GRAND FORKS, N.D. - The University of North Dakota men's basketball team will take to the hardwood for the first time this season on Sunday as the Sioux will play Bemidji State in an exhibition contest in the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center at 3 p.m.

SERIES HISTORY: The Fighting Sioux hold a 30-8 advantage in the all-time series with Bemidji State and have won 18 of 19 meetings between the clubs on their home court. UND took last year's regular-season meeting, 73-60 and have won five straight in the series. Four Sioux players reached double figures in the 13-point victory in late November. Senior guard Darius Joseph paced the club with 13 points, while returnees Travis Mertens scored 12 points and Patrick Mitchell added 11.

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS: The Beavers have already laced up their shoes for an exhibition contest this season, falling to Wisconsin, 90-54, on Wednesday at the Kohl Center in Madison. Junior guard Brady Fairbanks led the team with 14 points on 6-of-12 shooting from the floor. Fairbanks averaged 12.0 ppg a season ago. Senior guard Seth Haake, the team's top returning scorer (13.9 ppg) added nine points for the Beavers, who shot 48 percent from the floor in the second half.

Head coach Mathew Bowen is entering his fourth season leading the BSU program. He guided the Beavers to eight wins a season ago, including six in the Northern Sun.  Bowen has seen his team's win-total improve in each of his three seasons. A 1995 graduate of Indiana, Bowen was a student manager under legendary Hoosier head coach Bob Knight and served as an assistant coach at both Alabama-Birmingham and Valparaiso.

MEDIA INFORMATION: Sunday's game with Bemidji State can be heard locally on 100.3 FM Cat Country and regionally on stations across the Fighting Sioux Radio Network. Paul Ralston will handle the play-by-play duties. The game can also be heard live on FightingSioux.com along with live stats and video streaming.

YEAR TWO: The exhibition tilt with the Beavers begins the second full season of transition for the Fighting Sioux into Division I basketball. This season, the Sioux will play 27 of their 30 games against DI-competition after playing 15 games against teams from that level a season ago en route to posting a 16-12 record. For fourth-year head coach Brian Jones, it was his third consecutive season to improve the team's win total.

GO GREAT WEST YOUNG MEN: Year two of the transition also brings with it a conference schedule as UND will be one of seven schools to play in the inaugural Great West Conference season. The Sioux will play a 12-game conference slate with home-and-home series against Chicago State, Houston Baptist, New Jersey Institute of Technology, South Dakota, Texas-Pan American and Utah Valley. Besides those six DI home games, UND will also entertain UMKC, Northern Colorado, Green Bay, Northern Iowa and SIU-Edwarsdville at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center this season.

SIOUX PICKED FOURTH, BLEDSOE AND MERTENS NAMED TO ALL-GREAT WEST PRESEASON TEAM: The University of North Dakota men's basketball team was selected to finish fourth overall in the Great West Conference preseason coaches' poll. The seven league coaches also voted on a preseason all-conference team and Fighting Sioux seniors Travis Bledsoe and Travis Mertens were named to the second team. Bledsoe, who is UND's top returning scorer with an average of 10.7 ppg, and Mertens, who is the lone returning starter for the Sioux, were joined on the second team by Utah Valley's Jordan Swarbrick, South Dakota's Roman Gentry and NJIT's Isaiah Wilkerson.

South Dakota's Tyler Cain was a first-team honoree and picked as the Preseason Player of the Year. He was joined on the first team by fellow Coyote Louie Krogman, Carl Montgomery from Chicago State, NJIT's Jheryl Wilson, UTPA's Nick Weiermiller and Louie Krogman from South Dakota.

NEW NUMBERS, SAME FACES: Half of the six returners on the 2009-10 roster will be wearing new uniform numbers during the 2009-10 season. Senior guard Travis Bledsoe changed from his customary No. 14 and will be wearing No. 13. Senior wing Travis Mertens made the switch from No. 21 to No. 15 and sophomore wing Patrick Mitchell added a four in front of his old No. 5 and will wear No. 45 this season.

SIOUX MO BOYS: In some cases you may have to get a magnifying glass out, but the entire men's basketball team along with the coaching and support staff are growing mustaches as part of their participation in the 'Movember' initiative. The campaign has raised more than $47 million globally since its inception in Australia back in 2003. All proceeds generated in the United States are shared between the Prostate Cancer Foundation and the Lance Armstrong Foundation. The players and staff will be growing their Mo's (slang for mustache in Australia)  for the entire month and fans will have a chance to donate to these foundations at all home men's basketball games in Movember.

Check back frequently to FightingSioux.com throughout the month to guage the 'Mo' growing process of the players and coaches. Junior Chris Clausen will be supplying a video blog as well on the website for fans. Clausen is the ring leader behind the movement having participated in the initiative in the past during his days in Australia.

BLOOD LINES: A pair of former Sioux teammates will have the pleasure of watching their sons compete as teammates on the 2009-10 roster. UND Hall of Famers Dan Clausen (2007) and Steve Brekke (1997) teamed together to lead UND to a 27-5 record and the 1982 North Central Conference Championship during their one season together. That team was also inducted into the UND Hall of Fame in 2007. Clausen was named the league's MVP that season, while Brekke joined him on the All-NCC first team.

Clausen's son Chris is a junior this season after transferring to UND following a season at North Iowa Area Community College. The elder Clausen went on to play professionally in Australia and still resides there. Chris grew up in Adelaide and earned league MVP honors of his own as a prep player at Trinity College. Brekke currently works for the UND Alumni Foundation as its Director of Athletic Development. His youngest son Brandon is a true freshman on the 2009-10 squad. He prepped at East Grand Forks (Minn.) High School where he was honorable mention all-state as a senior after averaging 20 ppg and 14 rpg.

TRIO OF CAPTAINS: The three seniors on the 2009-10 roster will also serve as the team's captains this season. Guards Travis Bledsoe and Dustin Monsebroten will join wing Travis Mertens in handling those duties for the Fighting Sioux this season.

LONE WOLF: The lone returning starter on this year's squad is senior wing Travis Mertens, who averaged 9.1 ppg in his first season with the Sioux after transferring from Lake Region College. He started all 28 games and reached double figures in scoring on 15 occasions. He tallied a career-high 16 points in an overtime win vs. Minot State and finished the season on a strong note, averaging 14.7 ppg in the final three contests.

TUBE TIME: Fox College Sports and the Fighting Sports Network are teaming together to broadcast six of the men's basketball home games this season. Four of those broadcasts will be Great West clashes. The first of the six will be the regular-season home opener on Nov. 21 against UMKC - a team UND picked up its first Division I victory against a season ago. The Dec. 19 contest against Northern Iowa will also be aired live. The Panthers are coming off an NCAA Tournament appearance and former Sioux Ben Jacobson was named the Missouri Valley Coach of the Year after leading UNI to a school-record 23 wins and MVC title. The quartet of Great West games to be aired are the Jan. 23 match-up with long-time rival South Dakota, a Feb. 11 showdown with New Jersey Institute of Technology, the Feb. 13 tilt with Chicago State and the March 4 visit from Houston Baptist.

NEW ROLE: Sharpshooter Travis Bledsoe is the team's leading returning scorer after averaging 10.3 ppg a season ago. He provided most of his production off the bench in 2008-09, although he did make five starts. So his new role as the team's starting point guard should not be that big of an adjustment. He tied the school's single-season record for 3-point accuracy in 2008-09, connecting on 47.7 percent of his attempts and he currently ranks second on the all-time list with a 43.6 percent clip (126-for-289). He had a season-high 21 points at Wisconsin-Parkside and twice during the season made five 3-pointers in a contest (at Northern Iowa and at South Dakota).

SWAT MITCHELL: Sophomore Patrick Mitchell logged valuable minutes during his redshirt freshman season, appearing in 27 games and averaging 6.7 ppg off the bench. He was also a presence on the defensive end, leading the team with 32 blocks. Mitchell's total was nearly twice as much as his next closest teammate in that category (Travis Mertens, 17). With the departure of four senior starters, Mitchell will be a top candidate to fill one of those vacant spots. He spent a lot of his offseason pumping iron in the weight room as he added 30 pounds to his frame.

ALLOW ME TO INTRODUCE MYSELF: With only six returnering letterwinners, the bulk of the 2009-10 men's basketball roster is made up of newcomers. Six of those players were part of the program a season ago, but watched from the sidelines while taking a redshirt season. That posse includes guard Nick Haugen, wings Doug Archer, Jordan Allard, Spencer Goodman and Dan Stockdale along with post Mitch Wilmer. Those six are joined by a pair of true freshman in guard Josh Schuler and post Brandon Brekke. Junior college transfer Chris Clausen rounds out the newcomers and will likely be a key contributor for the Fighting Sioux this season. Several of the newcomers will be counted on to help fill the void left by the four seniors, who accounted for more than 50 percent of the team's offense a season ago.

NICE TO MEET YOU: The Sioux will be playing five first-time opponents during the 2009-10 season (Houston Baptist, IPFW, Loyola-Marymount, Utah Valley and Waldorf College). Houston Baptist and Utah Valley are members of the Great West Conference and will play the Sioux twice along with other league members Chicago State, New Jersey Tech, South Dakota and Texas-Pan American. UND will also play five games against schools from the state of Texas this season.  Entering the campaign, UND has only played six games against Lone Star State teams in its hardwood history.

DANCE OFF: UND will play two teams that advanced to the 2009 NCAA Tournament (Northern Iowa and Texas A&M). The match-up with former NCC rival Northern Iowa will be the first between the two clubs in Grand Forks since Feb. 17, 1978.  The two teams renewed their rivalry last December in Cedar Falls with the Panthers defeating the Soiux, 69-49. The Panthers won the Missouri Valley regular season and touranment championships last season under the direction of former Fighting Sioux standout Ben Jacobson.  The Sioux lead the all-time series with the Panthers 47-32 and have won 16 of 17 overall. Texas A&M defeated UND 76-62 in the first meeting between the two teams last season (Jan. 5, 2009) in a game also played at College Station.

GREAT WEST MEN'S TOURNAMENT CHAMPION TO RECEIVE AUTOMATIC POSTSEASON BERTH: The Sioux found out earlier this fall that they have a little more to play for this season than originally anticipated as the team embarks on their second year of transition to the Division I level. All transitional teams have to wait through a five-year period before playing in the NCAA postseason, but Collegeinsider.com officials announced that the inaugural Great West Conference tournament champion will receive an automatic bid to its postseason tournament (CIT) in March. The field for the 2010 CIT will be announced on Sunday, March 14, following the announcements of the fields for both the NCAA and NIT championships. First round action will begin on March 16. The championship game, which will be televised nationally by Fox College Sports, will be played on March 30. Old Dominion defeated Bradley to win the inaugural CIT last season.