Summit League
March 5-8. All games at Sioux Falls.
kPOY: Mike Daum, South Dakota State.

The Summit League gets underway on Saturday with two quarterfinal games at the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center.

The top two seeds both finished with 12-4 conference records this season, but IPFW won the tiebreaker by sweeping Omaha. However, the ratings see South Dakota State as the better team and when you sprinkle in a bit of home-state advantage by playing in the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center, the Jackrabbits are the clear favorite to earn the Summit’s bid.

Not shown here is the ninth-place team in the nine-team league, Western Illinois, who will not be participating in the event. That season-opening win against Wisconsin was an upset that stood the test of the time. Western Illinois won seven games against D-I opponents and just two of those are currently ranked in the top 200. The Leathernecks won three Summit games and the Badgers have won 12 Big Ten games. But in a way, that makes the Summit League look pretty good. It’s last-place team went on the road and beat a future NCAA tournament team. Bragging rights!

                    Semis Final Champ
 2 South Dakota St.  78.4  59.3  44.9
 1 IPFW              64.7  38.4  15.6
 3 Nebraska Omaha    65.1  22.5  12.3
 5 North Dakota St.  60.9  30.5  10.8
 7 Oral Roberts      21.6  10.3   4.8
 8 South Dakota      35.3  15.6   4.4
 4 IUPUI             39.1  15.4   4.2
 6 Denver            34.9   8.0   3.1

North Dakota St. 10- 4
South Dakota St. 11- 5
Oral Roberts     20-12
IUPUI            16-14
IPFW              5- 8
Denver            1- 2
South Dakota      1- 3
Western Illinois  4-14
Nebraska Omaha    0- 0