The past two seasons the Jackrabbits have been upset in the first round and this year they open the Summit League Tournament in a unique position. Entering as the one seed, the Jackrabbit men will face the Omaha Mavericks, a team they have not played this season. The Mavericks are led by seniors Matt Pile and Ayo Akinwole and will look to make it the third straight season that the Jackrabbits make an early exit in the tournament.
The keys for the jackrabbits will be to play their style of basketball. The late season dominance by Doug Wilson will be big for the Jacks. Look for SDSU to play through the bigs early and often this weekend. With Matt Dentlinger, Luke Appel , and Doug there are not many teams in the Summit that can match their physical and unique styles of play.
They also need Baylor Scheierman and Alex Arians to play constantly and show up night in and night out on the offensive side of the ball. Whether that comes in the points category or assists, they need to show up and make an impact.
Omaha is coming into the game with 6 scholarship players. They have been dealing with injuries as of late, but don’t count out any senior led team at this point in the season. The Mavs will be letting Ayo and Matt lead the team on the court, so the Jackrabbits will have to contain them early and often to help make a run and win this game.
Expect Omaha to stick around early but do not be surprised if SDSU takes a second half run to pull away and advance to round two on Monday night.