Coyote Basketball Prepares for Summit League Tournament

Now that March has begun, the sporting world is turning their eyes to college basketball. Before the madness begins in two weeks, The 2025 Summit League tournament at the Denny Sanford Premier Center will decide which teams will represent the conference at the NCAA Tournament.

The South Dakota State women’s team enters the tournament as the number one seed, after cruising to a perfect 16-0 conference record and 26-3 record overall. The Jackrabbits are one of the favored teams predicted to win the trophy this Sunday in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. 

For Grace Larkins and the Coyotes, they enter the tournament as the No. 7 seed after finishing the season with a 5-11 conference record and 11-19 overall. The Coyotes will face the No. 2 seed Oral Roberts in the quarter-finals on Thursday at noon. South Dakota previously lost against ORU in both games during the regular season. A victory would set the Coyotes up to play against either North Dakota State or Kansas City. 

In the men’s tournament, Omaha is looking to continue a cinderella-type season after winning the Summit League regular season title for the first time. The Mavericks were picked to finish in 8th place at the beginning of the year. South Dakota will face off against North Dakota State, a team that has gotten the better of them in two prior meetings this season. This game will be played on Friday, March 7 at 6 p.m.. 

The Coyotes hope to advance to the Summit League Championship game for only the second time in the school’s history. The first being back in the 2017-2018 season, when the men advanced all the way to the championship game before falling to South Dakota State 97-87. 

If South Dakota can defeat the Bison on Friday afternoon, they will face the winner of Omaha vs Kansas City or Oral Roberts on Saturday, March 8 at 7 p.m.