Abbie Draper's emergence and Spencer Waege is heading to the Super Bowl

February has arrived and the stretch run is here for Summit League basketball.

The Bison basketball teams are going in opposite directions. The North Dakota State men (2-4) sit at the bottom of the Summit League standings, just a half game out of last place. NDSU lost its only game last week, on the road at St. Thomas.

Dave Richman's team will be on the road for both games this week, facing South Dakota State Thursday night and North Dakota Saturday afternoon. The Bison haven't won in Brookings since 2018 and will need to finally put together a consistent effort for a win.

"We know we're better than the teams we're playing out against. We're making little mistakes and they're starting to bite us in the end." said junior forward Andrew Morgan.

"Our margin for error coaches saying it's starting to become really slim, so every possession really matters. It's more like frustration like that and knowing that we can pull these games out. We're just not quite doing it."

The Bison women will host one of the most anticipated games in the Division I era. NDSU welcomes in the league champion Jackrabbits Thursday night, looking to snap an ugly 19-game losing skid to the Jackrabbits.

The numbers are as ugly as they get for the Bison. NDSU hasn't beaten SDSU since January of 2015. They have lost 35 of the last 37 games. The Bison have just two wins over SDSU since moving up to D-1 in 2006.

SDSU (7-0) enters in first place, despite losing its two best players to injury before the season began. NDSU (5-1) sits in second place and has posted a 19-1 record at Scheels Center over the last two years. The only defeat? South Dakota State.

Dom Izzo also visits with former Bison defensive end and All-American Spencer Waege.

Waege is just wrapping up his rookie year with the San Francisco 49ers. The 49ers advanced to Super Bowl LVIII Sunday night when they defeated the Detroit Lions in the NFC Championship Game.

Waege has spent the last two and a half months on the 49ers practice squad. He practices during the week with the team and is on the sidelines on gameday. He will be traveling to Las Vegas for the Big Game on Sunday.

Waege marks the fourth former Bison in the last seven Super Bowls to be in the game, joining Carson Wentz, Ramon Humber and Joe Haeg who were at the Super Bowl.