After the conclusion of the Summit League, here is a two-part observation on the environment inside the Denny Sanford Premier Center during the Summit League Tournament and a quick dive into how the South Dakota State men and womens programs advanced to the big dance.
The environment/fanbase
Imagine youre back in science class conducting an experiment. The goal of this assessment is to discover which team can win three (four for the two bottom seeds) games in a row.
The location, time, temperature, set of rules, playing surface and ball that each team must play with are all the same. While some teams must travel from further distances than others, all nine teams will be removed from their homes and placed in hotels prior to playing the game these are your controlled variables. Each of the nine teams will feature their own set of players and coaches this is your independent variable.
Thousands of people are interested in witnessing how this experiment will play out. Well place these thousands of individuals around the playing surface. None of them will ever score a point, they won’t make any great defensive stands, they wont even come into contact with a single player. They are simply there to watch. In theory they should have zero impact on the outcome. And yet that couldnt be further from the truth.
For a few days in early to mid March, the Premier Center in Sioux Falls transforms into a blue and yellow kingdom. Its as if nuclear juice is injected into the veins of every Jackrabbit who takes the floor. When the team goes on a 5-0 run, like a mushroom power-up in Mario Kart, it can quickly burst even larger, perhaps into a 24-0 run. Thats what happened to the South Dakota State men against Oral Roberts in the quarterfinals.
When Omaha cut it to a one-point deficit in the second half against the women, and when St. Thomas cut it to a one-point deficit in the second half against the men, the crowd rose to their feet as if to say, If you want this lead youll have to go through all of us to take it. I dont care how focused you are as a player, its human nature to feel that. In the womens semifinal, Ellie Colbeck hit a late three to extend the Jackrabbit lead back up to eight, 69-61. In the mens semifinal, Charlie Easley hit a late three to extend the Jackrabbit lead back up to nine, 54-45. Both felt like daggers, and the noise those shots generated was piercing.
I have no idea how to truly quantify it, but an SDSU team playing on that court, in front of those people, has to be at least 3-5 points better than they would be playing elsewhere (excluding Brookings). The energy the fanbase supplies is remarkably galvanizing.
The SDSU programs
Theres a reason that fans show up in droves at the Summit League Tournament. It doesnt feel like hyperbole to say South Dakota State has become one of the best mid-major athletic departments in the entire country.
Of all the Jackrabbit sports across the board, perhaps only men’s cross country can compare to the dominance of womens basketball in the conference. But after four season-ending injuries, and a few minor ones as well, the women were supposed to be more mediocre than superb this season. Instead, they completed a perfect 19-0 conference slate and are heading to the NCAA Tournament for the 12th time in their last 15 seasons.
Paige Meyer is one of the best ball handlers you will see at the womens mid-major level. I dont think there was a single media member who didnt vote for her as the tournament MVP.
Brooklyn Meyer is so good in the post that she demands a constant double team. Although Brooklyn struggled a bit in the quarterfinals, those two were probably the best players on the court all tournament long.
Madison Mathiowetz, who was named to the All-Tournament Team, and Ellie Colbeck consistently hit timely threes. 6-foot-2 post Mesa Byom had a sneaky good tournament, freshman Jenna Hopp is reliable off the bench, and the lone senior Tori Nelson can do and does whatever the team needs. While Tori Tollefson occasionally appears in spurts, the Jacks have made it work down the stretch with these seven players.
Head coach Aaron Johnston and staff have built a machine. With South Dakota not quite what they once were under Dawn Plitzuweit, if no one could stop the Rabbits this season, then when?
After the women secured their title, the men took on Denver in hopes of making it an SDSU sweep at the conference tournaments. Jumping out to a 27-7 lead, they coasted through most of the ball game with a comfortable lead. Things tightened down the stretch, but with several made free throws and taking care of the ball, they earned their second trip to the Big Dance in three seasons, defeating Denver 76-68.
A quick note: Denver was picked to finish last in the conference this season, yet they found themselves down five points with 19 seconds to play in the conference championship. Head coach Jeff Wulbrun and the Pioneers deserve credit.
Getting back to the Jackrabbits, theyre an entire tier better than they were just five weeks ago. I see a group of guys who feel very comfortable with one another as people, and now as players. Theres a familiarity and understanding to one another’s games that quite frankly probably took a full year and a half of molding for it all to fall into place.
After missing almost all of last year, Luke Appel had to be integrated back into the swing of things. Let’s also not forget this is his first year as a full-time starter at the Division I level. Matt Mims missed the first half of this season with a broken foot. That thrusted Kalen Garry into the starting lineup, where he began to find his rhythm. Then with Mims mid-season return, Garry had to form a completely new role in coming off the bench.
William Kyle IIIs game has been gradually developing, and maybe the most significant thing has been Zeke Mayos mini transformation. He used to be a scoring guard who was asked to play the point. Now he feels like a point guard who can also really score it when he wants to.
The offense has a flow to itself. You hardly ever see the Jacks take a bad shot, no one is forcing anything. When no one is forcing the issue, that means the ball is finding the open man. That usually will result in a balanced box score, and that’s exactly what you are seeing.
There was a three- to four-minute stretch against St. Thomas where I thought SDSU got stagnant on offense. I would attribute a good portion of that to the physicality of the game and to defending a well-coached team in St. Thomas. The Tommies may not always score, but they dont have many wasted possessions. A good possession usually consists of several passes with the ball horizontally flipping sides of the court at least a time or two. That means you have to defend longer, which leads to tired legs. The Rabbits may have been stagnant, but they never seemed rushed. And that is a sign of a mature basketball team.
The Jacks are playing together as one. Whether they draw a one or a two seed In the tournament, theyre built to compete with almost anybody.
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