What I’m about to show you is the inspirational video that helped lead the North Dakota State Bison to a 66-64 victory over Oakland in the Summit League championship game.

NDSU coach Saul Phillips told Dan Patrick this was the exact video he played for his players before the biggest game of their lives.

“I had read different motivational things and had talked to some other coaches about them playing clips of the guy that landed the plane in the Hudson and things like that that show how to handle pressure. I responded the opposite direction,” Phillips told Patrick.

“I actually got a YouTube clip of funny cats and played that to them before the Oakland game. Even the tough guys on the team kind of were like, ‘This is a little bit goofy.’ But we had a good time with it.

“You know what, people take themselves pretty seriously in this profession, and we’ve got all the pressure in the world getting to the NCAA Tournament. We tried to lighten it up the most we could the whole way through.”

The coach said he was pleased by his team’s response.

“Even Ben Woodside, who’s kind of a tougher guy, a man’s man, I caught him kind of shaking his head laughing,” Phillips said to Patrick.

Incidentally, Woodside hit the game-winning jumper with 6 seconds left to complete the Bison’s 11-point comeback.

I’m guessing Woodside wasn’t feeling any pressure. How could you with kittens still dancing in your head?