BROOKINGS The South Dakota State women are yet again the overwhelming favorite entering the Summit League Tournament.
The Jackrabbits will head down to Sioux Falls this weekend as the No. 1 seed and went undefeated in conference play for a second straight season. SDSU is used to being in this spot as it has made the NCAA Tournament 11 times and this will be the 10th time that the Jacks have been a top-two seed in the conference tournament.
SDSU head coach Aaron Johnston said his team certainly has a lot of confidence and use the momentum of the regular season, but when it comes down to March, its all about the three games played in Sioux Falls.
I think conference tournaments are about playing well in those moments, Johnston said. Anything you can take from the regular season and gain confidence in your plan and your execution and making shots, whatever it might be, is helpful. I think the other thing you have to do is draw from the last several weeks and months, but also you have to be super in the moment and try to do the best you can.
You dont get to try to stack up wins to help you in a conference tournament. Its really just about that day. So you have to be able to do both.
The Jacks dont necessarily lack experience in the Summit League Tournament as six of the seven players in SDSUs rotation were on last years team that won the tournament. However, SDSU has one senior that has seen playing time this year and its fifth-year forward Tori Nelson. She said she and her teammates can use their past experiences with how to handle expectations of this years tournament.
Weve had to handle these expectations a lot. So I think some of our leaders, I know Ive been in this situation a lot and weve had some other players who have had these expectations in the tournament, so I think it will be really good to have some of that experience. Its really about just focusing on one game at a time. Our end goal is to win a championship, but we have to win three games to get there, Nelson said.
The reason Nelson is the only senior thats played this season is because fellow senior Kallie Theisen suffered a season-ending injury during the offseason. She is one of four players that are sidelined due to season-ending injuries for the Jacks and Johnston said it says a lot about his team to be at the point theyre at with all theyve gone through.
There were definitely some challenges. Injuries are not easy to deal with. Theres all kinds of reasons to not be at your best all of the time, and when you can go through and be a championship level team in the regular season and get to a point where youre undefeated, that two month span you found a way to be your best. That says a lot about our teams resiliency and how they support each other and hold each other accountable, Johnston said.
SDSUs offense has been red hot as of late. The Jacks have scored more than 85 points in three straight games coming into the tournament and shot 64.5% from the field and 50% from three in that three-game span. Junior guard Paige Meyer said the confidence on offense is very high for the Jacks as they head down to Sioux Falls.
I think individually it has come down to playing with confidence [on offense] and sharing the basketball. Every one when they have that open shot has been ready to take it and have been making that extra pass, Paige Meyer said.
One of the reasons SDSU has shot the ball so well is because of sophomore forward Brooklyn Meyer. In her past three games shes gone 32-of-36 from the field and is averaging 23 points per game. It hasnt been just her scoring though as teams have also been double teaming her and shes found open teammates for seven assists in three-game stretch.
Brooklyn Meyer said a lot of the credit goes to her teammates for her success.
I think Ive definitely had to work on [working out of double teams]. The completing the pass part maybe isnt the biggest part as keeping your composure when that happens. Im super lucky to have a lot of really good players around me that I can find and they know where to get the ball and I know where to get the ball from them. That has made things so much easier, Brooklyn Meyer said.
SDSU will play the winner of No. 8 seeded Kansas City and No. 9 Omaha on Saturday at 3 p.m. That will be the first step to punching the Jacks ticket to March Madness for a fifth time in the past seven seasons. Brooklyn Meyer said having an NCAA Tournament experience last season makes the Jackrabbit players want to experience it again even more.
Last year was super fun. I feel like we made a lot of good memories and still have that taste of what winning a conference tournament feels like and are hungry for that again, Brooklyn Meyer said.
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