South Dakota State basketball surging on offense as men prepare to host North Dakota, NDSU
South Dakota State returns home this week for a pair of games against old rivals, looking to extend a pair of winning streaks and put some distance between them and the rest of the Summit League in the men’s basketball standings.
The Jackrabbits have won eight straight and nine in a row at home, off to an 8-0 start in league play, the most consecutive games they’ve ever won to open conference play. Oral Roberts is staying in the hunt at 7-2, and the Jacks still have to go to Tulsa to face the Golden Eagles, while North Dakota State and USD are both 5-3. Last-place North Dakota visits Frost Arena on Thursday, while NDSU comes on Saturday.
Throughout SDSU’s streaking start, two traits have emerged: The Jacks are preposterously efficient on offense, and they’ve established multiple ways to win games.
The offensive numbers continue to impress.
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SDSU is second in the nation in points per game (87.6) and field goal percentage (52.3), trailing only Gonzaga’s 90.2 points per game and 53.3 shooting percentage, while the Jacks lead Division I in 3-point shooting by a mile at 45.7 percent. Davidson is second at 41.6.
How long can they realistically keep performing at this level?
“We don’t talk about it very much, we just continue to hopefully play the right way,” said coach Eric Henderson. “We talk about our spacing, we show them the things we’re doing well and the things we need to improve. We’ve looked at the turnovers. We talk about ball security. I look at the numbers, too, and they’re very good. That has to do with how we’re sharing the basketball. We have multiple guys that can shoot and score. I love our flexibility and versatility.”
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Baylor Scheierman has made 50 percent of his 3s, while Alex Arians (.519) and Matt Mims (.561) have been even better than that. Charlie Easley (.460) and freshman point guard Zeke Mayo (.425) can knock them down from outside as well. And as long as Doug Wilson (14.8 points), Luke Appel (8.5 points in 16.0 minutes per game) and Matt Dentlinger (6.7 points, .674 FG%) keep producing in the paint, the Jacks will continue to get those outside shooters open looks.
Henderson also likes the strides his team has made on defense, and their multi-faceted offense and improving defense has enabled them to win games however they need to. They’ve won several shootouts, blown out plenty of foes, but also found ways to win close games, while coming from behind or shaking off slow starts in a handful of others.
“That certainly benefits us and I do think that’s one of our strengths,” Henderson said. “We can play multiple ways. There are teams that will try to slow things down and limit possessions and we’ve been successful in those. There are teams that want to run and get into a shootout and we like a game with as many possessions as possible where we can push it in transition and get paint touches early and play off that. It bodes well that we’re able to play multiple styles. It’s a valuable tool.”
Previously: South Dakota State basketball stays hot with win over Denver
Three games in six days for Jackrabbits
Just two days after facing the Bison the Jacks will turn around and head back to North Dakota to take on the Fighting Hawks of UND again, the rescheduling of a game postponed earlier due to COVID-19. That will make three games in six days for SDSU. But they only have one game the rest of the week after going to Grand Forks, traveling to Vermillion to take on USD on Saturday, Feb. 5.
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No change on Noah Freidel's status
Henderson was directly asked at his weekly press conference on Tuesday whether Noah Freidel will play again this season. This is what he said:
“Here’s the deal. There’s a lot of times it’s bigger than basketball. We love Noah. Noah’s at practice every single day competing, doing his part to make our team better. That’s where our focus is right now, and focus(ing) on our team putting what is best for our team and what is best for Noah, and that’s what we’re doing. That’s where we’re at with Noah.”
This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: SDSU basketball's offense surging ahead of weekend vs. NDSU, UND
