The Summit League Tournament kicks off this weekend and is expected to be one of the most highly anticipated conference tournaments in recent history.
The South Dakota State Men’s basketball team was able to clinch the outright regular season title this past week with solid wins over North Dakota and North Dakota State.
“To be able to clinch a conference championship on the road when both of those teams were playing for the same thing was exciting,” coach Eric Henderson said. “Really proud of our guys and how they handled their business and went about it.”
Despite SDSU making a convincing case to be the favorite in this tournament, it’s truly one of the most wide-open tourneys the Summit League has seen in a while.
Teams like St. Thomas, North Dakota State and even Oral Roberts, the defending Summit League champions, could all make runs in Sioux Falls.
“The atmosphere down at the Denny is incredibly special,” coach Henderson said. “We know we have our hands full right out of the gate, but we’re also excited for that challenge.”
The men and women Summit League tournaments take place inside the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center starting on March 8. Tune in to all the action on the Summit League Network through Midco Sports.
No. 1 South Dakota State (19-12, 12-4 Summit)
The Jackrabbits were able to overtake and claim sole possession of their ninth Summit League regular season championship since joining the conference in 2007 and have played excellent basketball down the stretch.
SDSU enters the tournament season on a five-game winning streak, most recently taking down teams like St. Thomas, UND and dominating NDSU in Fargo.
The Jacks are led by the potential conference player of the year in Zeke Mayo, averaging over 21 points, six rebounds and four assists per game.
South Dakota State will play on Saturday at 6 p.m. against the winner of Oral Roberts and South Dakota.
No. 2 Kansas City (16-15, 10-6 Summit)
Arguably the hottest team in the conference, Kansas City, will enter the Summit League tournament on a six-game winning streak.
The Roos won the tiebreaker to overtake UND as the No. 2 seed after defeating Oral Roberts on the last day of the conference regular season.
After finishing as the No. 7 seed last season, the No. 2 seeded Roos match their best finish in conference standings since 2005.
UMKC’s leading scorer is Jamar Brown, the junior averages 16.5 points a game.
Kansas City will play the Denver Pioneers on Saturday at 8:30 p.m. in the quarterfinal round of the Summit League tournament.
No. 3 North Dakota (18-13, 10-6 Summit)
The Fighting Hawks have also had an excellent turnaround from last season where they finished as the No. 9 seed in the conference tournament.
After an improvement of four more conference victories, including a midseason stretch winning nine of 10 conference games, North Dakota has put themselves in prime position to make a run at the NCAA tournament.
Arguably the most important piece to the Fighting Hawks success has been Tyree Ihenacho, who averages over 14 points, five rebounds and four assists per game.
UND opens their tournament facing the No. 6 Omaha Mavericks on Sunday at 8:30 p.m.
No. 4 St. Thomas (19-12, 9-7)
For the second consecutive season, the Tommies enter the Summit League tournament as the No. 4 seed after another great season transitioning into division-one college basketball.
While St. Thomas isn’t eligible to play in the NCAA tournament until the 2026-27 season, they have shown great strides and will be a force in the Summit League for years to come.
In conference play, St. Thomas has been the best defensive team this season, giving up just over 68 points a contest.
UST’s Raheem Anthony leads the team in scoring with 15 points, five rebounds and four assists a game.
The Tommies open their conference tournament against No. 5 NDSU on Sunday at 6 p.m.
No. 5 North Dakota State (15-16, 8-8 Summit)
NDSU had an opportunity to claim the No. 1 seed entering the final week of conference play.
But after back-to-back games dominated by USD and SDSU, respectively, NDSU sits outside of a top four seed for the first time since 2018.
On top of that, the 2018 Summit League tournament was also the last time NDSU was not in the championship game.
But this is still a dangerous Bison team, led by senior Boden Skunberg and Andrew Morgan. Both Skunberg and Morgan average 15 points and six rebounds a game.
With head coach David Richman at the helm, expect NDSU to bring their best basketball to Sioux Falls no matter what.
No. 6 Omaha (14-17, 7-9 Summit)
The Mavericks finished as the third best scoring team in the conference season, averaging over 76 points per game.
So how did UNO end up in the bottom half of the Summit League standings? Four of their nine conference losses were by five points or less, and another loss in overtime.
Nonetheless, the Mavericks have lost five of their last seven games and will have an uphill battle in the tournament that begins against UND who beat them by 21 points a month ago.
Omaha is led by the second leading scorer in the Summit, Frankie Fidler, who averages over 23 points per game.
No. 7 Denver (15-16, 6-10)
Like UNO, the Pioneers finished the conference season as the highest scoring team in the Summit, averaging over 81 points per game.
However, the biggest reason DU struggled in conference play was their defense, which ranked last in the Summit League at 85.9 points per game.
The Pioneers will go as far as fifth-year senior Tommy Bruner can take them.
Bruner is the league’s highest leading scorer at over 24 points per game, but an injury to Bruner in their last game against UST raises concerns if he’ll be ready to go by gametime on Saturday.
No. 8 Oral Roberts (12-19, 5-11 Summit)
After last season’s undefeated conference season, the defending Summit League tournament champions will have to take the long way to repeat.
But multiple transfers and a change at head coach has essentially led to a rebuilding season for the Golden Eagles.
However, one variable that has stayed the same from last season to now is senior guard Issac McBride.
Spending last season as the second scoring option behind Max Abmas, McBride has excelled as the leader for ORU, averaging 20 points, four rebounds and three assists per contest.
ORU will open the men’s Summit League tournament against South Dakota on Friday at 7 p.m.
No. 9 South Dakota (11-18, 5-11 Summit)
Under second year head coach Eric Peterson, the Coyotes are still trying to find their groove in the Summit League.
Even finishing last in the Summit League, USD has quality wins over teams like St. Thomas and North Dakota State(twice).
While it’s a longshot for the USD to make a run at the Summit League Championship, expect the Coyotes to do everything in their power to get past ORU for the opportunity of getting a quarterfinal upset against rival SDSU.
The Coyotes are led by junior guard Kaleb Stewart, averaging 18 points, two rebounds and two assists per game.
