Weekend leftovers: USD and Kansas City
Some extras from the weekend in South Dakota State hoops:
The SDSU men have won seven in a row since a loss at South Dakota. They won eight in a row since a defeat in Vermillion last season. There are other similarities. The Jacks gave up less than 60 points five times in that eight-game run and gave allowed less than 60 five times in this seven-game streak, including each of the last three.
The Jacks hadn’t held any NCAA Division I foes under 60 before this streak. Defensive field-goal percentage has also been good, at .424 or less in six of the seven games.
Nate Wolters career update: The senior point guard is up to 2,085 points - most among active Summit League players. He’s up to 599 assists - also most among active Summit players and six shy of the SDSU school record. He’s up to 547 rebounds – second to Oakland’s Drew Valentine among active Summit players.
At 5:30 p.m. today on ESPNU, the Jacks will find out their pairing for BracketBusters. One projection site has SDSU ranked third in the field of road teams in terms of RPI, one spot back of NDSU.
It seems unlikely the event would pit the Jacks against Belmont since they met earlier this season. The four other designated home teams better than 90 in RPI: No. 27 Wichita State, No. 51 Indiana State, No. 53 Akron and No. 59 St. Mary’s.
The most interesting options would be one of the Valley teams or the Gaels because of their star point guard Matthew Dellavadova.
Regardless, the Jacks seems assured of one of 13 national TV games for the second year in a row. What would coach Scott Nagy like to see in terms of a pairing? St. Mary’s. Because SDSU will already be on the West Coast and could simply bus from CSU Bakersfield.
“We know we’re going to get a good team,” he said. “And we’re going to get a good team on the road and we know it’s going to be a very tough game for us.”
Where does the Jacks’ ongoing 28-game home win streak rank in NCAA history? It doesn’t. From what I could tell, there are at least eight streaks of 80 or more, topped by Kentucky winning 129 in a row from 1943-55. Wow.
The SDSU women pushed their lead atop the Summit to 2.5 games with a road win at USD – the first road win for either school and either gender in the series at the D-I level – and another at Kansas City. The latter game was a one-point decision as the Jacks seem to be making a habit of Saturday scares. In order, they rallied from nine down to nip Fort Wayne, lost at home to IUPUI, beat Omaha relatively easily and then edged the Roos.
Sophomore Megan Waytashek was exceptional in two of the wins, scoring 30 against the Dons and 33 against the Roos. The SDSU school record for points in a game is 39 set by Karla Stevenson in 1987.
How rare is a pair of 30-point efforts? The Jacks totaled that many over the previous six seasons, one by Jennie Sunnarborg and one by Megan Vogel. A WNBA draft pick, Vogel had two for her career. The last player to hit for 30 or more twice in a season: Melissa Pater in 2002-03, the season the Jacks’ won the NCAA Division II national title.
In her two explosive outings, Waytashek has shot 11 of 20 and 11 of 17 with six and seven 3-pointers in 36 and 31 minutes.
Terry Vandrovec also posts regular updates on his Twitter page.
