Story by: Steph Stanislao
Interview by: Kelsey Kuller
Photos by: Andrew Jason
Chemistry on the court for any basketball team is important, but to have such a bond on the court it needs to start off the basketball floor. The Bison Men’s Basketball team has been able to form meaningful relationships outside of shooting hoops and it has definitely translated into the way that they play…making them that much more successful. Taylor Braun, Mike Felt and Nate Zastrow took a break from practice to share about the team’s bonding time.
The guys on their team dynamic:
Zastrow: I just think we are all pretty close outside of basketball. We hang out whether it’s hanging out at the dining center or just hanging out on the weekends. We are pretty close in that aspect; [it] kinda feels like we’re brothers.
Felt: I think it’s fun to go and work out with the team because we have a good time together and get along well. We just joke around a lot. It makes it better to go to practice and to lift and stuff.
The guys on bonding time:
Braun: We go to each other’s houses on holidays. We travel across the country with each other, we go on vacations together. We do so many things together outside of just basketball in Fargo. One of our goals is to have a team bonding activity once a week. We have video game tournaments, we play NBA video games or we have a pool tournament.
On who has the biggest “bromance:”
Braun: Nate and Brett. Brett is pretty much attached at the hip to Nathan. They have sleepovers.
Zastrow: He gets a little lost with some stuff and asks a lot of questions. He’s a freshman.
On the funniest thing to happen on a team bonding night:
Zastrow: Brett likes to do the splits to show how flexible he is. It is very eye-opening that a guy can do something like that. First time I saw it, I laughed pretty hard.
On pulling team pranks:
Marshall put a “ticket” on Chris’s car. The parking people like to put tickets on cars for 30-minute parking, even if you’re there for less than that. Marshall pranked Chris and put a sheet of notebook paper on Chris’s car so it looked like he got a ticket. So, Chris was all paranoid and went running out there. Because the parking lady was out there looking at the cars and Chris saw something on his car, so he went running out there and there was no ticket!
On the best nickname:
Braun: Dexter. He got the nickname from his appearance. We call him Wide-Body-Dex (WBD).
On the team’s theme song:
Zastrow: The Jon Cena entrance music. It’s kind of a joke, but we play it pretty loud, when we play pickup games in the BSA. Then some people put it on repeat. It’s pretty corny; it’s nothing serious.
On the team “jokester:”
Felt: Dexter. He likes to crack jokes.
Braun: I guess you could say he tries to be funny. It’s more funny because he’s trying to be funny.
On the team’s “dream” location for bonding:
Felt: Somewhere warm.
Braun: The NCAA tournament site at the end of this year in March, it would be fun place to bond.
On balancing serious time and fun time:
Felt: We are very serious when it comes to basketball.
Zastrow: I’d say we have a pretty loose locker room before the game. We know what we have to do when we get on the court.
Braun: We know when to be serious and when to be funny.
