Sunday night the field for the 2016 NCAA tournament was revealed, and while the entire fiasco took far too long for the tastes of many tuned in, by the end 68 fan bases knew where their teams would begin their march to a national title (some being more realistic than others). For Maryland that means a five seed in the South Region, and they’ll begin play Friday afternoon in Spokane against No. 12 seed South Dakota State.

(Discuss this topic in the BSL forum here.)

This is the second time Maryland has opened its NCAA tournament in Spokane, as they played there in 2010, and the team they’ll meet there is one capable of giving Mark Turgeon’s team some trouble. Below is a breakdown of the Summit League tournament champion Jackrabbits, who are making their third-ever NCAA tournament appearance (2012, 2013).

South Dakota State Jackrabbits

Record: 26-7 (12-4 Summit League)

Head coach: Scott Nagy

Breaking down the schedule: The Jackrabbits have posted a solid record to this point in the season, winning 26 games (two coming against non-Division I competition) with just seven defeats. From an RPI standpoint their best win this season came against Summit League rival IPFW (RPI: 74) back on January 14, with non-conference victories over UCSB (97th; December 13) and Middle Tennessee (77th; December 27) representing their other two RPI Top 100 wins. From a KenPom standpoint the Jackrabbits’ best wins came against Middle Tennessee and IPFW, with the Blue Raiders ranked 124th in that metric and the Mastodons 125th.

South Dakota State went 3-2 against teams in this year’s NCAA tournament field. They beat Middle Tennessee (Conference USA) and FGCU (Atlantic Sun), split two non-conference games with Big Sky representative Weber State, and lost at Big 12 at-large recipient Texas Tech. They took care of business against power-conference bottom-feeders in non-conference play, winning at both TCU and Minnesota. There isn’t much in the way of marquee wins in their non-conference slate as detailed above, but this is a good team with talent especially on the perimeter.

The stats: Offensively the Jackrabbits are currently ranked 79th in adjusted offensive efficiency per KenPom’s numbers, ranking sixth in the Summit League in field goal percentage (45.1 percent) and fifth in three-point percentage (35.7). Defensively they’re 108th in adjusted defensive efficiency, limiting teams to 41.6 percent shooting from the field and 33.1 percent from three. They do a good job on the boards as well, grabbing 32.6 percent of their available missed shots and 74.2 percent of their opponents’ misses.

From an efficiency standpoint the Jackrabbits ranked second in the Summit League on both ends of the floor, with IPFW ranking first in offensive efficiency and North Dakota State first on the defensive end (all games).

Personnel: Offensively, South Dakota State is led by three double-digit scorers with the high scorer coming off the bench and producing in an efficient manner. That would be 6-foot-9 redshirt freshman forward Mike Daum, who’s made just two starts on the year and is averaging 15.2 points and 6.1 rebounds per game. Most of Daum’s damage has been done inside of the arc, as just 20.1 percent of his field goal attempts have been three-pointers per hoop-math.com. Daum’s a 56 percent shooter from the field and 45 percent from beyond the arc, and he’s got an individual free throw rate of 57.7 (he’s an 82 percent foul shooter to boot). He’s only playing 20.5 minutes per game on the season, with a high of 29 minutes in two games, so given the numbers it’s obvious that Daum makes the most of his time on the court.

Also logging quality minutes in the front court is 6-foot-9 sophomore forward Ian Thiesen, who gets the starts and is averaging 6.2 points and 3.5 rebounds per game. Thiesen’s playing 17.5 minutes per game, and there haven’t been too many extended stretches when both he and Daum are on the court at the same time. The question here is whether or not that changes at all to account for the presence of Diamond Stone and Robert Carter Jr. in the Maryland front court. Having one big on the floor helps with South Dakota State’s offensive spacing, as they have the perimeter and wing talent needed to spread teams out and take advantage. Four of South Dakota State’s top five scorers are perimeter players, with Daum being the exception.

Next in line are guards George Marshall and Deondre Parks, who average 14.9 and 14.2 points per game respectively. You may recognize Marshall’s name, as he began his college career at Wisconsin before transferring to South Dakota State in December 2013. In addition to the scoring he led the Jackrabbits in assists (74), and Marshall was also one of the best in the Summit League in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.09). His shooting splits are 40.1 percent from the field and 37.2 percent from three, and with nearly half of his field goal attempts being three-pointers that’s the area Maryland will need to take away from him Friday afternoon.

As for Parks, the 6-foot-1 senior is the far more likely of the two to look to penetrate the Maryland defense. More than 30 percent of his shots come at the rim per hoop-math, with that number being down to 16.7 percent for Marshall. Quick off the bounce, Parks is shooting 41.4 percent from the field and only Daum has attempted more free throws than his 134. He’s also a solid rebounder “for his size,” as Parks is grabbing 4.7 caroms per contest. Both Parks and Marshall play at least 32 minutes per game, and along with sophomore guard/forward Reed Tellinghausen (29.8 mpg) they’ll be on the court quite often.

Tellinghausen’s averaging 9.1 points per game on the season, and nearly 63 percent of his shots have been three-pointers. 36.7 percent from distance isn’t great, but Tellinghausen is a player who should not be allowed to roam free on the perimeter. Over the last eight games he’s shot just 10-for-34 from three, but in the game prior to this current stretch Tellinghausen canned seven threes in a win over Omaha. Also in the starting lineup is 6-foot-4 senior guard Jake Bittle, who’s averaging 8.6 points per game and is third on the team in assists behind Parks and reserve guard Keaton Moffitt. Moffitt was a key contributor in their Summit League title game win over North Dakota State, scoring 11 points off the bench in 28 minutes of action.

The Jackrabbits are essentially down to a seven-man rotation at this stage in the season, with guard Tevin King seeing inconsistent minutes of late and the aforementioned Devine and guard/forward Lane Severyn playing even more sparingly than King.

For Maryland to take care of business defensive discipline will be key. The Terps have done a good job in their first-shot defense for most of the season, but lapses led to second-chance opportunities a bit too often in Big Ten play. South Dakota State does a good job of moving the ball, and as noted above they do a good job on the glass as well. This isn’t a team that will gamble much defensively, instead forcing opponents to make tough shots.

QUICK LOOK AT THE SECOND ROUND

Should Maryland advance next up would be either No. 4 seed California or No. 13 seed Hawai’i. This is an intriguing matchup, with the Golden Bears being one of the most talented teams in the field led by senior guard Tyrone Wallace and freshman Jaylen Brown and Ivan Rabb. Add in capable shooters such as Jabari Bird, who’s been much better as a starter than he was as the sixth man earlier this season, and Jordan Mathews, and Cal’s got the talent needed to make a deep run.The problem for Cal is that the talent hasn’t exactly translated away from Haas Pavilion, as they’re 4-10 in road/neutral games this season. Included in that are losses at Virginia and Arizona, and while neither defeat is anything to scoff at in both cases Cuonzo Martin’s team failed to execute down the stretch when they had a chance to win the game.

Will that carry over into the NCAA tournament? We’ll see, but in Hawai’i they’ve drawn an opponent that is constantly in attack mode.

Eran Ganot’s Rainbow Warriors won the Big West regular season (shared with UC Irvine) and tournament titles led by Big West POY Stefan Jankovic. Jankovic is a 6-foot-11 forward who’s lethal in the pick-and-pop game; while he can score in the post on occasion the Missouri transfer is more comfortable operating on the perimeter. Guards Mike Thomas and Quincy Smith are adept at attacking teams off the bounce, and Roderick Bobbitt and Aaron Valdes can both score on multiple levels. Jankovic leads the team in scoring at 15.7 ppg, with Valdes second at 14.6 and Bobbitt the third double-digit scorer at 13.3 ppg. Defensively the guards really get after opponents, with the team averaging 7.9 steals per game while also limiting opponents to 39.5 percent shooting. Cal will be favored in this one, but they’ve got their work cut out for them.

For Maryland there are certainly challenges in this portion of the South Bracket, and that’s not even touching on a possible Sweet 16 matchup with Kansas. But there’s no denying the fact that when clicking there’s enough in the stable to pick up some wins. The question now is whether or not Trimble, Sulaimon and the rest of the Terps are ready to make good on the preseason expectations.

Raphielle Johnson
Raphielle Johnson

BSL Analyst

Raphielle’s been writing about college sports for more than a decade, making the move to college basketball alone in 2013. Beginning his work with the former website CollegeHoops.net in 2003, Raphielle spent 3 years writing for NBCSports.com beginning 2013, covering CBB and the Olympics. In 2016, Raphielle joined Heavy.com. If there’s a game on, there’s a strong likelihood that he’s watching it.

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