Men’s basketball fights hard to find identity, shows promise against Creighton

When first-year men’s basketball head coach Craig Smith arrived at the University of South Dakota last spring, he was inheriting a group of athletes who had been through three coaches in three seasons.

Fast forward to Tuesday night, the Coyotes exhibited the kind of skills and grit that can put a team into double overtime against Creighton, an elite program that makes regular appearances in the Big Dance.

With impressive performances by junior guard Tre Burnette and senior guard Tyler Larson, the Bluejays barely escaped their own home court with a close 91-88 win.

There were no guarantees how the Coyotes would play when Smith took over the program earlier this year. But through 10 games, he said he has gotten a feel for his players.

“We’ve got a lot of fighters on this squad,” Smith said. “We’ve got to find a way to translate that never-say-die attitude to earlier in the game.”

Despite a 3-7 record, the Coyotes have dropped only one game by double digits — a loss at Stanford that could have been much worse.

The players, Smith said, fight too hard not to give themselves a chance to win by the end of the game.

“There’s been a lot of games where we’ve been down 8-13 points, and there’s kind of that tipping point where things can go down in a hurry,” he said. “Those games we’ve found a way to come back and make it a game.”

The Coyotes are staying in the game, and they’re still trying to identify themselves. After losing their team captain and best inside presence to graduation last May, the Coyotes have been testing lineups — some halves they play four guards the entire way.

The team has looked toward redshirt first-year Austin Sparks, senior James Hunter and junior Eric Robertson to try to handle the load down low.

“(Sparks) is still very young,” said senior guard Tyler Larson. “James is still trying to find his way down there. We’ll find our internal factor, but it’s a work in progress.”

Still, even without strong play in the paint, the Coyotes are scoring.

“We put up 79 points on offense, so we didn’t have any problems at that end,” said junior guard Casey Kasperbauer.

Some of the problem is defense, where USD has given up 80 points five times already. But Smith feels his team will figure it out, mostly because the players are unselfish.

“There’s something about this team I really do like,” Smith said. “There’s a toughness. There’s a buy-in to everything we do.”

The players believe in Smith, too. It’s only year one, but the players are sold on what Smith wants.

Referencing a moment last Friday against Youngstown State, Larson, who missed a rebound when the Coyotes were down just three points, said Smith wants his players to play.

It was a play that will weigh on his mind, but he said he knows his team and his coach need him to move forward from costly errors.

“Coach is always trying to preach next best action,” Larson said. “I’ll get the next one.”

For Kasperbauer, his focus is on one thing.

“At the end of the day, it’s all about working our way toward a Summit League championship,” Kasperbauer said. “The question at the end of every game is ‘Did we get better?’ ”

The Coyotes’ next game will take them to the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls Saturday to play the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (5-2) at 7 p.m.

(Photo: Junior forward Eric Robertson heads to the hoop around Youngstown State players Dec. 5  in the DakotaDome. Megan Card / The Volante).