Chad Walthall gave a couple of old Dragons hugs Saturday night in Nemzek Hall. Lowell Bolger and Charlie Williams, who played for what was then Moorhead State Teachers College (mid-1950s, when Bolger played) and Moorhead State University (early 1970s, when Williams played), were the recipients of Walthall's emotion.
"I have a great appreciation for those loyal old basketball guys," said Walthall, the current Dragons coach at what is now named Minnesota State University Moorhead. "I'm so happy we're doing what we're doing for guys like that. It's nice to be able to do something like this for other people."
"Something like this" is fielding a men's basketball team that is ranked seventh nationally in NCAA Division II with a 24-1 record, following the Dragons' nip-and-tuck 76-72 victory over No. 18 Minnesota State Mankato. Aaron Lien's two free throws with 23.7 seconds left gave the Dragons a 75-72 lead and Prescott Williams sunk the front end of a one-and-one with 1.8 seconds remaining to seal it.
Bolger and Williams have been loyalists at Nemzek for years, rarely missing games. There are a handful of other familiar faces that stuck with the Dragons through the mostly lean decades following coach Dave Schellhase's fantastic run in the late 1970's and early '80s, but large crowds have not consistently been there. The most excitement surrounding Dragon basketball in the past 20 years was during Schellhase's second chapter at MSUM, when Brett Beeson won the Division II Player of the Year award after averaging 33 points per game in 1995-96.
Other than that -- through coaches like John Nelson, Mike Olson and Stu Engen -- there's been plenty of anonymous basketball games played in south Moorhead.
That began to change when athletic director Doug Peters made the decision to focus his department's resources and energy on men's basketball in an attempt to build a marquee program and grab some attention and sponsorship money in a crowded college sports market. He didn't renew Engen's contract and hired Walthall to begin the 2010-11 season. Walthall was then an assistant at the University of Iowa, but graduated high school in Staples-Motley and played hoops at Concordia College just a couple of blocks away from MSUM.
The difference was noticeable immediately. What was a morose program was revitalized with Walthall's intensity and energy, not to mention a major boost in scholarship money. It didn't hurt he had recruiting connections that were able to bring in a handful of Division I transfers who gave the Dragons some competitiveness. MSUM went 15-12 in Walthall's first year, then won 21, 19 and 21 the next three.
The Dragons were close to getting over the hump a year ago, finishing 15-7 in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference, but this season has been a dream. MSUM's lone loss was a 60-58 defeat at Minnesota-Duluth on Dec. 13. Since then the Dragons have rattled off 12 straight victories. This is their first top 10 ranking since moving from NAIA to Division II in 1995.
"We've been pretty good over the last four years, but we took another step this year," Walthall said. "Last year we had some good players, but we hadn't played together all that much. This year we have guys who know each other and know how to get it done. I'd say it's maturity."
The Dragons revolve around senior Jordan Riewer, like Walthall a Staples-Motley product, whom Peters calls the best point guard in Division II. Riewer put on a display Friday night against Concordia-St. Paul when he drilled nine 3-pointers and scored a career-high 37 points. He averages 17 points.
Saturday, it was Lien's turn to be the hero. The sophomore hit a key contested 3-pointer to bump the Dragons lead to three points late in the game, then hit the free throws in the final minute. He finished with a team-leading 19 points.
Lien is a Moorhead kid, a former star for the Spuds. He saw his share of Dragon games over the years while growing up. Nemzek was mostly empty and quiet during those contests. Not anymore. There were about 1,800 energetic, noisy fans inside the old fieldhouse.
"We don't have a lot of history here, but we're definitely trying to build some right now. It's tremendous, the amount of community support we have right now," Lien said. "To see these huge crowds we've been getting, it's awesome."
It was what Peters imagined when he made the strategic decision to put football on the back-burner in an attempt to build basketball into a winner.
"It's so hard. You have 16 sports and you have to start somewhere and we picked basketball," he said. "It's mature now and you saw the effects tonight. It's what I expect and where I want to get with every single sport we have."
Even Nemzek, opened in 1960 as an all-purpose fieldhouse (complete with rubber-like Tartan floor through that fad in the '70s and '80s), is looking sharp. A shiny wood floor with a Dragons logo in the center and a massive video display screen at the south end of the court make for a pretty good atmosphere.
"We have the best technology in Fargo-Moorhead by far. You're not going to find a better game environment for the things we do," Peters said. "Last night we tried to give away a car. We give away about $400 a night to our fans. We gave away a big-screen TV. So we have all those in-game promotions and those things, but now we have a winning team to go with it. It all sort of melds together."
The Dragons have had periods of success before. Trouble is one of the more recent good stretches was when the aforementioned Charlie Williams was a star player. That was 1970-71 and '71-'72.
Now the present and the future are bright. MSUM has an important road weekend upcoming. Next Friday the Dragons are at Wayne ( Neb.) State before the NSIC showdown of the season on Saturday. That's when the Dragons play at No. 5-rated Augustana, the first-place team in the NSIC's South Division. The Dragons lead the North. It's the only meeting this season between the teams
"Tonight was awesome," Walthall said. "I'm just happy for the university that they can get excited about our team."
(Mike McFeely is a talk-show host on 790 KFGO in Fargo-Moorhead. He can be heard 2-5 p.m. weekdays. Follow him on Twitter @MikeMcFeelyKFGO.)