Summit League Basketball has been dominated by North Dakota State and South Dakota State recently. Can anyone stop the string of NCAA appearances by the two state schools?
Summit League Basketball has been a tight race throughout the season, but those races have come in groupings among the nine-team league. At the top, North Dakota State (22-8,13-3) and the Jackrabbits of South Dakota State (22-9,13-3) have been battling it out for the top spot, a spot that wasn’t decided until the final day of the regular season, with North Dakota State taking the honors by virtue of their season sweep of third-place South Dakota.
Behind them, the teams that ended up seeded 3rd-7th were separated by just four games. The aforementioned South Dakota Coyotes (20-11,10-6) finished third, with the Oral Roberts Golden Eagles (16-13,9-7) right behind them in fourth place. The Omaha Mavericks (16-15,9-7) finished in fifth despite going just 4-3 over their last seven games, holding off the North Dakota Fighting Hawks (13-17,7-9) who enter the tournament as the sixth seed.
With eight of the nine teams qualifying for the tournament, the last two spots went to the Fort Wayne Mastodons (13-18,6-10) and the Denver Pioneers (7-23,3-13) who won a win or go home game with Western Illinois on the final day of the season to grab the final spot in the field.
This tournament has been dominated by the top two seeds over the last eight seasons, with either the Jackrabbits or the Bison representing the league in the NCAA Tournament every season. But, Omaha, Fort Wayne, Western Illinois, and South Dakota have all made finals appearances in that time. So, while it is a good bet one of the top two teams wins the title again, who they play is certainly no guarantee.