You almost just take it for granted when you have a million games left, and then the last one comes and youre like, Wow, this place is great, SDSU senior forward Luke Appel said, smiling, of Frost Arena.
For the three South Dakota State seniors, its been three unique connections that have brought them to Brookings. And for Matt Mims, it literally started in the driveway.
My very best friend, Brad Jones who I played with in college, he was a terrific player at Wayne State and hes from Cedar Rapids, SDSU head coach Eric Henderson said. He was next-door neighbors to Matt Mims.
And so he would always just be jogging around the neighborhood and Id be outside shooting with my brother and he’d stop by and start shooting with us, Mims, a senior guard, remembered.
He always said Hey Hendo, theres this little guy, Im telling you, he is a worker, he works his tail off. Hes out in their driveway every night, Henderson said.
As an assistant coach at NDSU, Henderson started recruiting Mims as a sophomore at Xavier High School. And two years later, with Henderson now with the Jackrabbits, Mims would commit to South Dakota State.
As for Charlie Easley, as an AAU teammate of Baylor Scheierman, the Jacks certainly knew of him in high school, but things didn’t work out at first. With his only Division I offer coming from The Citadel, Easley chose to walk-on at Nebraska.
Being a walk-on, you usually dont get opportunities to get out on the court at all and I was kind of able to get in the rotation and get a lot of playing time toward the end of the year, Easley, who is now a senior guard at SDSU, said of his time in Lincoln.
But Easley knew it might be difficult to secure minutes moving forward. So, he decided to transfer and quickly reached out to SDSU.
I know I talked to coach (Fred) Hoiberg about him and he understood Charlie wanted a bigger role, not sure that was going to happen there and he said Hendo, hes everything I thought he would be and then some. So, I knew it would be a really good fit, Henderson said.
But if Easley was excited about his new home, It was hard to tell.
Charlie always played so hard, right, Henderson said, but he was so quiet! Im like Is this dude enjoying this?
So, Hendo pulled me into his office one day and you know how he is, hes like, What’s up, Mimsy! And Im like, Whats up Hendo, lets see what hes got for me today. He was just like Hey, Ive kind of noticed Charlies been kind of quiet. Would you mind taking some extra time to hang out with him and stuff like that, Mims said with a big laugh.
And Mimsy, you know him, hes got personality as big as this room. So Im like, Listen bro, you got to get this guy to loosen up a little bit if hes going to make it, Henderson, chuckling.
So, basically asking me to be friends with the kid, Mims recalled. I didnt know if he was a weirdo or not. But I was like alright bet, Im going to start hanging out with him.
Easleys first few weeks on campus were certainly an adjustment, and so was his new living situation, moving in with fellow newcomer Luke Appel, who had gotten to Brookings just a few weeks before him.
He comes to my apartment, ends up going on the wrong side of the apartment so I have to walk around and find him, finally get him in the house, Appel began, and then I just remember him leaving like dirty cereal bowls around my house right away.
All I remember from that is he just yelled on Xbox playing Call of Duty at night, Easley said. And he was just screaming all the time and Im like gosh.
With Douglas Wilson as a teammate and Bryan Petersen as his head coach at Kirkwood Community College, the three won a JUCO national championship in 2019. Petersen would then take an assistant job at SDSU, and Wilson would follow. Appel would stay behind for another year at Kirkwood, and at season’s end
Just getting the text from him and Pete, it was almost just like Are you ready to commit yet, have you committed yet? It wasnt even like a question of whether I was going to or not, it was just when, Appel said.
Lukes a relationship guy and I am too and we had some success together, so that makes it a little bit easier, Petersen, who is now an assistant coach at SDSU, said. The trust factor was high.
After a solid first year in Brookings, Appel would find his niche in year two.
I went from being one of the best players on Kirkwood to just a role player again, and just like changing your whole mindset of being a role player and just coming off the bench and doing whatever you can to contribute to a game, Appel said.
Appel was named the Summit League Sixth Man of the Year in 2022. As for Mims, after four years spent in the program, he still wasnt seeing the court all that much.
There were times we werent playing him and there was some frustration, Henderson said.
You know when I wasnt necessarily getting a lot of playing time, Id think of practice like my games, Mims recalled.
The transfer portal was there, but Mims devotion remained colored with yellow and blue.
I feel like I kind of had to just get over myself, too, and I really care about this program and, I don’t know, I just care about this place a lot so Im like how could I leave? Mims said.
As his attitude shifted, so did his approach on the hardwood.
I really tried to make an effort to pick something that I could bring to the team that no one else really had, Mims said. So, I just thought defensively I could really amp what I had.
In his fifth year with the program a season ago, Mims would become a full-time starter, ultimately being named to the All Summit League Defensive Team.
The hard work you put in that no one really sees, its the best feeling when it kind of comes to fruition, Mims said.
For Mims, its just a special relationship because he stuck with it, you know what I mean? And that doesnt happen very often right now, Henderson said of his senior guard.
As for Easley, hes been a part of the rotation since year one. And now in his final year of college basketball, hes averaging a career best in rebounds, assists and points per game and so too is Appel.
I mean, Im just forever grateful, Henderson said. Theyve been here for so long and the young guys watch those guys, they know what the expectations are and when I watch those three guys play, it excites me to know that we have young guys in our program that understand what it takes to be a champion.
The Jackrabbits are the one seed entering the Summit League Tournament set to be played in Sioux Falls. They will play Saturday at 6 p.m. against either Oral Roberts or South Dakota.
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