Tonight, the Gophers face South Dakota State in the second game of the regular season.
To get a better idea of what to look for from SDSU, I chatted with Terry Vandrovec from the Argus Leader about the team he covers.
Some notes on the South Dakota State Jack Rabbits:
- Players to watch:
Nate Wolters: The junior point guard had 32 points and 11 assist in SDSU's first game against Western Michigan and was named one of the top 25 point guards in the country preseason. Before he came to the Jackrabbits, Wolters was a standout at St. Cloud Tech. He can hit shots all over the court, and Vandrovec called him "the real deal."
Jordan Dykstra: The 6-8 sophomore forward led the team in three-point percentage last season, making 51.5 percent of his shots from behind the arc and originally committed to Iowa State as a high school freshman.
- Strengths: SDSU has had year-over-year improvement from the 2006-07 season, when it had six wins, to last year, with 19. The Jackrabbits' offense was ranked sixth best in the country last year with 81.7 points per game.
- Weaknesses: Defense. SDSU ran and scored, but were ranked 294th (out of 342 schools) in scoring defense. Vandrovec said players have told him that defensive drills probably account for 80 percent of practices this season.
- SDSU has won at Iowa and Iowa State in recent years.
- Guard Griffan Callahan is the team's only senior and leads the squad in rebounds, with 13 in the first two games.
