Women's basketball in the Summit League has ran through one state for nearly two decades.

Over the past 17 conference tournaments, 16 of them have went to either South Dakota or South Dakota State, the lone exception being Western Illinois' 2017 victory.

The Jackrabbits in particular have made quite a name for the Summit League, not only getting into eight of the last 10 NCAA Tournaments, but also finding some wins once they got there: First round victories over Miami (FL), USC and Oklahoma State, and even a Sweet 16 run in 2019 with wins over Quinnipiac and Syracuse.

Winning in the Summit League started to feel automatic for South Dakota State in recent seasons: The Jackrabbits ran the table each of the last three seasons: A combined 50-0 regular season conference record, with three tournament titles to go along with it.

This year, South Dakota State looked to do it again, starting the Summit League with four straight lopsided victories. The Jackrabbits simply had to take out a team they had defeated 24 straight times.

But this North Dakota State team is different, and that day, they snapped that 24-game losing streak, snapped South Dakota State's 67-game in-conference winning streak, and continued their own winning streak. The Bison have now won 20 games in a row, and they are in position to get to their first-ever Division I NCAA Tournament.

Jory Collins' seven years as North Dakota State head coach has been about steady growth. The Bison have finished each of the last three seasons with 12 losses, but they have been stronger contenders within the conference, placing in the top 3 of the Summit League each of those seasons. Perhaps more importantly, they also have improved their WNIT runs all three years, going from first round exit to the Super 16 to the Great Eight in 2025.

Last year's unit was great at getting to the free throw line (35th in the nation in FT rate) and controlling the glass (33rd in defensive rebound rate), but ultimately lacked a scoring punch averaging, just under 70 points per game.

It appeared this year's team could be off to a similar fate after North Dakota State's 2-2 start, with three games scoring 70 points or fewer. Since then, the Bison have stayed above 70 PPG in all 20 of their consecutive victories, with their scoring average at 81.4 PPG, which ranks 18th in the nation.

Leading the scoring charge is Avery Koenen, who has had one of the most impressive statistical seasons of any player in the country. She's averaging 18.5 PPG, 11.1 RPG, 2.3 APG, 1.5 SPG and 1.2 BPG while shooting 65 percent from the field. She's among the nation's leaders in defensive rebounding rate (2nd), effective field goal percentage (fourth) and free throw attempts (fifth), and has earned a double-double in 15 of the 20 wins during the streak.

Koenen is the heartbeat of this team, but the Bison have found plenty of firepower during this run. Marisa Frost has had a tremendous sophomore season with 13.7 PPG and a near 50-40-90 efficiency line (48.9-42.5-87.2). Redshirt freshman Karrington Asp (11.5 PPG, 5.1 RPG) is making more than 60 percent of her two-point looks. Jocelyn Shiller gets to the line for more than five attempts per game and leads the team in assists, while Molly Lenz has improved her perimeter shooting and is hitting 41.6% on more than four attempts per game.

All of this new-found scoring has led to North Dakota State's truly elite offensive form. The Bison rank third in the country with 1.00 points per play, and it works because they are strong shooters all over the floor: They rank 34th in percentage from the line, 12th inside the arc and 25th from deep. All of this, along with the nation's No. 1 defensive rebounding rate and a bottom 10 turnover rate, makes the Bison what they are, and it makes them an interesting team to pull an upset in March.

North Dakota State's two losses on the season were to double-digits against Gonzaga and Nebraska. The Bison have not played a Quad 1 game all season, but do have a Quad 2 win thanks to that 76-68 road win against the Jackrabbits. Those two play again on Feb. 25, but the Bison are heavy favorites to enter the conference tournament as the 1-seed (95.5%, via CBB Analytics).

Despite the record, and despite the dominance they have displayed, the Bison are likely to be in a position where they need to win the Summit League Tournament to earn that first bid. Perhaps finishing the regular season with just the two defeats could change that, but the résumé is likely to require finishing the job in postseason play.

But the Bison did not flinch on the road against their largest competition already, so if North Dakota State can get into the Big Dance, can it also make some noise?

As said above, South Dakota State has found five NCAA Tournament wins in four different runs over the past decade, but three of those wins came from more favorable seed positions (6-seed in '19, 9-seed in '23).

The Bison are currently projected as a 10-seed by ESPN, assuming they win the Summit League. That's where the Jackrabbits were placed last season when they took down Oklahoma State before falling to UConn.

There's reason to believe this North Dakota State group can beat tougher competition. The Bison shoot the ball well, they get to the line better than almost anyone, they suffocate the glass, they avoid too many self-inflicted wounds, all great signs of the always-desired Cinderella.

That first-round victory would, of course, be massive for a program that has never even been to the tournament at this level, but what about making a deeper run? In the history of the women's tournament, 55 teams in the 10-seed position have won that first round matchup. Just seven have won the following game against a 2-seed, compared to 29 second-round wins by 10 seeds on the men's side.

Some of that disparity comes from the difference in parity at the top of both tournaments, but a lot of it also is due to the format. The women's tournament's structure of having Top 4 seeds host in the opening rounds does allow for some thrilling atmospheres, but it also makes lower-seeded runs that much harder.

This would all be icing on the cake of North Dakota State's story. This Bison team is already the best Division I team in program history, and Collins could be on his way to finding momentum at this level like Amy Ruley did for this program with five Division II national championships in the 90s.

The Bison have the superstar at the core, they have the array of weapons in their supporting cast, and they have all the momentum in the world with the second-longest winning streak in the country. But do they have a NCAA Tournament team? And do they have a NCAA Tournament that can win some games? This has been a history-making team for weeks now, and perhaps that magic can extend into March.