The defending Summit League champion South Dakota men's basketball team opens league play Saturday at 3:30 p.m. against Denver. The contest is the sixth-straight year the Coyotes have opened league play at home and is the second time against Denver.
 
Promotions
Fans can get half price tickets in the student section while the USD students are on break. Also on Saturday, all Vermillion Elementary and Middle School students, and their families, get discounted tickets to the doubleheader with a promo code.
 
The Game
South Dakota begins the rugged slate of 14 Summit League games against Denver. The contest is the final for South Dakota in 2017, a calendar year that has seen USD tally a 24-9 record and a 12-1 record inside the Sanford Coyote Sports Center.
 
The Coyotes and Pioneers played a pair of highly entertaining games in the 2016-17 season, with the first matchup a 75-69 USD victory with 14 lead changes and eight ties. Matt Mooney scored 23 points in the game on Jan. 4. Just under a month later in Vermillion, Mooney went off for 27 points as the Coyotes withstood 16 ties and 16 lead changes to claim an 88-83 victory.
 
The Pioneers
Denver enters the Summit League opener with a 6-8 record, fresh off a 106-60 throbbing of Colorado Mesa. The 106 points are a program record in the Division I era for the Pioneers. Daniel Amigo tallied a game-high 24 points for the Pioneers in just 18 minutes of action. Four others tallied double-digit points as Denver shot 59.3 percent from the field. Donoven Carlisle and Amigo each retrieved a team-high seven rebounds.

Daniel Amigo leads Denver on the season with 16.2 points per game while Joe Rosga tallies 15.3 and Jake Pemberton scores 10 points per game. Amigo was a second team all-Summit League selection a year ago and was tabbed first team in the preseason. Rosga earned second team preseason all-Summit accolades as Denver was picked to finish fifth.
 
The Coyotes
South Dakota is 12-4 on the season, one of nine teams in Division I with at least 12 wins and the only mid-major to have that many wins. Matt Mooney leads the team with 17.4 points per game while Tyler Hagedorn continues his career-best season with 14.2 points per game.
 
It has been Nick Fuller who has been coming on as of late, averaging 10.6 points and 4.1 rebounds per game over his last nine games. That includes his first start for the Coyotes in the final game before the Christmas break where he scored 13 points in 21 minutes of action.
 
The Series
Denver holds the series edge at 7-5 but the Coyotes swept the season series last year for the first time. The series dates back to the first meeting in the 1908-09 season, which was a 26-21 Denver victory. South Dakota claimed its first victory in the series in the 1982-83 season in a 77-66 neutral-site contest victory.
 
One Last Thing
With the start of league play, it is a good time to look back at what major publications projected the Coyotes to finish in the preseason. Three outlets: Athlon, Street & Smith's and USA Today all projected the Coyotes to win the Summit League for the second-straight season. Blue Ribbon, Lindy's and NBC Sports picked USD to finish second. All six publications announced their preseason polls prior to the first game in early November.