BROOKINGS – The South Dakota State men’s basketball team lost to Purdue Fort Wayne in the Summit League quarterfinals on March 7. What they didn’t know was that would be its last game of the season.

Last week the NCAA announced that it was cancelling all tournaments for men’s basketball due to the coronavirus outbreak. SDSU head coach Eric Henderson said that his team was planning on playing in a postseason tournament before the announcement.

“[Playing in a postseason tournament] was our plan. We were excited to continue our season and play. We were having talks with the [College Basketball Invitational] and the [College Insider Tournament] to continue playing. Just with this young group, I think it’s important to play as many games as you can and get as much experience as you can,” Henderson said.

The Jackrabbits finished the 2019-2020 season with an overall record of 22-10 and a 13-3 mark in the Summit League. They were predicted to finish fifth in the Summit League by the media and ended up sharing the regular-season conference title.

SDSU had four new starters heading into the season and lost 85% of their scoring from 2018-2019. Henderson said he didn’t really have any expectations for his team heading into the season.

“Whether we have a lot of returning guys or we have a lot of new guys like we did this year. We hardly ever talk about expectations as far as wins and losses go. … I’m not sure we had any expectations to be honest with you and we rarely do. But I was really excited about this group because they were young and they were inexperienced, but they are very, very unselfish,” Henderson said.

One of the surprises for the Jacks was big man Douglas Wilson. He was named the Summit League Player of the Year after averaging 18.6 points and 6.4 rebounds per game. Even with the stellar season, Henderson said Wilson still has some stuff he needs to improve on.

“[Wilson] is so athletic and he’s so versatile,” Henderson said. “He just needs to continue to work on his efficiency because people guard him in so many different ways. He needs to just slow down just a little bit and then I think that will help him limit some of his turnovers. … He continues to work on his perimeter shot which is effective and he’ll continue to get better and better.”

Wilson did not play in the Summit League tourney game due to an injury.

The Jacks will return their top-five scorers for next season.

Noah Freidel, who won Summit League Freshman of the Year, averaged 12.2 points per game this season. Matt Dentlinger averaged 12.2 points per game and six rebounds this season. They will both be back and they will also return starters Alex Arians and David Wingett.

They will be without two players from this past season. Sophomore forward Alou Dillon and sophomore guard Owen King will be transferring from SDSU. This means that SDSU has three open scholarships to fill before the season.

“We’re looking at all options right now,” Henderson said. “I wouldn’t necessarily say we’re going for transfers. Our program has probably benefited a little bit more with high school kids, but I’d be surprised if one of those isn’t some sort of transfer.”

As of right now, the Jacks only have one incoming freshman in William Mfum. Mfum graduated high school early and enrolled at SDSU in January. Henderson said his staff is excited to see what kind of progress Mfum makes over the summer.

“[Mfum] is a really good rebounding guard. He can really guard the dribble and is extremely athletic. He can get downhill against a lot of types of defenders. … We’re really excited about Willy and the reason he’s exciting is because he’s been on campus for a semester and he’s been practicing with us. So he’s getting acclimated to our system and our guys. I hope that transition is almost seamless as we begin in the summer again,” Henderson said.

Looking ahead to the 2020-2021 season it is likely that the Jacks will be the heavy favorites to win the Summit League, but that doesn’t mean anything if they don’t make the NCAA Tournament. SDSU had made the NCAA Tournament three years in-a-row from 2016 to 2018. They have now lost in the quarterfinals in the Summit League Tournament the past two seasons.

Henderson said if his team wants to get to the tournament they will need to improve defensively.

“Two things. Number one, we need to get better at guarding dribble penetration. If we can focus on that area and then rebounding. Those two things are things that I believe we can get better at and that will make a big impact on winning and losing,” Henderson said.