To be the best, you have to play the best: Pine Island native Aaron Johnston has SDSU on a roll

Abby Sharpe, Post-Bulletin, Rochester, Minn.
·4 min read

Feb. 17—ROCHESTER — On Dec. 15, Aaron Johnston walked out of the locker room and onto the court at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls.

His South Dakota State women's basketball team sat on one bench, while the No. 1 team in the country occupied the other.

Though Johnston's Jackrabbits lost that game 62-44, it was a big moment for them to face a Power 5 powerhouse like the defending national champion Gamecocks.

"Everything about (South Carolina) is the best right now, and to have a chance to have a team like that come to South Dakota, play down in Sioux Falls, was a great experience," Johnston said. "We had a great crowd, and people really worked hard to get to the Pentagon to see that game. ... For us, it's the experience of that. It's for our fans, it's for all the young people that follow women's basketball in our area and want to continue to see it played at a high level."

From the outside, it might seem like a feat to have enticed the best team in the country to travel to Sioux Falls and play a game while a blizzard blew through the area, though the Gamecocks had traveled to the Pentagon in the previous two seasons. Logistically, it did require some legwork to get the Pentagon ready and have the incentives and finances in place to get Dawn Staley's team back to South Dakota.

But from a scheduling perspective, SDSU didn't have to beg South Carolina to get on a plane, because the Jacks and Gamecocks have one thing in common: Many programs don't want to play them.

The Jackrabbits are what many consider a Summit League powerhouse. Since Johnston, a Pine Island native, took over the program in 2000, SDSU has posted a winning record each season, and the team has won at least 20 games in 12 consecutive seasons.

That success makes it difficult for South Dakota State — 21-5 this season and on a 14-game winning streak prior to Thursday's home game against the University of Denver — to convince similarly sized programs to put it on their schedules. That forces the Jackrabbits to look to Power 5 schools to fill the non-conference schedule.

"If you're willing to go to their place at some point, you can get those kinds of games," Johnston said. "Most people just aren't willing to do that — certainly not go to those places, which can be very intimidating. We've been resilient enough to have those games."

Pinning a mid-major team against the undefeated No. 1-ranked team in the country is the epitome of intimidation. South Carolina puts out a talented, deep roster every game. But South Dakota State has faced top-10 teams before, like No. 2 Oregon in 2019 and No. 2 Notre Dame in 2014.

The Jacks also need non-conference games against powerhouse teams to improve and get over the one hurdle that seems to always trip them up: the NCAA Tournament.

SDSU has tallied four first-round tournament exits, including the first time the Jacks played the Gamecocks, in 2013.

"It gives us a chance to figure out, if our goal is to continue to be really good, what is it like to play a team like this?" Johnston said. "It's a process to learn how to compete with and eventually try and beat some of those teams, if we get those chances. Our whole non-conference schedule ... We won a lot of those games. We also lost some of those games, and they're all good learning experiences, no matter what."

Though the Jacks didn't pull off an upset, the team held South Carolina to 62 points, the Gamecocks' second-fewest points in a game this season.

The Gamecocks were one of seven Power 5 schools the Jacks faced in non-conference play this season. South Dakota State beat four of those seven teams: Mississippi State, Rutgers, Louisville and Kansas State.

It didn't come as a surprise to Johnston, who believes he has a roster with players of a similar caliber.

"We've had incredibly talented people that could certainly play at Power 5 schools easily, but they chose to come to South Dakota State for some different reasons," he said. "So we found the talent and you have to have that, or it wouldn't work."