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Purdue Fort Wayne vs. South Dakota State: College basketball game preview, schedule

By Jason Burgess

SALT LAKE CITY, UT - MARCH 16: The South Dakota State Jackrabbits mascot stands on the court at the start of the game against the Gonzaga Bulldogs during the first round of the 2017 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Vivint Smart Home Arena on March 16, 2017 in Salt Lake City, Utah. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
SALT LAKE CITY, UT - MARCH 16: The South Dakota State Jackrabbits mascot stands on the court at the start of the game against the Gonzaga Bulldogs during the first round of the 2017 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Vivint Smart Home Arena on March 16, 2017 in Salt Lake City, Utah. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images) /
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Purdue Fort Wayne plays host to reigning Summit League champs South Dakota State on Thursday, here’s a preview of the matchup.

TV Schedule: Thursday, January 3, 7:30 p.m. ET, check local listings

Arena: Allen County War Memorial Coliseum, Fort Wayne, IN

For mid-major conferences, conference play is the most important part of their regular season because for most of these conferences have just one representative in the NCAA Tournament, the winner of the conference tournament, and positioning for that tournament starts as soon as the ball tips against the teams you know best. For all those conferences, that time is upon us and a key Summit League tilt takes place on Thursday when the Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodons play host to the three-time reigning conference champions South Dakota State Jackrabbits.

The Mastodons finished the non-conference portion of their schedule with an 8-7 record and in their first two Summit games on the road against North Dakota and North Dakota State they notched their first two league wins.

While the record for coach Jon Coffman’s team isn’t stellar at just 10-7 but statistically they excel in a number of offensive and defensive categories. They average over 83 points per game, with the three-point shot being a huge part of their offense. They make an average of 10.4 per game which is 14th best in the country and they rank 2nd and 1st in three-point attempts (482) and makes (177) on the season. They are also 2nd  in total assists on the year, while on the defensive end they are 7th in total steals (132), 3rd in total rebounds (605), and 8th in blocks (76).

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Offensively senior guard John Konchar leads the team in all major categories, points (19.7), rebounds(9.5), assists (4.7) and the 6-5 senior from Chicago is 1st on the team in steals with 1.5 per game. The one flaw in Konchar’s game comes at the free throw line where he shoots it at almost the same percentage he does from the field, 62% to 57%.

Purdue Fort Wayne is also one of the deeper teams in basketball with eight other players see over 16 minutes per game and seven of them score at least six points per game, seven of them also pull down over two rebounds per game.

Senior Kason Harrell and junior Matt Holba are the team’s other two double-digit scorers with 16.5 and 10 respectively and 6-11 sophomore Dylan Carl adds 6.4 points and 4.8 rebounds.

For T.J. Otzelberger’s Jackrabbits, the non-conference was a little kinder, finishing with a 10-5 record and they opened conference play with a 100-58 win over Western Illinois. Like Purdue-Fort Wayne, the Jackrabbits can score, and at an even higher clip than their opponents, averaging 85.7 per game. Much like the Mastodons, the three-point shot is a staple for South Dakota State, shooting it at 43% which puts them in the top-5 nationally, they are also in the top 10 in three-point makes this season with 155.

Most college hoop fans know the Jackrabbits’ best player, senior forward Mike Daum who is a scoring machine, averaging 24.6 points and 10.9 rebounds per game while he shoots 51% from the field, 85.5% from the line and 40.5% from beyond the arc. Basically, if Daum puts it up, there is a good chance it’s going in.

Daum is far from a one-man show on this team. The guard duo of Skylar Flatten and freshman David Jenkins take some heat off of Daum by combining to score 35.4 points while snatching 6.5 rebounds and shooting 48.7% from three-point land. Tevin King is a 6-2 senior guard who does a little bit of everything for South Dakota State, scoring nine points, grabbing 6.8 rebounds, and dishing out 4.4 assists per game.

Key matchup

The key matchup in this game will be the battle that takes place from downtown. These two teams have let loose a total of 841 three-pointers on the season and both teams are top-75 nationally in shooting percentage as well as being in the top 45 in three-pointers made per game. The winner of this game will more than likely be the team that is deadlier from beyond the arc.

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Prediction: South Dakota State has a little more firepower and the complementary pieces around Daum will outduel those of Konchar. The Jackrabbits win by double digits.