Andrew Holtan | The Brookings Register
BROOKINGS – The South Dakota State women’s basketball team and their fans are patiently waiting to find out where they will be headed for the NCAA Tournament next weekend. They will have to wait till Sunday to find out, but there are plenty of people who like to project where teams will be seeded and where they will be going, so let’s take a look at what they think about the Jackrabbits.
Going into Sunday’s Summit League Tournament game, the Jacks were projected as either one of the last four teams in or one of the first four teams out. Since they beat North Dakota State in the title game, they secured their automatic bid into the Big Dance.
We’ll start with ESPN’s Charlie Creme, who has the Jackrabbits projected as a No. 10 seed. In his bracket SDSU would take on No. 7 seeded Oregon in Iowa City and the winner of that game would play either No. 2 seeded Iowa or No. 15 seeded Western Illinois.
CBS Sports’ has SDSU as a No. 10 seed and playing No. 7 Oregon as well. Except he has the Jacks playing in Nashville and the winner of them and the Ducks would play either No. 2 seeded Vanderbilt or No. 15 seeded Loyola Marymount.
USA Today’s Mitchell Northam has SDSU as a No. 10 seed as well, but he has the Jacks playing No. 7 Texas Tech. He also has the Jacks playing in Iowa City and if they win they would play either Iowa or No. 15 seeded UNLV.
Herhoopstats.com is the only projection that has SDSU as a No. 11 seed. In their projection the Jacks would play No. 6 Notre Dame in Fort Worth, Texas, and the winner of that matchup would take on either No. 3 TCU or No. 14 McNeese State.
Collegesportsmadness.com is the only projection that has the Jacks as a No. 12 seed. This would take them to Norman, Okla., and face No. 5 Minnesota, who is coached by former USD head coach Dawn Plitzuweit. The winner of that game would play either No. 4 Oklahoma or No. 13 Green Bay.
SDSU finished the season at 39th in the NET Rankings, which are used by the NCAA Tournament selection committee to help decide where you should be seeded. The committee also takes into account your strength of schedule, which according to Warren Nolan is 91st for SDSU. The Jacks’ conference schedule hurt their strength of schedule as their non-conference strength of schedule was 13th.
This will be the 14th time in the past 20 seasons that SDSU has played in the NCAA Tournament. Eight of the previous 13 times the Jacks have been a double-digit seed. Two out of those eight times the Jacks won their first round game. SDSU’s highest seed came in 2019 when they were a No. 6 seed and they made it to the Sweet 16.
Many people projected SDSU to be a No. 8 or No. 9 seed in last year’s NCAA Tournament, but the committee gave the Jacks a 10. The Jacks would then beat No. 7 seeded Oklahoma State in the first round before losing to eventual National Champion UConn in the second round.
The NCAA Tournament selection show will begin at 7 p.m. on Sunday. SDSU will have a watch party at First Bank & Trust Arena and the doors will open at 6 p.m. You can also watch the selection show on ESPN.
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