ve gotten better offensively, our defense hasn’t shifted at all. We want to play in the 80s. We want to hold you in the 60s. That’s the kind of effort it takes. There’s no drop-off when we sub defensively.”
— Irish head coach Micah Shrewsberry
Looking ahead
Notre Dame remains at Purcell Pavilion for a game Friday (7:30 p.m. tip) against Elon before four straight away from home.
Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on X (formerly Twitter): @tnoieNDI. Contact Noie at tnoie@sbtinfo.com
BISMARCK, N.D. (KFYR) – North Dakota leaders unveiled an initiative aimed at getting more oil out of the Bakken, using enhanced oil recovery and CO₂.
Senator John Hoeven said the effort is getting a boost from $36 million from the Department of Energy for “Crack the Code 2.0,” a $157 million initiative with state and industry funding.
Hoeven said the goal is to use CO₂ for enhanced oil recovery, calling it “an important, usable, valuable commodity” and saying, “We’re linking our coal plants with our oil and gas producing companies to do it.”
Funding will be used to develop technology to make enhanced oil recovery profitable and viable, and then implement it in North Dakota oil fields in a number of pilot projects.
Hoeven said current recovery rates in the Bakken are limited.
“We’re only producing about 10 to 12% of the oil out of that shale,” he said, “But with EOR, advanced oil recovery techniques, we can double it. We can take it from 10 to 12% up to 25% or better.”
Hoeven said the effort is also tied to electricity demand, saying North Dakota will “produce more electricity for a company that wants to do AI, that wants to do data centers, needs more and more electricity,” and that “it isn’t just about oil and gas.”
North Dakota Petroleum Council President Ron Ness said the pilot projects are expected to start soon.
“We hope to see these pilots putting their technologies into the ground sometime late this year, first quarter of next year,” said Ness.
“So I would expect by this time next year, we’re going to maybe potentially begin to see what are some of the results early on,” Ness added. “And again, this is going to take multiple, multiple swings at this thing. It’s not going to just happen. If it was easy, we’d be doing it. Nobody’s done it anywhere in the world. This is where we’re going to crack the code.”
Copyright 2026 KFYR. All rights reserved.
Three years after a deal with Fairview was called off, South Dakota-based Sanford Health is getting into the Twin Cities market with a new merger.
On Friday, the health system announced that it will combine with North Memorial Health.
Fairview, Sanford call off planned merger
Under the merger, Sanford says the organization will invest $600 million to strengthen the Robbinsdale hospital and double the Maple Grove hospital’s size.
Sanford is the largest rural nonprofit health system in the country, with 58 hospitals and roughly 56,000 employees across the Dakotas, Iowa, Wisconsin, Wyoming and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. North Memorial operates two hospitals in Robbinsdale and Maple Grove, along with several other clinics, employing more than 6,500 people.
If completed, the health systems plan to keep some local leadership in place, including North Memorial CEO Trevor Sawallish, and two North Memorial board members will serve on the combined system’s board. However, the overall company will be led by Sanford CEO Bill Gassen.
The companies say they expect the merger to close later this year, as long as regulatory processes don’t cause delays.
Sanford’s previous attempt to merge with Fairview was called off in 2023, eight months after initially announcing the planned merger. Many Minnesotans raised concerns about that transaction, including Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, although some of that was due to the University of Minnesota’s partnership with Fairview and the possibility of an out-of-state company running the state’s flagship medical school.
As with most mergers, concerns are still likely to arise about possible cutbacks and the impact on the state’s healthcare quality. However, the deal seems more likely to be completed than Sanford’s past attempts.
Reaction
SEIU Healthcare Minnesota & Iowa, who represents over 1,000 workers at North Memorial, called the news “worrisome.”
“At a time when healthcare costs are skyrocketing for Minnesota families and frontline healthcare workers are getting squeezed by short staffing levels, this latest attempt at consolidation brings many concerns. It is especially concerning because previous merger attempts by Sanford Health to come into Minnesota have failed due to their values and corporate behavior,” the union said.
SEIU also called on Ellison “to use all of his office’s powers within the law to provide oversight into this proposed merger and ensure the interests of Minnesota’s workers and patients are protected.”
Ellison’s office is asking the public to submit information through an online Community Input Form.
“As we have done and are currently doing with other healthcare transactions, we are conducting a thorough review of this potential acquisition to ensure it complies with the law and is in the public interest,” Ellison daid. “Proposed health care consolidation requires careful examination. As long as I am Attorney General, I will use the full range of regulatory tools to protect Minnesotans’ access to quality, affordable healthcare.”
The Minnesota Nurses Association released a statement saying it is “deeply concerned” by the merger announcement, warning it “could have far-reaching consequences for patients, healthcare workers, and the communities they serve.”
This is a breaking news story. Follow 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS on social media and on the KSTP app below for more updates.
BISMARCK, N.D. (KFYR) – Here’s something North Dakotans can take pride in: North Dakota has the third-highest average IQ in the nation, tying with Vermont at 103.8. That is 3.5 points above the national average.
The state with the highest average is Massachusetts at 104.3 and the state with the lowest average is Mississippi at 94.2.
Ninety-four percent of North Dakotans graduate high school, making it the state with the sixth-highest graduation rate in the nation.
Copyright 2026 KFYR. All rights reserved.
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