The Denny Sanford Premier Center was full of hope and optimism as every Summit League team sent their coach and two player representatives to Sioux Falls for the conference’s annual media day.
Here are four takeaways from media day:
South Dakota women’s basketball excited for new challenge under new leadership
There is only one new coach in the entire Summit League, on either the men’s and women’s side, and her name is Carrie Eighmey. It’s early, but the new Coyotes head coach has adjusted well to Vermillion and to leading this South Dakota program.
“It’s been awesome. It’s a great group of young women,” Eighmey said of her team at Summit League media day. “They’re super coachable. They’re willing to learn and are eager to do what we’re asking them to do. They work extremely hard, and they’re competitive, so it’s so much fun to show up to practice every day and to work with them to help build this program.”
USD returns eight players from a year ago, including Alexi Hempe, Sophie Haydon, Cassidy Carson, Grace Larkins, Carley Duffney, Addison Klosterbuer, Coral Mason, and Olivia Kieffer. Larkins, who was voted to the Summit League preseason first team, said the Coyotes are in a unique position where they’re looking to build off last season while continuing to develop and reach the next level.
“Everything I learned last year, I’m keeping with me, but just developing a little bit in a new system,” Larkins said. “People don’t really know what to expect, and I’m really excited.”
South Dakota State men’s basketball voted to finish second in preseason poll
The Jackrabbits men’s basketball team is going to look very different this year, and I’d assume that was taken into account in the preseason conference poll. SDSU does return seven players that were on the team last season but only one of those seven played meaningful minutes. They lost significant talent in Zeke Mayo, who transferred to the University of Kansas, and William Kyle III, who’s now at UCLA. South Dakota State now has nine freshmen/redshirt freshmen on the roster.
Those freshmen will have to grow quickly because they’re likely to get playing time.
“At the end of the day, I’m an educator and love to help people learn and grow,” South Dakota State basketball coach Eric Henderson said. “There’s been a lot of that this fall and summer, and so that’s a great part of the process.”
Still SDSU was voted to finish second in the conference preseason poll, and they still have some talent. Kalen Garry is one of the few returning players who was in the rotation a year ago and they added Oscar Cluff, a talented 6-foot-11 Australian center out of Washington State.
Cluff said the biggest draw to join South Dakota State was playing for Henderson.
“He reached out to me after my last year at JUCO. So we were talking for a little bit there and then when he saw I was going into the transfer portal, he was one of the first guys to contact me,” Cluff said. “If you’ve met him, you know how good of a bloke he is.”
Cluff averaged seven points on a 53.8% from the field, and 4.4 rebounds per game at Washington State. Both Cluff and Garry were voted to the preseason second team.
South Dakota State women’s basketball team still has all the pieces to make another title run
After winning the Summit League and making another NCAA Tournament appearance, the Jackrabbits women’s basketball team returns every core piece of the 2023-24 team.
Both Paige and Brooklyn Meyer were selected to the preseason first team and Brooklyn Meyer was voted the preseason Summit League Player of the Year.
“It’s a really cool honor,” Meyer said. “But games haven’t really started yet, so it’s cool, but we have bigger goals and bigger things coming forward this year that we’re more excited about.”
In addition to retaining their core, South Dakota State will also return key pieces who were injured for the majority of last season including Haleigh Timmer, who was selected to the preseason second team despite missing all of last season.
“She’s been looking really good, and it’s just been a lot of fun to just see her back on the court,” Paige Meyer said of Timmer. “It’ll be fun to have her on the court with us this season.”
South Dakota men’s basketball is ready to earn respect after being voted to finish seventh in the Summit League
The Coyotes entered the offseason knowing they wanted to address three areas: their youth, turnovers, and defense.
“It’s hard to win consistently when you’re young, and that was maybe a little bit of the issue last year,” South Dakota men’s basketball coach Eric Peterson said. “(But) we got old really, really fast.”
USD brought back four seniors and added two more, alongside a couple juniors. The added experience should also help with their turnovers a bit, Peterson said. They also added seven-footer Cameron Fens and Ashton Smith to provide size and help with their interior defending.
South Dakota was selected to finish seventh in a fairly open Summit League but Peterson said that doesn’t phase him or his team.
“I always feel like you have to earn respect, right? And if you haven’t earned it the previous year, you’re not going to get voted very high,” he said. “So we don’t look at it, we don’t post it to the locker room. Once we leave this place, I’m going to practice tonight, and we’re on to the next right? But we have to earn respect, and we have to get better every year in order to be voted.”
Jonathan Fernandez covers high school and college sports for the Argus Leader. Contact him atjfernandez1@argusleader.com. Follow him on Twitter at@JFERN31
