This week will be an unusual double homecoming of sorts for the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) men’s basketball team. Saturday they’ll host Winona State at Romano Gym, but first on Thursday they’ll visit Concordia St. Paul. While it is a road game it’s a special event for the largely Twin Cities based Bulldogs roster.

“Especially going down to the Cities, a lot of our guys are from there so that’s kind of always a cool homecoming for them. We just got to be juiced up, ready to go play together. Really string together 80 minutes of solid defense and then let the offense take care of itself, ” graduate guard Drew Blair said.

“For us it’s about trying to sustain what we’ve done for most of the year defensively,” head coach Justin Wieck said. “Keep on moving the basketball, keep being unselfish and just trying to trust all the talented players we have together.”

The Bulldogs will look to shakeoff just their second loss of the season, falling 85-72 at Southwest Minnesota State University last Saturday.

The 21st ranked 8-2 Bulldogs tip-off Thursday in St. Paul at 5:30 p.m., then Saturday at 2 p.m. at Romano Gym.