Upcoming Event: Men's Basketball versus Mayville State (Exhibition) on October 29, 2025 at 8:30 p.m.
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8:30 p.m.
Men's Basketball
vs Mayville State (Exhibition)
South Dakota State University Athletics
Jacks open 2014-15 season at Buffalo
11/12/2014 5:57:00 PM | Men's Basketball
South Dakota State men's basketball opens the season with a two game road trip, starting with a long-awaited game against Buffalo on Friday at 7:30 p.m. ET. A long-awaited game because the Jackrabbits and Bulls scheduled the game for Jan. 3, 2014, but weather in Chicago closed the airport, stranding the Jacks at home.
Friday's game completes SDSU's obligation to a return game from the BracketBuster game on Feb. 18 2012. The Jacks won that game, the first-ever nationally televised game from Frost Arena, by a score of 86-65 in front of a raucous crowd of 5,378 that showed up for the noon start.
The Jacks, who also played four games in Brazil in August, warmed up for the start of the season with a pair of exhibition wins at home; topping South Dakota Mines 76-54 on Oct. 30, and Dakota Wesleyan 79-72 on Nov. 4.
NEXT UP FOR THE JACKRABBITS: The Jacks head west to continue the season-opening road trip at Idaho. The Jackrabbits and Vandals tip on Monday at 7 p.m. PT, 9 p.m. CT.
TONIGHT'S OPPONENT
BUFFALO BULLS (0-0, 0-0 Home): Playing under second-year head coach Bobby Hurley, who led Buffalo to a MAC East title last year, the Bulls enter the 2014-15 season picked to finish fourth in the MAC East Preseason Poll.
The Bulls won their lone exhibition game of the season, downing Wheeling Jesuit on Nov. 6, by a score of 79-60 at Alumni Arena in Buffalo, N.Y.
THE SERIES
The Jackrabbits won the first and only meeting with Buffalo 86-65 on Feb. 18, 2012 in the first-ever nationally televised game from Frost Arena as part of ESPN BracketBuster.
ON THE RADIO
The pregame show on the Jackrabbit Sports Network begins 30 minutes prior to tip with Ryan Hedrick filling in for Tyler Merriam on the play-by-play.
Originated from the AM 570 WNAX studios in Yankton, S.D., every SDSU men's basketball game can be heard live on a total of seven stations on the Jackrabbit Sports Network.
WNAX - 570 AM – Yankton
KBFS - 1450 AM – Belle Fourche
KJJQ - 910 AM – Brookings
KDSJ - 980 AM – Deadwood
KORN - 1490 AM – Mitchell
KJOE - 106.1 FM – Pipestone, Minn.
KSDR - 1480 AM – Watertown
ON THE INTERNET
Subscribers to the Jackrabbit Extra can listen to every game streaming live on the internet at no cost.
LIVE STATS
Find live stats for all home games online at GoJacksLive.com
For live stats at Buffalo, log onto the men's basketball schedule page on GoJacks.com
ON SOCIAL MEDIA
TWITTER: @GoJacksMBB
Follow the team's official Twitter account for live in-game updates for every game, home and on the road.
ON TELEVISION
No Television for SDSU at Buffalo, but fans can watch the game streaming live on ESPN3.
Play-by-Play: Paul Peck
Analyst: Kevin Sylvester
THE JACKRABBIT INSIDER ON KELOLAND-TV
Fans of South Dakota State Athletics can get a weekly behind-the-scenes look at all 21 Jackrabbit varsity sports teams by tuning into “The Jackrabbit Insider.”
Hosted by Tyler Merriam, the show airs on Sundays on MyUTV at 10:30 p.m., followed by a broadcast on Sunday at 11 p.m. on KELOLAND-TV.
2014-15 Season Preview
The 2014-15 season got off to an early start for South Dakota State with four games in a 10-day trip to Brazil in August, where the Jackrabbits faced a pair of teams from the top league in the country. The Jacks posted a 1-1 mark against the top competition and a 3-1 mark overall, but came away from the trip with much more than just three wins and a loss.
“They play a different brand of basketball in Brazil, a more physical game than we're used to in The Summit League,” head coach Scott Nagy said. “We can't play that physical here in the U.S., but I think that helped us develop some toughness that we can only get in game situations.”
The trip started with a loss to Pinheiros, one of the best teams in the best professional league in Brazil. Despite losing the game after traveling for nearly 24 straight hours, the game set the stage for the trip, and maybe the season.
“That's probably the best team we'll play all season, and I don't mean just in Brazil,” Nagy said. “They're all grown men and professional basketball players, and playing them can only help us in a long season.”
SDSU recovered from their lone loss with convincing wins in each of the final three games, which gave every player an opportunity to play significant minutes and get a better understanding of how Nagy likes to coach in game situations.
After graduating the remaining core players on the roster that helped lead the Jackrabbits to three straight postseason appearances, including two NCAA Tournaments, the extra practices that came with the four games in Brazil benefits the current group Jackrabbits that includes two returning starters, nine underclassmen and two junior transfers on the 16-man roster.
The only player on the roster to play in all 32 games last season, senior Cody Larson started all of those games, and leads the group of returning players. The Sioux Falls native averaged more than 13 points and seven rebounds per game in his junior season, earning All-Summit League second team and all-newcomer team honors in the process. He enters his senior season as the team's lone preseason all-league team selection and should make that team at the end of the season as well, as the Jackrabbit offense starts with him.
Junior Jake Bittle battled injuries for much of the season, but still played in 23 games with 20 starts as a sophomore. He averaged 8.5 points and 4.6 points per game overall, but scored in double figures in 10 games and eclipsed the 10-rebound mark twice.
The Jacks came in fourth in the preseason poll Fort Wayne, Denver and Oral Roberts, which returns to The Summit League in 2014-15 after spending the last two seasons in the Southland Conference.
“I think that because we lost four seniors and we have a lot of players that are unproven, nine of which have never played a game for us, I think it's hard for people to predict where we would finish,” Nagy said. “So it doesn't surprise me that's where we were picked.”
NOTEWORTHY
BROOKINGS TO BRAZIL: The Jacks played four games in Brazil in August, posting a 3-1 record. The three wins call came in convincing fashion, while lone loss on the trip came to one of the top professional teams in the top league in Brazil.
In addition to playing four games on their 10-day trip, the team spent plenty of time seeing the sights, which included a trip to the world renowned Christ Redeemer Statue, riding the gondolas to the top of Sugarloaf Mountain and plenty of time on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro.
YOUTH MOVEMENT: The 2014-15 roster includes a total of nine new players; seven with no collegiate playing experience, three true freshmen, three redshirt freshmen, one junior college transfer, one Division I transfer and one Division II transfer.
LED BY LARSON: One of just two seniors on the team, and the only returning player to play in all 32 games last year, Cody Larson earned all-Summit League Newcomer Team and all-second team honors last season, and represents the lone Jackrabbit on the preseason all-league team.
THE MARSHALL PLAN: Junior George Marshall transferred to SDSU from Wisconsin last season, and must sit out the first semester due to transfer rules. He should be eligible to make his Jackrabbit debut sometime in December.
PARKS PATH TO SDSU: While nobody on the current SDSU roster is listed on the SDSU 1,000-Point Club, junior transfer Deondre Parks did reach the milestone in his two years at Iowa Lakes Community College, where he scored 1,178 points for former SDSU assistant Coach Troy Larson. A two-time NJCAA All-American, Parks averaged 17.8 points per game in two years at ILCC.
POSTSEASON EXPERIENCE: The Jackrabbits as a team entered the 2014-15 season with a streak of three straight postseason appearances; a pair of NCAA Tournament bids in 2012 and 2013, followed by a trip to the College Basketball Invitational last season.
Despite the postseason experience, only three Jackrabbits bring NCAA Tournament game experience. Cody Larson logged a total of 12 minutes over two games in 2012, Jake Bittle played eight minutes for the Jacks 2013 and George Marshall played seven minutes for the Badgers in 2013. None of the three scored in any of those games.
GRADUATING 1,000 POINT HISTORY: The Jacks played out the 2013-14 season with three players in the SDSU 1,000-Point Club, marking the first time since 2010, when Clint Sargent, Garrett Callahan and Kai Williams played the final two games of the season with at least 1,000 career points that SDSU took the court with three players in the club.
Prior to that 2010 group, the Jacks last played with three 1,000 point scorers one other time, during the 1968-69 season when John Thomas, Guy Mackner and Gene Zulk all played with 1,000 career points.
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