The SDSU women have a date with South Carolina. Monday night the Jackrabbits learned their NCAA Tournament fate. They will play the Gamecocks this Saturday just after 3 p.m. in Boulder, Colorado. This will be the Jacks fifth-straight tourney game and with all that experience, the women plan to change it up this time around.
While the likelihood of a 13 seed like the Jackrabbits pulling the upset is small, South Dakota State is thinking big.
"We're hoping to go into it with an aggressive mentality and not be afraid of any team and just play great basketball," senior Ashley Eide said.
The women will admit that's exactly what they didn't do the past few years. At 25-7 this season, Coach Aaron Johnston says this is one of the more complete team's he's led and they might have the talent to take the next step.
"Last two years we haven't played very well in the tournament. It's almost as though we've gotten there and haven't found that next gear. I think our team is hungry to do that. At the end of the day you want to go into it and be done and say we've played our best basketball. I don't think we've done that the last two years. I hope we're motivated. I hope this group of seniors gets us going in the right direction," Johnston said.
One of those seniors is Pierre-native Katie Lingle. She says it hit her at practice that this could be her last game as a Jackrabbit.
"If we don't play our hardest this could be our last week and I don't want it to be like that. It's definitely hit home and I want to play as long as we can," Lingle said. "I think that it's just important that we look at ourselves in a different way. We shouldn't be happy with just winning the Summit League Tournament."
