The Game
South Dakota men's basketball opens the Summit League Tournament against No. 3 seed North Dakota State Sunday night at 8:30 p.m. inside the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
 
The game will be televised by Midco Sports with Jay Elsen and Brad Newitt on the call and Taylor Budge as the sideline reporter. That broadcast can be found on Midco+ and ESPN+ as well. Fans can tune into the Coyote Sports Network with John Thayer on KVHT 106.3 in Yankton/Vermillion or by using The Varsity Network app.
 
If You Are Going…
Join USD fans, friends and alumni for a pre and postgame social in the Coyote hospitality room in Ballroom A of the Convention Center. The hospitality room opens two hours before and one hour after each game. A bar is available with light snacks provided. Note that all bars at both the Convention Center and the PREMIER Center will accept credit card purchases only.
 
Cheer on the team as the players arrive at the tournament as a part of the Coyote Walk, approximately 90 minutes prior to the game outside the hospitality room by creating a tunnel through the Convention Center hallway.
 
The PREMIER Center also has a clear bag policy. Only small personal handbags that are 4.5" by 6.5" or smaller will be allowed into the venue. Guests may also bring either a clear one gallon zipper lock bag or a clear stadium bag that is no larger than 12" by 12" by 6". A full look at the PREMIER Center's bag policy is available here.
 
The Series
The Coyotes and Bison will meet for the 188th time in Sunday's matchup and split the regular-season series with each team winning on its home court. These two teams have met once in the Summit League Tournament in the 2020- 21 season. The game took place at the Pentagon and saw the Bison win 79-75 to move on to the championship game.
 
The Coyotes
South Dakota is coming off one of its most dominant performances of the season in the regular season finale. USD made the most of its chance to avoid the opening round of the Summit League Tournament with an 82-48 win over Kansas City. It was a season-low in points allowed and the largest margin of victory for the Coyotes this season to give them the No. 6 seed in the tournament.
 
Kruz Perrott-Hunt and Tasos Kamateros were the two Coyotes to appear on the all-Summit awards list. Each received a place on the honorable mention team. Perrott-Hunt leads the team and ranks 12th in the conference in scoring at 14.2 points per game. He had six 20-plus point performances this year and added himself to the 1,000 point club in early February. Kamateros is second on the team and ranks 15th in the league with 12.6 points per game while also averaging 6.2 rebounds per game – fifth-best in the Summit League. Kamateros is 22 points away from joining Perrott-Hunt in the 1,000 career points club.

The Bison
North Dakota State enters the game at 14-16 and won five of its last six games. The Bison ended the regular season with a two-point win over Western Illinois in Fargo. Boden Skunberg was the hero as he drained a mid-range jumper as time expired to give NDSU a 71-69 win over the Leathernecks.
 
Junior Grant Nelson has been the leading force all season as he leads his team in points (19.9 ppg), rebounds (9.8 rpg), assists (2.4 apg), blocks (1.7 bpg), and steals (1.1 spg). Nelson was a first team all-Summit selection and a member on the all-defensive team. Skunberg earned honorable mention honors. Nelson scored 15 points and 13 points in the two meetings against South Dakota while Skunberg put up 12 points and 23 points.
 
One Last Thing
The Coyotes have a chance to make history this week in Sioux Falls. A No. 6 seed has never won the Summit League championship. There have been two No. 6 seeds to make the championship game, but none have ever taken home the crown.