BROOKINGS – For the sixth time in program history the South Dakota State women’s basketball will be the No. 1 seed in the Summit League Tournament.
The Jackrabbits have won nine of the past 12 tournaments and will begin their quest for their 10th title Saturday at 11:45 a.m. when they take on eighth seeded Omaha at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls. However, they will have to do so without Myah Selland, who won Summit League Player of the Year Thursday.
Selland was averaging 19.2 points, 6.8 rebounds and 3.8 assists this season before she suffered a season-ending knee injury Feb. 19 against North Dakota State. Sophomore forward Tori Nelson also went down with a knee injury in that game. SDSU head coach Aaron Johnston said Nelson is questionable for the Summit League Tournament. SDSU has gone 3-0 without Selland and Nelson, and Johnston believes his team is confident heading into the tournament.
“I think we have a good idea what still makes us a good team. When we have injuries some of the things that we do are still in place, but you have to do them with different people. So you still have to absolutely have a different plan and approach and you feel like it’s going to work, but you don’t know for sure until you have some game results, and we had to play some of the top teams in North Dakota State and Kansas City in the final weekends and overcame those injuries to do it. So I think beating good teams and being successful can build confidence in the team in knowing that we can play potentially without some of those good players in Myah and Tori,” Johnston said.
The Jacks (21-2, 14-0) come into the tournament on a 18-game winning streak which is the fourth longest in the country. SDSU went undefeated in the Summit League for the first time in program history.
SDSU will have to lean on senior forward Tylee Irwin and junior forward Paiton Burckhard to carry the load without Selland and Nelson. In the three games without Selland and Nelson, Irwin has averaged 22.3 points per game and Burckhard has averaged 18. Irwin and Burckhard each earned a spot on the All-Summit League First Team alongside Selland.
The Mavericks come into the game 5-12 overall and 4-8 in the Summit League. SDSU swept Omaha this season with a 62-50 win in the first game and a 64-54 victory in game two.
“I thought both of the games this year were hard fought wins for us,” Johnston said. “They were close till the end when we got some separation. I think this year’s Omaha team really has the size and depth inside to match up against some of our post players and forwards that are very good. They are long and they are athletic. They have a good plan where they try to make you take a lot of jump shots,” Johnston said.
SDSU has six wins against top-50 teams in the NCAA’s NET Rankings. The NET Rankings are what the NCCA Tournament Selection Committee uses to select the field for the tournament. ESPN’s bracketology has SDSU as a six seed right now and nowhere near the bubble. Johnston said his team talked about its resume, but they know that nothing is for sure, so they have to take care of business this weekend.
“We talked about the general sense, that we’re in a good place today on March 2nd,” Johnston said. “But we also were very clear with the team that on selection day we have no idea where we’re going to be. So to just to kind of take a body of work right now and assume that we can answer that [we’re going to make the tournament] today without knowing how every other conference tournament is going to go. Without knowing how other teams are going to finish their regular season. … So if we just kind of rested on the fact that today we have a good resume, I think we’d be leaving way too much to chance.
“We have a lot to make sure that we’re playing for because we don’t know what our situation is going to be on selection day and we don’t know every other team’s situation and where they’re going to be. Yes we have a very good resume. I’m not downplaying that. I agree with that, but we just don’t know what it’s going to look like a week and a half from now. Our opportunity that we know we have is our practices coming up and our game on Saturday. That’s really all we have guaranteed.”
If the Jacks beat Omaha they will face either No. 4 Kansas City or No. 5 Western Illinois Monday at 11:45 a.m. South Dakota is the No. 2 seed and will take on Oral Roberts and No. 3 North Dakota State will face No. 6 Denver.
