The great songwriter Kevin Morby once said, "Don't underestimate Midwest American sun," and that tenet remains true when talking about college basketball programs.
The South Dakota State Jackrabbits pulled off one of the early "upsets" on the women's side of the NCAA Tournament, beating No. 7 seed Oklahoma State, 74-68, on Saturday afternoon. The word "upset" is in quotation marks because the Jackrabbits had no business being a No. 10 seed — they finished the season No. 24 in the AP Poll!
Their next test is a UConn Huskies team that just played one of the most impressive basketball games I have ever seen at any level, beating Arkansas State, 103-34. Real score. Unreal team.
Who are the South Dakota State Jackrabbits?
Bucket-getters, that's who. The Jackrabbits average 76.3 points per game (No. 32 in the country) and shoot 37 percent from 3-point range as a team (No. 13 in the country). They don't chuck shots though, and aren't a super high-volume 3-point shooting team. They're like the Denver Nuggets of women's college basketball.
SDSU protects the ball, averaging just 12.7 turnovers per game, and does a great job grabbing defensive rebounds. Often, better teams in the tourney can clean up the offensive glass, but that likely won't be the case for UConn on Monday when these teams face off.
Brooklyn Meyer leads the scoring charge for the Jackrabbits, scoring 17.4 points per game, and the other Meyer, Paige, averaged the second-most assists in the Summit conference this season.
Can South Dakota State beat UConn in the NCAA Tournament?
I don't think so — and that's no knock on SDSU. They've had a heck of a season, and haven't lost since December 22nd. But that was a 103-57 loss to Texas, and shows the gap between very good mid-major programs and elite ones.
If the Huskies play how they played in the first round, they might steamroll to the Final Four. At the least, the Jackrabbits will provide much more resistance to UConn than a typical No. 10 seed.