The South Dakota men's basketball team returns to its home floor for the first time after five games, hosting the Missouri Valley Conference's Drake University Wednesday. Tipoff is slated for 7 p.m. inside the Sanford Coyote Sports Center.
 
Promotions
BOGO Wednesday: Every Wednesday, fans who buy one ticket to the USD basketball game, get another of equal or lesser value half price.
 
Season Ticket Holder Night: Season ticket holders are invited to the Dome Club at the Sanford Coyote Sports Center before the game for free food and drink, to meet coaches and players, and pick up their USD scarves.
 
Faculty Appreciation Night #1: USD faculty and staff are offered half price tickets for them and their families to this game.
 
The Game
South Dakota has never hosted a Missouri Valley Conference opponent in the Division I era but gets its first opportunity Wednesday night. In the 2017-18 season, the Summit League is 2-2 against MVC, with victories coming from Omaha over Drake, and North Dakota State over Missouri State. Missouri State has defeated South Dakota State, and in a return trip to NDSU, picked up the victory Monday night.
 
The Bulldogs
Drake enters Wednesday's contest with a 4-3 record and have lost two-straight. The Bulldogs last contest was a double-overtime 96-89 setback at Wyoming on Saturday. In that game, Reed Timmer tallied 28 points with Nick McGlynn scoring 20 points. Timmer leads the team with an average of 22.6 points per contest with McGlynn adding 13.3 points and grabbing a team high 7.4 rebounds.
 
The Coyotes
Matt Mooney has two 30-point games this year, both coming on the road. He scored 31 points at TCU and 30 points at UMKC. He leads the team with 16.6 points per game with Tyler Hagedorn averaging 13.5 points per contest.
South Dakota has seven wins in its first 10 games for the first time in the Division I era, with the last time being the 2007-08 season when starting 14-0.

The Series
South Dakota is 2-10 all-time against Drake. Last season, the Coyotes opened the 2016-17 campaign with a 79-74 victory in Des Moines, Iowa. Trey Burch-Manning tallied a double-double of 24 points and 11 rebounds in the game with Matt Mooney adding 21 points. Prior to that game, Drake had won 10-straight meetings. South Dakota won the first game in the series by a score of 30-19 in the 1918-19 season.
 
One Last Thing
South Dakota head coach Craig Smith and Drake head coach Niko Medvid spent five years together on Tim Miles' staff at Colorado State. The duo experienced the NCAA Tournament together in 2012.