“I want to keep it very clean and very professional,” said Threatt, a 24-year-old guard in his final college season at Weber State, one whose entire offseason was based on becoming a fully formed college player ready for his pro prospects ahead.

What ink he does have on his arms sits to register relationship recognition. One area reads “Savannah,” his sister’s name. The other, inside his bicep, displays two lines of numbers unique to just one place: his grandparents’ cabin near Bottineau, North Dakota.

“If you look these exact coordinates up, it’ll take you to the exact pinpoint where the cabin is, where I grew up every summer going with my sister to my grandparents’ house,” Threatt said. “They’ve just had such an impact on me, I just felt like it was only right to pay tribute to them for everything they’ve done for my sister and I.

“Those are some of the biggest inspirations of my life so I felt like it was only right for me to do that.”

ISAAC FISHER, Special to the Standard-Examiner

Fitting, then, this schedule of Weber State’s.

Last week, the Wildcats picked up wins over Bowling Green and Pepperdine in Tempe, Arizona, 20 minutes from where Threatt grew up in Scottsdale. A group of family, including grandparents, saw him play college ball for the first time.

This week brings the Big Sky-Summit Challenge, where teams from each league play two cross-conference contests. The games are arranged by the conferences based loosely on the previous year’s standings. After Weber State hosts North Dakota State on Wednesday, the Wildcats travel Saturday to the University of North Dakota.

Grand Forks is about a three-hour drive from Threatt’s former summer home.

“I used to go there every summer for three months with my grandparents at the cabin, we’d spend time with them, be on the lake, do fun stuff with them,” Threatt said. “So for me, this is a homecoming too.

“I’m trying to take it all in — keep the main thing the main thing, which is basketball — but also get to enjoy my last year and this is a great schedule to do it.”

The main thing has been front and center for Threatt. Through eight games, the senior point guard is averaging 18.3 points, 5.4 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 2.8 steals per game while shooting 53% from the field. Compared to Big Sky counterparts, Threatt is second in scoring, 10th in rebounding (as a point guard), fourth in assists, second in steals and fifth in field goal percentage.

Before his trip to North Dakota, the North Dakota State Bison come to town.

NDSU is 5-4 this season and when the Bison win, it’s because of offense. Against Division I opponents, NDSU shoots 39.2% from 3 as a team, 20th best nationally. And so far, nobody shoots a larger share of 3-pointers in the country than the Bison. The team also takes care of the ball.

Defensively, NDSU guards the 3-point line well but does not create turnovers and gives opponents a high clip when shooting twos.

Seniors Jacari White and Jacksen Moni are the top players to know. White (No. 11, a guard) averages 17.3 points per game and Moni (No. 4), a rangy 6-foot-10 Division II transfer, nets 14.7 per night.

All eyes will be on junior guard Treysen Eaglestaff (No. 52) when Weber State goes to North Dakota (3-4). The Hawks play at Eastern Washington on Wednesday before hosting the Wildcats, and chances are Eaglestaff will make his name known during this week’s challenge. Eaglestaff averages 18.4 points per game this season. He can shoot with efficiency and get to the foul line.

Eaglestaff is a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and his uncle is the late Robert Eaglestaff. Robert holds North Dakota’s high school record for points in a game with 69 and played on BYU’s freshman team before freshmen were varsity eligible, then transferred to the University of North Dakota to finish his college career.

North Dakota has struggled to shoot from distance this year outside of Eaglestaff and the team’s profile is similar to NDSU in that the Hawks don’t create many turnovers and give up a high percentage on two-pointers while doing very will in limiting opponents’ 3-point attempts and percentages.

The Weber State women (2-4) return to the court for the first time in 10 days in their lone Big Sky-Summit matchup, traveling to North Dakota (2-5) on Wednesday. UND has lost five straight games and gets 15.1 points and 6.6 rebounds per game from sophomore forward Kiera Pemberton.

The WSU women get just one Big Sky-Summit game due to the imbalance of each league’s roster (the Big Sky has 10 teams, the Summit League nine).

Weber State men tip off at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Dee Events Center against North Dakota State. That game will also stream on ESPN+.

Both men’s and women’s games at North Dakota have tip times of 6 p.m. MST and stream on the Summit League Network, a subscription service with a monthly fee of $9.99.