NCAA Basketball: 10 best players from state of South Dakota of last decade

9. Cedrick Lang – UTEP

Lang is a 6’10 forward originally from Sioux Falls who made his way down to the southwest, playing four collegiate seasons at UTEP starting in 2011. Playing under head coach Tim Floyd, Lang was an important part of the Miners squad for those four seasons, playing in 130 games and helping lead the program to a pair of solid seasons.

He was not exactly a star prospect and he did fight a few different injuries early in his career, but Lang was a useful player. He started most of the games in his career and averaging around 6 points a game for those first three seasons. As a senior, he was a more important part of the offensive attack, averaging 10.3 points and 6.7 rebounds a game while establishing himself as one of the most accurate interior scorers in the C-USA.

There were no fancy awards or accolades for Lang at the end of his basketball career, but he did rank atop UTEP’s all-time leaders for field goal percentage. The Miners won at least 22 games in each of his final two seasons and Lang was certainly an important part on both of those teams. Lang then transitioned to football, spending time as an offensive lineman, including a few brief stints in NFL camps over the following seasons.