BROOKINGS – As the calendar turns to November, it means that college basketball season is upon us. The South Dakota State men will host an exhibition game against Concordia-St. Paul on Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. and will then open up the regular season on Nov. 7 at Akron. 

SDSU is coming off of a season where it went 30-5 overall and 18-0 in the Summit League. The Jackrabbits won 21 games in-a-row from Dec. 20 to March 8 and won the Summit League Tournament. SDSU was then a No. 13 seed in the NCAA Tournament and fell to No. 4 seeded Providence, 66-57 in the first round. 

The Jacks will have a group of returners and newcomers this season. I’m going to take a look at both groups of players and also dive into the schedule, which is about as tough of a nonconference schedule as SDSU has ever had.

Returners

SDSU returns seven players from last year’s roster. The three returning starters are sixth year senior Alex Arians, junior Charlie Easley and sophomore Zeke Mayo. The Jacks lost three big time players from last year’s team in Baylor Scheierman (transferred to Creighton), Douglas Wilson (graduation) and Noah Freidel (transferred to James Madison).

Those three players were SDSU’s three leading scorers. Wilson led the team, averaging 16.4 points and 5.5 rebounds. Scheierman was right behind him, averaging 16.2 points, 7.8 rebounds and 4.5 assists. Freidel started the first nine games of the season, but then only came in during blow outs the rest of the way and he averaged 14.2 points per game.

With Wilson and Scheierman gone, it will allow for more opportunities for others to step up, such as Mayo and Luke Appel who were selected to the Preseason All-Summit League First Team. Mayo averaged 9.6 points and shot 41.5% from three in his freshman season. Appel came off of the bench for the Jacks and averaged 9.0 points and 3.6 rebounds, while shooting 60.4% from the field.

Appel said that him and his teammates are excited to see what the offense will look like without Scheierman and Wilson because they are going to have to share the basketball a lot more.

“I feel like everyone is going to have to step up. I don’t think one guy can take over what Doug and Baylor did because they scored a lot of points. I feel like the ball will be more distributed. You won’t see as much of [one person with the ball] and setting ball screens. You’ll see more and more people and Zeke has done a great job of taking over that role of the main ball handler and Alex [Arians] has been doing it now for what seems like 20 years, so you can rely on him,” Appel said. 

Mayo is expected to make a big jump from his freshman to sophomore season and said he’s talked with head coach Eric Henderson about what is going to be expected of him this year.

“I think the most important thing for me is to not let the outside talk get to my head. I need to stay within our program and stay within our circle and just go out there each and every day and just dedicate myself to the game. I’ve had a couple sit down’s with [Henderson] and he’s kind of let me know what he needs from me specifically,” Mayo said.

Henderson is entering his fourth season as the Jackrabbit head coach. He has an overall record of 68-22 and has gone 40-6 in the Summit League as SDSU has won at least a share of the regular season title in this first three seasons.

Henderson said he’s really excited to see what this team does this season.

“I’ve really enjoyed this team [so far]. Like I’ve said before, we have a unique team with a bunch of old guys and a bunch of new guys and there’s really not much in between. But to watch our older guys help our younger guys through mistakes and learn throughout the process and learn what our program is all about and what it takes to be successful has been really enjoyable for me. That’s what growing is and leadership is and to see that happening has been really special,”

Newcomers

The Jackrabbits welcome in four freshmen and have two redshirt freshmen. One of the redshirt freshmen is Wisconsin transfer Matthew Mors. Mors, a Yankton native, did not see the floor last season with the Badgers and decided to come back to his home state. The 6-foot-7 forward was a three-time Gatorade Player of the Year in South Dakota and averaged at least 19 points in every season in high school.

Henderson said Mors has fit right in with the rest of the roster.

“Matthew fits into our program terrifically. He celebrates his teammates successes more than his own and those are two really great qualities to have if you want to be at South Dakota State, especially within our basketball program. So, he’s been terrific in that sense. As far as basketball wise, he’s very versatile. He spends a lot of time in the gym working on his game. You’re going to see him a lot of different places on the floor. You’ll see him with his back to the basket, but he’s also going to play on the perimeter some. It also takes time and he’s embracing the way we play,” Henderson said.

Of the four true freshman, one guy that everyone brought up was William Kyle III. A 6-foot-9 forward from Bellevue, Nebraska, Kyle was a 2022 All-Nebraska Second Team selection after averaging 12 points, 7.1 rebounds and two blocks per game.

Appel said that Kyle is very athletic and has been making plays in practice that SDSU has been missing over the past few seasons.

“[Kyle] is really long. He’s 6’9 and I don’t even know what his wingspan is. It’s has to be over seven feet. He can jump out of the gym and we’ve played against people like that, but we’ve never really had anyone here like that who’s so long and athletic. He can just change games by blocking shots and we’ve never really had that before. I think his offensive game is coming along. He’s really raw right now, but the more he practices, the better he’ll get,” Appel said.

Schedule

SDSU will play eight of its first 10 games outside of South Dakota. After opening up with Akron, the Jacks will head to Boise State on Nov. 9. SDSU will then play St. Bonaventure at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls on Nov. 15 before playing at No. 10 ranked Arkansas on Nov. 16. 

The Jacks’ home opener will come on Nov. 19 against Stephen F. Austin. SDSU will then travel to Savannah, Georgia, for two games in the Hostillo Community Classic. The first game will be on Nov. 25 against Valparaiso and the second one will be on Nov. 26 and they will take on Freidel and James Madison.

SDSU will then conclude its nonconference portion of the schedule with three straight road games followed by three straight at home. The road games include Kent Sate (Dec. 2), No. 20 Alabama (Dec. 3) and Montana (Dec. 6). The home games are against Eastern Washington (Dec. 10), Mount Marty (Dec. 12) and Bellevue (Dec. 14).

Henderson said he’s going to learn a lot about his team during the first month and half of the season because of how challenging the schedule is, but he thinks the experience from his older guys will help.

“… To be able to count on those guys in the battles, especially early in the season, is a benefit to us. [They have to] help those guys that haven’t had those experiences because we’re going to be challenged. Obviously, the schedule is terrific, but we do that on purpose. I just know that we’re going into battle with guys that have been through it and it certainly gives you a lot of confidence,” Henderson said. 

SDSU was picked second in the Summit League Preseason Poll. Oral Roberts, who has Preseason Player of the Year Max Abmas, was picked to win the conference. South Dakota was picked third and North Dakota State was picked fourth.

SDSU plays at Oral Roberts on Dec. 19 to open up Summit League play. The Eagles will make a return trip to Brookings in the regular season finale on Feb. 25. SDSU plays at North Dakota State on Jan. 7 and hosts the Bison on Feb. 4. The Jacks play at USD on Jan. 14 and host the Coyotes on Feb. 11.

The Summit League will continue with its travel partners, meaning one week you will play on Thursday and Saturday at home and the next week you play on Thursday and Saturday on the road, with the exception of the weeks SDSU and USD play.