North Dakota State basketball leading scorer Damari Wheeler-Thomas has stuck with the program for four years – including an unprecedented redshirt last season.
Redshirting might as well be a lost art. In fact, so lost, I feel compelled to let you know the definition.
Per the Meriam-Webster Dictionary: “a college athlete who is kept out of varsity competition for a year in order to extend eligibility.”
For those consumed by the transfer portal, NIL, and everything college sports is today, redshirting used to be the way to go. But no longer. Now, players pack their bags, find a new school to compete at, and restart in the fall. It’s the wild, wild West of college athletics.
But at North Dakota State basketball, Damari Wheeler-Thomas took the redshirt path – in a very unconventional way.
After starting all 32 games as a sophomore, averaging 10.7 points and 2.5 assists, Wheeler-Thomas figured to be a key contributor for the Bison as a junior.
But he decided he wouldn’t play for North Dakota State basketball the following season.
Or for any other team.
Instead, Wheeler-Thomas decided to redshirt in the 2024-25 season and rejoin the Bison for the 2025-26 campaign.
“Just looked at it as like a mental thing, being able to watch it from a coaching perspective,” said Wheeler-Thomas.
David Richman, the head coach of the Bison, doubled down on that take.
“I think the game, to his point, has slowed down a little bit,” said Richman. “I challenged him to become a better basketball player: What’s his defense like off the ball? How is he impacting the game to make others around him better? And that’s what he’s done.”
After putting in the work, Wheeler-Thomas saw his numbers explode across the board. His points per game rose from 10.7 to a team-high 14.4. Rebounds per game went from 2.3 to 3.5. Assists per game? 2.5 to 2.8. Defensively, a huge improvement, noticeable from 0.6 steals per game as a sophomore to 1.2 as a redshirt-junior.
Virtually everything – from averages to efficiency – saw an increase during his time in practice, but away from live-game action. And now, it’s a North Dakota State basketball team that sees the work Wheeler-Thomas put in and loves playing alongside him.
“On the court to have someone back that had a lot of experience starting at the head guard position and really helped to lead us,” said junior Noah Feddersen.
But more important than Wheeler-Thomas’s improved game might be his leadership on the court.
“Him taking the year off last year, he was still very involved with the team and just giving advice at practice, kind of always in our ear,” said sophomore Andy Stefonowicz.
So as Wheeler-Thomas and the Bison head into a round of 64 game with Michigan State on Thursday, they’re trusting their process and hoping to knock off one of the big dogs in the tournament.
“This is a well-coached program that’s been here and done it, and it’s going to be a challenge for us. But we love challenges, we embrace the hard,” said Richman.
“It’s the same as every other game. We’re going to treat it that way, too,” said Wheeler-Thomas.
It might be a long shot, but even Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo, who won the National Championship with the Spartans in 2000, understands the mentality of a smaller program like NDSU, looking to make their March moment.
“I was a Division II guy. In fact, I was a Division II guy when North Dakota State was a Division II team,” said Izzo. “What I’ve learned in my profession in the last five years, there are a lot of good players at a lot of good places, and North Dakota State is one of them.”
Of course, Izzo is one of the best in the business, and you’d be flat out wrong to think he hasn’t spent hours of scouting on Wheeler-Thomas, Andy Stefonowicz, and the rest of this North Dakota State basketball team.
But something you can’t scout? The potential of a Buffalo crowd turning in favor of the underdogs and NDSU playing their hearts out in a new and exciting environment.
“What makes them scary is they’re well-coached. They’ve got good players,” said Izzo. “But I think what makes them scary is this is their Christmas, Fourth of July. They get a chance to pit themselves against the people they watch on TV.”
And at roughly 4:05 p.m. EST, turn on your TV and you’ll see the Spartans and the Bison go head-to-head in one of the best sporting events in the entire world.
As Izzo put it, a David vs. Goliath type of matchup.
But for Wheeler-Thomas, a year off to prepare to be the best version of himself has now come full circle with a chance to prove it under the big lights.
He’ll have to do it against one of the best point guards in the nation, Jeremy Fears Jr., who leads the country in assists.
But on the flip side, Michigan State will have to learn more about Wheeler-Thomas and the rest of this Bison team, practically on the fly.
“Damari is a fierce competitor; they call him a dawg,” said Richman.
No, not an underdog.
And Michigan Stae might find that out the hard way on Thursday.