“Overachievers” ready to give more surprises in Sioux Falls

The postseason awaits for the South Dakota men’s basketball team. It will add another chapter to a season that has had some twists and turns but is distinctive in the Coyotes’ resiliency and focus on the task at hand.

Todd Lee has been coaching basketball for 34 years. As the season switches to the win-or-go-home part of the schedule, he is pretty straightforward about what they have all been part of this year.

“It’s a group that has achieved – or in this case overachieved – as much as any team I’ve ever been around,” Lee said. “You look at our schedule and we haven’t lost a game we should not have lost based on the standings.”

That’s not to say they won every game they had a chance to win. Two losses to second-seeded NDSU stick out – either could have gone the other way – but overall the Coyotes appear ready to greet the opportunities that come in early March.

Sunday night the fifth-seeded Coyotes (18-11, 11-7 in the Summit) take on fourth-seeded Kansas City (19-11, 12-6) at the PREMIER Center in an opening round game that will give USD the opportunity to show they’ve learned a few things about the Roos.

The Coyotes lost to Kansas City 68-57 on Dec. 22 and 72-63 on Feb. 24. Hearteningly after the loss on the 24th, they came back to post a road win over No. 3 seed Oral Roberts two nights later in what may have been their most impressive victory to date.

It has been typical of this team to recover quickly from tough losses. Just when it appears things may be going the wrong way, the Coyotes have been able to turn it around.

“The tournament is a grind from start to finish,” Lee said. “It’s been that way most years. Just look at the upsets we’ve seen. This year could be the same way.”

That’s fine if you’re a fifth-seed. A surprise in the Coyotes’ situation can be a good thing. They’ve already surprised people by overcoming having last year’s top two scorers unavailable. Stanley Umude, a two-time first-team All-Summit player, transferred to Arkansas for his final season. A.J. Plitzuweit, another first-team All-Summit player, went down with a serious knee injury in the second-to-last regular-season game and is sitting out this year.

That was about 42 points a game no longer there. Prominent departures via graduation are common in the sport, but this was a double-whammy that was going to test the returning roster in ways they could not have anticipated.

It meant the Coyote go-to guys were going to have to step up as the season progressed.

“A lot of the teams in the league are exactly the same as they were a year ago,” Lee said. “We’ve had a lot of young guys. We have two sophomores and a junior leading us in scoring, a new point guard and another starter who didn’t play last year. And we’ve still won.”

In order, the coach was referring to sophomore Kruz Perrott-Hunt (15 ppg.), sophomore Tasos Kamateros (11.6 ppg.) and junior Mason Archambault (14.7 ppg.), along with junior Boogie Anderson emerging as a valuable point guard and Hunter Goodrick averaging 7.2 points and 7.2 rebounds after sitting out last year in Australia because of the pandemic.

Collectively, the team did things that none of them individually had been asked to do in the past at the Division I level.

It has added up to a season that never got away from them. The Coyotes kept rolling within a conference that looked exactly the same, in many cases, as it did a year ago thanks to the pandemic-induced eligibility rollover.

“We did it with new guys and they did an incredible job,” Lee said. “They’ve all done so much work to get where they are. Take guys like Mason and Kruz – they both put in so much time. And it shows up when you put that work in every day. When I walk in the gym, they’re in the gym shooting or they’re in the gym with a coach. When they’re doing drills, they’re doing them at a high level.”

So the fact that the Summit League Tournament promises to be a “grind” in Coach Lee’s words is something the Coyotes are comfortable with because that’s what they’ve been doing all season.

“This team has reached its potential like no team I’ve ever coached,” Lee said. “It’s a testament to their hard work and character. They’re just unbelievable kids.”