McFeely: A tough goodbye for trio of Bison seniors

It was 20 minutes after South Dakota State won the Summit League men's basketball tournament championship game 75-69, making every play the Jackrabbits needed when they needed them. The Jacks had vanquished their rival, the Bison from North Dakota State, and with that came the end of Griesel's, Eady's and Kreuser's careers.

Collectively, those careers totaled 377 games over the past five seasons (Kreuser took advantage of an extra year granted by the NCAA because of COVID). Included were 301 starts. They had become such a constant with Bison basketball through some of the toughest times college athletes have navigated that Richman told the assembled media there was no way he was doing a season-ending press conference without the departing seniors at his side.

"It's hard because it mattered. It's really hard because it mattered. The whole goal of our program is to become the best version of ourselves while serving others. These three young men, collectively in their own right, but more important collectively have simply raised the standard of Bison basketball to an all-time high. They left a legacy," Richman said.

The legacy included 72 victories over four seasons. There was a Summit League regular season co-championship. There were two conference tournament championships. There were four straight appearances in the Summit League title game.

There were also off-court impacts, particularly with Eady. A Black man, he was instrumental in constructing NDSU's "Walk With Us" campaign in the wake of George Floyd's death under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer in 2020.

"Rocky Kreuser is the epitome of what being a Bison basketball player is all about," Richman said.

"Tyree Eady is the most influential young man I've had the opportunity to coach. What he did for us with the 'Walk With Us' campaign. I've done just a terrible job of talking about Tyree Eady the player, the versatility, who he is to us.

"And the young man to my right ... well, I have four daughters and a son."

That was a reference to Griesel. Richman and his wife Stephanie have four daughters. No son. The coach was calling Griesel another member of his family.

It was a remarkable four years, brought to an end by a historic SDSU team that went through the Summit League schedule undefeated at 18-0 and added three more victories against league teams in the postseason tournament. The Jackrabbits are simply a superior mid-major basketball team. They'll receive a high seed in the NCAA tournament, relative to the Summit League.

And yet, there has to be sense for these Bison seniors of what might have been.

They played in an NCAA tournament in 2019 Kreuser's second year and the first for Griesel and Eady carried by Vinnie Shahid and Tyson Ward. There was a win over North Carolina Central in a First Four game followed by a matchup against Duke and the might Zion Williamson in Columbia, S.C. Jim Nance and Bill Raftery called that one in a national TV broadcast.

A better Bison team again led by Shahid and Ward but with Kreuser, Griesel and Eady playing bigger roles won the Summit League tournament in March 2020. But the world changed shortly after NDSU whipped North Dakota for that championship and their opportunity to play again in the NCAAs was lost to the then-mysterious COVID-19.

Last year it was a blessed Oral Roberts team that held off a near-miracle Bison comeback in Sioux Falls, with Max Abmas and the officials breaking NDSU's hearts.

And then Tuesday night. NDSU did about everything it could do defensively against the explosive Jackrabbits, holding them to just 43.8% shooting. Every time SDSU needed a basket or a free throw, it got it. Given the stage, it was a gritty and gutty performance by the Jacks.

Griesel had some early turnovers as the Bison stumbled out of the gate, but finished with 24 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists.

Eady was stuck to Summit League player of the year Baylor Scheierman, holding the high-scoring point guard to 11 points and 4 of 15 shooting although there was a massive 3-point shot late (on which Scheierman appeared to push Kreuser in the chest to gain open space).

Kreuser struggled. There simply is no other way to put it. NDSU's top scorer at 16 points a game had just 4 points on 1 of 9 shooting. That included 0 of 4 on 3-pointers. He found few open looks and when he did, Kreuser couldn't find a shooting rhythm.

"It's a little bit frustrating. But that's where you have to grow and move on to the next play and try to affect the game in other ways get stops for the team, get other guys the ball. I just didn't do a good enough job tonight," Kreuser said.

Their time done with the media, the three seniors pushed away from the table on the dais and exited the interview room in the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center after bumping knuckles with Richman. It was the end of an era filled with victories, tournament triumphs and near-misses. They had an NCAA tournament appearance taken away because of a global pandemic and had two near-misses the last two seasons.

"This program, myself, my family are forever indebted to these three young men," Richman said. "I love them. Thank you."