BROOKINGS Its rivalry week for the South Dakota State mens basketball team as the Jackrabbits will host both North Dakota State and South Dakota in a span of four days this weekend.
The weekend begins on Thursday night at 7 p.m. when the Bison visit Frost Arena and it will conclude on Sunday at 4 p.m. when the Coyotes make the trip to Brookings.
SDSU is coming off of an 87-82 loss to Oral Roberts that dropped the Jacks to 12-10 overall and 5-2 in the Summit League. This weekend is a bit unusual for SDSU, playing both rivals in four days, but head coach Eric Henderson said right now the focus is on NDSU because its the next game on the schedule.
Theres no doubt that these are a couple of big ones. I always talk about, lets just live in the moment. Lets just take it day by day and get better. Our focus right now is only on the Bison, especially because weve already played the Yotes once. I think it does help that were playing [USD] on Sunday instead of Saturday, so its not quite as quick of a turnaround, Henderson said.
NDSU comes into Thursdays game with a 9-12 overall record and is 2-4 in conference play. The last 13 meetings between the Bison and Jackrabbits have been decided by 10 points or less and that dates back to the 2018-19 season. NDSU beat SDSU 89-79 in the Summit League Tournament semifinals last season and it was the only time in that 13-game stretch that one team beat the other team by double digits.
Henderson said despite the fact that NDSU sits in eighth place in the Summit League, his team wont need any extra motivation when the Bison come to town.
At the end of the day, were pretty blessed to do what we do. So, I dont think theres going to be any extra motivation needed for our guys to be ready to go. We know whats at stake. Records at this time really dont mean that much. You see the Summit League standings and its really irrelevant this early in the season. Every time we play North Dakota State it feels like a conference tournament game. Thats probably what will happen on Thursday and what were expecting to happen on Thursday, Henderson said.
Part of the reason NDSU is near the bottom of the conference at this point in the season is because of its defense. The Bison are second in field goal percentage on the offensive end, shooting 47.8%, which is only behind SDSU (48.3%) in the Summit League. But NDSU is dead last in opponents field goal percentage as teams are shooting 47.1% from the field against the Bison.
NDSU may be able to keep itself in the game on Thursday though because the Bison shoot the ball well from beyond the arc and the Jacks have struggled defending the three in conference play. The Bison are 19th in the country in 3-point percentage as they shoot 38.3%.
SDSU is only allowing teams to shoot 36.2% from beyond the arc in conference play, but the Jacks have allowed teams to shoot 33.6 threes per game. For context, North Florida leads the country in 3-point attempts per game on offense and the Ospreys shoot 34.5 per game.
In the past three games SDSU has allowed teams to shoot 32, 38 and 33 threes and each team has made double digit shots from beyond the arc. Henderson acknowledged that the 3-point defense has been slacking as of late, but he wants his team to continue to defend the paint at a high level, which the Jacks have done lately as they are giving up an average of 20.5 points in the paint in their past four games.
I think its a little of [us wanting opponents to shoot threes and them also exploiting some things]. I think we have made a heavy emphasis on protecting the paint. Not only are [opponents] shooting a lot, but theyre making them a lot too, which is concerning. So, we have to continue to evaluate. What position are we putting our guys in to be able to control that a little bit better. Its certainly part of the plan. We want to protect and control the paint, but at the end of the day, we want to do a little bit better job around the arc too and make them miss. If theyre going to shoot them, we have to make them miss more, Henderson said.
NDSU lost its leading scorer from last season, Grant Nelson, after he transferred to Alabama. However, the Bisons three leading scorers are familiar names. Senior guard Boden Skunberg leads NDSU, averaging 15.1 points and 5.3 rebounds per game. Sophomore guard Damari Wheeler-Thoams is averaging 12.8 points per game and junior forward Andrew Morgan averages 11.4 points per game.
NDSU split its past two games, beating Oral Roberts 72-67 and falling to St. Thomas 79-67. Henderson said in those two games he saw the NDSU team that hes been accustomed to going up against.
They have some terrific players and theyre trying to figure themselves out, like many teams in the Summit League. The last week that they went with their bigger lineup and went back to maybe how they used to play.That physical, rugged style and tried to slow that tempo down a little more. Try to dominate the glass. When I think of the Bison, thats what I think of, and thats what you see, especially in their last two games, Henderson said.
As of Thursday morning USD sits in last place in the Summit League with a 9-13 overall record and is 2-5 in conference play. The Jacks beat the Coyotes 73-55 on Jan. 20. and last season SDSU beat USD by 18 points in Vermillion as well, but the Coyotes only lost by five points in Brookings. Henderson said he expects a similar situation on Sunday.
[Last season] we went down to South Dakota and won, and they have a lot of pride. We know that were going to get a great effort [from USD] when they come into town Sunday, Henderson said.
You can watch Thursdays game on the Summit League Network or Midco Sports. Sundays game will be televised on CBS Sports Network.
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