With the televised portions concluding yesterday, we have almost reached the end of the BracketBusters era. However, a pair of the non-televised games are scheduled for today. While neither game involves teams with serious NCAA tournament possibilities (absent a surprise run through their conference tournaments), these two games do mark the final and official end of BarcketBusters. The first game is Radford at Siena (12:00 PM Eastern), but today’s SCGD will be the second and final game ever – South Dakota at Montana State (3:00 PM Eastern).
The South Dakota Coyotes are members of the Summit League. They enter play today at 8-18 overall and 4-10 in the Summit, tied for 7th place with UMKC. Their only win of any note whatsoever on the season was an early season victory over North Carolina Central, a team that has been at or near the top of the MEAC standings all season.
Montana State, on the other hand, sits at 10-14 overall and 7-9 in the Big Sky Conference. That places them in a three way tie for 5th place, and only one game in the loss column ahead of the 8th and 9th place teams. The significance here is that only the top 7 teams in the Big Sky will qualify for their conference tournament. With four conference games left after today, the Bobcats still have work to do to stay among those top 7.
South Dakota is led offensively by Juevol Myles who is averaging 15.2 points per game, after transferring from Kansas State two years ago. Montana State, on the other hand, has four players that average in double figures, led by Christian Moon’s 13.6 points per game.