Andrew Holtan | The Brookings Register
BROOKINGS – South Dakota State found out on Sunday night that it will be a No. 11 seed in this year’s NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament. The Jackrabbits will take on No. 6 seeded Washington in the first round in Fort Worth, Texas, on Friday.
This will be the first time in program history that the Jacks have been an 11-seed. SDSU head coach Aaron Johnston said he was happy with the seeding, but he wishes the Jacks could play closer to South Dakota.
“I thought we’d probably be in that 10, maybe 11 line. So at that point, you just kind of take what you can get. … [We’re] hoping one of these years we can get this closer to home. I think everybody would like that. I don’t even think we’d care what our seed would be at that point if we could just be… A nice little bus ride away would be kind of nice. But it’s good. Washington’s a good matchup in the sense of just a really good team,” Johnston said.
Washington went 21-10 this season. The Huskies finished eighth in the Big Ten after going 10-8 in conference play. Washington is coached by Tina Langley, who is in her fifth season at UW.
The Huskies lost in the First Four of last year’s NCAA Tournament.
Johnston said he did not know much about how Washington played this season, but he knows that Langley has done a good job of getting the Huskies back into the national tournament after they had not played in it since 2017.
“They’ve got a newer staff there and she’s done a great job of moving them forward. … I know I’ve seen them a couple of times just from watching games. You always follow people that you respect. I think their staff does a really good job. I’ve kind of followed them for a while. We’ve connected on some different things. I wouldn’t say I’m familiar with this year’s team and familiar with this year’s personnel right now,” Johnston said.
The Huskies are led by junior guard Sayvia Sellers, who averages 18.5 points per game. They have two other guards that score in double figures in sophomore Avery Howell (13;.7) and senior Elle Landine (10.4).
Washington went 10-8 against NCAA Tournament teams this season. Meanwhile, the Jacks went 2-3 against teams in the field of 68.
SDSU did play three power five conference teams in Texas, North Carolina and Duke. The Jacks went 0-3 in those games, but senior center Brooklyn Meyer said it helps prepare SDSU for the NCAA Tournament when they play those teams.
“I think it really helps to play those really good teams in the non-conference. I feel like it just gets you exposed to that and used to playing against bigger, stronger athletes. So, I think it just builds our confidence going into the tournament. But I feel like we also kind of have the attitude of we have nothing to lose and we can just go out there and play free and play our game,” Meyer said.
This will be the 14th NCAA Tournament appearance in the past 18 seasons for the Jacks. SDSU has won in the first round in two of the last three tournaments they’ve played in, including last year when it beat Oklahoma State.
Meyer and Madison Mathiowetz will cap off their careers this month, having played in the NCAA Tournament in every season. Meyer said she’s been blessed to have those kinds of opportunities at SDSU.
“It’s super fun. I mean, we always have a lot of Jacks fans that come out and support us and people that follow. I’m just super grateful to be in this position and to get to play basketball wherever, [this time] in Texas,” Meyer said.
The Jacks (27-6) have had a unique season in the fact that they did not thoroughly dominate the Summit League like the past three seasons. They went 10-4 in the non-conference and then had a 67-game Summit League regular season win streak snapped when North Dakota State beat them in Brookings on Jan. 17. Two weeks later, SDSU lost to South Dakota in Vermillion.
However, SDSU got its revenge on both teams as it beat both USD and NDSU twice after that, winning in the final week of the regular season and the Summit League Tournament. Meyer said her and her teammates decided the loss to USD was going to be the tipping point of the season and they needed to grow from that day on.
“We had a few talks with the team in the locker room about just how we were going to move forward, and losing a couple games isn’t the end of the world,” Meyer said. “We had a lot of season left at that point and a lot of room to grow.
“I just feel like our younger players just really embrace that and just embrace growth and getting better. I feel like we were more connected after those losses and I feel like it just helped carry us through the big games at the end of the season”
Friday’s game is scheduled to tip at 1:30 p.m. and you can watch the game on ESPN News or the ESPN app. The winner will play either No. 3 seeded TCU, who is hosting, or No. 14 seeded UC San Diego on Sunday.
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