South Dakota State Will Provide Dramatic Step Up in Competition for Hogs

NCAA tournament team eerily similar to one of Eric Musselman's former Razorback teams

South Dakota State isn't a high level SEC program by any means. However, the Jackrabbits appear to once again be a quality mid-major program. 

This is a team coming off a 30-5 season where they went undefeated in conference play and gave Providence all it wanted in the NCAA tournament.

They have wins over Boise St. and St. Bonaventure, while their only loss is to Akron, 81-80, on the road as the result of a highly questionable foul call with one second left.

While a short window for travel might leave this team jet-lagged, the biggest issue for South Dakota isn't the long trip or the quick turnaround from a game in South Dakota last night.

Playing at home is a rarity in the early portion of the Jackrabbits' schedule. They're also used to bending over backward to get someone to play them as a team with such a high potential to generate an upset.

"South Dakota State, you're talking about a team that won 30 games last year, there's not a lot of teams that want to play them," Musselman said. "It's hard for us right now to schedule games and it's hard for South Dakota State to schedule games so the dates worked out really well for us."

The actual issue for the Jackrabbits is the short bench.

South Dakota State only runs eight deep with a ninth guy getting in every now and then for roughly five minutes per game, if at all. 

Guard Zeke Mayo does the heavy lifting. His minutes have piled up, including a 41-minute game in the opening loss to Akron early last week. Fellow guard Alex Arians averages 36 minutes per game.

Think back to 2019 to when Isaiah Joe and Mason Jones had to be on the floor pretty much at all times for the Hogs to have a chance. Think of their heart, style of play, and how tired they were toward the end and you have a fairly good depiction of where South Dakota State is right now.

In fact, that 2019 Razorback team might be the best use of a comparison for these Jackrabbits. They move the ball well, move their bodies well, are relentless at attacking the basket and can get hot on the kick-out for three.

This is a team that went into Alabama last year at roughly this same point in the season and only trailed 65-60 deep into the second half before finally wearing out.

It will be a solid raise in quality of opponent from what Arkansas has played to this point in the season.

"South Dakota is not a well coached team – they're an excellent coached basketball team," Musselman said. "They have a lot of skilled position players. You're talking about one of the Top 2 most efficient offenses last year in the entire country. You're talking about excellent shooting at the one, two and three spots."

Arians is the 3-point shooter like Joe and Mayo is a person who can create his own shot like Jones used to do.

Luke Appel, a 6-8, 235 pound junior has been out with an injury, but is expected to make his season debut in Fayetteville.

One player not expected to take the court at Bud Walton is Nick Smith. 

The highly touted guard hasn't practiced with the team. Instead, he has been working on his own with the trainer and is doing personal shooting drills.

What fans can expect is a focus on generating consistency and a smooth flow on the offensive end as it's weighed on Musselman's mind this week.

"The guys have created an identify through two games, a defensive identity," Musselman said. "Scheme-wise, especially defensively, I think we're ahead of maybe where we thought we would be. We've got to continue to get better from an offensive standpoint." 

One thing Musselman isn't keen on tolerating is a flat performance like the Hogs produced in Little Rock last year against Hofstra.

"Last year we saw Hofstra fly into Little Rock the day of the game and they didn't charter," Musselman said. "We're anticipating South Dakota State will charter and get in the night before the game, but it didn't really affect Hofstra too much because that was probably a game that we felt they were ready to play against us as anybody that we played all last season."

The game tips at 7 p.m. and will again be streamed on SEC+. For those who don't have access, allHogs will have a live blog of the game followed by immediate reaction.

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