BROOKINGS The South Dakota States mens basketball team will open its Summit League schedule at home on Thursday against Denver.
The Jackrabbits went 9-6 in the non-conference portion of their schedule. Three of SDSUs wins have come against non-Division I, teams but the Jacks beat McNeese State, Long Beach State, Southern Miss, Duquesne, Missouri State and Eastern Washington. Their losses came to Northern Colorado, Boise State, Colorado, Montana, Nevada, and No. 5 ranked Alabama, who are all in the top 200 in the NET rankings.
SDSU head coach Eric Henderson said he liked the way his team grew during the first half of the season.
We had some tremendous moments in the non-conference, theres no doubt about that, Henderson said. Obviously, the schedule we played was extremely difficult, like it is every year. We do that on purpose because we want to make sure our guys get challenged. We want to be able to have experience handling adversity and how we respond to that. There were some moments that we responded extremely well. Taking the lead by seven at Nevada after getting off to a tough start was awesome.
I thought we responded really well in those situations, but there were also times where we didnt. Learning what we do well in those moments and how we do in those moments, I thought we gained some valuable experience doing that. We also wanted to allow our players to get confidence and understand that we have the ability to play with anybody in the country. I thought we did both of those things.
On the floor, Henderson noted that the Jacks have done a great job with rebounding. SDSU is fifth in the Summit League in rebounding, averaging 35.4 rebounds per game as a team, but are first in the conference in defensive rebounds per game with 27.2.
One of the reasons the Jacks have had success on the glass is because of graduate transfer Oscar Cluff. The 6-foot-11 Australian is averaging 11.2 rebounds per game, which is seventh in the country.
Henderson said he knew that Cluff would be a good rebounder, but he has been pleasantly surprised at his scoring as he is the teams leading scorer, averaging 16.9 points per game.
I told Oscar and told his junior college coach and we talked as a staff, I always thought that there would be a chance that Oscar could lead the country in rebounding. I knew he would really impact that and I knew he was a good offensive player, but hes probably exceeded expectations on that side of the ball, just with his ability. We can play through him on the block, and even out on the perimeter. His versatility that way has probably exceeded my expectations, Henderson said.
The Jacks have played seven players that are freshmen or redshirt freshmen. Joe Sayler is leading the way with that group, averaging 12.8 points per game. Owen Larson is averaging 7.9 points and 2.4 assists per game.
Henderson said his freshmen had some ups and downs in the first 15 games of the season.
Weve had great moments [with the freshmen] and every one of them has had extremely good moments, Henderson said. Do we need to get more consistency out of them? For sure. I told the guys in the locker room after Christmas break, I have to do a better job. I didnt always put guys in the best position to be successful and as a staff we really talked about that. We want to do a better job of creating confidence in our guys and making stuff more clear. I think when young people have clarity, its a beautiful thing.
I dont think we did as good of a job as we can and thats what were working on as a staff. To help our young freshmen understand that theres accountability that needs to be had with them and us in our program and theres consequences with those things and what the consequences are going to be. Whats playing time going to be and what are rotations going to look like, because I think when theres clarity in those situations, everybody plays with more confidence, especially when youre a freshman.
North Dakota State is atop the Summit League with an 11-4 record and St. Thomas is right behind the Bison at 10-5. South Dakota and the Jacks are tied for third. NDSU (88), UST (108 and SDSU (112) are all in the top 120 of the NET rankings.
Henderson said its unprecedented in the Summit League to have three teams that high in the rankings, but also noted that the bottom of the conference is not filled with some of the worst teams in the country as there are only two teams in the 300s of the NET rankings.
I know this, we havent had that type of [NET rankings] in a long time, as far as three teams in the top 120. I do think [the conference is] vastly improved this year, but its not just those three teams, which were one of them in the top 120, but its the other teams too. We have less teams in the 300s than we ever have. So I think, last year there was a lot of talk about parity within the league, I think youre probably going to see something similar this year, Henderson said.
Denver comes into Thursdays matchup with a record of 3-9. The Pioneers played the Jacks in the Summit League Tournament championship last season but lost their leading scorer in Tommy Bruner, who led the country in scoring last season.
Tip off between the Jacks and Pioneers is scheduled for 8 p.m. You can watch the game on CBS Sports Network.
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