BROOKINGS — South Dakota State is the pick to win the Summit League men's basketball title in 2023-24, as the Jackrabbits return star guard Zeke Mayo and much of the supporting cast that helped SDSU win 19 games last year.
That was good for second in the conference behind an Oral Roberts team that became just the second in Summit League history to go unbeaten in conference play (the first was SDSU the year before), but second place isn't where the Jacks want to be. The NCAA tournament is the goal, as usual, but for a team that's 0-6 all-time in the Big Dance, there are goals beyond just landing on a bracket, especially for the handful of players that were on that 30-win 2021-22 team. But first things's first.
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"The NCAA tournament — that's the main goal, it's what you're thinking about when you're putting in all that work when no one's watching," said senior guard Charlie Easley. "We have a good core coming back and that makes it easy for the newer guys to come in and hit the ground running because they can pick things up quick. It'll be a process throughout the year but we feel really good about the team we have."
The Jacks do have pieces to replace.
Matt Dentlinger (12.3 points per game) and Alex Arians (9.3) were the team's second and third leading scorers last year, and they were Rabbits for so long they played with Mike Daum under T.J. Otzelberger. Their experience and production will be missed.
But even with those two having moved on, SDSU has as experienced a roster as anyone in the Summit League.
It starts with Mayo, the dynamic combo guard who led the team in points, rebounds, assists and steals as a sophomore, with a handful of Alpha performances that showed he's a threat to take over games by himself at any given moment.
That said, there were other games where Mayo seemed to put too much pressure on himself to do just that, like in the conference tournament. Though Mayo scored 34 points in SDSU's two games, he was just 8-of-33 from the floor and 2-of-14 from 3-point land.
"I think that's honestly something I've done my entire life is put pressure on myself," admitted the Summit League preseason player of the year, who averaged 18.2 points and 6.2 rebounds last season. "With my goals and what I want to achieve I feel like I've got to go out there and play like I'm trying to score the ball every time. That's obviously not the case, so I think the next step for me going into the offseason was understanding I've got people around me that can do the same things as me."
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Mayo will certainly have that help. William Kyle, a springy, 6-9 big man who showed promise as a freshman by averaging 8.9 points and more than a block per game, is back, and the Jacks are optimistic he'll take a big step forward. Steady sharpshooter Easley returns at point guard after averaging 8.1 points and shooting 48 percent from 3 in an injury-plagued season, and fan favorite Matt Mims is back for a final season, having fully developed into a veteran 3-and-D guard. He averaged 7.9 points last year and played more minutes than anyone on the team after Mayo.
That creates a solid foundation, but the Jacks' ace card is at the four, where 6-8, 245-pound bruiser Luke Appel is back after missing almost all of last year due to injury. The 2022 Summit League Sixth Man of the Year, Appel's back-to-the-basket game produced a 41-point effort against Oral Roberts that year, as he averaged 11.1 points in league play.
"It was tough last year, especially when we would struggle," Appel said. "It's tough not being able to go out there and help the team when you know you could (if healthy). I'm super excited to be back out there. This senior class has really high expectations. We want to get to the tournament and have a good enough season to have a good seed where we can hopefully make a run."
Another key returner to keep an eye on is Matthew Mors, the 6-7 forward from Yankton who made his college debut last year after redshirting for Wisconsin the previous year. Mors didn't make the kind of immediate impact many fans were hoping to see from the former South Dakota prep phenom, as he averaged 6.5 points in 19 minutes per game, but the Jacks believe it was an important and valuable year for his development. He's still a Big Ten talent, and potentially gives SDSU another offensive weapon.
"Think about the pressure he had coming in," said coach Eric Henderson, who enters his fifth year on the job with an 87-35 record. "We lose Baylor Scheierman (the Summit League MVP who transferred to Creighton) and Doug (Wilson, another former Summit League MVP, to graduation), and (Mors) comes in from Wisconsin and he's supposed to be the savior, right? Think about the weight on his shoulders. But now you're seeing the athleticism, the playmaking ability. He's just so much more comfortable than he was. He'll be fun to watch this year."
As for the freshmen, Bubz Alvarez, a 6-5 guard from Houston, seems to be the one to have turned the most heads in practice, while White River product Joe Sayler has also impressed. Jack Hastreiter and Kalen Garry will hope to compete for minutes after redshirting last year, and sophomore Tanner Te Slaa earned experience by appearing in 26 games last year as a rookie.
That leaves center Nate Barnhart, a 7-foot, 200-pound transfer from Wyoming. He appeared in 20 games for the Cowboys last year and showed a solid skill set, but he'll need to add muscle to hang in the post in the Summit League.
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"He has tremendous feel," Henderson said of the first true 7-footer to play for the Jacks since Joe Ashley in the early 80s. "He can dribble, he can pass, shoot, put the ball on the floor, but obviously his physicality needs to continue to improve."
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