NCAA Tournament March Madness

#287 South Dakota

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Projection: need to automatically qualify

South Dakota’s profile makes it clear the safest path to the NCAA field is automatic qualification because a handful of encouraging results are outweighed by damaging road losses. The neutral-site win over Air Force and home victories over Southern Indiana and W Michigan show the offense can carry the team, yet heavy defeats at Creighton, Missouri and Kansas State and losses away at Wyoming and North Dakota State highlight defensive breakdowns in hostile environments. That mix leaves little in the way of eye-catching road or neutral wins, so remaining Summit League opportunities against Oral Roberts and the rematch with North Dakota State are the clearest ways to repair the résumé. Unless the Coyotes start protecting the road and piling up quality conference wins, their most realistic route to the national tournament runs through the league tournament.

Date Opponent Ranking Outcome
11/3Utah Tech215L81-79
11/5@Creighton65L92-76
11/12Southern Indiana324W89-74
11/16W Michigan266W83-78
11/20@Missouri59L102-68
11/23S Carolina St361W82-81
11/29(N)Air Force346W80-63
12/3Portland St153L77-71
12/6@N Colorado187L89-87
12/9@Wyoming111L106-79
12/13Prairie View332W97-85
12/20@Kansas St86L106-76
12/31@N Dakota St120L84-61
1/7@St Thomas MN127L99-86
1/10Denver265W82-72
1/15Missouri KC351W99-83
1/17@North Dakota280L96-80
1/21@NE Omaha256W68-64
1/24St Thomas MN127L90-78
1/29Oral Roberts33072%
1/31N Dakota St12026%
2/4@Missouri KC35161%
2/7@S Dakota St19222%
2/11North Dakota28059%
2/19@Denver26534%
2/21@Oral Roberts33050%
2/25NE Omaha25654%
2/28S Dakota St19241%