COLUMN: Cheer on both Coyote teams this year at USD

The University of South Dakota basketball teams will be taking a big step this year, as both will play their first full Summit League schedule. Being the first full year in the conference, both teams will face some adversities and, play in some tough games but overall Coyote basketball should have successful seasons.

Since making the move to Division-I athletics back in 2007, both the competition and level of USD sports has increased year by year and, now being in the final year of transition, fans should realize the importance of this first season playing against Summit League competition.

This winter fans will have the opportunity to watch 14 men’s basketball games and 16 women’s games throughout the entire season, with each team playing rival South Dakota State as well.

Coyote fans will also have a rare chance to be apart of an ESPN broadcasted game Feb. 18 apart of ESPN’s 10th annual Bracketbuster tournament, a three day event that puts potential NCAA Championship teams against each other. USD was one of five teams from the Summit League conference invited to participate.

Between games against rivals in South Dakota State and North Dakota State, the ESPN Bracketbuster game, the 2011-12-basketball year should be a special one for both the Coyote basketball teams and fans alike. Students complain all the time about not having enough opportunities to have fun on campus, but this year’s Coyote basketball schedule will showcase some of the best games USD has ever seen on the court in the DakotaDome.

Having strong fan support at Coyote basketball games this year will only build more support for the new basketball/volleyball arena that is planned to build apart of the DakotaDome in the future. The move to D-I athletics was for the entire university and hopefully this first basketball season playing the Summit League will show other teams in the conference how strong USD fans truly are.